62 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



V WircTVorms in Potatoes — W. Ti. She! mire, 

 Touglili'namon, Teiin.. — The cloiigiite, cylindrical, horny, 

 mahogany-colored worms nearly an inch long, that 

 bored np so badly your crop of Mercer Potatoes, arc a 

 very common species of wirewonns. "We have reason 

 to believe that this particular kind produces a Click- 

 beetle known as Jlelanofiix infoiiif, Le Conte. There 

 arc scores of dilVerent kinds of Click -beetles, and on 

 page 411 of our tirst volume you will tind one of them 

 (Fig. Til)), and by the side of ii llii' larva from which we 

 bred it (Fig. .'il). ]\IoKt ol' tlicni breed in rotten wood; 

 but there ai'c a few that devour living vegetable matter 

 and are great pests to the farmer, especially in newly- 

 broken land. In such land wc have known them to 

 destroy the young corn-plants to a grievous extent, 

 gnawing laterally into the stem just under the surface 

 c.f the ground. 



Your neighbor is quite right in saying, that if these 

 wonii-ealen |iolalnc.s are usi'd l(n- seed next year, they 

 will produci- wiiimy potatoes, that is to say, provided 

 you iil.inl pi>taloes with the wire-worm.s slill in them. 

 For these N\iie-wonns live several years in the larva 

 stale, and inning six gooil legs of their own they 

 would readily migrate from Ihe infected iiolato-sets on 

 to the young growing potatoes. Vou nuist not sup- 

 pose, however, that wire-worms could 1)i-ee(l wire- 

 worms: for it is not till the larva has developed into the 

 Click-beetle that it becomes capable of propagaling ils 

 species. Sowing six bushels of salt to the aei'e is said 

 by one of the best farmers in England, Alderman Jlechi, 

 to destroy all the wii-e-worjns in the salted ground. 

 There are no doubt plenty of yours remaining in yoiir 

 old potato ground; for this species does not by any 

 means feed exclusively on potatoes. On the contrary, 

 it is a very general feeder, and we have met with it in 

 all kinds of situations, for example, in an asp.aragus 

 bed, with no potatoes growing within ten rods distance. 

 We know of no mode hut hand-picking to destroy the 

 wire- worms in your potatoes, so that the potatoes can be 

 used for seed. It is, as you remark, a singular hutby no 

 means an unprecedented fact, that these insects took 

 the Mercers and did not touch the Goodrich potatoes 

 that were growing alongside. The Colorado Potato 

 Bug and the striped BUster-beetle are equally select in 

 their tastes. Other .such ea.ses were collected by us on 

 page 160 of our tirst volume. 



Tnsects named—/. F. Waters, Springfield, Mo.— 

 The insects found on apple are as follows: No. 1 is the 

 larva of some small moth. It closely resemliles that of 

 the Rascal Leaf-crumpler [Phycitanehtilo, Walsh), hut is 

 evidently distinct. No. 2 is a .species of Limacodes or 

 slug-caterpillar, totally unknown to us. If we breed 

 the perfect moth we will report further. No. 3 is the 

 larva of C%an\.^hriis aiil, nnator, ]''abr. , a bug chiefly 

 distinguisiied by the terminal half of the third joint of 

 its antenna; being somewhat ovally dilated and flatten- 

 ed. The matiu'e bug looks ven' much like the larva you 

 sent, except that it has wings. 

 Girdled Pear Xwigs— 7. A. Throp, Troij, Ills.— 

 ^ Tl'ie nine pear twigs were, as you rightly suppose, am- 

 putated so neatly by tlie beetle which you send. This 

 beetle is a large ( $ ) and rather dark variety of the com- 

 mon Twig-girdler [Onckleres eim/iilatus, Say), of which 

 we gixve an illustrated account ou page 76 of oiu- First 

 Volume. 



Insects named — F. T. Dale, Yellow Springs, Ohio. 

