THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



245 



ON OUR TABLE. 



Krom W. C. Flagg, Secretary— Transactions 

 of the Illinois State Horticultural Society for 

 isf>s, being the Proceedings of the Thirteenth 

 Ainuial Meeting at Bunker Hill, Dec. 15th, 

 Kith. 17th and 18th, with Proceedings of the 

 l^ocal Societies, etc. This is a Kcport of 3.50 

 pages, with an appendix of 21 pages giving the 

 tables of fruits recommended by the Society 

 ;uid by individuals. It is published by the 

 I'niirie Farmer Company, is gotten up in neat 

 style and well bound; and altogether forms a 

 most valuable Record of Illinois Horticulture 

 for the year 1868. Full of interest, it evidences 

 caro in its make-up, and reflects great credit on 

 Mr. Flagg, as have done all the previous He- 

 IKii-ts of the Society. 



From Wra. Gossip, Secretary — Proceedings 

 and Transactions of the Nova Scotian Institute 

 of Natural Science, Halifax, Nova Scotia. 



Krom K. W. Furnas, President — Second An- 

 nual Report of the State Board of Agriculture 

 of Nebraska, Omaha, 1869. 



From the Publishers— Cotton Culture, by 

 .(os. B. Lyman, late of Louisiana, with an addi- 

 tional chapter on Cotton Seed and its Uses, by 

 ,1. K. Syphcr, New York, Orange Judd & Co. 



A POISONOUS WORM. 



"In an exchange we find mention made of the 

 case of a young girl being stung by a tomato 

 worm, anil dying from its effect. They are 

 quite frequently found on the vines. They are 

 about tlie size of a man's finger, and two or 

 three inches long, and of a green color." 



Paragraphs like this are just now as abund- 

 ant as is usual at this time of the year, both in 

 the Political and in the Agricultural Press. As 

 we have already explained, they are sheer hum- 

 bug and delusion, manufactured out of whole 

 cloth. It is as impossible for a tomato-worm to 

 sting with the hoi'u that grows out of the hind 

 end of its body, as it is for a dog to sting with 

 its tail or a ben to sting with her wings. 



JE^The .Junior Editor having changed his 

 place of residence, begs that all letters be ad- 

 dressed to him. hereafter, at 2l'1 North Main 

 street, St. Louis, Mo. 



^p On account of the delay in engraving our 

 cover, the mailing of this number has been re- 

 tarded fully one week. 



ly The publishers of those papers which ad- 

 vertise to club with ours, will please take notice 

 of our change of subscription price. 



ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



Wheat Midg-e, alias ITIillc WeeTil, alias Red 

 Weevil— CT«s. Corhit, St. George's, Delaware.— Tha 

 orange colored maggots in the heads of your wheat were 

 undoubtedly the larvae of the common "Wheat-midge. 

 We found a single belated si)"cimen in the wheat which 

 you sent us. We cannot explain the heads in your field 

 all turning brown, except on the supposition of certain 

 peculiar weather producing this effect on tlie variety 

 you cultivate under the name of ' ' California Wlieat. ' ' 

 If the brownness of the ears had been caused liy the 

 Wheat-midge, then the uninfected ears would not have 

 turned brown; whereas you say that tlie heads changed 

 color "all over the field." Neither can we see any 

 trace of fungoid action , as in the case of what has been 

 generally termed "Blight" in the West this season, 

 but is more properly known as "Mildew." In true 

 Mildew, it is only a portion of every ear that is affected, 

 and even with the naked eye. the powdery structure of 

 this black fungus can be distinguished. In your ears, 

 on the contrary, the entire chaff is of a nearly uniform 

 jiale brown coloi', without any indication of fungoid 

 structure, even when greatly magnified. As to the 

 " small black insect" on the heads of your whe.it, 

 which you suppose to have been a true Thrips, your 

 conjecture is a very probable one; but without speci- 

 mens before us we can ofter no positive opinion. 



I^arge Fish-ny— 4. B- McCutchen, Lafayette, Wal- 

 hr Go., Ga. — The large fly bearing a resemblance to the 

 Hellgrammite Fly (Fig. .i6, <;) in color and general appear- 

 ance, but differing from that insect in having shorter, 

 darker and toothed or pectinate antenme c? § , and in hav- 

 ing the black veins of the fore wings interrupted with 

 whitish spots, is the ChauUodes pectiaiiwnis of Lmruens. 

 You say it flew into your room at night and ' ' made a 

 noise similar to that of a bat." Its larva doubtless 

 lives in the water and has similar habits to that of the 

 Hellgrammite Fly. That of an allied species, {Ch. ras- 

 trlairnU, Kamb.), the male only of which has pectinate 

 antennae, has been described by the Senior Editor as 

 living under the bark of floating logs, and as destitute of 

 the remarkable paddle-like gills or branchiae on the 

 belly, which enable the larva of the Hellgrammite Fly 

 to live permanently under water. No other larva be- 

 longing to this genus is known to science. (See Froc. 

 Eiit. Soc, Phil., n, pp. 263-5.) 



Cottonwood leaf-sralls— J/>s. J. B. Taylor, 

 SeMca, N. r.— The h.ill.iw r..un.lish galls, about the 

 size of a hazel luit. on thr -inii of so many cotton- 

 woods leaves arc iirodiirid by the Poplar-stem Gall- 

 louse {Pemphigus popalicaulis. Fitch). Early in the 

 year a single wingless louse punctures the stem of the 

 nascent leaf, till the irritation causes this hollo w growth, 

 inside which the mother-louse brings up a large family 

 of descendants, most of which by the middle of the 

 summer acquire wings. The gall then gapes open and 

 the insects escape. 



Insects Named — J. G. Goodrich, Smith Pass, Ills.— 

 The cinnamon-brown beetle with two longitudinal 

 white stripes, which fell on your paper (July 7,) while 

 you were writing, is the perfect form of the noted 

 Round-headed Apple-tree borer {Saperda Mvittata, 

 Say.) The spotted Lady-bird is a light variety of the 

 15-spotted species (Mysia 15-pimctata, Oliv.) 



