88 



THE AMEEICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



KocKY Mountain Geasshoppee cannot live 

 IN Pennsylvania — Lancaster, Pa. — Early last 

 spring (about the beginning of March) some- 

 body sent me, throngli the mail, a small box of 

 grasshopper's eggs, from Leavenworth, in Kan- 

 sas. They were whitish, oblong, ancharranged 

 diagonally in oblong pellet-like masses, covered 

 with a dark-colored glutinous substance. There 

 were probably five hundred in all. Some of 

 these eggs I put in a small box, and others 1 put 

 in a jar, half fall of moist earth, which I set, in a 

 sort of conservatory, among some plants. Those in 

 the box hatched out a week earlier than those on 

 the moist earth, although the temperaurc of the 

 two places was about equal. Of course all those 

 in the box starved for the want of food. About 

 the middle of March they made their appearance 

 in the formof a very active little black grass-hop- 

 per, whi<;h I took to be the j'oupg of the Eocky 

 Mountain Grasshopper {Caloptenus sijretus, 

 Uhler). Those in the jar were carried to the 

 garden along with the plants about the first of 

 April, wiiere the jar was accidentally upset, and 

 the little "hoppers," about one hundred and. 

 fifty in number, all made their escape. But 

 they, too, must also have all perished, for with 

 my utmost vigilance during tho whole summer, 

 I iievef got a sight of a single one of them 

 again. I conclude, therefore, that our cli- 

 mate is "unwholesome" to the Kocky Moun- 

 tain species, although the Ked-legged' species 

 (C. feihur-rubrum, Do Geer) lives and flour- 

 ishes here. 



S. S. K. 



Tomato Woem Parasites — Ciruiaminson, iV. 

 J"., Sept. 27, "69. — There is a species of fly {par- 

 asitic) that is attacking the Tomato-worm in 

 our vicinity in immense numbers. As many as 

 forty or fifty of their cocoon's may be seen fas- 

 tened to thebody of asingle Avorm. The cocoons 

 are about the size of a grain of wheat, and at- 

 tached by their ends. [Jfigrocaster cocoons. — 

 Ed.] They appear to exhaust the vitality of the 

 worm very much, some of them being entirely 

 dried up, while others are so weakened that I 

 doubt if they ever pass through their transform- 

 ations. These worms are very destructive and 

 nearly ruin our tomato patches. But now they 

 may be seen by hundreds and thousands covered 

 with these wliite cocoons. The fly is doing its 

 work more ettectually than a person could do it, 

 for one-half the worms cannot be found, owing 

 to the resemblance they bear to the plant; but 

 the fly appears to have hunted them all out, 

 comparatively few having escaped. 



CnAS. Parry. 



The Goosebeeey Span-woem attacks the 

 Black CnnnAsi— Credit, C. W., Nov. 5, '69. — 

 On page 13 of your current volume, it is stated 

 as a remarkable fact that the three different Cur- 

 rant and Gooseberry-worms, all of them attack 

 almost indiscriminately the Red Currant and 

 the Gooseberry, while they are none of them 

 ever found upon our cultivated Black Currant, 

 or so far as is known, upon our wild Black Cur- 

 rant. In 1868 my Black Currant bushes were 

 rather badly attacked by the Span-worm larvae 

 ^{Ellopia ribearioi, Fitch), but the Saw-fly larvae 

 did not touch them. I noticed this fact in the 

 Canada Farmer of July 1, 'G8. These Span- 

 werm larvas have been very injurious to the 

 Buffalo or Sweet-flowering Currant {B. aureum) 

 in tliis neighborhood during the last tew years. 

 Numbers of these bushes were entirely denuded 

 of their foliage. They too were exemi^t from 

 the attacks of the Saw-fly, though it ravaged 

 Ked and "White Currant and Gooseberry bushes 

 just alongside. I may mention that I have oftoii 

 found larvaj of the Span-worm upon toild Goose- 

 berry and Currant bushes in the woods, without 

 however noticing the particular species of Goose- 

 berry or Currant. C. J. 8. Bethune. 



Geape-berey Moth — Shiloh, Ills., Sept. 29, 

 1869. — -The Grape-berry worm is more numer- 

 ous than ever. I have heretofore been in the 

 habit of permitting my grapes to remain on 

 the vin6s, until they had attained their utmost 

 maturity ; but I find that with this practice 

 many of the worms escape, whilst if I gathered 

 my grapes two weeks sooner, I should get most 

 of the worms .into the wine-press, and prevent 

 them from propagating. As it is, I have the 

 berries that drop, oft' the bunches picked from 

 the ground with a great deal of labor, but find 

 it impossible to have them all secured. I appre- 

 hend too, that when I commence my late vin- 

 tage many worms have already left the berries 

 to change to pupae. An earlier vintage will 

 give me an inferior wine, but a much larger 

 quantity, and will enable me to destroy most of 

 the worms. Adolph Engelmann. 



Polyphemus Moth — Vineland, JST. J., Aug. 

 2bth, 1869. — The last week in July a fine large 

 larva of the Polyphemus moth wound up, and 

 on the 1-tth day of August a splendid moth 

 came forth from the cocoon. It fed and wound 

 up in the open air, and only the day before it 

 came out I cut the twig to which the cocoon 

 was attached and brought it in, thinking that 

 the xjupa would remain as usual until next sum- 

 mer, before its final development. 



Mrs. Maey Tee at. 



