184 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



( nlor.s-(<i) yivcii; (6) 



REAIMIOUSES vs. GRASSHOPPERS. 



General Engelmami of St. Clair county, 

 Southern Illinois, has found by experience, that 

 the best way to get rid of the grasshoppers in a 

 vineyard is to raise Rear-horses tlicre, which 

 [Fig. i.!8.] are also known as Devil's- 

 horscs, alias Praying Nuns, 

 alias Intelligence Bugs, alias 

 Devil's Kiding-liorscs, but the 

 correct English name of which 

 is "Camel-cricket." Figure 127 

 gives a very good view of the 

 sexes of this insect, b repre- 

 senting the male and a the 

 female. The female has such 

 short wings that she is incap- 

 able of fliglit ; but tlie male flies 

 as readily and as strongly as an 

 ordinary grasshopper. The 

 General's mode of colonizing 

 this insect in liis vineyard is, 

 to collect the masses of eggs 

 in the dead of the year and 

 place them upon his grape- 

 vines. Figure 128 will enable 

 the reader to recognize these 

 singular egg-masses whenever 

 lie may happen to meet with 

 them. Persons are very gener- 

 ally ignorant of their real na- 

 ture, and ontlic principle that "Everything that 

 is unknown must be something hateful .and des- 

 tructive," are .apt to cut them ofl'and throw them 

 into the fire. They should under no circum- 

 stances be destroyed. As a general rule Camel- 

 crickets are only found in the central and south- 

 ern parts of Missouri, in the southern p.art of 



Illinois, and in oth- 

 er southerly re- 

 gions. But Mr. D. 

 B. Wicr is domesti- 

 cating them at La- 

 con on the Illinois 

 river, and on one 

 occasion one of tlicir 

 egg -masses was 

 found as far north 

 as Lee county, nor- 

 thern Illinois. We 

 are inclined to be- 

 lieve that, with a 

 little care and at- 

 tention they may be 

 .acclimated at points 

 farther North tlian 



APPLE-TREE PLANT-LICE. 



{AphU mall, Linn.) 



From Georgetown in Ohio; from Columbia. 

 Kirkwood and Eureka in Missouri ; and from 

 Bunker Hill and Alton in Illinois, we have 

 received apple buds covered with the .above 

 named plant-louse, accompanied with queries 

 as to what they are, and how to destroy them. 

 We have ourselves scarcely been able to find an 

 apple tree in the vicinity of either St. Lonis, 

 Mo., or of Alton, 111., that was not teeming 

 with tliesc lice, and they are in all jn'obability 

 quite numerous throughout the West. Our 

 subscribers will recollect that wc repeatedly 

 received the little oval black shiny eggs of this 

 insect during the past winter, and that we 

 predicted tliat under favorable circumstances 

 the lice would sw.arm on the trees in the spring. 

 We have also suggested the jiroper remedy, 

 namely, tluat of drenching the trees with strong 

 so.ap siuls or tobacco water. 



We .are of opinion that no great .alarm need be ' 

 felt on .account of the great numbers of these 

 lice. They swarm in like manner .almost every 

 year in some part or other of the country, but 

 they have so many enemies in the form 

 of the diflerent cannibal insects and of 

 the small birds, that their numbers arc 

 soon reduced. They .are also susceptible 

 to the influence of the weather, and a 

 good sharp frost would clean them ofl" as with 

 a besom. On the nights of the 12th and 13th of 

 April there was frost in the Mississippi Valley, 

 but .as we proved from observation, it was not 

 severe enough to destroy them. Their numbers, 

 however, arc now (April 19th) fast waning, 

 which may be attributed to the late heavy rains, 

 and to the perseverance of the birds. 



