212 



THE AMERICAN 



ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



r.i;iBT, but when (Iiitl- uru ii.ii.iy «>■ sliull t^Mna by mail. 



HoAV to Study and Breed Insects — Jason, E. 

 Cuwden, Am.eslrunj, J/««s.— You lire ref erreil to the series 

 I if articles, from the pen of Mr. F. G. .Sauborn, now 

 appearing in our magazine. 



C/ias. E. Billin, Philadelphia, Pa.— Please refer to 

 same article. See also page 68 at bottom of column 2. 

 sued Snake Scale — Jas. R. Eawhins, Vandalia, 

 jih.—yfe have on two former occasions received just 

 such an object as you send, and as your own words fitly 

 [Fig. 128.] describe it, we quote 



them: " Having a 

 very rare specimen 

 in my collection, I 

 take the liberty of 

 Color— TransiuceHi white. asking your opinion 



of it. It is about an inch and a quarter in length, 

 by one-quarter in breadth, and is almost as thin as 

 tissue paper. It is semi-transparent, and an ordinary 

 microscope reveals no organs of life whatever. Still 

 it is posscs.sed of motion, and can travel over a table 

 pretty Ijriskly after the fashion of a measuring-worm. 

 Its body seems hard to the touch, and has a fine polish 

 which reflects the colors of the rainbow. ^Vlien dis- 

 turbed it quickly coils up like a watch-spring. I think 

 a small piece of tissue from the inside of an onion, cut 

 the proper length, would have a close resemblance to 

 it. It was found on an old decayed log. " 



This wonderful creature is in reality a shed abdomi- 

 n.al scale of some snake, and lest some other ot our 

 readers may at some future time be as sorely puzzled 

 over it as you have been, we give an outline of it at 

 figure 128. Hairs and other epidermis are more or 

 less hygrometric, and readily move under a change 

 in the condition of the air. These snake scales are so 

 sensitive that they will readily pulsate in keeping with 

 the beatings of the heart, if the finger be held close to 

 one end. We incline to believe, howe\er,'that its con- 

 tracting has caused you to stretch the story of its moving 

 briskly over a table y««i a leetle. If you place a hair on 

 a hot stove, you will find that it will curl up as rapidly 

 as the Hair-worms described in this number by Profes- 

 sor Leidy. 



Worms under mulch Hay—/. F. Flagg, Mead-' 

 villc, Pa— The dirty brown worms, al)out one-half 

 inch long, having a small shiny, brown, retractile head, 

 four longitudinal rows of minute black spines, and ter 

 minating abruptly at the tail with a flesh-colored proleg 

 below, and lour pointed fleshy protuberances above, 

 are the larvse of some species of Crane-fly (Tipula). AVe 

 have long since been acquainted with these worms, but 

 they have never, so far as we know, been bred to the 

 perfect state. We have observed them, in the month 

 of February, crawling by thousands over the snow and 



ice in a meadow; and your finding them under the hay 

 and leaves used as a mulch around your rose-bushes, Is 

 (juite in accordance with their habits, for they love 

 moist and cool situations. They teed on decomposing 

 vegetable matter, but also sometimes seriously injure 

 grass meadows by devouring the living roots. A little 

 salt, sprinkled over the ground before the mulch is 

 applied, would doubtless prevent their appearance, if 

 that is what you desire. They are not cut-worms. 



A ne-nr Pear-tree Insect — F. J. Ayres, Villa 

 Ridge, 7Z?s.— The blackish beetles with a greenish cast, 

 and finely punctured, which have injured so manj- of 

 your young pear trees, by completely 

 eating out the ends ot the new shoots, 

 and of the buds just before they burst, 

 belong to the family of "Horn-bugs" 

 (LuCANiD^), as they are called in 

 this country, or "Stag-beetles,"' as 

 they are termed in England. The 

 species is the Platyceitis ijiiercus, 

 Sch., and may be known in popular ' 

 'anguage as the Oak Horn-bug. As 

 its name would imply, it is perhaps 

 common on the difl-erent kinds of p„,„^_3,„^, „„„„,„,„, 

 oak, though we have met with oiive-Rreen iiue. 

 it on but few occasions ourselves, and have never 

 before heard of its destructive habit of devouring 

 pear buds. In the larva state it fVeds on dead oak logs 

 iind stumps. Attracted by the carlici- (li\ clopmcnt of 

 the pear buds, compared with \hn^r ..r the difterent 

 oaks, these beetles, with appetites sbariiciicMl by a long 

 winter fasting, are led to invade your orchard during 

 the early part of the season, but will in all probability 

 retire to their usual haunts in the woods, as soon as 

 there is a fit supply of their more natural food. But as 

 your orchard is surrounded with timber and is more or 

 less subject to such invasions every spring, we should 

 advise you in future to protect the smaller trees just 

 planted by covering them with millinet, as it is diftlcult 

 to ward oft' beetles which fly so readily by any other 

 means. As this is an entirely new enemy to the Pear 

 we give an outline .sketch of the female (Fig. 129), the 

 male dift'ering only in his somewhat larger size, and his 

 rather more robust mandibles. 



Apple-twig 'Borer— Joel 3. Myers, lola, Kans. — 

 The brown beetle which you found boring into a small 

 pear tree at the axil of a limb, is the § Bostrichus bicau- 

 datus, to which we have fl-cquently referred in back 

 numbers. 



Cocoons of Polyphemus Moth — IT. J. Dunlap, 

 Oliampaign, Rls. — Your cocoons, found on a Morello 

 Cherry tree , are those of the Polyphemus Moth (Attacus 

 polyphemus, Linn.), which was figured in the March (18G9) 

 number of this iuai?aziue. 



Galls on supposed Dock — S. V. Summers, M.D., 

 St. Louis, Mo.— The galls on what you take to be some 

 species of Ramex, are in reality the Golden-rod Moth 

 Gall '{Gelechia gallmsolidaginis ,* Riley). Y'ou have 

 doubtless been led into the error of confounding the 

 two plants fi'om finding these old Golden-rod .stalks near 

 some growing dock. We have long since known that 

 Chrysomela [Gastrophi/ea] ci/anea, Melsh., breeds on 

 Dock, and from this habit, it might appropriately be 

 called in popular language the Dock Leaf-beetle. 



