252 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



I 



Beetles around Peacb Trees— ^. HolUster, Jr. , 

 Alton.. Mh.—The deep brown or blackisli shiny beetles, 

 about one-third of an inch long, which you find around 

 the roots of your peach trees, are the JTehps pullus, 

 .Say, and may be known in English as the MournftU He- 

 lops. We have found them very common the present 

 year around both apple and peach trees, and especially 

 around s\ich as have been troubled with borers. We 

 believe they only seek the decaying wood, ami they are 

 consequently not injurious. 



A <luick Xraveler — (?. C. Bwdhtad, Pleaxant Hill, 



•tfo— The blue-gray animal with .Wloi.glegs, the last 



; Mir prolonged ba^-kwards like antenna;, which ran so 



rapidly along the wall of your room at iiijlit. i^ not a 



true insect, but belongs to the Myri:!!"!.!-. :iii.l i- kunwu 



as Vennatia foireps. Though thesi- ircMiur.^ iiisiiiic 



' dread in the hearts of housekeepers, \vr litliL\ c they arc 



iierfectly harmless, having freipiently handled them and 



1 them crawl over us. 



akno-wn Moth— IK. '>. /'■-/'/. ^■■'. >. ^f.l.^.■f.~-- 



do not recognize from } • ili-> ri|iii"ii ihr Muiill 



Ji that you captured in \i;ji;-! I h l.ultn-ily 



licU Harris calls t>«M/" /. -. Fal.i. , l.ui \vhi,-li 



more commonly known as JumouUi au,la. Bd^■ . and 

 I'C , is very common in South Illinois; and in one par- 

 ■ular year it was met with in tolerable abundance near 

 ick Island, in North Illinois, altliough before and since 

 at ye.ar we have never seen there a single specimen. 

 form Sorer— F. M. If., Fanniiujtnn. (',,««.— The 

 •er which is doing such damage to the corn in your 

 igUborhood is evidently the larva of the Stalk -borer, 

 iTtyna nitela, Guen,) previously referred to. It was 

 y and shrunken upon arrival and we thought at first 

 night be the !Spindle-worm of Harris, {G. ;ftc) but 

 wn soaking it in water, it proved to be the first named 

 MKXt beyond a doubt. 



tforns of Stag: Beetle — G. K. Edwards, Jiowling 

 • J'Tian. Sy.— The chestnut-brown horns belong to the 

 j^e Stag-beetle, or, as it is sometimes called in your 

 ■te, the Buck-beetle (Lucanus elaphus, Fabr.) It 

 « in the larva state in rotten logs of the Sweet fJum, 

 : cannot be considered injurious. The $ has not 

 iwy means such Immense horns as the (^. Properly 

 iking, they are not in cither sex horns, but jaws. 



mported Gooseberry IVorms — C. P. Faulkner, 

 lyeport, Ct. — White hellebore powder is the best 

 g to destroy these worms when large; but the evil 

 be nipped in the bud by hand-pickin,g the leaves 

 uich the young larva; have hatched out. Such 

 ■^ may be readily recognized by their being full of 

 Mindish holes. 



• on Bark of Walnut Tree — FranTc S. 

 rdner, Johnson Co., Kansas .—The worm 

 i found on the bark of a Walnut tree, and 

 ••as spiteful as a rattle-snake," was en- 

 11 and unrecognizable when it arrived, 

 ipparentlv belonged to the Jfofodonta family of 



Ai.«>tten Root— tA M. JSeecher, Newport, Mo. — The 

 Early Harvest Apple-tree, planted in spring of 1867, 

 evidently died from some kind of Rotten root, and the 

 minute white twisting worms were feeding on the dead 

 roots and acting as scavengers. 



liarg-e Dragon-fly — Geo. S. Grover, St. LowU. — 

 The large Dragon-fly which was sent to you by a friend in 

 Warrensburg, Mo,, and which has a brown body 

 marked with pale blue, is the ./EscTina constricta (^ of 

 Say. In the $ the blue color is always replaced by 

 green. It is a very common species, and like all the other 

 Dragon-flies — known likewise as ' ' Darning-needles, ' ' 

 Mosquito-hawks, etc.— is beneficial to man, devouring 

 great numbers of smaller and injurious insects. 



Stinging- larvse—F. H. King, West Liberty, Mus- 

 catine Co., Iowa.— The small blackish lai'vje with long 

 sprangling prickles, which you find on Black Walnut, 

 are those of a large and handsome moth, Satiirnia maia. 

 Wbi'ii of Inrun- si/r. Wvm- larvx will stiu- the- back of 



1> rcachbluw potu 



1 much as possible 



Raspberry Worvas—E. H. /iWle, GaUna. 111.— 

 'I'lic little green '2-2-footed worms, smooth when they 

 :iir \oiiii^. but covered with two-fold sprangling 

 liirkl. V irtcr the last moult, which you found preying 

 iilion \\v Raspberry in Kane county. Ills. , arc the lar- 

 vx of the same Raspberry Saw-fly (Selandria mhi, 

 Harris,) ahready referred to in the answer to Beiy . Bor- 

 den, on page •224 of No, 11. 



Plum Curculio — Uenrij Dulzer, St, Cliarlis, Mn. — 

 You wish to learn to identify the common Plum Curcu- 

 lio {Conolrai-hehis utnuphar, Herbst.) We can assure you 

 that you took thi; right steps and that the beetles you 

 bred (July 16,) from •• so-called German Prunes " that 

 were injured, and which four weeks previously you 

 placed in a glass jar with sand and loose esirth, are the 

 genuine article. 



lieaf Oalls and Caterpillars on tbe Sngar- 

 Iterry—S. L. Scofield, Sew To/'i.- The tree you found 

 while visiting in Fairfield county, Conn., and of which 

 none of tbe residents could give the name, is the Sugar 

 berry or Hack berry CW'/.-' <.'vvV/f'«/«;/.» ^ The flat galls 



upon the l0ll\r^ ;i1T ,Mll-rr| 1„ ,Ml,,r -prrir- of Gall- 



gnat, and tin- rairriiillai- iVnlinu Mi"in ilir~<' leaves 

 were half grown larva' of ihr Whit, -mark, d Tussock 

 Moth, (Seep. 7!l, Fig. 67. J 



Hellgrammite Fly— .y. Jmn«, Lebanon, Ohio.— 

 The gigantic fly which you never saw in your section 

 of country before, is the above named insect (Carydalis 

 cornutus, Linn.), which we figured on the front page of 

 number 4. As you perhaps have not that number, 

 we send you a copy. 



Dark Grape-^rorm — T. W. G., Georgetown, 0. — 

 The largi; dark caterpillar, found under a grape arbor, is 

 the larva of Thi/reus ahhottii, Swainson, a dark brown 

 moth, with the edges of the vrings deeply scalloped ami 

 the inner half of hind wings yellow, it has long been 

 known to attack the Grape-vine. 



Too fond of Honey — T. W. Gordon,— The long 

 legged animal which your wife found in a jar of honey 

 is Cermatia forceps, spoken of in this number in answer 

 to G. 0. Brodhcad, 



Caterpillar of Polyphemus OTotii- --1. DeWyl, 

 M. D., Jefferson City, J/o.— The large green caterpillar 

 found on a plum tree in your orchard is the larva of the 

 above named moth, which we figured on page 1^21 . 



