ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



307 



Grape-vine Fidia— /. Hetzel, BanJcer mil, Ills.- 

 The Lliestmit- brown beetle on your grape-vines 

 tlie Grai)e-\ine Fidia (Fidia viticidu, 



ilsli, Fig. 188). It does much inj iirj '•.r~^\^^ 

 tlie vines Ijy riddling the leaves ^-- M 



Luckily this beetle has the same pre- 

 lautionary habit of dropping to the 

 ground, upon the slightest disturb- 

 ance, as has the Plum Curculio, and 

 this habit enables us to keep it in check- 

 The most ctHcient way of doing lliis Coiot- 

 is by the aid of chickens. The late 

 Wm. Peschell, of Hermann, Mo., on whose 

 beetle had been exceedingly numerous, raised a largi^ 

 brood of chickens in 181)7, and had them so well trained 

 that all he had to ilo was to start them in the vineyard 

 with a boy in front to shake the vines, and he himself 

 behind the chi(-ks. The chicks picked up every beetle 

 which fell to tlie ground, and in this manner Mr. P. 

 kept his vines so clean that lie could scarcely find a 

 single beetle in ISGS. 



Bee Nest—/. If. MuhUmai,, Woodhurn, Jlls.— The 

 small bee spoken ot on page 214, which wo supposed 

 might produce Veratina dupla, .Say , produced in reality 

 Prosoph ajfinis, bmith. The species was kindly deter- 

 mined by Mr. E. T. Cresson, and you will find the 

 original description in Mr. Smith's Catalogue of Hy- 

 inenoptera in the Hritish Museum, part I, page 24. 



Sonic Interesting: Insects—^. S. Fuller, Sidge- 



wood, N. t/.— You have our thanks for your numerous 

 kindnesses. The following condensed answers should 

 have been published last month: [1 ] The weevil in 

 Lima beans, which you suppose to be the imported 

 Jliuchus granarius, are not tliat insect, but a native 

 species IBruchus ohsoletus. Say) which we have several 

 times referred to, and which is doing much damage to 

 beans in various parts of the country. [2.] The ear of 

 flint c(n-n was infested by the larva of the Angoumois 

 Grain Moth {Butalis cerealeUa,'^- Oliv.), of which you 

 will find a full account in Harris, and in Fitch's Seventh 

 Report. We linve bred many moths from it. [.!.] The 

 large moth of a beautiful yellow color, sprinkled and 

 marked with purple-brown, is the Imperial Dryoeampa 

 (Ih-ijocampa imperialis, Drury) [4.] The brown worms 

 wliich fold the leaves of the Hickory together by a tor- 

 tuous .silken case, were dead on arrival, and are new 

 to us. \Va have bred from similar hickory cases a pliy- 

 tophagic variety of Phycita nehdo, Walsh, [.'k] The 

 >mootli, narrow-cylindrical galls, O.Kl — O.lo inch long, 

 of a straw color, and inserted in a rough socket, which 

 galls you tind on the unde^side of hickory leaves, are 

 the Tubular Hickory gall {Cecidomyia tuUcolce, O S3,), 

 and are produced by a gall-gnat. [6.] The blackberry 

 borer which arrived during our absence, and was dried 

 up. was evidently the larva of the common species or 

 Three-spotted Blackberry Borer (Olerea tnjmn.intu, 

 Fubr.) [T.] The worms which you think (-iu>,- wluit i^ 

 popularly termed "going blind" in tlir IiI..-uiih of 

 the Blackberry, were dead and dry upon rca.liing u-: 

 but one solitary moth had issued from a pupa in the 

 ciuill, and thougli damaged was readily recognized as 

 the notorious Grapeberry Moth (Loliesia lotraim) refer" 

 red to on page 273 of our last number. 



I inotli to the genii3 i 



Tlie Green Hag'-motli— ^. B. Shato, Olmdale, 

 ifo.— The pretty little moth with the abdomen and hind 

 wings fulvous, and with the tliora.v and front wings 

 delicate mri'ii. the latter bordered posteriorly with 

 brown, ami lia\iii;,; a patchof the same colorat base, one- 

 third a^ Inn- all. I nnr-lialf as wide as the wiug itself, is 

 Callodduia dridis, lluukirt. Its larva feeds on Cherry 

 and Apple, and is of a bright scarlet color, with four 

 dark blue-black lines along the back, and with pri<tkly 

 yellow horns or tubercles, which have the power of 

 stinging. This moth was originally described by Mr. 

 T, Reakirt by the name of Litnacodes viridus, and sub- 

 sequently as Parasa viride. Dr. A. S. Packard, Jr., 

 afterwards described it as Callochlora vernata, erecting 

 the ;;enus for this species alone. Reakirt's specific name 

 has the priority, and our little moth must consequently be 

 known as Calloehlora viridis. Synonyms enough for 

 one insect, you will exclaim I Yes, but the synonyms 

 are not the worst of it; (or Mr. Reakirt has briefly 

 described as the larva of our moth a worm which he ' 

 found on Chestnut, and which has no relation to it, but ( 

 must belong to some other species. We know tliis to 

 be the case from ourselves having bred several speci- | 

 mens of the moth from the larva state. 



Xlie Antiopa Butterfly — A. S. Moss, Fredonia, 

 N. Y. — The black prickly worms which have been con- 

 gri'gating on your willows, are the larvje of the above- 

 named butterfly {Vanessa antiopa, Linn.), otherwise 

 known, in England, as the " Camberwell Beauty," It ■ 

 is intleed a beautiful insect, with its rich purple-brown 

 wings and their broad buff-yellow border. This insect 

 is at times quite abundant, at others (luite scarce; and 

 the present year, according to accounts, it is quite com- 

 mon in the Eastern States, tliough rather scarce in the 

 West. 



Rose-gall and Pupa of Archippus Butter- 

 fly — L. B, Custar, Logansport, Ind. — The beautiful 

 [Fig. issi. : chrysalis (Fig. 180) found suspended 



to some oats, is that of the Archip- 

 pus Butterfly. The small, roiuid, 

 yellowish galls on a rose leaf, cov- 

 ered with very short anil blunt 

 spines, instead of great prickles, as 

 in that illustrated at Figure ]!)2, 

 are, wc have every reason to be- 

 lieve, undescribed. Besides these 

 two galls, we know of two other 

 rose-leaf galls belonging to the same 

 group, the one perfectly smooth, 

 the other having something the 

 form of a mangold- wurzel seed. All these galls agree 

 in having thin shells, and containing a single larva; 

 and they are doubtless all formed by gall-flies belonging 

 to the genus Mhodites. 



White Grubs in Strawberry Beds— J. B. Mil- 

 ler, Anna, /««.— The grubs in your strawberry beds, 

 vcr}- much of the appearance of the common White 

 (iruli, but only half as large as that species when full 

 grown, are, in all probability, the larva; of the Immacu- 

 late Chafer (Oycocephala immaculaia ,'0\i\ .), a pale, yel- 

 low beetle, not quite one-half inch long, and having a 

 dark head and two dusky points on the thorax. We 

 have bred this species from similar grubs which occur- 

 red abundantly in a strawberry bed belonging to Mr. 

 U. II, Baker, of your county. 



