38 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



" H.a,rTest-1>ng;s " in America, misiianied 

 "JTiggrers." — Dr. M. MoKenzie, Ceittremlle, Mo.- — The 

 "microscopic, dingy, brick-red insects, which," as 

 you say , ' ' cause a ti'oublesome eruption on the human 

 skin in this country, but do not burrow under it like the 

 / minute Mite (Aoaiiis scahiei, Linn .) that produces the 

 common itch," are not tnie insects, but mites, and 

 belong to the same class (Arachnida) as the spiders. 

 They difler, however, from almost all the genera of this 

 class by having, not eight, but only six legs, Uke a true 

 insect. We have now before us specimens of what is 

 apparently the same species as yours, received some 

 time ago from Dr. Carpenter, of Kelley Island, Ohio, 

 with a statement that it "causes there inflamed itching 

 blotches on chiltlren in the summer, burying itself un- 

 der the skin in a few hours;" and we were in- 

 formenl last year, by Dr. HuU, of Alton, Ills., that a 

 currant patch of his swarmed so prodigiously with what , 

 fi-om his desci'iption, must be the same species, that it 

 was more than the truit was worth to gather it. The 

 correct Eughsh name of this little creature is "the 

 American Harvest-bug. ' ' Avery closely aUied species, 

 called in Europe the "Harvest-bug," (Leptus autmn- 

 nalis , Linn . ) has long been known there to attack the 

 legs of the laborers in harvest t,i,me, "burying itself in 

 the ilesh at the root of the hairs, and producing thereby 

 an intolerable itching and inflanunation . " (KirTry und, 

 Spence.) Like our American Harvest-bug, this little 

 pest is invisible, or nearly so, to the naked eye; but it 

 differs from ours in being ol a most brilliant scarlet 

 color, instead of dull brick-red or dull orange color. 

 In South Illinois, in Kentucky, and in several of 

 the Southern States, our American Harvest-bugs are 

 popularly known as ' ' Jiggers . ' ' The true ' ' Jigger , ' ' 

 however — or, more correctly speaking, the true 

 ' ' Chigoe , ' ' (Sarcopsylla penetrans, Linn . ) — is not a Mite ^ 

 but a genuine Flea, and consequently a genuine Insect. 

 Moreover, it is never found within the present limits of 

 the United States, but is peculiar to such tropical or 

 sub-tropical countries as Cuba, Central America, 

 Hayti, &c. , where it is an awful pest, burrowing under 

 the toe-nails and in other tender parts of the body, and 

 raising there a whole family of young Chigoes, at the 

 expense of us gi-eat Lords of the Creation. Hence, it 

 is as incorrect to call om- United States Hai-vest-bugs 

 "Jiggers" as it would be to call our United States 

 WUd-cat a ' 'Lion. ' ' 



Insects named. — /. T. Smith, St. Paul, Minn. — 

 1st . The Plant-hce are the common species {ApTiis mali, 

 Linn.), that infests the leaves of the apple-tree in all 

 the northern States. 2d. The round mass of cottony 

 matter, about the size of a liickory nut, found on the 

 leaf of a gai'den plant, contains numerous cocoons of a 

 small i>arasitic ichneumon fly (genus Microgaster) , from 

 most of which the flies actually developed on the road. 

 In the larva state these flies had fed upon the Uving 

 body of some leaf-feeding caterpillar, after destroying 

 which they emerged simultaneously, and spun up to 

 pass into the pupa state. 3d. What you consider as 

 three pupas, arranged side by side on an apple leaf, are 

 the dried up bodies of three young larviE of a Ught 

 brown moth known as Notodonta concinna, Sm. & Ab- 

 bott. The moth is figured in PI. vi. Fig. 11, and the 

 caterpillar on p. 425 of Harris's "Injurious Insects." 

 Inside of each of these is the young of some 4-winged 

 parasite belonging to the Iclmewnwn family. From the 

 young larvsB of Suchates cegle, Harris, which feed on 

 the milkweed, and which may often be found fastened 

 tightly to the leaf and contracted in a similar manner, 

 we have bred the Campoplex fugitivus of Say. 



mag-nlfyingr Glasses. — J. &. Fleck,J)ixon, Ills, — 

 For ordinary purposes we would recommend the com- 

 mon treble lens, mounted in a horn case, convenient 

 for carrying in the pocket. With this instniment, you 

 may use either one, two^ or aU three lenses together, 

 according to the magnifying power requti-ed. If a still 

 higher power is required, a Stanhope lens will be found 

 very useful; the only objection to it being that the 

 focus is so very short, that it requires to be used very 

 carefully vrith dried specimens, for fear of breaking their 

 legs and antennie. The Coddiiigton lens has a longer 

 focus than the Stanhope, and magnifies very nearly as 

 much, but the price of it is very high— about $10. AU 

 kinds of lenses may be procured from Jas. W. Queen & 

 Co. , 924 Chestnut street, Philadelphia. 



arapes ciit off by tlie Tree CricUet— /. JI. 



