ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



201 



oz; of powdered hellebore with a pail of water, 

 was ready to proceed. I selected a leaf from 

 two bushes, marked them and counted the num- 

 ber of their inhabitants — one was occupied by 

 forty-four worms of different sizes, crowding it 

 above and below, and it was about half eaten ; 

 the other leaf had twelve nearly full grown on 

 it. Having transferred the mixture of hellebore 

 and water to a watering pot, the bushes were 

 sprinkled with it. I returned to examine the 

 results in three-quarters of an hour, and the leaf 

 wliich at first had forty-four on it, had now only 

 two, and these were so far exhausted that they 

 were unable to eat, and could hardly crawl, 

 wliile on the other leaf out of the twelve there 

 remained thi-ee, but in the same enfeebled con- 

 dition. All around under the bushes, the ground 

 was strewed with the fallen foe, and I felt per- 

 fectly satisfied that entire reliance might be 

 placed on this means of defense. 



I did not anticipate such speedy action on the 

 part of the hellebore, or should have returned to 

 the examination sooner, and the bushes were so 

 entirely cleared, that excepting on one I had 

 reserved for another expei-iment, I had no means 

 of repeating the dose. 



There was one thing that struck me as some- 

 ^^'hat remarkable, the portion of leaf on which 

 the greatest uimaber were feeding, appeared to 

 he of the same size as before the hellebore was 

 applied ; if smaller I could not perceive it. "When 

 the leaves dry, which have been sprinkled with 

 liquid, a very thin coating of the powder, more 

 or less regular, is found over them, and I had 

 always supposed that death resulted from eating 

 a portion of the leaf tluis coiitod. Such is un- 

 (l()iilif<'(lly tlic i-asi' when Ihi' lii'llcl)ore is applied 

 dry. liul in llii< rase a meal Imwevcr small made 

 \t\ forlii-foiir riifer/i///iir.s' on half a leaf, must 

 liiivc iiKiii riall\- iliiiiiiii>lir(l it. I am disposed to 

 Ix'licvc llicii Ihar llic dratli of most of these 

 must have resulted from their imbibing or al)- 

 sorbing some of the liquid as soon as applied. 

 Many of them showed symptoms of the violent 

 cathartic action of the remedy, having a mass of 

 soft excrement hanging to the extremity of their 

 ■ dead bodies. 



I had reserved one bush, on which were a good 

 number, for another experiment. It sometimes 

 happens, especially with those who live in the 

 (•(luutry, that hellebore is not at hand when the 

 \\(irms are first observed at work, and a few 

 (lays' delay in procuring it is perhaps unavoida- 

 lilc. In such cases the bushes may be entirely 

 lialless, before the remedy can be applied. Hot 

 water suggested itself to my mind as likely to be 

 of some sei-vice, and being also an article readily 



procurable in every home. It is well known that 

 many jjlants will bear such an application with- 

 out injury, provided the heat is not too great. 

 Taking some in a watering pot, a little hotter 

 than one could bear the hand in, I showered it 

 plentifully on the affected bush, and it was 

 amusing to see how the caterpiUars wriggled 

 and twisted and quickly letting go their hold, 

 fell to the ground, which was soon strewed with 

 them. After the first excitement produced by 

 the sudden heat was over, they remained as if 

 wishing to " cool off" before commencing work 

 again. A few did not recover from the applica- 

 tion, but most of them were soon as active as 

 ever. 



Now what I would suggest is this, that where 

 the hellebore cannot be at once procured, no time 

 should be lost in applying the hot water, and when 

 once on the gi'ound the creatures may have the 

 life trodden out of them by the foot, or beaten 

 out with the spade or some other implement. In 

 any case many of them would never reach the 

 bush again, for enemies beset them on every side. 

 I was amused to see how busy a colony of ants 

 were which had a home at the base of a tree near 

 liy. lugging these large caterpillars along, a sin- 

 gle one of which would take three or four to 

 manage. The worms were twisting and jump- 

 ing about as if they wondered whose hands they 

 had got into, and the ants were hanging on with 

 their sharp jaws and slowly dragging the bodies 

 along. By and by they had quite a little pile 

 accumulated, wliich would no doubt furnish 

 them or their progeny with a feast of fat tilings 

 for some time to come. Tlien there are the tiger 

 bicllcs (Ciciiidelidw), with a host of others ever 

 ruiiiiiuu :ili(iut. looking for stray objects of this 

 siiri OH wliich to make a dainty meal. 



I had observed on one of tlic liu^lics. licfore 

 applying the hellebore, some tiiciMl- at \\..rk on 

 these worms. They were imiiiaturc sin'cinioiis 

 of a true bug bc^longing to the order Ilemiptera. 

 and probably tlie young of Stiretus flmbriatus. 

 These creatures are nearly round, about the size 

 of a common ladybird, having the head, thorax 

 and legs black, and the abdomen red with an 

 elongated black spot in the center, divided across 

 by a whitish line. Approaching a caterpillar, 

 they thrust their proboscis into it and quietly 

 suck its juices until it becomes so weak and ex- 

 hausted that it shrivels up and dies. Witli the 

 view of testing the probable amount of good 

 these friends wei-e thus capable of accomplish- 

 ing, I shut up two of them in a small box, with 

 a dozen nearly full grown caterpillars, and at the 

 end of three days found that they had consumed 

 them all; also six in another box with one bug. 



