308 



THE AMERICAN 



l.arva of tUe TUoas Sivalloir.tail— £■. //. 



Spragve. — Tlie worm which you send is rather rare in 

 Missouri, and may Ijc briefly described as of a mot- 

 tled-brown color, and marked with pale grayish-white 

 as follows: commencing iu a band at sides of joint 1; 

 running upwards and becoming less distinct to sidi- 

 dorsimi of joint 4; occupying the back of joints 5, G and 

 T, reaching to proleg on joint fi, but only to subdorsum 

 on .') and 7, and occupying nearly the whole of joints 

 10, 11 and 12. This worm is ihe larva of the 'I'linas 



IH 



•(wl 



know) the plant from which you took the worm. 



Fundus on AVilrt Plums — Sulscriher, I'i 

 Station^ Minn. — The lYi?^. IDO.] 



peculiar soft, yel- 

 low, pithy growth 

 which we herewith 

 illustrate, and 

 which you find on 

 a small Red Plum 

 bush, is some kind 

 of fungus. We find 

 the same growth 

 here during the 

 month of June on 

 the wild plum (Pr»- 

 nusamei'icanayVhK 

 fungus dries and 

 blackens and re- 

 mains on the tree 

 throvigh the winter. 

 We shall leave its 

 determination to 

 fuugologists,forthe 

 simple reason that 

 we have no time to 

 devote to this inter- 

 esting part ol Na- 

 tural History. 



Larva o 



Lyci.nn. rul.ja 



tniiisfon: 



'ay 

 larva, we should likf other spcini, us. Thr Matrhiiouy- 



this insect upon it, furnishes additional proof that, while 

 all other known Tortoise-beetles which have very Hat 

 larva (genera Caasida, Coptooi/cla and Deloyala) feed on 

 plants belonging to the Convolvulus family, this species 

 is exceptional, and feeds exclusively on such as belong 

 to the Solaiium familv. 



TUc 



us, Oli 



ps in Caly^x ot Pear— tf. 6'. B. 



ihiiiy black beetle with two orange bands, 

 \mvj: the back, on the wing-covers, is Ijys 

 :. 'I'lic fact of your limliiiL; tin in ciiilin- 



111 uUorcsti 



^ pcrfcialy in acc.i-.hmrr willi I 

 habits of the genus, however, for these heelles atUi 

 vegetable growths, though they most often conliuc llu 

 attacks to the funguses or to decaying vegetation, 



The Larder-Beetle — i^. S. Sleeper, Galeshurg, 

 Mich. — The brown hairy worms which have so i"uined 

 your collections of Lepidoptera are the larva; of the 

 Larder Beetle [Dermeiles liirdariua). It is a grievous 

 pest to all sorts of preserv- 

 ed animals, and will soon 

 ruin them when not well 

 cared for. If you had con- 

 stantly watched your col- 

 lection, and examined the 

 butlcrfiies whenever you 

 noticed any powdery cx- 

 erenicnt at the bottom of 

 your boxes, you woulil 

 iie\ er have lost a specimen. 

 That our readers may re- 

 cognize this destructive 

 beetle, we prefeent at Fig- 

 ure l!ll enlarged drawings 

 of its lar\ay(u), one of the 

 peculiar formation {h), and the 



al hairs, showin 

 beetle (c). 

 Moth nanicd- 



prctty blackish niul 

 beneath and te;;ul.e 

 and abilomen d.irk 

 Ivirby, an insect wli 



Ilule, Chk'uiio. Ills.— T\\c 

 tlie head almve, prothorax" 

 iir.ini;e, and vvitli the thorax 

 blue, is Ct.innh.i /.itreilluna, 

 been unusualh common the 



present year in this vicinity. 



Tlie Little Cicada— e. 0. HurJamn, Summit, 

 -l/w.- The small Cicada collected by you some time ago 

 on the prairie, is a variety of C.panula, Say, as kindly 

 delerniiued by Mr. Uhler, of Baltimore. It ditt'ers 

 slightly from Say's description, and we were a little 

 ini//,led with it. It is widely distributed, and oci-urs 

 more especially on the low grounds. 



Xhe Brown Mantispian— &. C. JJ,— Your in- 

 sect, which '-plays so curiously with his hands,'' and 

 looks not unlike a miniature Camel-cricket, is the Man- 

 tispa hruiinea of Say. It is one of our most common 

 species, and being predacious, is, of course, benetieial. 

 The green Tiger-beetle is Tetracha virgiiiica . (A. K.. I, 

 Fig. 45.) 



Golden Tortoise-beetle on Gooseberry— IF. 

 '/'. Bell, FranUin, Pa. —The pretty golden beetle which 

 you found on a gooseberry leaf, is the al)Ove-n.imcd 

 insect {Cassida aurichalcea, Fabr., A. E., I, Fig. 178, 

 «). It doubtless wandered on to the B;ooseberry leaf 

 IVom some other plant belonging to the Convolimlim 

 family. 



Small RcddisU Snout-beetle on Apple— Jus. 

 Weed, Musailiiie, /owa.— The small reildish or rul'ous 

 snout-beetle, only 0.10 inch long, and distinguished 

 principally by a. line of white hairs, more or less con- 

 spicimus, extending from tlie white seutel to the head, 

 is the Thorn Anthononuis (.1. crataegi, Walsh*), a 

 species which breeds in many diflerent galls made by 

 cither I'lant-licc, Saw-flies, or Gall-gnats. From the 

 fact that you found it with its snout fully imbedded in 

 an .apple, it perhaps breeds in this fruit also. It is 

 not a small Four-humped curculio. No insects change 

 or grow after once arriving at the pei'fect or imago 

 state. 



»!■, E. s. p.. vi.p.aiii, 



