THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



207 



Strafrberry 



ngs—Jao. M. Pearson, Godfrey, 

 Jlle— The highly polished black insects, about one- 

 teuth of an Inch in length and three-fourths as broad 

 as they are long, which have lately swarmed on the 

 strawberries around Alton, are the Corimelana pulicaria 

 of Gcrmar. , and may be known in English by the name 

 of the Flea-like Corimelrena. They are not Chinch 

 Bugs as some of the members of j'our society supposed. 

 At Figure 1-jS of our present number, a good cut of the 

 Chinrh lUi- i- 'Swm. ami VdU will at once perceive the 

 diflerfih- upun r.niiparin- that liuiirc with yoiu- Straw- 

 berry in~i ri Till- la-l, likr the i liiiirh l!ug, is a true 

 bug'cMMrr //..'., y. /,,,/, Ilia lirlunu- ill a vcrv different 

 family i::m_ i_ ri;LLEi;ii-ij.j. all thu insects of which are 

 distinguished by the great size of the scutel. In the 

 Chlneu Bug the' scutel forms that little triangular piece 

 (seethe Figure) immediately behind the thorax, while 

 in the Strawberry bug it covers the whole body, the 

 hemelytra forming but a pale dirty yellow stripe along 

 each side. We ourselves found these bugs quite abun- 

 dant on strawberries last spring, puncturing the stem 

 and thus causing either blossom or fruit to wilt. It is 

 likewise destructive to that plant in Canada, judging 

 from a description given in the Canada Farmer for 

 August 1st, 1867. A year or two ago, it^was sent us 

 with an account of its having ruined a crop of raspber- 

 ries; and this year we receive it from Mr. G. Wilgus 

 of Richview, 111. , with an account of its infesting both 

 cherry and quince. "On cherry," as hejnformsus, 

 "it occurs in very large numbers, causing the stems 

 of the young flHiit to wilt and shrivel. It also attacks 

 the blossoms and leaves, but seems to do most dam- 

 age on stems." Hence it may be considered as a 

 pretty general feeder. In the summer time it may be 

 found in very large numbers upon a variety of wild 

 flowers, and' it is also very injurious to certain gar- 

 den flowers, and especially to the Coreopsis. Never 

 having made experiments with a view to its destruc- 

 tion, we can not give a remedy. They might be cap- 

 tured by hand or ^vith a sweeping net, or kept away 

 from the vines by an application of cresylic soap. 



Eg^es on Apple-trees — IT. Compton, Wells Corners, 

 Erie County, Pa.—The eggs about the size of a common 



pins' head, laid in t 

 and each egg bonl 

 of short prickles, ai 

 upon trees, of wh 



on apple limbs, 

 P end with a fringe 

 lUig very common 

 ju'csent a sketch. 

 iii.L's to the Retinitis 



worms. Consequently ft should 

 be encouraged and protected, in- 

 stead of bemg persecuted and de- 

 stroyed . The eggs of the Soldier- 

 bugs (senus Anna), another can- 

 nilial -roup of tlic tnic line's {H.t- 



-Einnry S, Foster, Bushlmrg, 

 ects, marked with blue, black 

 ad orange, which you And in such great numbers on 

 our grape vines, are the lame of the Convergent Lady- 

 [Fic. !«.] bird (Hippodamia conrerqens, 



Guer). It is represented at 

 Figure 143 a, together with the 

 pupa i and the beetle c. They 

 should be protected. Fortu- 

 nately for the farmer and fruit- 

 grower. Ladybirds are very 

 abundant this spring, espe- 



(Fi< 



130), and the Nine- 



They are , indeed , so very abun- 

 dant, not only in your vicinity but in other parts of 

 St, Louis county. Mo., and Southern Illinois, that a 

 reasonable immunity from such injurious insects as 

 they are known to prey upon, may be expected in 

 those sections. 



WUite Grub Fungus, again— W^m . C. Holmes, 

 Plattsburg, Mo. — You semi specimens of the AVhite 

 Grub which, as you say, did a great deal of damage in 

 your neighborhood last year. You also enclose a num- 

 ber of brown beetles which you rightly infer to be the 

 CFiR. i«.] perfect state of these grubs. And 



Anally you send some of the grubs 

 with lon^ sprouts arising from the 

 neighborhood of the head , and wish 

 to know what these sprouts will ul- 

 timately turn to. These grubs are 

 attacked by the same kind of fungus 

 spoken of and figured on page 186 

 of our last number. We present 

 herewith another cut (Fig. 144) rep- 

 resenting the sprouts of the length 

 which they have now usually at- 

 tained. These vegetative grubs are 

 still a good deal of a mystery to us , 

 but as we now have tliem growing 

 in our garden, we may soon be able 

 to give our readers some definite in- 

 formation as to the mode in which 

 the fungus reproduces itself. Botan- 

 ists woidd evidently call it a Sjyhmria, 

 but as cryptogams of tliis group bear 

 tlicir spores "and reprndiice theni- 



Me; 



bow much territory this fungus ex- 

 tends, we shall be glad to hear from 

 any of our subscribers who have 

 noticed it this spring. 



Rotten rear Root— TTot. P. 

 Pierson, Onarga, Ills. — The pear 

 roots which you send are, to all ap- 

 pearances, a'tl'ected with the "rot- 



Al all. 



say ••the roots of nearly two hun- 

 dred of your finest looking trees are 

 thus affected," we can assure you 

 that you must not lay the blame to 

 insects, for there is no insect work 

 about it. We almost re-ret that it 



is not the worlc ni iii-r.i-, 1 ause, 



as they are sornrtliin- lan-ilile we 

 could in allprolialiilitv iiven-oiiii' the 

 difficulty, or at least clieek its 

 s|iriailiim-. But these fim-oid dis- 



-iiiiis that tliey are beyond our con- 

 trol, and as a general rule, we have 

 to see tile best of our trees smitten 

 by tlieni. withoutthe least power to 

 avoid the calamity. We do not 

 know that this root disease has yet 

 received any distinctive name, but 

 Colors-Dirty white and it will probably receive due consid- 

 broM-n. eration, during the vear, from your 



State Horticulturist, Dr. Hull. The "doctor will not 

 want for material, forwe w. i r latM'. > allr.l to the apple 

 orchard of Mr. Groshen oi' w . ' i -. 'I , where some 

 thirty of what were last yi m -^ ween, mostly 



of the early varieties, wcri _ ,, i,, ;,,is same root 



rot, and it is in like maiuier liLeiiii.ilin- many other 

 orchards in South Illinois and Jlissouri. 



Since the above was written, we have conversed with 

 Dr. Hull, and find that he has likewise received speci- 

 mens of these dead roots, lie does not think thev are 

 attacked by the fungus howcM I. Km Im lirM-ibey have 

 simply died. from having 1" . i i> ihe action of 



frost while the trees were i i i : , i - ; I . 



Bag-worms — Chas. Pan i;. ' -. X.J.—'V\w 



"worm that carries its cocoon on us back, and torraerly 

 fed on the Arborvita;, but now relishes nearly all our 

 nursery evergreens and many deciduous trees," is 

 doubtless the common Bagworm, alias Basketworm, 

 alias Dropworni {Thyridopteryx ephemerceformis). It can 

 be readily got rid of by gathering its cocoons off the in- 

 fested trees in the winter; for it is in tliese cocoons that 

 the eggs are deposited. 



