THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



61 



Grape-Tine I,eaf-galls— fV. T. JhiUh-up, harru- 

 hiirg, Pu.— The grape-galls you tciiil are Ibe same as 

 tliose which we figmcd on page 248 of our first volume. 

 In each freshly-formed gall you will find from one to 



four or;ii)"e-i(ii(ire(l iiio(lier-lii r, a luuiilier of i-hiliiiig 



eggs, ami of the tame whitish color. Almost as soon 

 as the larvit hatch out, they stray off through the partly 

 open mouth of the gall on the upper surface of the leaf, 

 anil found new galls either on the same or on a younger 

 leaf. After a time, and when their stock of eggs is cx- 

 hausted, the mother-liec die; and the galls inhabited 

 by them then gape widely open at their months and be- 

 come gradually flattened and obliterated. Thus, upon 

 a .ijrape-cane, the .i^alls upon the oldest leaves will be 

 empty, while those on the young thrifty ones will be 

 swarining with iuhabilants; and as fresh leaves put out, 

 these arc succissivcly '• oi-cupied and possessed " by 

 tlie enemy. The gall is forincd. as with all those eon-. 

 structed by I'lant-liic, by BarK-lice. or by Mites, by 

 one or more yoinig lar\a,' slationiug themselves on the 

 upper surface of the leaf, and irritating it with their 

 pointed beaks until it bulges out in an unnatural hollow, 

 inside which the larvw remain. Finally, as the larx;e 

 grow to maturity, the hollow becomes a fleshy green 

 sack, the mouth of which is almost closed up. The 

 mother-lice then lay eggs, and the same old cycle of 

 phenomena Is repeated again and ag.tin, till winter 

 sets in. 



These galls are peculiar to the wild Krost (ini\ie(V!tis 

 mi-iUfolia) of which the Clinton is a cultivated variety, 

 and a-e not found upon the ^'orthern Fox Grape ( VHis 

 ?«;v««ca) from which our tame Catawba, Isabella and 

 Concord are derived. This accounts for the latter va- 

 rieties not being infested by these galLs. Perhaps Ihe 

 mo.st effi-ctual remedy would b<' to give up growing 

 Clintons for a crop; but il yoti do grow them there is no 

 kuonn remedy but to pluck ofl' the infested leaves and 

 bum them. The old leaves, with empty galls, may just 

 as well be left on the vines. 



maple- worms — II. K. Viokroy, Chumjiaiijn, III. — 

 It is often said that the foliage of our maples is entirely 

 exempt from the depredations of worms. To a certain 

 e.Ktent this is true, but it is not universally true. We 

 have known maples badly stripped by the striped green 

 larva of one of our most beautiful moths (Dn/ocumpa ru- 

 hkunda), and there is a large larva covered with silky 

 yellow hair and with five slender pencils of black hairs 

 projecting from among the yellow ones, which gener- 

 ally feeds on maple leaves and produces a fine gray 

 moth {Jcroiii/c/a americana). The gigantic apple-green 

 larva, as big as a man's thumb, which you found feed- 

 ing on Silver 31aple [Acfr dasycai-pum) is that of the 

 same Pohjjilumus moth, which we figured in So. T of our 

 first volume; and we have received it from a variety of 

 other quarters as infesting difi'erent kinds of maple, 

 though the books do not record the fact of Its inhab- 

 iting this genus of trees. You remark that you have 

 also tound the larva of the Cecropia moth feeding on 

 maples; and this larva too we have lately received from 

 several other sources as feeding on the same trees upon 

 which it occurred with you, and in some instances strip- 

 ping them bare when of small size. It is remarkable 

 that, in the case of this larva also, the books are equally 

 silent on the subject of its being ever found on maples. 



IHelaucboly Chafer in AppIes^/oA/j F. Fulton, 

 Pthi-shiinj, Ills.— The beetle which you find quite fre- 

 [liK. ai] (piently boring a hole in your apples is 

 ^ t the Melancholy Chafer, (Euryomia melun- 



^CSLJ rhvlka, (.J. &' I".) herewith illustrated 



/mSP^s Worms borings in Cucumbers— IK 



iwS\ li- Ra„8om. St. JomjA, J/A/i.— The worms 



' ^^ > which suddenly made their appearance 

 e'ji''^s-Biack- the forepart of September, boring into 

 wiiiUsh. your cucumbers and musk-melons frotn 

 the outside, are eviilently— judging from your descrip- 

 tion—the same species mentioned on page 31 of our last 

 number under the same heading. As stated in that 

 paragraph, they produce the Neat Cucumber Moth 

 (Phactlliira niiijalif, Cram.) 



Lilac Borer— 7". /. Fnemuii, BMamj, J/</.— The 

 iU-footed yellowish- white worm, which has been boring 

 into and destroying your lilac bushes, was dead when 

 it reached us, but we have little doubt that it was 

 the larva of a moth which is well known to attack the 

 Lilac, and which was named Ajjeria [Tivchilmni] Mji-in- 

 t/a' by Harris. We have ourselves never bred this 

 inoth, but a $ specimen is in our possession which 

 was bred from Lilac by our friend Charles Sonne, of 

 Chicago, and which had bored through the heart of a 

 branch over an inch through. This insect is closely 

 allied to the common Peach-borer and still more closely 

 to the old-fashioned Grape-borer. We should recom- 

 menil the application of soft soap to the trunks and 

 larger limbs of your lilac bushes in the early part of the 

 season, to prevent the § moth from depositing her eggs. 

 Still, we have but faint hopes that soap would produce 

 this MM-y desirable result; for although this substance, 

 when applied about the last ot May, aflbrds perfect 

 se.urity against our two common Apple Borers, which 

 are lieetles, we have experimentally ascertained that it 

 attords no protection whatever against the common 

 Peach Hcncr, which is a Moth, not a Beetle, and as wc 

 said just now is closely allied to your Lilac Borer. 



Burying Beetles— ./</«. II. Ushorn, Oshkosk, Wi's. 

 — Your boys *' having killed a striped snake about two 

 feet long, were surprised on looking for it the next day 

 to find half its length in the earth. Upon pulling it 

 out they noticed two of these bugs, which had evidently 

 dug the hole and drawn the snake in. The snake was 

 left about a foot from the hole, and the next day was 

 found drawn back into the hole its whole length, the 

 hole having been extended so a^i to admit ot it. ' ' The 

 two beetles sent were ^ and $ of the Margined Bury- 

 ing-beetle {NecropTiorus marginatns, Fabr.) which is one 

 of our most common species. The burying-beetles all 

 have the habit of burying dead animals, such as birds, 

 mice, snakes, etc., and two or three of them will often 

 accomplish prodigious feats of this kind in a given time, 

 when their small size is taken into consideration . Their 

 direct object in thus burying such carrion is the multi- 

 plication of their kind, by providing food for their 

 young; but indirectly, in their character of scavengers, 

 they are of great benefit to man by ridding the atmos- 

 phere of that which would pollute his nostrils and 

 threaten his health. They should never be ruthlessly 

 destroyed . 



The large brown snout-beetles, speckled with white, 

 which you shake from your plum trees along with the 

 common Curculio, are Hyldhius stupidus, Sch. 



