THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



49 



dictiou, to our list of Potato-bugs, thus swelliug 

 the whole number from ten up to eleven. 

 "Whenever Blister-beetles of a jet-black color 

 are found eating potato vines in the latter part 

 of August or in September, they probably be- 

 long to this species ; but whenever such insects 

 occur in July, or early in August, tliey will in 

 all likelihood be found to be the same Black-rat 

 Blister-beetle wliich we have illustrated on page 

 24of]Sro. 2, Fig. lib. 



We have heard from so many sources that 

 botli the Striped and the Ash-gray Blister-bee- 

 tles prey not unfrequently upon the larvas of 

 the Colorado Potato-bug, that the fact may now 

 be considered as indisijutable. As authorities 

 for these statements we would quote, among 

 many others, Abel Proctor of Jo Davies county, 

 111., and T. D. Plumb of Madison, Wis. 



' ' When dog eats clog, then comes the tug of wiir ; ' ' 



when rogues fall out, honest men come by their 

 own. And now that certain potato-bugs have 

 taken to feeding upon other potato bugs, the 

 American farmer may justly lift up his voice 

 and shout for joy. 



POPULAR NAMES AND SCIENTIFIC NAMES. 



While, to suit the taste of the general reader, 

 we have adopted the plan of always giving the 

 popular name of an insect, as well as the scien- 

 tific name, we are not insensible to the great 

 uncertainty in the application of the former, espe- 

 cially when unaccompanied by the corresponding 



CFig. 49.] 



Color— Livid brown. 



technical term. If, for instance, a person tells 

 us that his garden is ruined by "AVire-worms," 

 how are we to know whether he means a snake- 

 like kind of thousand-legged worm (clans 3fi/ria- 

 poda), belonging to the genus Jul us (Fig. 49), 

 [Fig. 60.] or the larva of a Click-beetle 

 (Mater family, Fig. 50), such as is 

 represented in Figure 51? For both 



Color— Iloncy j'cllow. 



these kinds of animals — the second 

 Color-Pitchy black, of wMch is a truc iuscct, while the 

 first is not — are populai'ly known in America as 

 " Wire-worms." To give a second example of 

 the wide difference in the meaning of the same 

 popular name: In the United States, a genus 



belonging to the class of Spiders (Arachnida) , 

 with a small oval body and enormously long and 

 slender legs (Phcdangium) , is popularly called 

 "Father Longlegs," or "Daddy Longlegs," 

 while everywhere in England the very same 

 name is applied to a genus of large long-legged 

 Gnats (Tipula), wliich are properly called in 

 English "Crane-flics," but which are some- 

 times in the United States dubbed "Gallinip- 

 pers," and absurdly supposed to have the same 

 power of drawing blood as the common Mos- 

 quito. 



Among animals more highly organized 

 than iiisects_, we meet with the very same un- 

 certainty in the use of popular names. If, for 

 example, a sportsman chooses to tell us that he 

 has shot ten "partridges," before M'e can find 

 out what particular bird he has killed, we have 

 to enquire in what State he was raised. If he 

 learned the English language in one of the 

 Northern States, he means that he has Idlled ten 

 Ruffed Grouse or Pheasants ( Telrao umbellus) ; 

 if in one of the Middle or Western States, he 

 means that he lias killed ten Quails (Ortyx vir- 

 f/iniana). As to the popular term "Gopher," 

 it is absolutely impossible even to guess, when 

 we hear that a hundred "Gophers" have been 

 trapped on a particular farm, whether the Thir- 

 teen-stripcd Ground-squirrel (Spermophilus 13- 

 Uneatus), or the Pouched Gopher (Geomys 

 hursarius) is referred to ; for these two widely 

 distinct animals are both of them, in popular 

 American parlance, called indiscriminately 

 " Gophers." 



The modern fasliion of christening every 

 organic being b}- two difi'crent and often very 

 distinct names — the one scientific, the other 

 popular — often leads to such inconveniences and 

 anomalies as these, not only in Zoology, but 

 also in Botany. For example, the Dvcr's Oak 

 of botanists (Quercus tinctoria) is popularly 

 called " the Black Oak," wliile the true Black 

 Oak of botanists (Quercus nigra) is known to 

 woodsmen under the name of " the Black Jack 

 Oak." Again, two entirely distinct plants 

 (Laclinanthes tinctoria and Ceanothus ameri- 

 canus) are both called by the English name of 

 " Picd-root;" and two quite diflerent trees, the 

 one a true Poplar (Populus), the other a Tulip- 

 tree (Liriodendron), go by the popular name of 

 Poplar, the one in the East theotherin the West; 

 while everywhere in the United States another 

 of the true Poplars is popularly dubbed, not 

 Poplar, but Cottonwood. On the whole, popu- 

 lar names, from the uncertainty and looseness 

 with which the.v are applied, are a far greater 

 nuisance to the priesthood of science, tlian the 

 most crabbed and crack-jaw scientific names can 

 possibly be to the laity. 



