ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



241 



depend on my sketch in tliis respect. It gives a 

 correct view (longitudinal sections) ofone of two 

 adjoining borings in a piece of smooth regularly- 

 grained wood. Henry Gillman. 



[These larva; arc interesting from the fact that 

 they evidently belong to a genus {Colydium) of 

 beetles which have long been kno-wn to bore 

 under the bark of trees in the larva state, but 

 have never been described as boring in such a 

 regular manner, the passages described by Mr. 

 G. very closely resembling those of the Pine 

 Timber-beetle (Tomicus materiarius. Fitch). 

 AVe shall be glad to receive numerous li\'ing 

 s|i(iimens of the larva; and also sisecimens of 

 I he perforated wood, and hope that Mr. G. will 

 make some efibrt to rear, or capture upon the 

 tree, the perfect insect during tlie snnnner, as 

 there are only three described N. A. species, the 

 habits of none of which are known. — Ed.] 



Pita ok the Girdled Sphinx — Vineland, N. 

 ./. Aiiril -2. 1.S70.— Last fall there was In-ought 

 to nie the largest lan^a of some Sphinx I ever 

 ^a\v. It was almost black in color, and was with- 

 out caudal horn. I tliink it would have weighed 

 as much as a full grown specimen of the Royal 

 Horned-caterpillar. To-day I unearthed it and 

 found the chrysalis dead. The chrysalis is black, 

 or nearly so, and about a third larger than that 

 of the Tomato-worm moth (Sphinx b-maculata) . 

 I cannot And anything in Morris's Synopsis that 

 answers to a description of either the larva ^)r 

 chrysalis. I enclose the tongnc-case, hoping you 

 may recognize it by this. 



Mrs. Mary Treat. 



[From the description of the larva, and the 

 character of the pupa tongue-case, the terminal 

 half of which is curled up under the breast to- 

 wards the head, we have little doubt that the 

 insect is the Girdled Sphinx {S. cingulata, Linn.) 

 wMch you will And described on page 188 of 

 Morris's Synopsis, under the generic name of 

 Macrosila, and where it is said to feed on Sweet- 

 potato. — Ed.] 



To kill the Pea-weevil— Vineland, J^. J.— 

 I think I have a much better way of killing the 

 Pea-weevil than Mrs. Chappelsmith. When I 

 collect my seed I pour boiling water over them ; 

 this does not in tlie least injure the seed, and 

 kills all the larva?. But I do not see that there is 

 innch use in one person doing this, for my peas 

 are generally stung from my neighbor's "bugs." 

 M. T. 



No ArPLE Vi.A^T-LiCE— Champaign, Illinois, 

 May 16, 70.-1 have been unable to find a single 

 specimen of Aphis mali this year, and do not 

 believe that "scab" can be produced by it. 



II." J. D. 



The Philenor Swallow-tail — Error Cor- 

 rected— i?«?<mo7'e, Jfrf., May 14, '70.— Allow 

 nic to express my gi'atiflcation at the improve- 

 ment in the Entomologist by the addition of 

 Botany. It is like a neat, well-cultivated patch 

 of garden to a convenient dwelling-house, not 

 rendering the latter more comfortable inside, but 

 adding cheerfulness and neatness outside. I 

 ought, however, to call j'our attention to an eiTor 

 which has crept into your columns. In your 

 note on page 175, yon say: "Mr. Parker has 

 been led into error by the English rendering in 

 Morris's Synopsis,'' "because Boisduval men- 

 tions no such character in the original French." 

 Now, if I added vrithout authority that the tail 

 was whitish at base, it could not well be an "er- 

 ror in rendering," but an unwarrantable addition. 

 Boisduval, in liis Species Ge'n^ral des Lqndop- 

 ieres Diurnes (Paris, 1836), when describing 

 Philenor, does not mention the fact that the tail 

 is whitish at base, but I did not translate my 

 ili'~(ri|iticiii from this book, but from Boisduval 

 ct Li( '..iitr'v Ircmogrnphie des Li'pidopteres de 

 l'A)ihri'/i'e Sejitcntrionale, where he says "les 

 queues sont courtes, etroites, noires, bordees de 

 blanc a leur base." Was I in error? Was not 

 Mr. P. right? Are you not wrong? 



Dr. Jno. G. Morri.s. 



[You are not in error ; Mr. P. was right, and 

 we are wrong — in part. Unlike the Pope, we do 

 not claim infallibility, and it always gives us 

 pleasure to have our mistakes corrected, especi- 

 ally when, as in this case, they question the 

 accuracy of fellow-workers. We do not possess 

 tlic work from whicli you translated, and as the 

 description in the Synopsis is credited to "Bois- 

 duval" alone, and not to "Boisduval et LeConte," 

 we made the unpardonable blunder of inferring 

 that the description was condensed from the first 

 mentioned work, which is the only one we know 

 of by Boisduval himself, wherein Philenor is 

 described. We were furthermore led into error 

 by the description "whitish at base," instead of 

 "bordered with white at their base," and would 

 respectfully ask friend Morris whether there is 

 not "jest a leetle" difference between the two 

 phrases. In reality the tail is bordered more or 

 less at base by the cream-colored sinuses each 

 side, and so it is in almost all our different species 

 of the genus Papilio; and yet their tails are not 

 described as "whitish at base." We all slop 

 over sometimes. — Ed.] 



A Rare Capture — Evanston, Ills., May nth, 

 1870.— Allow me to add to our Illinois Butterflies 

 the beautiful Limenitis proserpina, Edwards. 

 I have collected assiduously around here for 

 three years, and never met with but one speci- 

 men. E. G. Boutell. 



