246 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Four-lined Ijea.f-bng' on Cnrrant^i/ B. Bate- 

 ,11,111. ]>ahuKmlU, Ohw.— The yellow bugs which you 

 lorwaiik'il by Mr. Meehan, and which are about J^inch 

 lonj;, with four bl.iik loi.sfitudinal lines, the two outer 

 ones of which 'each tcniiinatc in a black dot, are 

 the Four-lined Leaf-bug (CajKiis i-rittatus, .Say.) You 

 >;iy "this insect is found to be quite iDJurious to the 

 , leaves of flic Ciirr.'iiit biislies and various kinds of 

 Miiul.s. -ihli a- W'.i-.lia. Dietzia, etc., in some gar- 



ain~ ill ( I. \. I l-lli..in;li not at all common as yet — 



and lia> (■iilv Itch siiii there for the past year and the 

 present. It commences leeding in May and continues 

 tor several months, and evidently breeds on the bushes, 

 as young ones are seen now half grown along with the 

 old ones '■ Wc think the jilants iiii-lit l.c |irotccled 

 against tlicii- atta.'ks l,\- a piniH-r use ..(' ,'it-) H.- acid 

 soap. The ('.71.//V lainily, \i> wliicli tlii- in>cct l>cl(iiij;-s, 

 is one of the must exteii.sivc families in the Urilcr of 

 Half- winged Bugs {HitnvpUra). 



Bee moth — stqihm Blanclard, Oregon, Ihlt Co., 

 Vo. — The large mass of white silken cocoons which you 



[Fig. 1820 



CoIor8~(a) Kray; (?>) whitish: (c) brown; (t? and c) gray and Ijrowii. 



took from your bee-hives, and which have greatly in- 

 jured your bees, destroying fully half your swarms, are 

 the euco.in- of tlie lice ^h<{\\ [tl.ill, r;,i .■,,,«««, Fabr.) 

 Tliej coiituiiicil the pupa> and we ne\er saw such im- 

 mense fat specimens before. At Figure 18'2 we illustrate 

 this insect in all its stages (« worm, h cocoon, c pupa, 

 (1 5 moth, and « g moth,) and quote the following par- 

 agraph from the :Missoiiri Entomological Kciioi t, where 

 you will tind a lull accniiiil of tlii> lice jiest. 

 It shoiihl iii\,nial.l> lie iM.iaic in mind that a strong 



led Iliat each r.'liiair i- calialilc uf liifnishing a hive with 



Iiiinninity I'luni the ia\agc> iif this worm can only be 

 guaranteed wherw a thorough control is had of both 

 hive and bees . Hence the great importance of the mov- 

 able frame hive. 



IVIute Grub Vnngns—L.M. S. , Boone Co. , Mo.— 

 You win find by referring to back numbers of our paper 

 that it is a fact that the White Grub actually sprouts, 

 i. e. a living fungus actually grows at times from the 

 sides of its mouth. 



Canker-trorm Parasites — J. Petit, Grinwbi/, 0. 

 W.—Thc white oval cocoons attached to the body of 

 a Canker-worm produced on the road a species of 

 Microijastir. which is a genus of Ichneumon flies. 

 What seemed at first sight to be two clusters of eggs 

 attached to the bodies of two Canker-worms proved 

 to be net-work cocoons inclo.«ing each of them a i)ara- 

 sitlc larva. Both cocoon and larva arc new to us, but 

 in all probability belong to some genus or other of Ich- 

 neumon fly, which in the larva state had i)reyed upon 

 the Canker-worm. The dead Canker-worm was .se- 

 cured to the leaf upon which it rested by this cocoon. 

 Beetles Swarniing around tlie lianrn— >SV»n7. 

 Thompson, M. rf, A!l,i,„i. Bis. — The deep, rich, 

 velvety -green beetles, about % inch long, with the 

 wing-covers bordered and sometimes marked above 

 with fulvous, while the underside of the body is ol a 

 brilliant metallic green with puri)le reflections, is the 

 Trim Flower-chafer (rw/w/zc^A a;V /./</. Linn.) You say 

 you found these beetles i-luly Kii flying in great num- 

 bers over the lawn near the ground and especially 

 round a Weigelia bush, and that they appeared so ac- 

 tive and excited, that you at first thought they 

 were Bumble-bees. In tlie larva state they feed 

 on the roots of plants, and arc sometimes qiute 

 injurious to the Strawberry. The larva bears 

 a strong resemblance to that commonly known 

 as the White ("inili. but, ill coiiiiiiou with that 

 of tli.^ (..il.lsiiiith l.ectlr [l,.)„/j„i lannjwa, 

 Linn,)— a l.rilliani yrlluw inseet—it has the 

 curious habit of invariably traveling on its back 

 *"' notwithstanding it has six legs on the underside . 



While the common Wbite Grub or May-beetle larva 

 travels clumsily with its legs, this grub by turning on 

 its back travels as easily and as rapidly as an ordinary 

 caterpillar. The species does not occur in North Illi- 

 nois, but is sufficiently abundant in the south part ot 

 the State and in central Missouri. 



Tiger-beetle Larva — 7i'. </. Dodtje, BrooTclijK., S. Y. 

 —The singular larva, about %, inch long, witli a gigan- 

 tic head and strong hooked jaws, and with two re- 

 markable hooks on the middle of its back, is that of a 

 Tiger-beetle (CkiiuleU.) You say that "it lives in a 

 vertical hole in the ground, about three inches deep and 

 iif the diaiiiciej- of its head, and remains at thesurlice, 

 ils head jiisi lr\rl with the carth, ready to catch any 

 small insect I hat may come along." These are the gen- 

 eral haliiis of all the known species of this genus; and 

 as iioi I -iii;;le species found in America has been bred, 

 so far as is on record, from the larva state, it is im- 

 possible to say to what iiarticiilar species your larva be- 

 longs. Acconlini; to the late-l re\i>ion, there are no 

 less than 64 di>lin. I speri.> fouiel in North America, 

 most of which arc to be mot with within the Umits of 

 the United States. 



Not Bark liice— (V. McCray, Black Oal; CaldwM 

 Go., Mo. — We can assure you that your trees have not 

 died from Bark-lice, for the numerous specimens of the 

 bark which you send have no trace of this pernicious 

 insect upon Uiem. The minute round elevations on 

 these specimens of bark are very often to be seen on 

 dead limbs and twigs of fruit trees . We can ofier no 

 explanation of the death of these trees, unless, as you 

 yourself suggest, they were killed by ' ' the severe cold 

 weather that came early last winter, ' ' 



