276 



THE AMERICAN 



Specimens L.ost — C. E. Roberts, Poughleetpsie, N. Y. 

 — The specimens you sent escaped on their way, as we 

 found no signs of insects in the peaches. From your 

 description of it as a "dark brown worm which bores 

 into the stems of peach trees, and Into the peaches them- 

 selves," we conclude it must be one of two insects; but 

 of course there is very little use in guessing, and we 

 shall therefore be glad to receive other specimens. The 

 striped livid-brown and yellow larva of Goriyna nitela, 

 known popularly as the Stalk Borer, infests peach twigs 

 as well as the stems of a variety of other plants (See A. 

 E.,I, p. 206). But there is another smaller brown 

 worm that is doing considerable harm the present 

 year, which infests both the fruit and twigs . This worm 

 produces a small, dark-gray, undetermined moth, of 

 which we have lately received specimens — bred from 

 the twigs of the peach and the fruit of the nectarine— 

 from Mr. J. Pettit, of Grimsby, Ontario. This la.st is, 

 in all probability, the insect which has troubled you. 



tVhite Willow \V»rm— i'. 3. A'.— The black, 

 slug-like worms, with six black horny legs and fourteen 

 (lale blue prolegs, and ornamented with a row of twel\e 

 cream-colored spots along each side, are the larvae of a 

 small black four-winged fly, known asKematus centralis, 

 Say. Its transformations were first described by us. In 

 an old number of the Prairie Farmer. This insect is 

 quite abundant the present season in many parts of 

 Missouri . It occurs on different species of willow, but 

 being very partial to the white willow, it may appro- 

 priately be called the White Willow Worm. The same 

 remedies used for the Imported Currant Worm (A'ematus 

 mntricosus) , or for the common Rose Slug (Sdandria 

 rosce), will prove effectual for this willow worm. 



Bark-lice on Grape-vine, and Raspberry 

 Saiv-fly — Saml. Thompson, M.D., Albion, His. — ■ 

 The large brown scale-insects on your Grape-canes are 

 the Grape-vine Bark -louse {Lecanium [Pulvinaria] vitis, 

 Linn.), a tolerably common insect both in this country 

 and in Europe. The white cottony substance encloses 

 the eggs of the female, and these eggs were hatching 

 when they reached us. The translucent green, sprang- 

 ling, false-caterpillar on the Kaspberry is, in all proba- 

 bility, the hu'va of the Kaspberry Saw-fly (Selandria 

 ruU, Harr.), and may easily be destroyed by dusting 

 with air-slacked lime, or what is belter, with white hel- 

 libore. 



Canlter-wrorm Trap— J^. B. Samhly, Portsmouth, 

 B. 7.— Thanks for your description of the trap used in 

 your neighborhood. It is good, but too expensive, and 

 there are several others, both patented and unpatented, 

 which are preferable for many reasons. We cannot, 

 therefore, publish your description; else our columns 

 would soon be flooded with many others from parties 

 interested. 



Chrysalids Named— ^. W. Gannan.—'Tbe chrys- 

 alids of which you send sketches are — 1st, that of the 

 Girdled Sphinx (Macrosila cingulata, Linn.); 2nd, that of 

 either the 5-Spotted Sphinx (S. quinquemacalata, Haw.), 

 or of the Carolina Sphinx (S. Carolina, Linn.) 



Specimens Lost — N. S. Mead, Chandlerville, His. — 

 The Alder-galls you speak of never came to hand. Try 

 and send more. 



No Pius for Sale—.?. H. A'., Clarlnda, Jowa.—Vfe 

 have no pins for sale. See what was said in answer to 

 "G. C. B." on page 245. 



Apple-tree Borer ; variations in the Tnro- 

 striped Saperda— JD. B. Wier, Lacon, Ills.— You 

 send figures and description of the perfect form of a 

 Round-headed Apple-tree Borer, bred by you from a 

 Duches.s of Oldenburg. This specimen has the whole 

 underside pearly-gray, and has two cinnamon-colored 

 spots on the shoulders, one on each of the white bands, 

 and you think that, as these characters are not men- 

 tioned by Harris, your beetle must be distinct from the 

 Saperda bii'ittata which he describes. Such, however, 

 is not the case, and your .specimen is but a variety of 

 Say's Saperda livittuta, the same insect which was pre- 

 viously named Candida by Fabricius. We have often 

 beaten this variety from Crab-apple trees, as well as the 

 variety described by Harris, which has no shoulder 

 spots and is pure white underneath; and if you had 

 bred fifty specimens instead of a solitary individual, 

 you would doubtless have found both forms. The 

 variety with the spots is, if anything, more common in 

 the West than that without them; but the latter is by 

 far the most common in the Eastern States, owing, 

 perhaps, to the fact that the thorn bushes have become 

 more scarce there. Some Eastern entomologists, not 

 aware of the above facts, have attempted to grind out 

 two species from these two forms, but the fact that 

 individuals are frequently met with by collectors, with 

 a spot on one elytron and none on the other, is sufficient 

 to prove that the spots ha^e no specific value. The 

 Tarnished Plant Bug {Capsus obUneatus, Say), which' 

 has injured your crops to the amout of $1,000, is very 

 common this year all over the country. We shall have 

 something to s.ay about it in our next number. 



TUe Plum Curculio Breeds in Apple— .ff. Lem- 

 ing. South Pass, Ills.— The eight Curculios which you 

 bred from five apples are the genuine Plum Curculio 

 (Conotrachelus nenuphar). The assertion which Dr. Hull 

 is said to have made to the people of St. Joseph, Mich., 

 namely, that this insect does not breed in the apple, is, 

 of course, erroneous. He made the same strange as- 

 sertion in his essay on the Curculio, and in Tilton's Jour- 

 nal of Horticulture for June, 1808. Since 1867 we have 

 repeatedly bred it from apples, and published the fact 

 on page 114 ot the transactions of your State Horticul- 

 tural Society for that year. 



Cecropia -wioxia—J. F. Thompson, Corinth, Mist. 

 —The immense worm which sometimes strips your 

 apple-trees, is the Cecropia worm, of which we recently 

 gave a portrait (Fig. 62, p. 100). 



Gigantic Rhinoceros Beetle- Z. 6. Shaffer, 

 Elisabeth, /«(?.— The immense beetle you send is a dark 

 variety of the Gigantic Rhinoceros-beetle {Dynaetts 

 Tityus, Linn.) Some specimens are uniformly dark 

 brown; others pale green, with but a few black 

 blotches. 



Roman-nosed Pupa— £■. D . Van Winile, Pleas-' 

 ant Hill, Aa»«.— The pupa found attached to a Siberian 

 Crab, and of the exact form of one given in oui- last 

 number (Fig. 155), belonged either to the Ursula But- 

 terfly {Limenitis Ursula) or to the Disippus Butterfly 

 (£. disippus). It was dead when it reached us; but, 

 from the fact that Ursula often feeds on the Crab, while 

 Disippus is confined more especially to the Willow 

 family, it may with tolerable assurance lie referred to 

 the former species. 



