THE AMEEICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



27 



Red-humped Caterpillars on Apple and 

 Pear— Z>. TV. Kaufman, Des Moines, /owo.— What you 

 are irrevercntlj' pleased to term ' 'a lot of ugly disgust- 

 ing worms," but what we consider ;is one of the most 

 gorgeously dressed caterpillars that God has created, 

 is known as the "Red-humped Prominent" and pro- 

 duces a brownish yellow moth, called in English "the 

 Trim Trominent" (scientifically 'iWot/on/a conelnna). 

 Do pray, Mr, KauBman, for the future take » carcflU 

 look at the wonderful Works of the Great Author of 

 Nature, before you again slander and malign them, and 

 call that "ugly and disgusting" which is in reality a 

 perfect gem ot insect beauty. Look at the brilliant 

 coral-red head of your larva, and the hump on the 

 middle of its back of the same lovely colorl Did you 

 ever sec a string of coral beads, on the fair white neck 

 of a young lady , show to greater perfection than do these 

 bright red parts, among the delicate black, yellow and 

 white lines traced lengthways by the finger of Almighty 

 God along the rest of its body? Surely such artistically 

 arranged colors can not be "disgusting" to any i)ro- 

 perly trained eye! But these worms are "ugly" for- 

 sooth! They are at most only about 1% inch long — 

 they have no sting — no irritating hairs or prickles such 

 as have the larva; of a very few of our rarer moths— 

 and they will not even bite, howe\er much you may 

 please to irritate and torment them. Surely a grown 

 man ought not to fancy that so harmless a creature as 

 this is hateful or formidable! But they ale all the 

 leaves off one ot your young pear-trees! Very well! 

 They had just as good a right to do so as you have to 

 sit down to your dinner, consuming vegetables and 

 fruits that would otherwise have fed a host of beauti- 

 ful creations which the vulgar denominate "bugs." 

 God made this lovely green world for the pleasure antl 

 benefit not of man alone, but of the multitudinous 

 hosts of the inferior animals. True, we have a right 

 to destroy these inferior animals, when they interfere 

 with our wants and wishes; and so we have a right to 

 take the life even of our brother man, when our own 

 life, and even in certain eases when our property 

 merely, is jeoparded by him. "Kill and be killeil" 

 is the great law of Nature, from one entl of the Aninud 

 Kingdom to the other. But when we are compelled to 

 kill, let us always do it in a merciful and not in a wan- 

 ton and cruel spirit; and especially, even when we are 

 obliged in self-defence, or for purely scientific purposes, 

 to take the life of some of these little miracles of per- 

 fection that the poet calls "winged flowers," let us 

 not add insnlt to injury and slander them as "disgust- 

 ing,' ' when even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayctl 

 like the very meanest of them I 



The Red-humped Prominent — of which we herewith 

 represent the three stages (Figs. 24 larva; 25 pupa, and 



[Fig 24] 



t<ilura-Bhik wiiitt and n>i. 



26 moth) — has hitherto been louud only on laise, thorn, 

 cUeriy, plum and apple, and especially on the last. 

 Your fiudiiTg it on pear, which is very closely allied 



to the apple, and yet is inimical to the life of several 

 insects conunonly found on apple, is a new fact. The 

 species is not very common in the Valley of the Mis- 

 sissippi; but when it does occur, it occurs in great 

 numbers, because the mother-moth deposits a very 

 large number of eggs upon a single loaf. As these 

 larva; are gregarious throughout their entire existence, 

 and do not scatter over the whole tree, as do many 



!3.] 



Culur— Brown 



others that occur on our fruit trees — some 

 of which wander oft' from the very earliest 

 stage in their larval life, and others, as for 

 example the common Tent Caterpillar 

 ( ClUiocampa americana.) , only toward the 

 latter part of their existence in the larval 

 state — they can always be easily destroyed. For 

 oursehes, we never feel the least fear or scruple 

 at crushing hundreds of any of these caterpillars in our 

 naked hands; any one, however, that is more nice than 

 [Fig 2G ] ^^'"^ arc can put on a pair 



of stout buckskin gloves 

 before he commences the 

 squashing process. But 

 although we do not hesi- 

 tate to squash any kind ef 

 caterpillar bare-handed, i-' 

 we by no means advise any 

 Coioi— Brownisii-yeiiow. one to try this operation, 



either upon the Colorado Potato Bug or upon any of the 

 Blister-beetles. For all these last-named insects are more 

 or less poisonous, and we have known a young girl make 

 her hands veiy sore by crushing with her naked fingers 

 a lotof the Ash-gray Blister-beetles, that were infesting 

 some English beans. 



Insects named — T. W. G., Georgetoion, Ohio. — 

 The yellowish-green worm with an immense reddish- 

 brown head with two yellow spots upon it, is the larva 

 of the Tityrus Skipper (Eudamus tifi/ri/s, Fabr.) abrowu 

 butterfly with a semi-tran.sparent yellow baud across 

 the front wings, and the hind wings each produced into 

 a short rounded tail behind. This worm is most com- 

 monly found on Uoncy Locust, though it also feeds on 

 tlic common Black Locust, on the AVistaria and on the 

 ^'^dse ludigo, (Amorphafi-uticosa.) The dusky-biowu 

 tree-hopper with a long yellow spot each side and a 

 horn-like projection from the fore part of its body is 

 the Two-spotted Tree-hopper (y/te?mt»«ac-u^i/<a, Fabr.) ^^ 

 which likewi.se occurs on Locust. The pale yellow and 

 black worms all huddled together on the leaf of a Grape- 

 vine are the larva of the American Procris (Procris 

 Americana, Boisd.) If you have Harris's work on 

 Injurious Insects you can find in it figures of all three 

 of these species. 



Hold Gilt-beetle— rv. W. II. Maitin, Piitcliiey, 

 ,l/iV/(,— The brilliant beetle, resplendent in a full suit 

 of green and gold and about half an inch long, whicli 

 you find devouring the leaves of the eonuoon Dogs- 

 bane {Apocyiium andron(sniifu1ium), is the (iilt Gold- 

 beetle (Chrysochus auratus). It is very common every- 

 where in the West upon this plant in the perfect beetle 

 state, but as its larva is never met with there, it most 

 probably during the larval state feeds underground 

 upon the roots either of this or of some other plant. 

 Your finding the beetle upon another species of the 

 same genus of plants {Ap. cannalinum) is, we believe, 

 a new fact. 



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