108 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



The curious reader will perhaps ask, why Dr. 

 LeConte gave to this Grape-vine gall-maker the 

 name of " the Sesostris Snout-beetle " (Baridius 

 Sesostris). Sesostris was an ancient Egyptian 

 king, who lived three or lour thousand years 

 ago. What can he possibly have to do with a 

 gall on an American grape-vine? Now, it so hap- 

 pens that Dr. LeConte refers us to a passage in 

 Herodotus,* for the origin of this name " Sesos- 

 tris." After a long and tedious search, we suc- 

 ceeded at length in finding a copy of this most 

 amusing old historian in the original Greek; 

 and we find that he tells us that Sesostris sub- 

 dued the whole world ages and ages ago— that, 

 whenever he had fought against a brave nation 

 and conquered them, he set up a marble obelisk 

 with a short inscription stating that Sesostris 

 1 ad subdued such and such a people, and that 

 they were brave men— and Anally that, when- 

 ever he met with a nation that was too cowardly 

 to tight against him, he set up another marble 

 obelisk, with the corresponding inscription, that 

 Sesostris had subdued such and such a people, 

 but that they were efleminate and unmanly 

 cowards. "And," adds the gossiping old Greek, 

 "in the latter case he alw.ays sculptured at the 

 end of the inscription an emblematic symbol 

 («;V5»f« yinat/.u-), to stigmatize in the most 

 signiticant and expressive manner their ettemi- 

 nate nnmanliuess." 



As Herodotus informs us that Sesostris snb- 

 dued the whole world, may it not be possible 

 that the great Egyptian conqneror reached North 

 America with his victorious arms by way of 

 China and Kamschatka? And that this pecu- 

 liarly North American Grape-wound Gall is a 

 precious fragment of the ancient inscription, 

 which he set up in this country thousands and 

 thousands of years ago? (Jiilcn sabc' Who 

 knows? 



REPORT OP THE COMMITTEE ON ENTOMOLOGY. 



In the preparation of my Annual Report, I 

 h.ave dwelt in detail on many insects that have 

 attracted altentiou during the year, either by 

 tlieir injuries or benefits. In that report numer- 

 ous illustrations will be used to appeal to the 

 eye of the reader, and as it will be published in 

 the same volume with your transactions, I deem 

 it superfluous at the present time to dwell on 

 the natural history of any one insect. Permit 

 me, therefore, to cursorily refer to a iaw of the 

 prominent entomological events of the year, and 



afterwards to make a few generalizations, which 

 it is hoped will prove of some little interest and 

 value. 



The year 1869 may be set down as one iu 

 which our crops, as a general thing, have suf- 

 fered less than usual from insect depredations. 

 At least such has been the case iu Missouri, and, 

 judging from extensive correspondence, the 

 same statement would hold true of most of the 

 northern and middle States of the Union. 



True, the army worm (Leiicania unipuncla, 

 Haw.), and the Grain Plant-louse (Aphi.t arena; 

 Fabr.), appeared in many parts of the State in 

 sufficient force to do considerable damage, and 

 these two insects may always be expected in a 

 tolerably wet year that was preceded by a very 

 dry one. But most insects, and especially those 

 which afflict you as horticulturists, have be- 

 haved exceedingly well, though it is difficult to 

 say whether we are to attribute this good beha- 

 vior on their part, to the increased knowledge 

 of their habits which has been disseminated 

 among those who have to deal with them, or to 

 the more potent and unalterable workings of 

 Nature. 



The Chinch Bug, which in the dry summer of 

 1868, committed such ravages upon our grain 

 crops in many portions of the State, and espe- 

 cially in the southwest, was scarcely heard of 

 in 1869, after the copious rains which char- 

 acterized the past summer commenced to 

 shower down. The Apple Worm, or Codling 

 Moth has been altogether less injurious than it 

 was the year before, and in Adair, Buchanan, 

 Cooper, Callaway, Cass, Lewis and Polk coun- 

 ties, especially, and probably all over the State, 

 our orchards have been loaded with fair fruit. 

 This result was predicted by the writer, and 

 may be attributed principally to the scarcity of 

 the insect, resulting from the partial failure of 

 the apple crop iu 1868; but in some part to 

 the improved methods of fighting the foe. Foi-, 

 as in our civil strifes, we introduce improve- 

 ments in the machinery which is to slay the op- 

 posing armies, so in this progressive age, we 

 believe in introducing machinery to battle with 

 our liliputian insect hosts, whenever it is avail- 

 able. And the experience of the past year 

 proves, that to destroy this insect, old pieces of 

 rumpled rag or carpet placed iu the crotch of a 

 tree, are to be preferred to the hay-bands wrap- 

 ped around it, because it requires altogether less 

 time to place the rags in their place than to 

 fasten the hay-band; and the worms which spin 

 up in them can be killed by wholesale, either 

 by scalding the rags or by pressing them through 

 the wringer of the washing machine. 