Tice, St. Louis, Mo. — You are quite right in supposing 

 that the tree cricket ((Eoantlms niveus) severs your 

 grapes from the bunches and sometimes cuts oft an en- 

 tire bunch. We have ourselves caught the little ras- 

 cals at it, and have received specimens ti'om B. L. 

 Bjngsbury of Alton , lU., accompanied with the same 

 accusation. Other "hoppers," such as the so-called 

 Grasshoppers, and probably some of the Leaf-hoppers , 

 no doubt, share in this mischievous work, but until 

 we catch them in the act we must lay all the blame to 

 the Tree-cricket. The accompanying illustrations. 

 Fig. 30, representing the female, and Fig. 31 the 



[Fig. 30.] 



Color — Greeu 

 [FiK. 31.] 



male, vfill enable 

 the grape grower 

 to recognize this 

 grape pruner. — 

 Though they have 

 been known to 

 destroy plant-lice 

 and thus to some extent redeem 

 their character, we believe the 

 mischief greatly out-balances the 

 good which they do, and therefore 

 advise their destruction. They 

 deposit their eggs in grape canes; 

 in raspberry and blackberry canes; 

 and in the twigs of a number of 

 trees aiid shrubs, almost always 

 causing the death of the twig or 

 cane above the punctures. We re- 

 ceived during the summer, numer- 

 ous twigs of the White willow , which 

 were most thoroughly punctured by 

 them, from Uriah Bruner, of Om.aha, Nebraska, with 

 a statement that they had done much damage to this 

 tree. 



The Buff alo Tree-hopper.— PM. Bichrt, Mil- 

 wamkee, Was.— The jumping grass-green insects, about 

 one-third of an inch long, and shaped a good deal hke 

 a beech-nut, save that they have ashai-p thorn, or horn, 

 projecting laterally on each side of the thorax, like the 

 horn of an ox or a buffalo, are the Buffalo Tree-hopper 

 {Geresa iuhalus, Fabr.) This Tree-hopper is very com- 

 mon on a variety of trees, the sap of which it sucks with 

 its pointed beak; but, like all the other true bugs, (or- 

 ders Beteroptera and Homoptera, to the latter of which 

 the "Tree-hopper," o\ mmiyrads family, belongs,) it 

 has no jaws to eat with. Tou saythatit "injures your 

 grape vines and Japan Mies, by ringing the leaves, so 

 that the wind will break them ofl", many lilies being ac- 

 tually tilled in this manner. " Dr. Fitch mentions that 

 this insect attacks the leaves of the locust in the same 

 manner, "stationing Itself in the angle where the leaf- 

 stalk arises from the limb . ' ' You vpill find it figured by 

 this writer in the second volume of Reports on Noxio^is 

 Insects, plate ii. fig. 4. The best remedy against the 

 depredations of this little foe of yours is to catch him 

 and kill him. Something, however, may be effected by 

 destroying their eggs, which are laid in a short, curved 

 row, in a series of punctures made by the ovipositor of 

 the female in the bark and sapwood . 



A Scavenger mistalten for a Toe — Simmons & 

 Tillson, Vi7mjardists , Sulphur Sjn-ings, Mo.— The large 

 balls of earth and dung, measuring one and a half inches 

 in diameter, and containing a large white grub with six 

 legs and a humped and swollen back, are the dung-balls 

 of a large black dung-beetle known as Copris Carolina. 

 During the months of July and August these beetles 

 frequently fly into our rooms of an evening, with a 

 heavy buzzing flight. You say, ' 'the «pecimens w.ere 

 found ten inches below the surface, imbedded in the 

 hard clay. They wei-e five in number, in a row about 

 two inches apart. From its resemblance to the grape- 

 vine borer which has lately made its appearance, we 

 think it may be that larva in the pupa state." The 

 pupiE of beetles may always be distinguished from lar- 

 va3 by their incapacity to move any other part but the 

 abdomen and by their having wing-sheaths . The balls 

 were placed where you found them by the parent bee- 

 tle, and similiir ones are often to be found in the clay 

 ditches and clay banks around St. Louis. These bee- 

 tles are to be considered as beneficial rather than iiyu- 

 rious, as they simply clear away and bury ofl'ensive ex- 

 crement. 



