308 



THE AMERICAN 



liarva ot the Thoas STV-alla\ir-tail — S. H. 



Sprague. — The worm which you send is rather rare in 

 Missouri, and may be briefly described as of a mot- 

 tled-brown color, and marked with pale grayish-white 

 as follows: commencing in a band at sides of joint 1; 

 running upwards and becoming less distinct to sub- 

 dorsum of joint 4; occupying the back of joints 5, 8 and 

 7, reaching to proleg on joint fl, but only to subdorsum 

 on 5 and 7, and occupying nearly the whole of joints 

 10, 11 and 12. This worm is the larva of the Thoas 

 Swallow-tail I^PapiUo thoas, Linn.), our largest and most 

 magnificent yellow arid black butterfly. Its tood-plant 

 in the Southern Slates is the Orange tree; but you 

 neitlier give your address nor (which we should like to 

 know) the plant from which you took the worm. 



Fung:us on AVild Plums — Suhsuriher, Picl-ens 



[Fig. ISO.] 



Station, Miss. — The 

 lieculiar soft, yel- 

 low, pithy growth 

 which we herewith 

 illustrate, and 

 which you And on 

 a small Bed Plum 

 busli, is some kind 

 of fungus. We And 

 the same growth 

 here during the 

 month of June on 

 the wild plum ( Pru- 

 nusaTnericana). This 

 fungus ih'ies and 

 blackens and re- 

 mains on the tree 

 through the winter. 

 We shall leave its 

 determination to 

 fungologists, for the 

 simple reason that 

 we have no time to 

 devote to this inter- 

 esting part of Na- 

 tural History. 



liarva ot Clubbed Tortoise-beetle — A. li. 

 Modleij, Sturgis, Mich. — The common Matrimony-vine is 

 Lycium vidgare, and the Tortoise-beetles which you And 

 upon it in company with their larvie, are really the 

 above-named species The larva; which you enclosed 

 transformed on the way, ami as we have never seen this 

 larva, we should like other specimens. The Matrimouy- 

 vine belongs to the Solanum family, and your finding 

 this insect upon it, furnishes additional proof that, while 

 all other known Tortoise-beetles which have very flat 

 larva (genera Cassida, Coptocycla and Deloyala) feed on 

 plants belonging to the Gonmlvalus family, this species 

 is exceptional, and feeds exclusively on such as belong 

 to the Solanum family. 



r The Banded Ips in Calyx of Pear— 6-'. 0. B. 



—The small, shiny black ))eetle with two orange bands, 

 interrupted along the Imck, on the wing-covers, is Tps 

 fasciatus, Oliv. The fact of your linding them cutting 

 their way into a pear, and eating into the calyx, is new 

 and interesting. It is perfectly in accordance with the 

 habits of the genus, however, for these beetles attack 

 vegetable growths, though they most often conflne their 

 iVttacks to the funguses or to decaying vegetation. 



Color— Pate yellow when ft*sh, black v 



(laik brown 



Xl»e XjO.rAev-'Beetle — F. S. Sleeper, Galesliurg, 

 Mich. — The brown hairy worms which have so ruined 

 your collections of Lepidoptera are the larva; of the 

 L.arder Beetle [Dermestes lardarius). It is a grievous 

 [FiR. I'ji.] pest to all sorts of preserv- 



ed animals, and will soon 

 q^^^^^^L^^l^MMllv ruin them when not well 

 I-^^^RmvP^^SM), cared for. Ifyou had con- 

 stantly watched your col- 

 lection, and examined the 

 hutterllies whenever you 

 noticed any powdery ex- 

 crement at the bottom of 

 your boxes, you would 

 never have lost a specimen. 

 That our readers may re- 

 cognize this destructive 

 beetle, we present at Fig- 

 ure Irtl enlarged drawings 

 ill brown of its hu'va (a), one of the 



Im d huis, shoningits peoidiar formation (h), and the 

 beetle (c). 



mCotU named — E. M, Hale, Chicago, Ills. — ^The 

 pretty blackish moth, with the head above, prothorax 

 beneath and teguhu in front orange, and with the thorax 

 and abdomen dark metallic-blue, is Ctenucha latreillana, 

 Kirby, an insect which has been unusually common the 

 present year in this vicinity . 



Xlie Little Cicada — G. 0. Hardeman, Summit, 

 Mo. — The small Cicada collected by you some time ago 

 on the iirairie, is a variety of C. parviila. Say, as kindly 

 determined by Mr. XJhler, of Baltimore. It dift'ers 

 slightly from Say's description, and we were a little 

 puzzled with it. It is widely distributed, and occurs 

 more especially on the low grounds. 



Xlie Brown IHantispian— (?. G. B. — Your in- 

 sect, which "plays so curiously with his hands," and 

 looks not unlike a miniature Camel-cricket, is the Man- 

 tispa Irunnea of Say. It is one of our most common 

 species, and being predacious, is, of course, beneficial. 

 The green Tiger-beetle is Tetrachacirginica. (A. E., I, 

 Fig, 45.) 



Golden Xortoisc-beetic on Gooseberry — W. 



T. Bell, FranMin, Pa. — The pretty golden beetle which 

 you found on a gooseberry leaf, is the above-named 

 insect (Cassida auHchalceu, Pal)r., A. E., 1, Fig. 178, 

 a). It doubtless wandered on to the k;ooseberry leaf 

 from some other plant belonging to the Convolvulus 

 family. 



Small Reddisb Snout-beetle on Apple^-/as. 



Weed, Muscatine, /oioa.— The small reddish or rufous 

 snout-beetle, only 0.10 inch long, and distinguished 

 principally by a line of white hairs, more or less con- 

 spicuous, extending from the white scutel to the head, 

 is the Thorn Anthonomus [A. cratcegi, Walsh*), a 

 species which breeds in many difl'erent galls made by 

 either Plant-lice, Saw-flies, or Gall-gnats. From the 

 fact that you found it witli its snout fully imbedded in 

 au apple, \X perhaps breeds in this fruit also. It is 

 not a small Four-humiJed curcuho. No insects change 

 or grow after once arriving at the perfect or imago 

 state. 



"i'. E. s, p.. yr. p. am, 



