26 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



IFbite Pine 'Weevil— ,4 . S. Fuller, liidgewood, N. 



J. — The borers which have been attacking the leading 

 shoots of your Pines, gradually spreading to the 

 branches, have produced the perfect beetle since their 

 receipt, and as we anticipated, they turn out to be the 

 White Pine 'Weevil {Pissodes stroli, Peck.) At Figure 



Colors— (a and 6) whitish; (c) nist-browii and wliitc. 



•22 it is illustrated in its three stages of larva (a), pupa 

 (A), and beetle (c). We have not known this insect to 

 occur in the West, but it has long been known to be 

 common in tlie Eastern States. The only practical way 

 of counter-working the injurious work of this weevil, 

 is to cut oil the infested shoots and consign them to the 

 flames, while they yet contain the larva; and before the 

 beetles have escaped. Dr. Fitch, » under the impres- 

 sion that most of the beetles are perfected in the spring, 

 recommends that this -work be done in August and 

 September; but as all the beetles had issued from the 

 shoots you sent, by the end of August, we should 

 advise you, so as to be on the safe side, to do such work 

 in July. 



•TrODs. JI. Y. Slate Agr. Soc. 1«57, p. 7S,5. 



Unnatural Secretion of Wax — /'. Bnuei-, 

 Wai/ncsrille, Mo.— The honey bee which has such a pro- 

 fuse waxy formation exuding apparently from the rings 

 of tlic- abdomen, and which you took alive from the 

 eutrance of one of your hives, presents a very unusual 

 appearance, and a most remarkable case of wax forma- 

 tion. Mr. J. T. Langstroth, to whom we sent the 

 specimen, suggests that the bee " had a kind of wax 

 dr psyl" The specimen is interesting, and beautifully 

 ill trates the manner in which the ordinary wax of 

 our hives is secreted from the belly ol the worker bee, 

 as explained by Hilbner, Reaumur, and other writers 

 on the subject. 



Raspberry Borer — F. A. Gates, Massillon, Iowa. 

 — The borer you describe as having nearly ruined your 

 patch of raspberry bushes, is apparently the common 

 Blackberry and Raspberry borer (Oherea pcnp-icillata, 

 Hald.) which in the perfect state is a beetle. The large 

 ochre-yellow moth, with a conspicuous white spot on 

 the front wings, and each of the wings tinged with 

 purple and crossed near the tip by a purplish line, which 

 moth had deposited a large number of eggs on one of 

 the raspberry leaves, -was not, as you inferred, the 

 parent of the borer. It is the Senatorial Dryocanipa 

 (Drijocampa senatoria, Fabr.) The young worms hatch- 

 ing from those eggs would have fed upon the leaves, 

 though the more common food-plant of the .species is 

 Oak. 



Cocoon of Horn-bug:— .^. S. McClutclten, Lafay- 

 ette, Ga. — The egg-shaped cocoon formed of excrement 

 and rotten wood glued together, contained the large 

 white larva of some Horn-bug, probably Lucanus dama, 

 Fabr.j 



Insects named.- <7. F. Muhleman, Woodhim, 

 nU. — 'ihQ moth, with the front -nings variegated 

 with light and dark brown with a conspicuous 

 dark zigzag line running across the outer third, and 

 with the hind wings ofa lustrous coppery reddish brown, 

 is the Pyramidal Amphipyra {Amplnpyra pi/ramidoides, 

 Giieu). You say you bred it from a grape-feeding larva 



Colors— Light and dark Brown. 



like the one illustrated on page 22.) (Fig. 163). AVc have 

 also the present summer bred the same species of moth 

 from a similar lar\a feeding on Ked Bud, and have 

 found the lar^a on the Poplar, «hich makes three 

 distinct plants that it is known to attack. The specific 

 name of the moth probably refers to the pyramidal 

 hump on the 11th segment of the larva. You say you 

 ' ' recollect a similar larva in Europe on apricots, prune 

 trees, etc. , producing an analogous moth. ' ' Not atall 

 unlikely, for tliere is a very similar worm common to 

 the whole of Europe, and which feeds on Oak, Willow 

 and Elm, as well as on fruit trees, and produces a 

 \evy closely allied moth, the Amphypyi-a pyramidea of 

 Liuna:us. The other moth of which you send 

 a pencil sketch, and which is of a uniform deep 

 brown, with two oblique white lines running— the inner 

 line entirely, and the outer one but partially— across 

 the fore wings, i.s Agnomonia anilie of Drury , who states 

 that the caterpillar is violet-white with longitudinal 

 rose-colored lines and an elevated brown ridge across 

 segments 4 and 11, and that it feeds on plants of the 

 genus Chironia. The chrysalis is enclosed within a 

 few leaves and is covered with a rosy eflloresceuee. 

 The other pencil figure which you send seems to repre- 

 sent limacodes cipjius, Fabr. (See Harris, Inj. Ins., p. 420). 



Cecropia niotli Caterpillar — II. G. LewtlUng, 

 Hiyhllill, ifo.— The gigantic green caterpillar, covered 

 with beautiful yellow, blue and coral-red tubercles, 

 which you tind on the leaves of an apple tree, is the 

 larva of the Cecropia Moth {Attacus cecropia, Linn.) 

 It is an immense feeder, and we have known it to be so 

 abundant as to greatly injure young Apple and Soft 

 Maple trees, but its occurrence in very large luimbers 

 is extremely rare. We shall figure this caterpillar in 

 a future number. 



Saml. n. I. Gree-n, Ellart City, 7?Z.— The large worm 

 found by you descending from an apple tiee is the same 

 as the above. 



Ho-nr Cut-worms originate- 77<(i«. W. Gordm, 

 Georgetown, Ohio.— YoM ask how our common cut- 

 worms originate. They are produced from eggs depo- 

 sited by obscure colored owlet moths belonging to sev- 

 eral different genera, and for fuller information on the 

 subject we refer you to the First Annual Keport of the 

 Junior Editor, where the history of twelve different 

 species is detailed. 



