THE AIMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



25 



lieatr Oak-g:aIl — Ji. II. B., Picl-ens'' Sta., Miss. — 

 The cone-like leafy oak-gall vrliich you send , and which 



we herewith illustrate (Fig. 20, o), Is apparently the 



[Fig. 2(1.] 



Color— Orc«n. 



gall named Quereus/rondosahyBasf-ctt, meaning literally 

 ' ' full of green leaves. ' ' You do not mention the kind 

 of oak on which it occurred, but Irom the fact that Jlr. 

 Bassett descrilied his as occurring on the Chinquapin, 

 yours might have been taken from this species, though 

 we have found the same gall both on White and on Bur 

 Oak . This gall is developed after the summer growth of 

 the tree is completed, and the axillary bud, which other- 

 wise would not burst till the spring following, is made, 

 by the puncture of the gall-Uy, to develop prematurely 

 In the singular manner illustrated above. The cell 

 (Fig. 20, I, section showing larva) containing the lar\'a 

 is half immersed in the apex of the cone, and though 

 the perfect fly is unknown, the character of the larva 

 indicates it to be Cynijndous. (Sec article on Galls, 

 A'ol. I, So. 6.) 



Drop of GoXa—B. 11. B. , Pkltna' Hia., 3/iss.— 

 The •' drop of gold in shape of a French loaf " attached 

 to a leaf of the Shellbark-IIickory, is in reality the 

 vacated egg-shell of some large moth, and not imiiro- 

 bably of that large species which produces the lioyal 

 Horned Caterpillar. The smooth sliort-oval eggs of the 

 same large Stinking Bug, which we figured on page 12 

 of our tirst Volume (Metapodius nasiihia , Fig. 6, 1) , have, 

 e^ en when vacated by t)ie young bug, just the .same 

 lustre of burnished gold. In July, lStJ8, at Lacon, III. , 

 we found a row of nine of these eggs, all arranged in 

 regular order, like the beads of a necklace, upon a leaf 

 of White Pine; and from these eggs we subsequently 

 hatched out the young bugs. 



The I.iina Motli— Geo. W. Kiiinii/, Snow IJiU, ilo. 

 — The immense green mnlh with an eye-spot in each 

 wing and with each of the hind wings prolonged into a 

 tail, is the Luna Moth {Affavus luiia, Linn.) The speci- 

 men was 5 and we were glatl to get the eggs which she 

 had deposited. The larva feeds on Walnut and Hickory. 



T. W. Hoijt, Jr. — The large pale green swallow-tail 

 moth which you describe is the Luna Moth referred to 

 above . 



us,/ 

 Mic 



Ha^-moth Larva — Dr. C. T. Farrell, South Pass 

 m. — The curious brown slug-like larva found on Sil)ej 

 rian Crab, of which a better idea can be formed by 

 acconqianying illustration (Fig, 21) than by any des- 

 (.j.. 21 ] eriptlvc words of ours, is the 



larva of the Hag-motli {Lima- 

 codes pithfeium, 6m. & Abb.) 

 Wfieh recefvect", it had already 

 moulted its long fleshy append- 

 ages and attached them to the 

 outside of its round compact 

 cocoon, and ten days subse- 

 quently the moth made its ap- 

 Ci.ic.r-BroMii. pearance. This moth is of a 



dusky brown color, the front wings variegated with light 

 yellowish-brown. In the Northeastern States this insect 

 is supposed to be single-brooded, but in your latitude it 

 is probably double-brooded. The " spider-like animal" 

 on Blackberries is the pupa of the Many-banded Rob- 

 ber {Harpactor ductus, Fabr., .see Vol. I, Fig. 44.) 



M. B. Baldwin, Ehjin , 111. — The specimen you found 

 (in a spear of grass, and from which you detached, in 

 handling, some of the appendages, is the same Hag- 

 moth larva . At the lime you found it, it was evidently 

 in search of some cozy nook in which to foi'Ui its 

 cocoon, for it had already commenced the operation 

 when it reached us, and the species has never been 

 known to feed on grass. 



Stinging- Bug — J . M. Shujf'c-r, Fairfield, Iowa. — 

 The singular craggy -looking bug, aboutO.38 inch long, 

 of a yellowish color variegated with brown, with the legs 

 green and a transverse deep-brown band running supe- 

 riorly across from one side to the other of the dilated 

 abdomen, is Phi/mata erosa, Linn. The genus is 

 characterized by the immensely swollen front thighs, 

 and by the last joint of the .antennie being also swollen, 

 this last character being a remarkable one, as Amyot 

 and Serville well remark, in bugs of such carnivorous 

 propensities. Your statemei.t that one of these bugs 

 stung you severely, does not greatly surprise us, though 

 we never heard of their slinging before, and have hand- 

 led hundreds of them with impunity. The stinging 

 was of course done by the beak, which is 3-jointed 

 L,ahd somewhat resembles that of Harpactor ductus, Fabr. 

 (Vol. I, Fig, 44, h.) The plant upon which you found 

 these bugs we take to be Partliemiim integrifolium, and 

 Mr. A. Fender, of Allcnton, Mo., is of the same 

 opinion. We have noticed them ourselves in the latter 

 part of the svimmer lying quietly in wait for their prey 

 upon a great variety of wild flowers, but mostly on 

 such as like themselves are of a yellowish color so .as to 

 conceal them from view. We have also often seen this 

 Bug with its beak inserted into a small bee or a small 

 wasp, which it is wide awake enough to hold at arm's 

 length with its prehensile front legs, so that the poor 

 unfortunate captive has no chance to sling it. 



Pear-tree tvorms — B. Hathaway, Little Prairie 

 Eonde, Mich. — The worms found on pear-tree leaves 

 are the same Red-bumped rromincnt noticed in the 

 answer to D. W. K.aufi'man of Des Moines, Iowa. 



"Dobson" — Fis7iernian — We cannot tell without 

 seeing specimens, what it is that the disciples of the 

 '•gentle art" call "Dobson." It m.ay be the Ian a 

 either of some May-fly (Ephemera) , or of some Dragon- 

 fly {Libdlula), or of a dozen other insects. 



