THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



amount to the very same doctrine recently pro- 

 mulgated by Dr. Hull, and — we are almost 

 afraid now to avow it — firmly believed in by 

 ourselves ; namely, that the larger the masses 

 may be in which you grow any crop, the more 

 will destructive organisms prey upon it: 



The only way to exterminate the Canada this- 

 tle is to plant it for a crop, and propose to make 

 money out of it. Then worms will gnaw it, 

 bugs will bite it, beetles will bore it, aphides 

 will suck it, birds will peck it, heat will scorch 

 it, rains will drown it, and mildew and blight 

 will cover it. 



But does Henry Ward Beecher, after publish- 

 ing such shocking sentiments, escape with as 

 much impunity as his more fortunate compeer. 

 Dr. E. S. Hull, of Alton, Ills.? Quite the con- 

 trary ! Forthwith a writer in the Christian In- 

 telligencer, signing himself " Puritan," is down 

 upon the reverend gentleman like a thunderbolt, 

 accusing the poor man of " veiled profanity," 

 and arguing the question in the following lucid 

 and certainly most original manner: 



These bugs, beetles, aphides, heat, rain, and 

 mildew, are the messengers of God. If they 

 are sent — they are on an errand for God! Now, 

 if the above extract has a point, it is that when 

 mankind plant a crop of any kind of grain or 

 seed, God takes a malicious pleasure in defeat- 

 ing such schemes. 



Excellent! Most admirable logician! But 

 why not attack the Illinois layman as well as 

 the New York clergyman? "Just in propor- 

 tion," says Dr. Hull, " as you increase improved 

 fruits and multiply your orchards, just in that 

 proportion will fruit insects and fruit and fruit- 

 tree diseases increase with you." What is that 

 but saying, that when mankind try to grow 

 large quantities of extra fine fruit, " God takes 

 a malicious ijleasure in defeating such schemes?" 

 At him, "Puritan!" Seize him by the throat 

 and worry him to death ! The Illinois State 

 Plorticulturist is clearly guilty of the most abom- 

 inable " veiled profanity." 



But it seems that " circumstances alter cases," 

 and " the case being altered alters the case," 

 and to parody the language of Shakspeare — 

 What ill the layman's scientitic truth 

 That HI the parson is rank blasphemy. 

 For up to this day, though we alwajs read the 

 Christian Intelligencer and all the other reli- 

 gious newspapers with the most commendable 

 perseverance, we have not noticed any attack 

 in any of their columns upon the Alton philos- 

 opher—whether from the pen of " Puritan " or 

 of any other anonymous scribbler — such as 

 that which has been recently Imrled upon the 

 devoted head of Henry Ward Beecher. 



That our readers may not suppose that Mr. 

 Beecher is nnable to fight his own theological 



battles and has hired us, in default of a better 

 ally, 'to defend him against the murderous 

 thrusts of "Puritan," we shall close this article 

 by quoting his most conclusive and logical reply 

 to this most absurd and irrational attack: 



This is exquisite! If mildew attacks my 

 grapevine, it is on an errand for God, and if I 

 sprinkle it with sulphur as a remedy, I put 

 brimstone into the very face of God's messen- 

 ger! AVhen it rains — is not rain, too, God's 

 messenger? — does "Puritan" dare to open ablas- 

 phemous umbrella, and push it up in the very 

 face of this divine messenger? When a child is 

 attacked by one of " God's messengers " — mea- 

 sles, canker-rash, dysentery, scarlet fever — 

 would it be a very great sin to send for a doctor 

 on purpose that he might resist these divine 

 messengers? There are insects which attack 

 man, against one of which we set up combs, and 

 against another sulphur. "Nay," says "Puri- 

 tan." " If they are sent, they are on an errand 

 for God," and it is profanity to have recourse to 

 fine tooth combs and sulphurous ointments in 

 order to defeat the expressed will of God. 



TORTOISE-BEETLES. 



"Tortoise-beetles!" the reader will perhaps 

 exclaim, " Why, this picture that you give us 

 in the margin is not a beetle at all, but a true 

 verilable mud-turtle! Beetles, as you have told 

 [Fig. 1] us time and again, have got SIX legs, 

 and this fellow has got only four, 

 two on each side of his body, which, 

 as with other mud-turtles, are evi- 

 dently used as swimming-paws." 

 Nevertheless, kind reader, this is 

 a true beetle, and if you were to 

 Colors— Brown- turn him upside down, you would 



black and ycl- .i, , , , , ^u i 



lowish. see that he has got, on the lower 



surface of his flattened body, six very dis- 

 tinct pale-colored legs, though they are so 

 short that they scarcel}' project when stretched 

 out at full length beyond the thin crust which, 

 as with a mud-turtle, projects from his body 

 all round him. What j'ou take for swim- 

 ming-paws are not paws at all, but mere 

 X^atchcs of dark opaque color on the thin pro- 

 jecting semi-transparent shell. If you refer to 

 the drawing which we gave in our last num- 

 ber of the Mottled Tortoise-beetle (Fig. 179), 

 you will see that that species has two such 

 patches of dark color, representing the front 

 swimming-paws, while those which represent 

 the^hind paws are entirely absent. Nor is this a 

 mere fortuitous circumstance, dependent upon 

 variation and what gardeners call "sports." 

 You may take a thousand specimens of either 

 species, and you will find that our species, 

 which is termed the Clubbed Tortoise-beetle 

 {Beloyala clavata, Oliv.), always seems to have 



