562 PE OF. SNOW ON ENTOMOL G Y. 



2. The destruction of noxious insects. Some of the largest families of 

 beetles are exclusively carnivorous and destroy multitudes of insect pests. 

 Such are the tiger beetles, the predaceous ground beetles and the lady-birds. 

 The large green beetle known as the caterpillar hunter, eagerly devours th&* 

 maple worm, the army worm, the canker worm and the locust. The lady- 

 birds consume vast numbers of plant lice. I have bred three species of flies 

 from the maggots which proved so destructive to our recent pest — the hate- 

 ful locust. Nearly all injurious insects have some Ichneumon fly, or other 

 parasite to reduce their otherwise overwhelming numbers. 



3. The furnishing of food to other animals. Here we may cite the May 

 fly {Palingenia hilineati) which has occurred in the winged condition along 

 our rivers for some time, and both in the larva and in the perfect state sup- 

 plies our fishes with abundant and wholesome food. 



4. The furnishing to man of valuable j)roduct8 useful as medicines, dyes, 

 wax, honey, silk, etc., etc. It is refreshing to note in these latter discour- 

 aging but now brightening days, that the silk raising experiment of Frank- 

 lin county has proved so complete a success, and that the eggs of the silk 

 worm raised in Kansas are the best that the world affords. N'ow that Kan- 

 sas eclipses Japan in the French markets for this commodity, the propriety 

 of extending the culture of the silk worm in our favorable climate need not 

 be urged upon your consideration. 



It is well known to entomologists that no less than fifty species of insects 

 prey upon grains and grasses, thirty on garden vegetables, fifty on the grape- 

 vine, seventy-five on the apple, an equal number upon the pear, peach and 

 plum, fifty on the o&k, seventy-five on the walnut, and one hundred on the 

 pine. 



It becomes therefore an important question how we may protect ourselves 

 from insect ravages. I would first suggest private measures. Every owner of a 

 vineyard, orchard or farm should be on the alert to discover and destroy 

 these noxious insects upon their first appearance. A species may exist in 

 comparatively small numbers one season and be destroyed completely and 

 with ease, but if left unmolested on account of its occasioning no apparent 

 damage it will multiply almost incredibly, and the next season appear in 

 overpowering numbers, annihilating its food i^lant. This was the case last 

 month in a vineyard in which the fruit, foliage and young canes, which had 

 been spared by the locusts, were entirely destroyed by the caterpillars of 

 the beautiful moth known as the Eightspotted Forester, This insect ap- 

 peared in the same vineyard last year without attracting much attention, 

 and might have been exterminated with little trouble. Let me here com- 

 mend to your notice the plan adopted by N. P, Deming, who found his 

 orchard this year overwhelmingly attacked by that worst enemy of our ap- 

 jsle trees — the Flat Headed Borer. He oftered his son a reward of so much 

 per hundred for all the beetles he would collect. I consider the plan of de- 

 fence by destroying the insects as far as preferable to the protection of the 

 trees by washes. The best of washes will soon be' washed away by tli£ rains 





