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THE AMERICAN 



Death to House Flies — Marshall, 3fo., Jnltj 

 18, '70. — -Provide yourself with a fine-mesh in- 

 sect not, similar to that in common use among 

 entomologists, or what would be better, a net 

 sliaped like an entomologist's water net, and 

 about a foot in diameter. Attach to this a handle 

 long enough to reach the ceiling. Get ready a 

 vessel of scalding water, a common wash-basiu 

 filled answeiing very well. About dusk, when 

 the flies have gone to roost on the wails, com- 

 mence. With a rapid motion move the net along, 

 gathering in the flies till the body of them arc 

 unsettled. What you have in the net make sure 

 of, by grasping it next the hoop with the hand. 

 Shake the flies to bottom of net, and dip in the 

 hot water; and when they are dead turn the 

 net and shake tlieni out. By this time the rest 

 will bo settled, when proceed as at flrst. 



J. L. TOWNSEXD. 



A Coincidence — Baltimore, Md., August 4, 

 1870.— On a hot summer's night in the country, 

 a few years ago, I was reading Grote's descrip- 

 tion, and admiring the figure of his beautiful 

 little Philomjna Henrietta (Proc. Eut. Soc. Phil., 

 Vol. Ill, p. •'>, pi. ii). I naturally desired to 

 have a specimen of the insect; but as Grote in- 

 dicated "Eastern States" as its habitat, I had 

 no hope of securing one except by exchange or 

 purchase. As 1 was thus reading and reflecting, 

 lo! to my intense satisfaction— I will not say 

 frantic delight — the identical species aliglited 

 ttpon the very page which I was reading; the 

 only specimen I had ever observed before or 

 have seen since! Was not this strange? I will 

 not philosophise about it, but I consider it worth 

 mentioning. Of course I took this stranger in 

 and treated him accordingly. We, down here, 

 do not reckon ours among the "Eastern States," 

 and If our New York friend does not, he will 

 have to give his little beauty a wider geographi- 

 cal range in his next edition. Jno. G. M. 



Seventeen-veau Locust two Yiiars too 

 LATE — Baltimore, Md. — 1808 was our Cicada 

 septemdecim year. Early in July of this year I 

 found a solitary individual behind time, and 

 she looked as if she had no business here. She 

 was the most desolate, companionless, forsaken 

 thing imaginable. Her family had all perished 

 two years ago ; and though she came forth in 

 full maturity, and was clean looking enough, 

 yet she had not a single beau — the most solitary 

 maiden you ever saw! I took her in, and gave 

 her a dose of diluted alcohol, but that did not 

 revive her, but made her so drunk that she died 

 in a surfeit. I thought possibly it might be C. 

 ^ Gassinii, but Uhler compared her with a number 

 of specimens of the brood of 1868, and found her 



a true seventeener ; she had much more red on 

 the vent, and on the sides of the pi-onotum, than 

 the C. Gassinii. AVhat occasions the retardation 

 in the development of some insects? It could 

 not be climate or peculiarity of soil, or exposure 

 to winds, or anything else I can think of, in the 

 instance in question, for in 1808 the number pro- 

 ceeding from the very same spot was countless. 

 This reminds me of informing you that our 

 Lancaster friend, Ilathvon, was a little mistaken 

 in presuming that this would be the year of the 

 appearance of the Cicada in Kreutz Cv-c,o\ Gal- 

 ley, York county. Pa., as stated by hiin sevrr.i 

 months ago iu your journal. I have luade 

 diligent inquiry of persons familiar with that 

 district, and they report no locusts. Now, it 

 may be that he gives that title to a district dif- 

 ferent from that which I know by that name 

 (for I was born in that vicinity), but the Kreutz 

 Creek Valley, 7 or 8 miles east of York, and 

 bordering on the Susquehanna, was not visited 

 this year by this singular Cicada. It is a pity, 

 for thereby we lose one proof, at least, of their 

 regular periodic appearance, anil that is not 

 pleasant ; but I hope that Mr. R. will be able to 

 explain it, so that the old theory may still be 

 maintained. Jno. G. M. 



FOOD-I'LANT OE THE SOUTHERN CaUHAIJE P.l i ■ 



TEUi'LY — Port Byron, Ills. — In No. 3 of the 

 present volume, you say that yon do not know 

 that the larva of Pieris protodice ever feeds on 

 anything but Cabbage. Last summer I found 

 one feeding on wild Pepper-grass, a plant of the 

 same order as the Cabbage. I once found a 

 chrysalis on a low hickory shrub, but that, of 

 course, does not prove that it feeds on Hickory, 

 else it also feeds on limestone, as the first chrys- 

 alis of the kind I ever saw was attached to a 

 lime rock. And now I wish to thank you, and 

 your most liberal publishers for the beautiful 

 likeness of Gecropin in a late number. It seems 

 to me perfect, and the nio^t beautiful wood-cut 

 I ever saw. Makiun Hobakt. 



Insects auound Indianapolis — June 28, '70. 

 —The Currant Worm (JVematus ventricosus) has 

 made its flrst appearance this year with us in 

 limited quantities. There has also appeared on 

 the Alder, in our river bottoms, a similar larva, 

 which has completely devoured the foliage of 

 these bushes. The Colorado Potato-bug has 

 begun its work, and bids fair to be very destruc- 

 tive. Jno. W. Bveket. 



Colorado Potato Beetle in Indiana.— The 

 Colorado Potato Beetle has so injured many of 

 the potato fields in Clark county, in this State, 

 that they have been plowed up. L. G. Saffer. 



