THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



277 



Extracts from Correspondence. 



Disease of Chauliognathus Larvae. — Dur- 

 ing the last days of September I observed at 

 Selma, Ala., on a fence enclosing a cotton field, 

 many hundreds of the larvae of the Pensylvanian 

 Soldier Beetle {Chauliognathus pensylvanicus 

 DeG.), see Fig. 122, both full-grown and young, 

 most of them stiff and dead, others in a dying 

 condition, and still others ascending the fence. 

 Those still living had on all the stigmata a small 

 drop of a whitish, odorless fluid, tasting some- 

 what like a rotten pear. In those larvae which 

 had recently died, these drops were pink in 

 color, while in those already dead for some time 

 they were dried up. This disease, very probably 

 of a fungoid nature, destroj'ed many thousands 

 of these larvae ; but I could not observe any 

 further development of the fungus, though I 

 visited the locality several times afterwards. 

 The affected larvae simply dried up, firmly ad- 

 hering to the boards of the fence. 



I will add that the larvae of this beetle could 

 be frequently observed in the earlier part of 

 October, destroying the chrysalides of Aletia. 

 — E. A. Schwarz, Selma, Ala., October 12th. 



Herbivorous Ground-beetles. — In the October 

 number of the Entomologist, Mr. Wm. Trelease 

 records the finding of Harpalus caliginosus Say, 

 feeding upon the seeds of Ambrosia artemisia:- 

 folia, and asks whether it is common for pre- 

 daceous beetles to seek at times a vegetable 

 diet. 



I cannot answer the general questions, but 

 desire to confirm his observations by stating that 

 in September, 1876, I witnessed the same phe- 

 nomenon which he has described. In a field of 

 several acres, nearly every plant of Ambrosia 

 had one or more beetles upon it, and they were 

 all Harpalus caliginosus. I could detect no other 

 insects, and though I did not make a note of it 

 at the time, my recollection is that some of the 

 beetles appeared to be feeding upon the pollen 

 of the staminate flowers as well as upon seeds. 

 — Wm. A. Buckhout, State College, Centre Co., 

 Pa. 



About Phora being merely a Scavenger and 

 not a true Parasite. — The opinion expressed by 

 Mr. Hubbard in 3'our September number (p. 228) 

 about Fhoi-a not being a true parasite, holds 

 good, no doubt, in the majority "of cases. 

 Among the literature which I have collected on 

 the habits of Phora, I find only one direct state- 

 ment about larvae of this fly having developed in 

 a living insect. Mr. Brischke (Kleinere Beobach- 

 turgen iiber Insecten), received from a coleopter- 

 ist some pupae and imagos of Phora, with the re- 

 mark that the pupae had come out of the anus of 

 a living Osmoderma. The friend very probably 



meant to say that larva had come out and had 

 immediately transformed into pupae. The state- 

 ments of Bouche (Naturg. d. Ins., p. loi) are less 

 direct. He obtained larvae of Phora from sev- 

 eral specimens of Sphinx convolvuli in captivity, 

 and from caterpillars of a Tinea. Although he 

 does not say that the Sphinxes and caterpillars 

 were alive, when the larvae emerged from them, 

 we are justified to assume from his wording that 

 the larvae of Phora had lived in their host, while 

 he was alive, although they may have escaped 

 after death. Brischke, (/. c.) also takes it that 

 way. 



Ferris, in his Insectes du pin maritivie, had ex- 

 pressed the same opinion as Mr. Hubbard, that 

 the larvae oi Phora are scavengers, not parasites ; 

 but later {Resultats de quelques promenades ento- 

 mologiques ; in Ann. Soc. Ent. Fr., 1873, p. 74) he 

 confesses his doubts about the matter. He had 

 obtained a Phora from the nymphie of Coccinella 

 ^-punctata, these nymphae not showing any signs 

 of decay. Curtis (Brit. Ent. 437) and Rondani, 

 (Atti, etc., Milano, i860) relate similar obser- 

 vations. In such cases, the larvae of Phora may 

 have been carnivorous, without being parasites ; 

 they may have killed the nymphae and eaten their 

 contents. Zetterstedt's statement, " larva {Phorce) 

 in Geotrupe ttasicorni inventa, teste Marklin " may, 

 or may not, refer to a case parallel to that of Os- 

 moderma. The case related by Goureau (Ann. 

 Soc. Ent. Fr. 1855, p. 21) of pupae of Phora, 

 found in a box, in which, for about a month, he 

 had kept a pinned Psithyrus, is likewise not con- 

 clusive, because the Phora may have slipped in 

 the box and laid eggs on the putrescent specimen. 

 Still, there is enough to show, in what precedes, 

 that there is something to be learned yet about 

 the habits of Phora. — C. R. Osten Sacken ; 

 Heidelberg, Germany, Oct., 1880. 



[We thank Baron Osten Sacken for these bibli- 

 ographical references. Whatever may be the 

 case with other species of this genus it is perfect- 

 I3' clear that Phora aletiic cannot be considered a 

 parasite. We' were of this opinion already in 

 1878, and for this reason did not allude to it 

 among the enemies of Aletia. Our experience 

 the past summer has fully confirmed this opin- 

 ion. Mr. Hubbard has made a number of inter- 

 esting observations which prove in the first place 

 that the eggs are laid in masses not necessarily 

 upon the insect, and never upon living or healthy 

 insects. The larvae very soon attack any decay- 

 ing animal or vegetable substance, but while 

 they may be thickly crawling about and over liv- 

 ing larvae they do not penetrate the same. We 

 suspect that this will be found to be the general 

 habit of the genus, and that where the Phora 

 larvae subsist on living insects (like Aphides) 

 they are to be considered as carnivorous rather 

 than parasitic. — Ed.] 



