THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



87 



and had been thus exposed during the 

 previous severe weather — when for several 

 successive days the thermometer was 15°- 

 20° below zero — were invariably found 

 dead, without exception, and those beneath 

 the snow were alive. This observation 

 was made in the common farm cornfields, 

 as they might be found anywhere all over 

 the wide country ; for in autumn the 

 Chinch-bugs remain in great numbers in 

 the corn husks, and under the sheathes of 

 the blades, as well as in other winter re- 

 treats. Upon various occasions, as the 

 winter advanced, I brought in corn husks, 

 filled with ice, inclosing the Chinch-bugs 

 in the crystallized element ; when the ice 

 was thawed, they were able to run, ap- 

 parently unaffected by that degree of cold. 

 It is therefore proved that these insects 

 possess vitality sufficient to withstand the 

 effect of a temperature below the freezing 

 point, and perhaps below zero, as must 

 have been their condition in these ice- 

 bound husks ; but when in the open air, 

 exposed to the sweeping prairie winds, 15 

 or 20 degrees below zero, for a long time, 

 they succumb to the cold. 



"March 7, 1865. The snow having 

 cleared off from the ground, I examined 

 the condition of a host of these Chinch- 

 bugs that had chosen for their winter 

 covering cord-wood sticks lying on the 

 ground, entirely surrounded by frost and 

 ice ; of these 20 per cent, were living ; 

 those that were more fortunate in their 

 selection of winter quarters fared much 

 better. From a single handful of leaves, 

 picked up at one grasp from beneath an 

 apple-tree, I obtained 355 living and 312 

 dead Chinch-bugs ; and of their lady-bird 

 enemies that had entered the same winter 

 quarters with them, 50 were living and 10 

 were dead. Of these Chinch-bugs I placed 

 a number in comfortable quarters in the 

 house, in a small paste-board box — not in 

 a stove room — together with some Coleop- 

 terous insects, casually gathered among the 

 Chinch-bugs ; after one month I found the 

 latter all dead and the former living. 



" The entire month of March was rain, 

 snow, thawing, freezing, alternately, seem- 

 ing to be very uncomfortable for any liv- 

 ing creature to remain out of doors, so poor- 

 ly sheltered, and on top of the ground. 



" April 1-6, I again made repeated ex- 

 aminations of these Chinch-bugs in their 

 winter quarters, and found about the same 

 proportion of them living as noted on the 

 7th of March. At this time they wan- 

 dered away, on foot, from their winter 

 quarters," 



THE RELATION BETWEEN INSECTS AND 

 PLANTS, AND THE CONSENSUS IN 

 ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE LIFE.* 



BY LESTER F. WARD, 



W.ASHINGTON, 



{Continued /rom p. 67.) 



It is a fact of profound significance that 

 the higher flowering plants made their first 

 appearance on the globe simultaneously 

 with the Hymenoptera and Diptera in the Ju- 

 rassic and Cretaceous formations, while they 

 did not reach their highest perfection until 

 the Lepidoptera had appeared in the early 

 Tertiary. The Neuroptera and Orthoptera 

 which are found in the Carboniferous could 

 have contributed nothing to the demand 

 for cross-fertilization, and the Coieoptera, 

 sparingly met with below the Trias, were 

 doubtless then equally ineffectual in this 

 respect ; as even at present they only sup- 

 plement to a slight degree the work of the 

 bees, flies, moths, and butterflies. And we 

 accordingly find that the vegetation prior 

 to the Jurassic and Cretaceous epochs con- 

 sisted almost wholly of Cryptogams and 

 Gymnosperms, with only a few amentace- 

 ous and monochlamydeous Angiosperms in 

 the highest of these strata. 



These facts justify the assumption that ' 

 most of the higher flowering plants would 

 speedily perish were insect aid withdrawn, 

 and also that but for such, aid in the past 

 we should now see, instead of our gorgeous 

 flora of Orchids, Lilies, Magnolias, and 

 Roses, one consisting chiefly of Ferns, Cy- 

 cads, and Conifers, mingled with willows, 

 oaks, and alders, and plain grasses and 

 rushes. 



But when we consider how poorly adapted 

 Cryptogamous and Coniferous vegetation 

 is to the support of animal life, we may 

 also declare with perhaps equal certainty, 

 that but for the Phaenogaviia there could 

 have been no Mammalia. A picture that 

 should represent herds of buffaloes and 

 antelopes roaming amid the Ferns, Lepido- 

 phytes, and Calamites of the Carboniferous 

 epoch would be an anachronism whose 

 realization it would , be impossible to con- 

 ceive. And thus we have, only on a grand 

 scale, one of those singular chains of cause 

 and effect of which naturalists have pointed 



