28 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Having submitted it to Di-. T. C. Hilgard, of 

 St. Louis, who has made the study of our grasses 

 a specialty, he determined it to be the Vilfa 

 vaginceflora (Torrey), a species wliich delights 

 in barren and sandy fields, and is quite common 

 westward and southward. " Grasshoppers " are 

 voracious creatures, and pass their food very 

 rapidly, and from the construction of their 

 mandibles, would not be likely to masticate a 

 minute hard seed such as this produces. It is 

 therefore not impossible that the seed was 

 brought by them from the ban-en plains west of 

 the Missouri river, and passed with their ex- 

 creta, which, covering the land, would form a 

 rich manure, and give the grass a vigorous 

 start. — ^Eds.] 



' • » > 



AN APPLE GROWING ON A GRAPE VINE. 



A Vegetable Phenomenon. — In the garden of 

 Capt. David B. Moore, Lexington, Va. , there is grow- 

 ing on a grape vine a fully developed apple . On one 

 side of the apple is an appearance of vrhat might have 

 been a grape bloom. This interesting lums natwroe. is, 

 as far as we know, without precedent, and ol course 

 has attracted marked attention and caused no little 

 speculation in the circle learned in such matters about 

 Lexington. The prevailing opinion, we learn, is that 

 an apple bloom faUing aooidently upon a grape bloom 

 became incorporated with it and produced the result: 

 but, if so. Is it not singular that such an accident had 

 never occurred before? And, if so, again , does it not 

 teach that the grape and apple may be grafted on each 

 other? We hope the pomologists ot Lexington wiU note 

 very carefully aU the phenomena of this freak of nature, 

 and that they wiU have the apple photographed , vrith a 

 portion of the vine, before its removal, for engraving 

 and pubUcation in Horticultural journals. — B^ohmoiM 

 Whig. 



The above is finding its way into many of 

 our agricultural papei-s, and various are the 

 editorial surmises and explanations. "We think 

 that a little knowledge of Entomology will 

 alona solve the mystery, and incline to believe 

 that the so-called apple is . simply a gall, 

 caused by a little two-winged gnat belong- 

 ing to the same family as the wheat midge ; or 

 what we technically call a cecidomyidous gall. 

 "We are well acquainted with several large galls 

 of this character, which occur on the grape-vine, 

 one of which bears a close resemblance to an 

 apple, and we shall soon take occasion to figure 

 and describe them. This is our explanation, 

 without having seen the curiosity. Meanwhile, 

 we await developments. 



TICKS AND TEXAS FEVER, 



There is a prevailing opinion amongst certain 

 classes, that the ticks which are found on the 

 cattle which die of Texas fever are actually the 

 cause of the disease. In view of this fact, speci- 

 mens of these ticks have been sent us for exam- 

 ination, from different localities in Illinois, and 



they are identical with . those we have ourselves 

 examined upon diseased cattle in St. Louis, and 

 are but the common cattle tick. It is exceed- 

 ingly improbable that they have anything to do 

 with the disease, although it is barely possible 

 that they may communicate the infection from ^y 

 the Texas cattle to our native herds. 



SCIENTIFIC SYMBOLS. 



The sign $ is used in natural history as 

 an abbreviation for the word male, the sign 

 $ for female, and the sign 9 foi" neuter. 

 Since in insects the sexes of the same spe- 

 cies are often quite dissimilar, we shall fre- 

 quently use these signs with our illustrations, 

 as an index to the sex of the insect figured. In 

 astronomy the first sign denotes the planet Mars, 

 and the second the planet Venus. The sign ? 

 has been known for centuries by the name of 

 " crux ansata," or the cross with the handle to 

 it, and occurs profusely on old Egyptian mon- 

 imients. 



A SWARM OF BUTTERFLIES. 



V" 



About the 1st of September we received from 

 Mr. W. B. Davis, editor of the Wisconsin 

 Farmer, two specimens of the butterfly, here- 

 with illustrated. Accompanying the specimens 

 was a description of their sudden appearance in 

 vast swarms, in different parts of the city of 

 Madison, "Wisconsin. "We subsequently received 

 other specimens of the same species from Mr. 

 Milo Barnard, of Manteno, Illinois, with similar 

 accounts of its appearance in great multitudes. 



CKg- 200 



Colors — Black, white and yelli 



[Fig. 21.] The butterfly is the Danais 



archippus of Fabricius, and 

 though one of our most com- 

 mon, is yet one of our most 

 beautiful species. The cater- 

 pillar (Fig. 20) feeds upon the 

 different kinds of milkweed ■ 

 (Asclepias), and attains its full 

 growth about the end of Au- 

 gust, when, after suspending 

 btack?"""'''"' ^°'^ °-''* itself by the hind legs to the 

 under side of a leaf, it soon transforms to a 