 — The in.sects came In fair condition. No. 1 is Diccelus 

 dilafafiis, Say. No. 2, Pterostichtis adoxus. Say. 

 No. 3, Jiradycellus dichrovSiDej. No. 4, (3 specimens) 

 are all difierent forms of Anomalavarlans, Fabr. No. 

 0, Aaomalahinotata, &i:\ion. No. 6, Chrysochus auratus , 

 Fabr. No. 7, Hippodamia glacialis, Fabr. We have 

 found this species the present year preying on the egg.s 

 of the Colorado Potato Bug, and in consideration of its 

 good services, we honor it by adding its "photo" 

 (Fig. 40) to our album of friendly bugs. No. 8, 

 [FiK. 4IJ.] Jlippodamia, parentliesis , Say. No. 9, 

 (iaUruca notata, Fabr. No. 10 same as 

 4 & 5. No. 11, Alindria cylindrica, Geoff. 

 No. 12, V lonm impressa, Melsh. No. 13, 

 which you say "is from Georgia, where 

 it is called the ' Cabbage bug, ' and where 

 by thousands on cabbage and turnip 

 Strucliia y.\fiioii/en, Hahn, an account of 

 which with figures we shall shorlly publish. No. 

 14, JSartjomia melanclioliea G. & P. (See Volume 1, 

 Figure 23). No. I.t, which " feeds and deposits its 

 eggs on the leaves and young twigs of Sumach (Rhus 

 glalnu)" is Uhpharida rloix, Forster, which we re- 

 ferred to in our first volume, page 239. No. 16, 

 Ph'rii,4i\-Iiii.<:.vu!/itii.'.\ Lee. No. 17, To.i'olus cylhilricollis, 

 Say. No. 18, J/nrpalu.i eryt/iropu.'-''De}. No. 10, Ilarpalus 

 pennxylraviciis. Do Geer. No. 20, Aiunimla luclcola, 

 Fabr. (I)arkvar.) No. 21, same as No 5. No. 22, 

 same as No. 4. No. 23, Serica ifspertina, Say. No. 

 24, Strangalia h'neola. Say. No. 25, Strangalia famelica, 

 Newm No. 26, Hetoemis viiierea, Oliv. No. 27, 

 Steiioeoms F/llosiis, Fabr. No. 28, tiiken on Jihiis 

 toncodemlron , is Saperda pundicollis. Say = trigenimata , 

 Eandall. No. 29, Aemmodera puldiella, Hbst. No. 30, 

 Lfptura niteiis, Forst. 

 Tomato-Feeding TWorni— -I. G. Davis, Farina, 



jlls^ The greasy grayish worm, characterized chiefly 



by a series of triangular black spots along the back, 

 each segment with two spots, both of which are 

 edged on the outside with a white line, 

 while there is an indistinct hght line be- 

 tween them (Fig. 41) and a much more 

 distinct one along the breathing-holes at 

 each side— is the larva of a moth which 

 may be laiowii by the popular name of the Spider-wort 

 Owlet Moth {Prodenia commelitue, Sm. and Abb.) This 

 moth has the front wings variegated with gray, brown 

 andyellowi.sh-white, and the hind wings pure white 

 with the extremities of the nerves and the outer border 

 dark brown. We have bred this moth from worms 

 which fed with equal relish on Cabbage and Tomato, 

 while :Mr, Abbot found it on Liver-wort and Pea. It 

 mav Uierelbrc be considered a very general feeder. The 

 species varies greatly in appearance both in the larva 

 and perfect states. The worms are found full-grown as 

 e.arly as the fore part of July, and the moths issue from 

 the latter part of that month to the latter part of Sep- 

 tember. 



" Cocoons of Iclineuinon Flies — Carrie Mitchell, 

 South Pass, 7Z/s.— The mass of little white cocoons on 

 the large Tomato worm which you send are formed by 

 the larva; of a small parasitic Ichneumon Fly (genus 

 Mierogastei) , and the flies had mostly issued on the way 

 hither. (See Figure 15 in our last number) . 



