THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



137 



and beetles below ground. Now, I have a good 

 deal of faith in the accuracy of the Doctor's 

 observations, and accept these statements as 

 truth, the more willingly because the Four- 

 humped, or Apple Curculio, which attacks our 

 apples quinces and haws, docs pass the winter 

 iu the larva state under ground. But had he not 

 found the beetle in company with the larva> and 

 pupa', I should not so readily have accepted such 

 proof, but, like Oliver Twist, should ask for 

 more; for the larvae of several species of snout- 

 bcctles very much resemble each other, and we 

 arc all liable to make mistakes. Individually, 1 

 never found Plum Curculio larvae at a greater 

 depdi below ground than six inches, and my 

 cllbrts to liiid lliem in tlie winter under trees 

 from wliich infested fruit had fallen during 

 the previous summer, liave so far been fruitless. 

 As to whether the Curculio is the cause of the 

 I'each-rot, there can be no (luestion whatever 

 that it is greatly instrumental in spreading this 

 dreaded disease. So mucli is this the case, that 

 by protecting fruit in such a manner that no 

 insects can get at it, you may in a great measure 

 save it from rotting: and this is an additiouiil 

 reason why trees should be thoroughly jarred 

 and protected from the Curculio. But I yet 

 hold that the puncture cannot possibly be the 

 tirst cause of Peach-rot. This is sutticiently 

 proved by the lacts, that much of the fruit is 

 punctured long before the rcttiug season com- 

 mences; that the fruit often arrives at perfect 

 maturity, still containiiig the grub; that in cer- 

 tain localities, and iu favorable seasons, the rot 

 is scarcely known, though the fruit is badly 

 punctured ; and, finally, that the crescent of the 

 Curculio often (indeed, in the great majority 

 of instances) heals up entirely, thus precluding 

 the idea of any poisonous eft'ect attending the 

 puncture. It might, with equal reason, be 

 argued that the Grape-rots, the Potato-rot, and 

 .all the innumerable other rots are also caused 

 by insects: but as I have already devoted all 

 the time I can spare to this paper, although 

 many interesting facts have not even been al- 

 luded to, and as this matter does not properly 

 come within my province, 1 leave it for the 

 discussion of the more wise and experienced. 



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LXKYM m THE HUMAN BOWELS 1 



UNK 



■ill's I'OSTI 



IMOLIi- 



On July oth, 18G9, ve received from Dr. J. 

 T. Wilson, of Quincy, Ills., over a dozen of the 

 curious fringed larva;, which we represent con- 

 siderably magnified in the annexed drawing 

 (Fig. 93). The circumstances under which they 

 were found are detailed in the following ex- 

 tract from Dr. Wilson's letter: — 



The specimens sent were 

 discharged, along with sev- 

 eral hundred others, from 

 the bowels of one of my 

 patients. Five months ago 

 several hundred ot the same 

 nondescript, but of much 

 larger size, were discharged 

 from the bowels of the same 

 patient. Having no knowl- 

 edge of (his parasite, I sup- 

 posed in the first instance 

 that there must have been 

 some mistake about the mat- 

 ter, and tlierefore treated it 

 with indifterence. But on 

 the second occasion, I satis- 

 ic rtcd myself that they were 



< ,iioi— liidwnish- really "evacuated from the 

 "'""' intestines. I am fully per- 



suaded that they multiply within the alimentary 

 canal; yet I think that they must have been 

 originally introduced tln-ough the mouth. I 

 confess that they are a strange parasite to me, 

 and I find they "are equally so to all the medi- 

 cal gentlemen to whom 1 have sliown them. I 

 am very anxious to get all the infuruiation upon 

 this sni)ject that I can, and should like to learn 

 all that is at present known about it. 



From the structure of these larva;, it is mani- 

 fest that they belong to a section of a genus of 

 Two-winged Flies, the Flower-flies (Antho- 

 myia), which section w.as many years ago bep- 

 arated as a distinct genus {Honialomyia) by 

 Bouche. The true Flower-fiies are named from 

 the habit which the perfect insect has of set- 

 tling upon flowers ; but in the larva state 

 most of them feed upon living vegetable mat- 

 ter, and are usually smooth soft whitish mag- 

 gots, of an elongate-conical shape, with the 

 head end tapered to a point and the tail end 

 more or less squarely docked. It is to this 

 group that the Imported Onion-maggot Fly 

 {A. ccpnrum), the Imported Cabbage-maggot 

 Fly {A. brassicw), and an apparently indige- 

 nous species which we have described and 

 figured as the Seed-corn Flower-fly (.1. zew, 

 Riley),* all of them belong. On the contrary, 

 the larvie belonging to the other group {Honia- 

 lomyia), instead of feeding upon living vegeta- 



• Missouri £n(om. Report, 



