6 



THE AMEEICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



eyes, he is altogether skeptical as to the prac- 

 tical utility of lightning rods ; and although all 

 astronomers, for the last century and upwards, 

 have been unanimously of opinion that it is the 

 moon that causes the tides ; and although tables, 

 based upon the changes of the moon, and giving 

 the exact time of high and low water at differ- 

 ent geographical points, are found to be within 

 certain limits practically reliable, he yet is bold 

 enough to declare that there is no proof at all 

 that the tides have anything to do with the moon ! 

 At present, nothing is a more frequent cause 

 for disputes and quarrels among neighbors, 

 than for Mr. Jones's breachy hogs to make an 

 irruption by night into Mr. Brown's fields. 

 Perhaps the time may be approaching when 

 this state of things will be reversed; and in- 

 stead of neighbor Brown coming to neighbor 

 Jones with gi'ievous complaints that Jones's hogs 

 have broken into Brown's lot, neighbor Jones 

 Avill be seen striding away in furious wrath and 

 dudgeon to the house of neighbor Brown, 

 swearing and cursing, and bawling out, that 

 two or three nights ago that mean fellow Brown 

 had sneaked over in the dark of the night to his 

 (Jones's) place, let down his (Jones's) fence, and 

 driven his (Jones's) hogs into his own (Brown's) 

 peach oi'chard, where thej^ have ever since been 

 hard at work eating up that darned rascal's 

 wormy peaches. 



INSECT CHANGES. 



There are four stages in the life of every 

 insect: 1st. The egg. 2nd. The larca, popu- 

 larly known as the grub, maggot or caterpillar 

 state. 3rd. The impa, in which state most 

 insects lie dormant, and are incapable of eating. 

 4th. The imago, or perfect winged state. In 

 this last state almost all insects acquire wings, 

 and it is then only that they become capable of 

 engendering and propagating. After existing in 

 the perfect or winged state for a period which 

 varies, according to the species, from several 

 days to several mouths, every insect dies. 

 Neither does any insect grow after it has once 

 reached the perfect winged state, except that in 

 many female insects the abdomen after a time 

 becomes considerably distended by eggs. 



It is a mistake to suppose that bees can change 

 into butterflies, butterflies into bugs, or bugs 

 into beetles. Bees, butterflies, and bugs all of 

 tliem have wings, and therefore they are in- 

 capable of any further changes. 



" Three blow-flies will devour the body of a 

 dead horse as quickly as will a \ion."—Linnmus. 



THE BUGHUNTER IN EGYPT. 



A JOURNAL OF AN ENTOMOLOGICAL TOUR INTO 

 SOUTH ILLINOIS BY THE SENIOR EDITOR. 



Voyage down the Mississippi— The so-called Mormon 

 Plies— Locusts. 



On June 17th, 18G8, I found myself on board 

 the railroad train that connects Fort Madison, 

 at theiliead of the Lower Rapids of the Missis- 

 sippi river, with Keokuk at their foot. On the 

 preceding morning I had left Rock Island on 

 one of the regular packets from that city to Fort 

 Madison. The railroad follows closely along 

 the Iowa bank of the river, and as we traveled 

 along it tlie air was alive with myriads of a 

 pretty Caddis-worm fly (Macronema zebratum, 

 Hagen, Fig. 1, a), about an inch long, and with 

 its wings elegantly t^* '-J 



pied with cream-color 

 and brown. In one of 

 the windows of the 

 railroad car there must 

 have been as much as a 

 liint of them lying 

 dead. This fly, as I 

 learn from one of the 

 natives, is popularly 

 called here the "Mor- 

 mon fly," and had 

 been swarming in a 

 similar manner for 

 the preceding three 

 weeks. On the Upper 

 Rapids, which lie im- 

 mediatelj' above Rock 

 Island, I have noticed 

 it for a long time back 

 to swarm every year, 

 in the same way, but 

 at a somewhat later 

 period. The good 

 folks there sometimes 

 apply the name of 

 "Mormon fly" to this 

 insect, and sometimes 

 to an entirely distinct insect(PaK?i£re?ita hilineata, 

 Say, Fig. 1, b), of about the same size, but with 

 two enormously long tails, which occurs every 

 July about the middle of the month, in prodigious 

 numbers, not on the main channel of the river 

 like the first species, but on that shallow and 

 sluggish arm of the river which divides Rock 

 Island proper, where the Government Arsenal 

 is located, from the main shore of Illinois, 

 whereon stands the city of Rock Island. This 



