THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



13 



Upon a cherry tree, with a fair sprinlcling of 

 fruit still remaining on it, I observe great 

 numbers of a much larger bug belonging to the 

 same fiimily, (the 3fetapo(h'tis [7-hinHchns'\ 7)as-^ 

 aliis of Say— Fig. G, b). Dr. Hull tells me that 

 this insect ruins a great many cherries by 

 puncturing them witii its beak and sucking out 

 their juices; but that it only attacks sweet 

 cherries. Say describes it as inhabiting 

 " Georgia, Florida, and Louisiana;" but I find 

 it everywhere common enough in Illinois, and 

 near Rock Island it is quite abundant. Like 

 almost all the other species of the famil\- to 

 which it belongs, it stinks with a 40-bedbug 

 power. 



Among the cannibal insects which commonly 

 fall into the " curculio catcher," and which 

 should be carefully preserved from destruction, 

 two deserve especial notice. The tirst is a large 

 stinking bug (Anna «pMiO«(7, Dallas), which is* 

 peculiarly savage throughout the State of 

 Illinois upon the larva3 of the Colorado potato 

 bug, puncturing them with its beak and sucking 

 out tlieir juices. Most of the family, it may be 

 observed, to which this bug belongs (Scutellera 

 family), are sap-suckers; but a few genera (in- 

 cluding Anna and Stiretrus) , are blood-suckers, 

 and prey indiscriminately upon other insects. 

 This bug we shall subsequently figure and 

 illustrate in an article upon the Potato Bugs 

 and their Cannibal foes. The second insect is 

 also a true bug (JEvagoras virklis, Uhler MS.),' 

 but belongs to a very distinct family, which is 

 pretty numerous in species, and all the species 

 of whicli, without a single exception, are canni- 

 bals (Eeduvius family) . A figure of it will be 

 found in the margin, (Fig. 7). Its larva, which 

 is very common upon various forest trees, 

 scarcely differs from the perfect cFig. 7.] 

 winged bug, except in being small- 

 er, in lacking wings, and iu being 

 covered with a glutinous sub- 

 stance, to which little pieces of 

 dust and dirt are commonly seen 

 to adhere. A species of the same 

 family (Eeduvius persojiatus), 

 which, in Europe, has the very 

 gratifying propensity of pi-eying ish green, 

 upon the bed bug, is characterized Sf.n thefemaie 

 by the same peculiarity. 



Even at this early date, I find many full- 

 gi-own larvffi of the common curculio in peaches 

 and apricots, often as many as three or four 

 in a single fruit, and from about half a 

 dozen of them the larva had already eaten its 

 way out and gone under ground. On the other 

 hand, many of these larv£e are still quite small. 



Color — Yellow- 



I say nothing of the different insects found 



here and elsewhere upon tliegi-ape vine, because 



^n a future article we propose to give a full 



account, copiously illustrated by figures, of the 



various species that infest this important plant. 



Dr. Hull having kindly offered to drive me 

 round in his buggy to see some of the neighbor- 

 ing fruit growers, we conclude to start before 

 the morning is too far advanced. At Mr. Kings- 

 bury's I am shown a pear tree pretty badly 

 afflicted with the native or white bark louse, 

 {Aspidiotus Harrisii). Here also we find 

 numerous full grown larvae of the curculio,often 

 as many as two or three in a single fruit, in a 

 sweet early apple known to Downing as " tlie 

 Eed and Green Sweet." Dr. Hull was previous- 

 ly of the opinion that the larva of the curculio 

 never, under any circumstances, matured in the 

 apple ; but on comparing these larvaj with others 

 taken from the peach, he was satisfied that they 

 were genuine, full grown curculio larva?, and 

 candidly confessed that he had been mistaken. 

 Indeed, Mr. Eiley had previously published the 

 fact, that he had actually bred curculios from 

 the Early Harvest apple.* Probably the truth of 

 the matter is, that both in early peaches and 

 iu early apples, and perhaps in early pears also, 

 the curculio larva matures and thrives, while 

 in late peaches and iu late apples, and in late 

 pears it fails to mature a«d perishes more or 

 less prematurely. 



Hence we drive to Mr. D. E. Brown's and 

 Mr. S. B. Johnson's, at both of which places we 

 are unanimously appointed a committee of two 

 to pronounce on the merits of certain medicinal 

 fluids extracted from the fruit of the grape 

 vine. I pronounce them all exceedingly good; 

 but the manuscript of my journal being 

 here, from some unaccountable cause, strangely 

 blurred and blotted, I have only an indistinct 

 recollection that Dr. Hull thought one of 

 the beverages to taste decidedly of the cask. 

 Certainly this was a very safe verdict to bring 

 in, and not so risky a one as that of the two Cin- 

 cinnati wine tasters, one of whom was of opin- 

 ion that a certain wine tasted of leather, while 

 the other stoutly maintained that it tasted of 

 iron ; both verdicts being eventually justified by 

 a single leather-headed carpet tack being dis- 

 covered at the bottom of the cask from which 

 the wine liad been drawn. 



Thence we drive to the fine place owned by 

 the Messrs. Eiehl, on the banks of the Missis- 

 sippi, some little distance tibovc Alton. Here, 

 after taking dinner, we sallv forth to hunt up 



•See his iniper in Trims. 111. Stiite Ilort. Society, 18G7, 

 p. 114. 



