118 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



SOX of the patients applying to them. G'his is 

 of more importance than would at first sight 

 appear. It must be remembered that the skin 

 is torn and lacerated hy the victim's scratching, 

 from which we have an artificial inflammation 

 of the surface, to be always taken into consid- 

 ci'ation in our method of treatment. A thick- 

 skinned laborer needs very different applica- 

 tions from a delicate child, or feeble woman. 

 We therefore again caution against self-treat- 

 ment. 



A single word in regard to the clothing. All 

 under-clothes should be washed thoroughly. 

 Outside garments, contrary to the geneially- 

 received idea, do not need anytliing done for 

 them. In the great hospital at Vienna, fifteen 

 linndred cases are treated yearly, and no at- 

 tempt at disinfecting the clothing is found 

 necessary. The mite lives in the slcin. It will 

 therefore be seen tliat contagion comes from 

 personal iatei'course, partictilarly from hand 

 to hand. The most high-bred, refined, and 

 cleanly, are not exempt. Although thus highly 

 contagious from the mite being passed from 

 one to another, yet students of medicine in 

 contact with it rarely get the itch; and the 

 writer has examined and handled hundreds of 

 cases witli impunity. 



A NEW BEAN-WEE7IL. 



BY S. S. R.VTHVON, LANCASTER, PA. 

 (Bntclius ohsohtiis. Say.) 

 A new destructive insect belonging to the 

 Bruchus family of Beetles has developed in 

 Lancaster county within the last five years, 

 infesting the ripe seed-beans. Dr. Jno. L. 

 LeConte, after examination, is of opinion that 

 it should be referred to Bntchua obxoletus of 

 Say, " though there still seems to be some doubt 

 upon the question." Dr. L. writes that he has 

 had specimens of Bruchus raricornis, raised 

 from beans and Cow-peas, but the species under 

 consideration differs from that, iu having the 

 feet, and the base and last joint of the antennas, 

 black, whilst in raricornis they arc testaceous; 

 Mr. S&y describes B. obsoletus substantially as 

 follows: " Length over one-tenth of inch ; body 

 blackish cinereous, with a slight tinge of brown ; 

 antenna? not deeply serrate; thorax much nar- 

 rowed before, cinereous, on each side a slight 

 impressed dorsal line; base with the edge al- 

 most angulated, central lobe almost truncate; 

 scutel quadrate, whitish, longitudinally divi- 

 ded by a dusky line; elytra with the interstitial 

 lines having a slight appearance of alternating 

 whitish and dnslcy; on the middle of the third 



interstitial line is a more obvious abbreviated 

 whitish line; posterior thighs with a black 

 spine, and two smaller ones." Say further 

 remarks, that " the whitish or cinereous mark- 

 ings are not very striking; on the elytra they 

 may sometimes be traced into two obsolete 

 macular bands." I had perhaps fonr or five 

 hundred specimens under my observation, and 

 found that whilst many of them agreed sub- 

 stantially with Say's description, yet the larger 

 number differed. In some specimens the ante- 

 rior and intermediate feet were testaceous, and 

 in very few was the scutel whitish. Very few 

 seemed to bo banded on the elytra. Say ob- 

 tained his specimens in Indiana, from the seeds 

 of a species oi Aitragediis, a variety of "Milk- 

 Vetch," in August, and in company with j4;j»09i. 

 segnipes, one of the pear-shaped weevils. My 

 specimens evolved in the months of June, July, 

 August and September, from three varieties of 

 the domestic bean (Phaseolus), commonly called 

 •'Cranberry," the "Agricultural," and the 

 "Wrens-egg" beans, obtained from Mrs. l*. C. 

 Gibbons, Enterprise, Lane. Co., Pa. The lama 

 is a whitish footless grub, witli a small brownish 

 head, rather more thau the tenth of an inch in 

 length, and very similar in form to that which 

 infests the pea and the chestnut. The presump- 

 tion is that this insect deposits its eggs in the 

 young beau while it is green and in the pod, in 

 the same manner that the pea-weevil does, with 

 this very remai'kable ditference, that in the pea 

 we usually find but one insect, and in many 

 instances the germ remains intact, but in the 

 bean we find from five to ten or more, in a 

 single seed, and in the latter case they cannot 

 possibly all germinate. I have not yet heard of 

 this insect being found in any other locality in 

 Lancaster Co. than the one above named. The 

 tenant from whom Mrs. Gibbons received these 

 infested beans has been engaged iu the bean 

 culture for twentj'-five years on the same farm, 

 and never noticed these weevils until within 

 the last two or three years, and only last year 

 did their destructive character become conspic- 

 uously apparent; for out of a small sack of 

 seed-beans hung away, containing less than 

 two quarts, she gathered nearly a teacup full 

 of the weevils at planting time, in the early part 

 of .Tune, and had all been infested as those were 

 which she brought to me, she could have easily 

 doubled the quantity. About five years ago 

 Mrs. Gibbons received some seed-beans of the 

 "Cranberry" variety, from Nantucket, Mass., 

 and prior to that, she also received some from 

 the Agricultural Department of the Patent 

 Office, and with the one or the other of these, 



