26 



THE AMEEICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



"White Pine Weevil — A. S. Fuller, Sidgewood, N. 

 J. — The borers which have heen attacking the leading 

 shoots of your Pines, gradually spreading to the 

 branches, have produced the perfect beetle since their 

 receipt, and as we anticipated, they turn out to be the 

 White Pine "Wee\-il {Pissodes strohi, Peck.) At Figure 



[Fig. 22.] 



Colore— (o and 6) whitish ; (c) rust-brown and white. 



22 it is illustrated in its three stages of larva (a), pupa 

 (J), and beetle (c). "We have not known this insect to 

 occur in the "\yest, but it has long been known to be 

 common in the Eastern States. The only practical way 

 of counter-working the injurious work of this weevil, 

 is to cut off the infested shoots and consign them to the 

 flames, while they yet contain the larva; and before the 

 beetles have escaped. Dr. Fitch ,"•■■■ under the impres- 

 sion that most of the beetles are perfected in the spring, 

 recommends that this "work- be done in August and 

 September; but as all the beetles had issued from the 

 shoots you sent, by the end of August, we should 

 advise you, so as to be on the safe side, to do such work 

 in July. 



• Trans. N. Y. Slate Agr. See. 1S57. p. 73S. 



"Unnatural Secretion of "Wax — i^. Bnu-er, 

 Waynesville, Mo.— The honey bee which has such a pro- 

 fuse waxy formation exuding apparently from the rings 

 of the abdomen, and which you took alive from the~4/ 

 entrance of one of your hives, presents a very unusual 

 appearance, and a most remarkable case of wax iorma- 

 tion. Mr. J. T. Langstroth, to whom "sve sent the 

 specimen, suggests that the bee " had a kind of wax 

 dropsy I ' ' The specimen is interesting, and beautifully 

 illustrates the manner in which the ordinary wax of 

 our hives is secreted from the belly ot the worker bee, 

 as explained by Hiibner, Reaumur, and other writers 

 on the subject. 



Raspberry Borer — F. A. Gates, Massillon, loica. 

 — The borer you describe as having nearly ruined your 

 patch of raspberry bushes, is apparently the common 

 Blackberry and Kaspberry borer (Olerea perspicillata, 

 Hald.) which in the perfect state is aheetle. The large 

 ochre-yellow moth, with a conspicuous white spot on 

 the front wings, and each of the wings tinged with 

 purple and crossed near the tip by a purplish line, which 

 moth had deposited a large number of eggs on one of 

 the raspberry leaves, "was not, as you inferred, the 

 parent of the borer. It is the Senatorial Dryocampa 

 (Dryocampa senatoria, Fabr.) The young worms hatch- 

 ing from those eggs would have fed upon the leaves, 

 though the more common food-plant of the species is 

 Oak. 



Cocoon of Horn-liugr—^. B. McClutchen, Lafay- 

 ette, ffa.— The egg-shaped cocoon formed of excrement 

 and rotten wood glued together, contained the large 

 ■\vhite larva of some Horn-bug, probably Lucanus dama, 

 Fabr.] 



Insects named. — J. E. ifuTileman, Woodlmrn, 

 iZZs. — The moth, with the front wings variegated 

 with light and dark brown with a conspicuous 

 dark zigzag line running across the outer third, and 

 with the hind wings of alustrous oopperyreddish brown, 

 is the Pyramidal Amphipyra {Ampliipyra pyramidoides, 

 Giien). You say you bred it from a grape^eeding larva 



[Fig. 230 



:ht and dark Brown. 



like the one illustrated on page 22."i (Fig. 163) . "We have 

 also the present summer bred the same species of moth 

 from a similar larva feeding on Ked Bud, and have 

 found the larva on the Poplar, which makes three 

 distinct plants that it is known to attack. The specific 

 name of the moth probably refers to the pyramidal 

 hump on the 11th segment of the larva. You say you 

 ' ' recoUect a similar larva in Europe on apricots, prune 

 trees, etc. , producing an analogous moth . ' ' Not at all 

 unlikely, for there is a very similar worm common to 

 the whole of Europe, and which feeds on Oak, Willow 

 and Elm, as well as on fruit trees, and produces a 

 >'ery closely allied moth, the Amphypyra pyramidea of 

 Linnffius. The other moth of which you send 

 a pencil sketch, and which is of a uniform deep 

 brown, with two oblique white lines running — the inner 

 line entirely, and the outer one but partially — across 

 the fore wings, is Agnomonia anilis of Drury , who states 

 that the caterpillar is violet-white witli longitudinal 

 rose-colored lines and an elevated brown ridge across 

 segments 4 and 11, and that it feeds on plants of the 

 genus Cliiroma, The chrysalis is enclosed within a 

 few leaves and is covered with a rosy efBorescence. 

 The other pencil figure which you send seems to repre- 

 sent Limacodes ci'ppus, Fabr. (See Harris, Inj. Ins., p. 420). 



CecrojJia Motli Caterpillar — H. <?. Zewellwg, 

 Eiglillill, Mo. — The gigantic green caterpillar, covered 

 with beautiful yellow, blue .and coral-red tubercles, 

 which you find on the leaves of an apple tree, is the 

 larva of the Cecropia TMoth {Attaais ceoropia, Linn.) 

 It is an immense feeder, and we Have known it to be so 

 abundant as to greatly injure young Apple and Soft 

 Maple trees, but its occurrence in. very large numbers 

 is extremely rare. ATe shall figure this caterpillar in 

 a future number. 



Saml. II. I. Green, Flkart C«Yy, i?^.— The large worm 

 found by you descending from an apple tree is the same 

 as the above. 



JBfo'cr Cut-TForms orig'inate — Jlios. IF. Gordon, 

 Georgetown, OMo .—Y.o\\ ask how our common cut- 

 worms originate. They are produced from eggs depo- 

 sited by obscure colored owlet moths belonging to sev- 

 eral diti'erent genera, and for fuller information on the 

 subject we refer you to the First Annual Report of the 

 Junior Editor, where the history of twelve different 

 species is detailed. 



