88 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Rocky Mountain Grasshopper cannot live 

 IN Pennsylvania — Lancaster, Pa. — Early last 

 spring (about the beginning of March) some- 

 body sent nic, through the mail, a small box of 

 grasshopper's eggs, from Leavenworth, in Kan- 

 sas. They were whitish, oblong, and arranged 

 diagonally in oblong pellet-like masses, covered 

 with a dark-colored glutinous substance. There 

 were probably five hundred in all. Some of 

 these eggs I put in a small box, and others 1 put 

 in a jar, half full of moist earth, which I set, in a 

 sort of conservatory, among some plants. Those in 

 the box hulclicil (lut a week earlier than those on 

 the moist o.ntli, alllidimh the temperaure of the 

 two places was iiliout e(iual. Of course all those 

 in the box starved for the want of food. About 

 the middle of March they made their appearance 

 in the form of a very active little black grass-hop- 

 per, which I took to be the young of the Rocky 

 Mountain Grasshopper {Caloptenus sjn-etus, 

 Uhler). Those in the jar were carried to the 

 garden along with the jjlants about the first of 

 April, where the jar was accidentally upset, and 

 the little " hoppers," about one hundred and 

 fifty in number, all made their escape. But 

 they, too, must also have all perished, for with 

 my utmost vigilance during the whole summer, 

 I never got a sight of a single one of them 

 again. I conclude, therefore, that our cli- 

 mate is "unwholesome" to the Rocky Moun- 

 tain species, although the Red-legged species 

 (C. femur-rahrum, De Geer) lives and flour- 

 ishes here. 



S. S. R. 



Tomato ^\'okm Parasites — Cinnaminson, N. 

 J., Sept. 27, "69. — There is a species of fly {par- 

 asitic) that is attacking the Tomato-worm in 

 our vicinity in immense numbers. As many as 

 forty or fifty of thqir cocoons may be seeu fas- 

 tened to the body of a single worm. The cocoons 

 are about the size of a grain of wheat, and at- 

 tached by their ends. \_Mi(irocastcr cocoons. — 

 Ed.] They appear to exhaust the vitality of the 

 worm very much, some of them being entirely 

 dried up, while others are so weakened that I 

 doubt if they ever pass through their transform- 

 ations. These worms arc very destructive and 

 nearly ruin our tomato patches. But now they 

 may be seen by hundreds and thousands covered 

 with tlicsc white cocoons. The fly is doing its 

 work more cttectually than a person could do it, 

 for one-half the worms cannot be found, owing 

 lo the resemblance they bear to the plant; but 

 the fly appears to have hunted them all out, 

 comparatively few having escaped. 



CiiAS. Parry. 



The Gooseberry Span-worm attacks the 

 Black Cdrrant— CrerfiY, C. W., JSTov. 6, '69.— 

 On page i;i of your current volume, it is stated 

 as a remarkable fact that the three different Cur- 

 rant and Gooseberry-worms, all of them attack 

 almost indiscriminately the Red Currant and 

 the Gooseberry, while they are none of them 

 ever found upon our cultivated Black Currant, 

 or so far as is known, upon our wild Black Cur- 

 rant. In 1808 my Black Currant bushes were 

 j'ather badly attacked by the Span-worm larvae 

 {Ellopia ribearioi, Fitch), but the Saw-fly larvas 

 did not touch them. I noticed tliis fact in the 

 Canada Farmer of July 1, '68. These Span- 

 worm larvffi have been very injurious to the 

 Buffalo or Sweet-flowering Currant {R. aureum) 

 in this neighborhood during the last few years. 

 Numbers of these bushes were entirely denuded 

 of their foliage. They too were exempt from 

 the attacks of the Saw-fly, though it ravaged 

 Red and "White Currant and Gooseberry bushes 

 just alongside. I may mention that I have oft.n 

 found larv;e of the Span-worm upon wild Goose- 

 berry and Currant bushes in the woods, without 

 however noticing the particular species of Goose- 

 berry or Currant. C. J. S. Bethune. 



Grape-berry Moth — Shiloh, Ills., Sept. 29, 

 186'J. — The Grape-berry worm is more numer- 

 ous than evier. I have heretofore been in the 

 habit of permitting my grapes to remain on 

 the vines, initil they had att.aincd their utmost 

 maturity; but I find that with this practice 

 many of the worms escape, whilst if I gathered 

 my grapes two weeks sooner, I should get most 

 of the worms into the wine-press, and prevent 

 them from propagating. As it is, I have the 

 berries that drop oft' the bunches picked from 

 the ground with a great deal of labor, but find 

 it impossible to have them all secured. I appre- 

 hend too, tliat when 1 commence my late vin- 

 tage many worms have already left tlie berries 

 to change to pupse. An earlier vintage will 

 give me an inferior wine, but a much larger 

 quantity, and will enable me to destroy most of 

 the worms. Adolpii Engelmann. 



Polyphk.mus Moth — Vinelancl, X. J., Aug. 

 25th, 1869.— The last week in July a fine large 

 larva of the Polyphemus moth wound up, and 

 on the 14tli day of August a splendid motli 

 came forth from the cocoon. It fed and wound 

 up iu the open air, and only the day before it 

 came out I cut the twig to wiiioh the cocoon 

 was attached and brought it in, thinking that 

 the pupa would remain as usual until next sum- 

 mer, before its final development. 



Mils. Mary Treat. 



