THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



31 



off my coat and set to work with a will. After 

 digging among the roots of some eight or ten 

 trees, dead, dying, and about to die, I finally 

 come to the conclusion, that thereuis absolutely 

 no Root-louse work there at all — tliat is, no 

 clubbed and knotted roots such as we always 

 see where these Root-lice have been operating — 

 neither is there the least sign of the very pecu- 

 liar jnouldy-lookiug flossiness emitted from the 

 bodies of these subterranean little foes of the 

 fruit-growers. What, then, caii have caused 

 the death of all these trees ? That is a nut for 

 the Botanists and the Vegetable Physiologists 

 to crack among themselves. It may be a simple 

 disease of the tree ; or it may be a disease of the 

 tree caused by some parasitic fungus ; or it may 

 be caused by the climate, or by the soil, or by 

 electricity. In any event, the death of these 

 unfortunate trees is most certaiulj' not the work 

 of my little friends the Bugs ; and therefore 

 " it is none of my funeral." 



After roaming over friend Huggins's place 

 for several hours with my fly-net, and capturing 

 absolutely nothing at all that was worth a red 

 cent, I finally come to the conclusion that this is 

 the most bug-forsaken couutry I was ever in. 

 So I *adjourn to the house, to examine mine 

 host's collection of insects, where, amongst other 

 rarities, I find a specimen of the bogus Colorado 

 Potato-bug (Doryphora juncta, Germar), which 

 so strikingly resembles the true Colorado Potato- 

 bug {Doryphora 10-lineata, Say), that even Dr. 

 Fitch, the State Entomologist of New York, 

 confounded the two species together. Mr. Hug- 

 gins is quite sure that he captured it in this 

 vicinity, but upon what plant it was found, he 

 has no recollection. 



In justice to a bird, whose character for hon- 

 esty I fear that I have been somewhat instru- 

 mental iu injuring, I ought to add here, that 

 Ml-. Huggins declares that, during the height of 

 the locust season, when these insects were 

 swarming everywhere in his orchard, he once 

 saw a robin catch a single locust ! 



The Rascal Loaf-crnmpler — In the South half of 

 Illinois the Oyster-shell Bark-Ioase dies out when 

 importetl. 



June 24th. 

 I find that the Rascal Leaf-crumpler (JPhycita 

 nebulo, Walsh), wliich certainly does not exist 

 in the neighborhood of Cobden, in South Illi- 

 nois, occurs here in small numbers upon Mr. 

 Huggins's apple-trees. I had previously noticed 

 it near Alton ; and subsequently I met with a 

 few near Champaign. Hence we may set it 



down as found in Northern and Central Illinois, 

 but not in South Illinois. In the Eastern States, 

 so far as is known, this insect does not occur 

 at all. 



After breakfast, Mr. Huggins drives me over 

 to Shipman, a distance of some six miles, to 

 inspect two apple-trees, imported eight years 

 ago from the State of New York, which had 

 become almost entirely covered by the scales of 

 the common Oyster-shell Bark-louse (AspUUotus 

 conchiformis, Gmelin) . He had several months 

 before sent me specimens of Bark-lice taken 

 from these trees. These I had carefully exam- 

 ined and found to be very extensively depre- 

 dated on by the microscopic cannibal Mite, 

 which I have shown to prey upon this insect 

 more or less extensively throughout the Northern 

 States. On our arrival at the orchard where the 

 infested trees had grown, we ascertaij\ed from 

 the owner that he had some little time before 

 followed Mr. Huggins's advice, and cut them 

 down and burnt them. The practical question 

 to be now ascertained was: "Had the Bark- 

 louse spread from the two ti-ees imported from 

 New Yoi'k on to the adjoining trees, and if so, 

 was it still alive and likely to spread still fur- 

 ther?" To solve this problem satisfactorily, 

 would evidently require veiy careful search and 

 examination. Mr, Huggins and myself, there- 

 fore, spent two or thi-ee hours in inspecting with 

 the most minute diligence all the trees sur- 

 rounding the two infected trees, which had 

 formerly stood wide apart from each other on 

 the two opposite sides of the orchard. The re- 

 sult was, that we found some few Bark-louse 

 scales, but only on a single api)le-tree — a dwarf — 

 and only on three boughs of that tree. The 

 question now occurred: "Are these scales all 

 of them old, dead and dry scales, two or three 

 years old, or are they, some or all of them, last 

 year's scales, from which young Bark-lice hatch- 

 ed out this very spring, so that the breed is 

 likely to be propagated by them?" In the for- 

 mer contingency, there would evidently be no 

 young larval Bark-lice on the infested boughs; 

 in the latter contingency, there would be sure 

 to be plenty of them. For every oAe that is 

 familiar with this insect knows, that where the 

 egg-bearing scales are not very abundant, the 

 young lai-vse that hatch out from them do not 

 stray far before they establish a permanent 

 lodgment on the bark. Having brought a good 

 leus with me for the express purpose of solving 

 such questions as these, I now examine the 

 three boughs that we had ascertained to have a 

 few scales upon them. I turn them in all direc- 

 tions, and scrutinize under the lens every speck 



