ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



337 



Moke about the "Cow-kh.lek" {Mutilla coc- 

 cinea)—ClarksviUe, Texas, Aug. 25, '70.— I have 

 been endeavoring for the last two years to study 

 the habits of the "Cow-killer" without arriving 

 at anything definite, and have been inclined to 

 consider it a friend. But lately my mind has 

 undergone a change, from the following facts : 

 A few days since, while in my apiary watching a 

 hive at work, I observed a very large female 

 (Cow-killer) running over a Flowering Peach 

 tree that overshadowed the "gum." Finally 

 she came down and entered the hive. I tilted 

 the "gum" to see what she was doing, and found 

 a number of bees trying to dislodge her, but to 

 no purpose. Whenever she could shake them 

 oflf suflSciently she would continue her march 

 over the bottom boai-d in search of food, picking 

 up fragments of comb and young bees, and occa- 

 sionally sending a bee to its final account with her 

 formidable sting, and caring but little for their 

 rage and fury ; encased as she is in her impene- 

 trable armor, she bids defiance to the puny stings 

 of bees. Finally I had to come to their aid. Since 

 then 1 have had to free several other liives from 

 these depredators. A. II. R. Buyant. 



Brood IV or the Periodical Cicada — Sa- 

 vannah, Tenn., Sept. 2, '70. — The 13-year Brood 

 of the Periodical Cicada mentioned in your first 

 Missouri Report (your Brood IV) appeared, ac- 

 cording to prediction, in northwestern Florida 

 this year, extending northward over Alabama 

 and a good portion of eastern Mississippi, and 

 into Tennessee as higli as this point. I think I 

 wrote you when they were here. They were 

 not in great numbers at any point. I was at 

 Mobile at the time of their appearancS there, and 

 found them singing quite merrily in the woods 

 below the city. I do not know whether they 

 reached Georgia or not this year, nor do I know 

 anything about their ajipearance there last year. 

 By this mail I write a friend in Macon with 

 reference to the matter, and shall forward you his 

 reply as soon as received. 



J. Parish Stelle. 

 Seventeen-year Cicada at Georgetown, 

 Ohio, in 1871 — Oeorgetoion O., July 2, 1870.— 

 I send you herewith tliree Cicadas. They were 

 taken from the ground a foot or more below 

 the surface, in hard clay, on the 17th of June. 

 I liad eight, and put them in aflower pot not <iuite 

 full of loose dirt. I did not think they would 

 get out, but the same r. m. one of them was 

 found on the outside, and the most of the live- 

 liest ones had decamped. I put the one back 

 several inches below the surface, and covered 

 the pot with a tin-pan. This morning I exam- 

 ined the pot, found the three I send on the sur- 



face, two of them dead, and the third not very 

 active; it may not live till it arrives. We had 

 a large supply of the fellows in 1854, and quite 

 plenty of them once since, but I am not certain 

 as to time. 'AVe have a few pretty often, but I 

 am not right thoroughly posted as to the dift'er- 

 ent broods, etc., and not having kept an accu- 

 rate record of time of appeaiance, am in the 

 dark as to where these belong. Last year many 

 were dug up in this vicinity in the pupa state. 

 Thos. W. Gordon. 



[The pupie belong in all probability to the 

 17-year Brood of the Periodical Cicada, which 

 we have predicted will appear in 1871 around 

 the head of Lake Michigan, and tor some dis- 

 tance east, west, and south. (See Brood III, 

 A. E., Vol. 1, p. 68=Brood V of First Missouri 

 Entomological Report, p. 32). This Brood is 

 not recorded as occurring in Ohio, and if it 

 appears there in 1871 we shall have another link 

 in the chain. We hope our correspondent will 

 keep a look-out for it, and will likewise endeavor 

 to trace its appearance at intervals of seventeen 

 years as far back as possible— Ed.] 



Nebraska Bee-killer — Champaign, Illinois, 

 Aug. 6, 1870. — I send you an insect by mail to- 

 day, in a glass bottle, that has interested me very 

 much for three or four years. I am hardly able 

 to decide whether it is a friend or a foe. My 

 attention was first called to it by seeing several 

 around my team during summer. Supposing 

 them to be a new horse-fly, I watched to see 

 one bite, but was finally rewarded by seeing it 

 pounce upon a Green-head {Tabanus lineola, 

 Fabr.) It settled itself on my sleeve, and soon 

 had transferred the contents of Mr. Green-head's 

 body inside its own, by sucking the juices out 

 by means of its stout proboscis. I saw this 

 operation repeated many times. The present 

 summer I have seen them dozens of times, often 

 five or six around my team, and have always 

 noticed that in an hour or so after they appeared 

 no more horse-fiies were to be found. I have 

 also seen them "sucking" house-flies, Lady- 

 birds, Chinch-bugs, several moths, and have 

 also seen them eat each other. The one sent 

 you had just captured a Honey-bee, for which 

 oflense I made a martyr of him (or her) for the 

 benefit of science. H. J. Dunlai'. 



[The insect is a $ Nebraska Bee-killer {Pro- 

 machus Bastardii, Loew.), an account of which 

 was first given by Dr. Fitch in his Ninth Report, 

 and subsequently by ourselves in the Missouri 

 Reports.— Ed.] 



Decorative Larv^ — Boston, Mass. — On page 

 205 of the present volume you state that the larva 



