ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



209 



wild varieties. Its natural onemies consist of 

 spiders, wasps, and a small undescribcd species 

 of Tachiim fly wliich we liavc ascertained to in- 

 fest it in the larva state, and to which we have 

 oiven the MS. name of denmicp. There is every 

 reason to believe that it is also attacked by a 

 small day-yellow beetle, the Grape-vine Colaspis 

 (C'oiaspi.i faridn, Say), wliicli, thoiioh a vege- 

 table feeder, may often be found in tlie fold of 

 the leaf in cdrnpany witli some shvunl<eii, lialf- 

 dead worm. 



ENTOMObOGICAlj .lOTTINGS. 



[ We propose to publish from t 

 extracts from the letters of uur cl 

 worthy to be recorded, on accour 

 cut iiiiDortaiice. We hope our rei 

 I the f^eiiernl fund ; und i 



tlio above headinK, such 

 ntaiii entontologieal facts 

 r of their practi- 



KoT IN Peaches and otheu Fruits. — New 

 Harmony, Ind., April 20. 711. — I gi'ow but few 

 peaches and observe those closely, and I believe 

 that I have generally, if not always, found that 

 the rot proceeds trom a bite, which I suspect is 

 often made by a locust or grasshopper (Locus- 

 tadm), but I know that it is very often made by 

 a brown soft-bodied insect that 1 call a cricket: 

 it is, I think, a little bulkier than the insect 

 ligui-ed in the Entomologist as the Snowy Tree 

 Cricket, I have caught many of them while they 

 were eating peaches and (luiiices. Shortly before 

 the (juince becomes tinged with yellow these 

 cicatures bite small i)ieces out of them; in cer- 

 tain conditions of the (iniiice and of weather the 

 wound heals, but the bites made when the 

 weather is wet, or tlic ipiiiice is ripening, are 

 latal. Rot commences around the hole and rap. 

 idly spreads, and the small hole made by the bite 

 is so obscure as not to be notit'ed by those who 

 do not expect to tind it. The same process goes 

 on in the ](each; it is attacked before it is nearly 

 ripe, and in all its after stages: bnt tlie peaches 

 do not fall until a mass of rotten matter almost 

 obliterates the sign of the cause of the rot. 

 Ai)p]es arc injured in the same manner. Nearly 

 all the rot that I have perceived in these vari- 

 eties of fruit, I have found has commenced 

 from the outside, ami in that grown by ourselves 

 I have found the sign of the bite, excepting 

 where some, out of my reach, has been allowed 

 lo fall and smash. In tlie trnit I have btnight I 

 liave often found tlie same sign, but very often I 

 forget to examine ; and, of course, most of the 

 bitten fruit is left to rot in the orchard, or is 

 consumed by pigs, and is not examined by any 

 one, A fruit-grower here, in derision of m>- 

 oi>inion, handed me two rotten apples and asked 

 if they were bitten; I sliowcfl him that there 

 was more than one bite mark on each of them, 



though these marks were somewhat obscured by 

 the rot which ensued. I suppose this brown 

 cricket (a chestnut-brown) when mature has the 

 wings peculiar to its order; but I tliink when 1 

 have caught it, it has bt^en wingless: it is easily 

 crushed, and not easily caught witliQUt crushing. 

 [We shall be glad to receive specimens of the 

 cricket in question. It may be the ■Tumping 

 Cricket {Orochnris saltator, Uhler), whicli we 

 know to have the pernicious habit of severing 

 green grapes from tlieir stems, and thus allowing 

 them to fall upon the gi'ound. We are Avell 

 aware that the bite or puncture of an\' insect 

 will induce rot in the fruits mentioned, when 

 other conditions are favorable; and this fact 

 only confirms our opinion, as expressed on page 

 ];37, that the puncture of the Plum Cnrculio has 

 no special or peculiarly poisonous efl'ect, and that 

 it cannot be the sole cause of the Peach rot, as 

 some persons contend it is, — Ed.] 



Clover-worms — Eureka. Mo., April 21, 70. — 

 I am very thankful for your answer about the 

 Clover-wonn; but I have yet a little curiosity 

 to know how the worm gets into, or why it 

 chooses the center and bottom of the stack. Mr. 

 Walsh's supposition (Pract. Eiit., I, p. K;i) can- 

 not be correct, for m>' stack was on a new found- 

 ation, and at least two hundred yards away from 

 any previous stacking place. G. Pauls. 



[In the Prairie Farmer of April 20th, 18()7, 

 we have shown that Mr. Walsii was wrong in 

 supposing that this worm can only increase 

 jirodigiously where clover has been stacked for 

 successive years in the same place ; and we have 

 also demoustratetl that the principal reason why 

 they are so generally found at the bottom of a 

 stack in winter, is, that they are attracteil there 

 for warmth and moisture, — Ed,] 



Flat-Headed Api-lk-tree Borer — Eureka, 

 Mo., April 21, 1S70.— Last fall, and early this 

 spring, and even (piite recently, 1 found on my 

 apple trees small specimens of Chrysobothrin 

 femorata. alxmt one-tiuarter inch long, or just of 

 the size which the main crop has acijuired in the 

 mouth of August, I can only conclude that the 

 eggs were either laid late in the fiiU, or that the 

 annual soft-soaping in May so weakens the con- 

 stitution of the larva that it cannot mature in 

 the proper st^ason. I have had but three borers 

 escape my notice and get large enough to go into 

 the wood, or body of the tree, and in every in- 

 stance they penetrated in a straight or horizontal 

 direction, for about one to one and a half inches, 

 and then downwards. I fully indorse Mr. Wie- 

 landy's article on borers, in No. .') ; especially 

 what he savs about tin; general fate of api)le t rees 



