54 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



ENTOMOLOGICAL ITEMS. 



[From a Letter to the Senior Editor from Isaac Hicks, of North 

 Hempstead, L. I., N. Y.) 



I have not seen a nest of the Tent Caterpillar 

 {Glisiocampa americanci) this year, and only 

 one or two egg nests ; at ■svMch we all rejoice 

 greatly. But the Apple-maggot ( Trypeta pomo- 

 nella), the Codling Moth {Carpocapsa pomo- 

 nella), andtlie Curcnlio, are as abundant as ever. 

 In your recent article, "Birds vs. Insects," in 

 the Prairie Farmer, j^ou expressed the oi)iuiou 

 that the Oriole, which I had seen last year de- 

 stroying hundreds of Tent Caterpillars, by pick- 

 ing sometlaing out of their bellies, was simply 

 picking the smooth, fat, white Ichneumon larvse 

 out of these hairy fellows ; and that, conse- 

 quently, as he was destroying the enemy of onr 

 enemy, he was doing harm instead of good. I 

 liave no doubt now that he was reall)'- eating the 

 parasites in the Tent Caterpillars. My brother 

 tells me that the Oriole is the worst enemy that 

 he has in his vinej^ard — not, like the Catbird, 

 eating a whole grape and flying off as soon as 

 he has satiated his appetite, but slyly pecking 

 holes in a large number of grapes, and spoiling 

 both the appearance and the sale of the fruit. 



We planted some dozen kinds of potatoes tliis 

 year, the Early Rose among them, and we found 

 that the Early Goodrich were nearly eaten up 

 by the Three-lined Leaf-beetle, which is so com- 

 mon here [see Amek. Entomologist, I. p. 26], 

 while the other varieties were scarcely hurt by 

 <_)i it. In consequence of the vines of the Early 

 * V Goodrich being so badly eaten, this variety was 

 }' not as good as formerly, and its value was greatly 

 impaired. Other men that grew the Goodrich 

 noticed the same thing. It is curious that tMs 

 kind should swarm with the Beetles, while the 

 other kinds were nearly exempt. 

 ^ The Apple-maggot ( Trypetapomoiiella, Walsh) 

 prevails witli us in certain kinds of apples only. 

 Jersey Sweet and Porter are their favorites; 

 Gravenstcin and Fall Pippin are so far exempt. 

 In one of oiir orchards the hogs run, and the 

 fruit is but little infested^ the other one, where 

 no hogs are allowed to run, is full of Apple- 

 worms, Apple-maggots, &c. 



• ^ • 



l^°As some of our exchanges may wish to 

 illustrate any article they may copy from the 

 American Extojiologist, we have decided to 

 furnish electrotypes of our wood cuts, at one 

 half the cost of engraving. 



The Ants ascend the trees simi^ly in order 

 to milk their cows, the Plant-lice (Ap)his). — 

 lAnnams. 



MIND HOW YOU PACK INSECTS. 



Irrei^arable damage is sometimes done by 

 carelessness in handling, packing or otherwise 

 disposing of noxious insects. There is an owlet 

 moth {Ilypogymna dispar) common on the con- 

 tinent of Europe, the larvas of wliich in particu- 

 lar years, for example in 1731 and in 1826, 

 swarmed there so prodigiously as to strip almost 

 entirely bare both fruit trees and forest trees, 

 especially the oak. A Massachusetts entomolo- 

 gist, Mr. Trouvelot, recently procured some of 

 the eggs of tliis moth from Europe, for the pur- 

 IDose of studying the natural liistory of the insect 

 in all its stages ; and having accidentally allowed 

 some of the winged moths to escape from him, 

 he has thus introduced this most pernicious pest 

 into New England, where it is spreading i-apid- 

 ly, and whence it will no doubt gradually make 

 its way into all the more northerly States of the 

 Union. We And it stated that specimens of the 

 Colorado Potato-bug were recently received by 

 mail, at the otH.ce of the American Agriculturist, 

 in New York, packed in a very insecure manner. 

 Had but a single imx^regnated female contrived 

 to escape from such a package, it might have 

 been the means of prematurely introducing tliis 

 mischievous pest into the State of New York. 

 We have ourselves received by Express several 

 scores of the living females of the Canker-worm 

 moth, packed in a quinine bottle, without anj^ 

 external wrapper whatever. Had the Express 

 Agent accidentally broken the bottle on the road, 

 the moths would in all probability have escaped, 

 and might likely enough have introduced the 

 breed into somebody's orchard where they had 

 previously been entirely unknown. We repeat, 

 therefore, to all our readers, "mind how you 

 pack insects." 



THE APPLE GROWING ON A GRAPE VINE. 



The "vegetable phenomenon" in the shape of 

 an apple growing on a grape vine, in the garden 

 of Capt. D. E.Moore, of Lexington, Va., and 

 which excited the curiosity of the savans in that 

 vicinity, turns out to be the very thing which 

 we surmised it would, namely, a Cecidomyicl- 

 ous gall. (See p. 28 of No. 2.) 



Mr. Jacob Fuller, of Lexington, Va., in a 

 communication to the Southern Planter and 

 Farmer for October, demonstrates that it is too 

 high on the cane, and on the wrong side of the 

 stem for fruit ; and, after being taken from the 

 vine, it proved to be no fruit at all, but only a 

 xvoody excrescence, which upon dissection, was 

 found to contain orange maggots. 



This gall has never been described, and, as Ave 

 intimated in onr last, we shall soon take occa- 

 sion to figui-e it. 



