THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



27 



Red-bumped Caterpillars on Apple and 



Pear— jO. W. Kaufman, Des Moines, Iowa.— What you 

 are irreverently pleased to term "a lot of ugly disgust- 

 ing worms," but what we consider as one of tlie most 

 gorgeously dressed caterpillars that God has created, 

 is known as the "Ked-humped Prominent" and pro- 

 duces a brownish yellow moth, called in English "the 

 Trim Prominent" (scientifically Notodonta concinna). 

 Do pray, Mr. Kaufiman, for the future take a careful 

 look at the wonderful "Works of the Great Author of 

 Nature, before you again slander and malign them, and 

 call that "ugly and disgusting" which is in reality a 

 perfect gem ot insect beauty. Look at the brilliant 

 coral-red head of your larva, and the hump on the 

 middle of its back of the same lovely color! Did you 

 ever see a string of coral beads, on the fair white neck 

 of a young lady, show to greater perfection than do these 

 bright red parts, among tlio delicate black, yellow and 

 white linos traced li'iiL;th\viiys by the finger of Almighty 

 God along the rust ot it> Imdy? Surely such artistically 

 arranged colors can nut bo "disgusting" to any pro- 

 perly trained eye! But these worms are "ugly" for- 

 sooth ! 'They are at most only about \}{ inch long— 

 they have no sting— no irritating hairs or prickles such 

 as have the larviE of a very few of our rarer moths — 

 and they will not even bite, however much you may 

 please to irritate and torment them. Surely a grown 

 man ought not to fancy that so harmless a creature as 

 this is hatel'ul or formidable! But they ale all the 

 leaves off one of your young pear-trees! Very well! 

 They had just as good a right to do so as you have to 

 sit down to your dinner, consuming vegetables and 

 fruits that would otherwise have fed a host of beauti- 

 ful creations which the vulgar denominate "bugs." 

 God made this lovely green world for the pleasure and 

 benefit not of man alone, but of the multitudinous 

 hosts of the inferior animals. True, we have a right 

 to destroy these inferior animals, when they interfere 

 with our wants and wishes; and so we have a right to 

 take the life e^■en of our brother man, when our own 

 life, and even in certain eases when our property 

 merely, is jeoparded by him. "Kill and be killed" 

 is the great law of Nature, from one*nd of the Animal 

 Kingdom to the other. But when we arc compelled to 

 kill, let us always do it in a merciful and not in a wan- 

 ton and cruel spirit; and especially, even when we are 

 obliged in self-defence, or for purely scientific purposes, 

 to take the life of some of these little miracles of per- 

 fection that the poet calls "winged flowers," let us 

 not add insult to injury and slander them as "disgust- 

 ing," ' when even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed 

 like the very meanest of them ! 



The Red-humped Prominent— of which we herewith 

 represent the thiee stages (l'l^^ 2i 1 u\ i 2d pupi, and 



2G moth)— his lilt 1 1 ii 1 n i ui} 1 uh m lose, thorn, 

 chiir\, plum md \\\)V md i-pn_iill} on the last. 

 Your hndmg it on pen, •\\hich is •\ery closel) aUied 



Coloi^Brownish-yellow. 



to the apple, and yet is inimical to the life of several 

 insects commonly found on apple, is a new fact. The 

 species is not very common in the Valley of the Mis- 

 sissippi; but when it does occur, it occurs in great 

 numbers, because the mother-moth deposits a very 

 large number of eggs upon a single leaf. As these 

 \M\x are gregarious throughout their entire e.xistencc, 

 and do not scatter over the whole tree, as do many 

 CFiK. 25.] others that occur on our fruit trees— some 

 of which wander oil' from the very earliest 

 stage in their larval life, and others, as for 

 example the common Tent Caterpillar 

 {Clisiocampa americana) , only toward the 

 latter part of their existence in the larval 

 state — they can always be easily destroyed. Ft 

 ourselves, we never feel the least fear or scruple 

 at crushing hundreds ol any of these caterpillars in our 

 naked hands; any one, however, that is more nice thar.' 

 [Fig ;g ] we are can put on a i-; '- 



of stout buckskin glo\ . 

 before he commences tlii- 

 squashing process. But 

 although we do not hesi- 

 tate to squash any kind ' 

 caterpillar bare-handi d, 

 we by no means advise any 

 one to try this operaticHi, 

 either upon the Colorado Potato Bug or upon any of Ui. 

 Blister-beetles. For all these last-named insects are "ijiy 

 or less poisonous, and we have known a young girl miO; c 

 her hands very sore by crushing with her naked •ins'^ri 

 a lot of the Ash-gray Blister-beetles, that were infesting 

 some English beans. <» irt L 



Insects named — T. W. G., Georgetown, Ohio. — 

 The yellowish-green worm with an immense reddisi: 

 brown head with two yellow spots upon it, is the lari i 

 of the Tityrus Skipper (Eadamus tityns, Fabr.) abrown 

 butterfly with a semi-transparent yellow band across , 

 the front wings, and the hind wings each produced into 

 a short rounded tail behind. This worm is most ctj>- 

 mouly found on Honey Locust, though it also (.I'll 

 the common Black Locust, on the Wistaria :iiiil ni 

 False Indigo, (Amorphafi-uticosa.) The du>ky-i'. ■ 

 tree-hopper with a long yellow spot each side an'' a 

 horn-like projection from the fore part of its body is 

 the Two-spotted Tree-hovpe'RTheliahimai.-ulata, Fabr.) 

 which likewise occurs on Locust. The pale yellow and 

 black worms all huddled together on the leaf of a Grape- 

 vine are the larva of the American Procris (Procris 

 Auuricana, Boisd.) If you have Harris's work on 

 Injurious Insects you can liud in it figures of all three 

 of these species. 



«old Gilt-beetle— Z;c. 11'. //. M.iithi, Pinel-ney, 

 J/w7i.— The brilliant beetle, resplendent in a full suit 

 of green and gold and about half an inch long, which 

 you find devouring the leaves of the common Dogs- 

 banc (.1/- -/,. , ,h .nnlfvUum), is the Gilt Gold- 



bcclle(t''/, I, It is very common every- 



where in lip W •: II!. II ihis plant in the perfect beetle 

 state, but a.^ il.- l;u \a i.^ iii-ver met with there, it most 

 probably during the larval state feeds underground 

 upon the roots either of this or of some other plant. 

 Your finding the beetle upon another species of the 

 same genus of plants (Ap. cannahinum) is, we believe, 

 a new fact. 



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