176 



THE AMERICAN 



jection I made to them grew out of the fact that 

 Ihey took no pains to discriminate between my 

 friends and my foes ; all insects excepting one 

 or two, perhaps, went the same way with them. 

 They had no taste for the Striped Potato Beetle 

 {Lytta vittata, Fabr.) ; and, although I saw 

 them -'bolt" an occasional Squash Bug (Coreiis 

 tristis, DeGeer), it didn't seem to go down 

 with anything of a relish. They will feed on 

 squ.ash bugs, however, as I know from having 

 had some vines entirely cleared by them early 

 in the season; but I think they only do so in 

 cases where other insects are extremely scarce. 

 I could note no loss to my fall brood of squash 

 bugs, attributable to their being in the garden. 



Contrary to the general supposition, there is 

 but little of the Gipsey spirit about the toad, 

 for having chosen his beat, he seldom goes 

 beyond it, or changes his location dniing the 

 summer. One may settle him for the season at 

 almost any particular locality by simply penning 

 him up in a temporary enclosure for a few days, 

 and then removing the enclosure without dis- 

 turbing him. I have often established them in 

 different parts of mygarden on this plan, and 

 but seldom failed to find them in the neighbor- 

 hood of their respective stations every evening. 



A toad brought into a garden and immedi- 

 ately set at liberty, will usually strike for some 

 other parts the first night; but a few days' pen- 

 ning up seem to attach him to the locality. 



A Word to Southern Cultukists. — I wish 

 to see all my planter friends in the South take 

 the Amekican Entomologist, for I know that 

 it would bring them a large return for a small 

 outlay. The publication is a national one, and 

 yet it is sectional enough so far as we are con- 

 cerned, for it is fairly beginning to transpire 

 that the natural sectional-lines of the country 

 run north and south instead of east and west, 

 and that the general interests from extreme to 

 extreme are so closely identified that no portion 

 could get along well without the others. 



Our sectiou, the best agriculture section in 

 the association, if not the best on the continent," 

 stretches from the Gulf of Mexico to and even 

 above the Great Lakes, and the American 

 Entomologist, devoted alike to the interests of 

 every part of it, is published at a site as near])' 

 central as well could be. The Entomologist 

 is, therefore, the proper periodical to encourage, 

 since reason canuot do otherwise than show 

 that a work of such charactei' would be of far 

 more value to us than it could possibly be if 

 strictly local. 



This thing ' of being extremely southern or 

 extremely northern — trying to create two dis- 



tinct interests, when but one legitimately^exists ; 

 or, in other words, striving to lead those who 

 live by an exchange of products to believe that 

 they are a distinct people — is not only foolisli 

 to the last degree, but extremely injurious to 

 all. Such reflections, and nothing else, deter- 

 red me from undertaking the publication of a 

 "Southern Entomologist" four months ago. I 

 saw that the American Entomologist was all 

 that the Southern people could desire, and so 

 gave up the idea in the belief that they would 

 patronize it, and thus derive greater benefits 

 than they could from a publication purely local. 



ENTOMOLOGICAL JOTTINGS. 



[We propose to publish from tii: 



.under the above heading, such 



3 from the letters ol our correspondeuts ns contain entomological facts 

 MOrthj' to be recorded, on account either of their scientific or of their practi- 

 cal importance. We hope our readers will contribute eai:li their several mites 

 towards the j^eneral fund ; and in case they arc not perfectly certain ot ihe 



Is THE New York Weevil the Cause of 

 Pear Blight?— C/w'cag'O, Ills., MarchSUt, 1870. 

 — A gentleman of this city, formerly residing at 

 Lake Forest, a suburb of Chicago, communi- 

 cated to me a few days since, some facts he 

 has observed in regard to the "pear tree blight," 

 from which he has formed the theory that the 

 blight is caused solely by the New York Weevil 

 (Ithycerus noveboracensis, Forster) . His obser- 

 vations extended over some five years, and were 

 briefly as follows:— He never observed any ap- 

 pearance of the blight till after the appearance 

 of the beetle, which, in four out of five years, 

 occurred on the same day — June 19th, and in 

 the fifth jear on Juue 20th. That in addition 

 to the depredations described in the American 

 Entomologist for July, 1869, the insect deposits 

 on the bark of the twig or branch, a liquid sub- 

 stance (whether excrement or saliva, he was 

 uncertain, but supposed it to be the latter), 

 which extended some inches in length by an 

 eighth of an inch in width. That this liquid 

 soon turned black, and seemed to penetrate to 

 the heart of the branch, turning the wood also 

 black. If the branch was of considerable size 

 the tree would die; if quite small the poison 

 would remain latent till the next spring, but in 

 the end would certainly kill the tree. That by 

 cutting away the deposit before it turned black 

 no blight followed. That by stationing men to 

 watch for and destroy the beetles as soon as 

 they appeared, he saved his trees while those of 

 his neighbors were affected. He has given me 

 a specimen of the insect which he is certain, 

 caused him the loss of a tree in the manner 

 described. I take the liberty of communicating 

 these statemeuts to you, because I am unable 



