340 



THE AMBEICAN 



Tall Ariny-"Worm— ^. Eelsey, Ottawa, Kansas. — 

 The worms you send, wliieli are called tlie "Anny- 

 worm," and wliicli have appeared in such numbers as 

 to alarm the farmers in yoiu- locality, are not the true 

 Army-worm, but a very closely allied species. Indeed, 

 they look so much alike, that most persons, not ento- 

 mologists, would confound them together. The true 

 Army-worm {Zeucania unipuncta) never occurs so late in 

 the season, but appears in your locality in May, and is 

 never seen after the end of June; it also conlines its 

 attacks to cereals, and if you have access to our Second 

 Missouri Report, you will there find a full account of it. 

 The worm you send, on the contrary, mostly appears 

 in the fall of the year, and though it is very fond of lior- 

 ing into the green ears of corn, yet it attacks all other 

 grain, and even turnips and other garden truck. This 

 worm was described in our First Report (p. 88) as the 

 Wheat Cutworm, from specimens received from Mr. 

 T. R. Allen, in the fall of 1868; but when we consider 

 its general habits, and the close resemblance which it 

 bears to the true Army-worm,thenameof "Fall Army- 

 worm," by which it is generally known, becomes very 

 appi'opriate. We did not succeed in breeding the worms 

 two years ago, and the natural history of this species so 

 far remains a closed book, which, however, we soon 

 expect to unlock. This worm is at present (Sept. 10, '70) 

 doing much damage in many parts of Missouri, and the 

 same remedies and preventives employed against the 

 Aimy-worm should be iised here. 



(?. Pauls, Eureka, ifi;.— Tour worms are the same 

 species referred to above. 



Slug's on. Plum trees— Mrs. Frank Taylor, Canton, 

 S. 7".— The slugs that have been doing so much damage 

 on your plum trees are, in all probability, the common 

 Cherry-slug (Seland/ria cerasi, Peek.), and you will find 

 the proper remedies suggested on page 29G of the last 

 number. 



I-arva o* Imperial moth ; Xhoas Swallo-w- 

 tail— ff«o. M. Dodge, Oldo, Ills.— The large worm you 

 describe, and which you found feeding on maple, is 

 the larva of the Imperial Moth {Dryoeampa imperialis, 

 Drury). The immense black and yellow swallow-tail 

 butterfly is Pwpilio Thoas, Linn. 



Kiarg-e Asilus Fly — L. G. Safer, Miealetli, Ind.— 

 The two large Two-winged flies are c? 2 "f the Verte- 

 brate Asilus (Asilus vertelratus, Say), which, however, 

 belongs to the more modern genus Promachus. These 

 flies are cannibals, and quite ravenous, two allied species 

 {Promaahus Bastardii, Loew., and Asilus Missowiensis, 

 Riley) being great bee-kiUers, and consequently to be 

 dreaded by every apiarian. The large pill-like galls 

 which vou find on the ground below white oak trees 

 are apparently undescribed. We shall inform you fur- 

 ther as soon as we breed the fly. 



mole CricUet — V. K. Deyo, MaTcanda, Mis. — The in- 

 sect you send is the common northern Mole-cricket 

 ( Grijllotalpa lorealis, Burm.) It is fossorial in its habits , 

 living in underground galleries and feeding on the roots 

 of plants. 



Tlie Imperial Dryoeampa — Samuel Willard, 

 Springfield, His.— The large yellow and blood-browu 

 moth is cJ Dryoeampa Dnpmalis, Drury. 



ff. W. Copley Alton, Ills.— The large worm foiuid on 

 a gate-post is the larva of the above. 



Hog-caterpillar of tUe Vine — S. V. Hoyes, Anna, 



Us.—TW is your insect. (See pp. giM of this vol.) 



A rare capture in Illinois — IT. S. JSontell, ISvans- 

 ton. His. — The large sulphur or citron-yellow butterfly, 

 with a large quadrate orange patch near the middle of 

 the front wings, and with the posterior part of the hind 

 wings also more or less orange, is'^Callydrias philea, 

 Linn., the largest species of tlie genus. Its habitat is 

 usually given as Brazil, St. Domingo and Cuba, and the 

 fact of your capturing it in northern Illinois is interest- 

 ing, and its occurrence there very exceptional. Indeed, 

 we do not think the species was ever taken in Illinois 

 before. We have here another instance of that curious 

 law which we have on several occasions referred to , 

 namely, that many insects which on the Atlantic sea- 

 board only occur in southerly latitudes, are often foiuid 

 in quite a high latitude in the valley of the Mississippi. 

 ;We have now in our cabinet a si)ecimen of that large 

 Vand magnificent moth, Thysania Zenohia, Cram., which 

 was last year taken by Prof. D. S. Sheldon, at Griswold 

 College, Davenport, Iowa, though Vve know of no 

 hitherto recorded instance of its oocui'rence anywhere 

 near so far north. ' 



Hag-'motb Iiarva — D. M. Hunter, Meadville, Pa. 

 —Your curious worm (Fig. 209) found ou a young apple 

 [liR. 200.] tree, and which we herewith 



illustrate, is the larva of the 

 Hag-moth (Limacodes* pithicium, 

 Sm. and Ab"b.) which WaSS-e- 

 ferred to on page 25 of this vol- 

 ume. When this worm is 

 handled the long fleshy append- 

 ages not unfrequently become 

 detached, and when spinning 

 Color- Brown. up jt always detaches them of its 



own accord, and manages to fiisten them to the outside of 

 its round cocoon. The moth is of a dusky brown color, 

 the front wings variegated with light yellowish-brown. 

 e. Pauls, EureM, J/o.— You wiU recognize your worm 

 in the above figure. 



Insects named — Mrs. E. U. B., Bar Mills, Me. — 

 The black, yellow and orange larvse on Parsnip are those, 

 of the Asterias Swallow-tail (Papilio asterias), quite 

 common, and repeatedly referred to in our answers. 

 The pretty yellow and rose-colored moth is the Flowery 

 Primrose Moth {Alaria Jloi-ida, Guen.)' Its larva feeds 

 on the different species of Evening Primrose (<2?»o</i«'a), 

 and the moth itself may often be captured early in the 

 morning in the calyxes of the flowers. 



Some Friends and Foes— I^c. G. W. Spauldmg, 

 Rose Hill, Mo.— The banded bug found on rose bushes 

 is the Many-banded Robber (Harpaetor cinctus. Fig. 44 

 of Vol. I). The large ladybird is the 15-Spotted Mysia 

 [Mysia 15-punclata) ; and the still larger black Ground- 

 beetle, with coppery spots on the wing-covers, is the 

 Fiery Ground-beeetle ( Calosoma calidum, Fabr., Fig. 46 

 of Vol. I.) AU these three are thorough cannibals, and 

 beneficial. The two large long-horned beetles, bred 

 from grape roots, are both males of the Tile-horned Pri- 

 onus (Prionus inibrieornis). 



Xlie Royal Horned Caterpillar— Z*;'. J. T. 

 Hodgen, St. Louis, Mo.—Yom: immense larva on Per- 

 simmon is the above-named insect. It formed the sub- 

 ject of the plate to our first volume. 



Dried up— X. P.— The larva in the rose-bud had 

 become too dry to recognize . 



*This Iniect belongs to the genus flnietron of Grote & Robinson, 



