242 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



during the summer months, is occasioned by this mag- 

 got, more than bv all other causes combined. 



WiU not the readers of the £ee Journal investigate 

 this matter next season, to ascertain whether this mag- 

 got prevails to anv considerable extent in the apiaries 

 of the country? 1 would like to know whether any 

 one else has observed anything ol this kind among his 

 bees.— P. ff. Philhrooh tf East Sanhornton, N. H., 

 in American Bee Journal for May. 



[The larva described above as infesting the 

 bees, is evidently that of some two-winged fly 

 (Dipfera) belonging probably to the Tachina 

 family. The larger end which Mr. Philbrook 

 took to be the head, Is in reality the tail end, 

 and the " two very minute black dots, resemb- 

 ling eyes" are the spiracles or breathing holes 

 of the insect. The larvfe of nearly all the two- 

 winged flies that appertain to the great 3fusea 

 family, are attenuated towards the head 

 and blunt and larger posteriorly, that of the 

 common House-fly afibrding a capital illustra- 

 tion. That this parasite was the cause of the 

 death of the bees in this particular instance 

 there can be little doubt, but we scarcely think 

 that it can be the cause of the "mysterious bee 

 exodus " of which so much has recently been 

 written. Yet the matter is well worthy of in- 

 vestigation, and we hope that every apiarian 

 who suffers from the "bee disease" will ex- 

 amine the dead bees with a view to finding 

 such a parasite. We should also feel under ob- 

 ligations to Mr. Philbrook if he will send us a 

 number of the dead bees containing the maggot, 

 or of the flies bred from such maggots, so that 

 we may be enabled to determine the species. 



In Europe the most formidable foe of the 

 hive-bee is a similar maggot, which sometimes 

 produces the well-known disease called "foul- 

 brood." It is the larva of a small black fly 

 belonging to the genus Phora, and known as 

 the Bee-rty {Phora incrassata, Meigen). The 

 larvffi of this genus of flies, so far as known, 

 are all parasitic, and Bouche found them attack- 

 ing a large European hawk-moth. As the 

 European bee-fly attacks and kills the young 

 bee while the latter is yet in the cell, and as 

 Mr. Philbrook found his maggots in full-grown 

 bees, the chances are, that this American bee- 

 fly will belong to a difterent genus.— Eds. Am. 

 Entomologist.] 



THE COTTON *ARMY-WOK.M . 



(An&mis xylina, Say.) 

 [Fn.iii a Letter from Dr. D. L. Phabeb, of Wooitville, >li»..] 



This insect hybernates as a moth in piles of 

 cotton seed under shelter, under bark and in 

 crevices of trees in dense forests and other se- 

 cure places. It may often be seen on pleasant 

 days in winter. It seems to carry but few eggs 

 tliroiigb the winter, and these it deposits in this 



latitude (31° 3') in June, rarely in May with 

 very warm spring. 



Mr. Capers is mistaken as to date of its first 

 appearance as a cotton-destroyer. In 1788 it 

 " destroyed, at a low estimate, 200 tons of cotton 

 in the Baliamas." In Georgia in 1793, it so 

 completely destroyed the crop, that from 400 

 acres, Major Butler gathered only 18 bags. 



The egg, I think, has never been correctly 

 described. Examined by myself, and others in 

 my presence, it appears when magnified as if 

 moulded in a very deep saucer — shaped pre- 

 cisely like a scull-cap ^vith rows of piu heads 

 from base to apex as thickly set as possible. 

 The egg of the boll-worm yon give very cor- 

 rectly Fig. 151, a. 



Preventives. — The two methods you name 

 have both been successful on a small scale ; and 

 could planters be induced to act in concert, 

 would be wholly successful on any scale. Gen. 

 W. L. Brandon, of this county, in 1846, when 

 the caterpillars appeared in such vast numbers, 

 gathered by hand-picking thirteen jfork barrels 

 full of them, thus destroying all on his farm. 

 But a storm occurring some weeks later brought 

 in millions of the moths from other farms where 

 the caterpillars had not been destroyed. I could 

 mention many other proofs of the success of this 

 and other methods of destroying this as well as 

 the boll- worm. 



The carbolic acid has been pretty thoroughly 

 tried, and has proved a failure, as will cresylic 

 soap, for obvious reasons, whether applied as 

 here last j-ear by steam atomizer or otherwise. 



The time to use fire or traps is May and June, 

 for both these insects. If we have none in any 

 stage the first of July, we cannot possibly have 

 any later. 



The character of the season determines their 

 numbers, and in this locality we cannot be in- 

 jured by them this season. 



CUT-WORM TRiVP. 



We have been much interested in a suggestion 

 of D. N.Brown (who, by the way. is one of the 

 practical men, and not a hobby-riding theorist), 

 for the prevention of injury to grape vines, and 

 especially young ones, and" also of young black- 

 berry plants. He simply digs a hoie on one side 

 of the plant, close to it, and as the cut-worm is 

 a very clumsy insect, in his effort to reach the 

 plant" he falls into this hole. He has found in 

 the morning as many as twenty in one hole. In 

 setting out the grape vine, he "makes a hole the 

 witith of a spade and six inches deep. This 

 method he has practiced two years, with good 

 success. He says that recently he has found cut- 

 worms lodged in the rags he had placed in the 

 forks of his apple trees as a protection from the 

 Codling Moth. — St. Joseph (Mich.) Herald. 



