THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



91 



The transformations of this insect were first 

 recorded by tlie junior editor of this paper, in 

 •tlie Prairie Farmer oiWAx 2otli, 18G8. Tlie pa- 

 rent flies (Fig. 76, 5) may be seen hanging to and 

 flying around strawberry vines about the begin- 

 ning of May, in North Illinois, Iowa and Mich- 

 igan ; in all three of which States we know them 

 to occur. They are dull and inactive in the cool 

 of the morning and evening, and at these hours 

 are seldom noticed. They are of a pitehy black 

 color with two rows of large transverse, dull 

 Avhitish spots upon the abdomen. The female, 

 with the saw-like instrument peculiar to the in- 

 sects of the great family (Tenthredinida'), to 

 which she belongs, deposits her eggs, by a most 

 curious and interesting process, in the stems of 

 the plant, clinging the while to the hairy sub- 

 stance with which these stems arc covered. The 

 eggs are white, opaqvie, and 0.03 of an inch long, 

 and may be readily perceived upon splitting the 

 stalk, though the outside orifice at which they 

 were introduced is scarcely visible. They soon 

 increase somewhat in bulk, causing a s.welling 

 of the stalk, and hatch in two weeks — more or 

 less according to the temperature — and from the 

 middle of May to the beginning of June the 

 worms attract attention by the innumerable small 

 holes which they make in the leaves. The colors 

 of these worms are dirty yellow and gray-green, 

 and when not feeding, they rest on the under 

 side of the leaf, curled up in a spiral manner, 

 the tail occupying the centre, and fall to the 

 ground at the slightest disturbance. After 

 changing their skin four times they become full 

 grown, when they measure about 5 of an inch. 



At this season they descend into the ground, 

 and form a very weak cocoon'of earth, the inside 

 being made smooth by a sort of gum. In this 

 they soon change to pnpa% from which are pro- 

 duced a second brood of flics by the end of June 

 and beginning of July. Under the influence of 

 July weather, the v.iiole progress of egg-depos- 

 iting, etc., is rapidly repeated, and the second 

 brood of worms descend into the earth, during 

 the fore part of August, and form their cocoons, 

 in which they remain in the cateri)illar state, 

 through the fall, v.-inter and early spring months, 

 till the middle of April following, when they 

 become pupae and flies again as related. This 

 fly has received the name of Emphytus macu- 

 latus by Norton, in allusion, doubtless, to the 

 whitish transverse lines on the abdomen. 



With tlie facts here given, it will be no diffi- 

 cult matter for any one interested to make war 

 in his own way. The worm's habit of falling to 

 the ground enables us to destroy them with a 

 solution of cresylic acid soap, or any other de- 



coction, without necessarily sprinkling the vines ; 

 while, knowing that they are in the earth during 

 the fall and early spring, when thei'c is no fruit, 

 the ground may be stirred and poultry turned 

 in to good advantage. 



FUNGOID GROWTHS. 



The xjopular idea used to be that mushrooms, 

 toadstools, funguses and the like, can grow only 

 from decaying matter whether animal or veget- 

 able. But it is now clearly established that va- 

 rious fungoid growths take their origin from 

 living plants and from living animals. For 

 example, the notorious Black-knot is a fungus, 

 although like a variety of other such plants it is 

 inhabited by the larva? of many insects; and 

 moreover, in all probability the Black-knot that 

 infests Cherry trees is distinct from that which 

 infests Plum trees. Again, the well known Cedar 

 apples on the Red Cedar are funguses, and not as 

 Dr.Fitch supposed, galls producedby gall-making 

 insects. Lastly we occasionally find certain Pig- 

 nut Hickories, with their twigs swelling out into 

 gnarled blackish excrescences often as big as a 

 hen's egg ; and these excrescences, as we have 

 experimentally ascertained, are not caused by 

 any insect, but are most probably of fungoid 

 origin. 



In the above three cases, the fungoid 

 growth is developed from the twig of the 

 infested tree. In other cases it is developed 

 from the leaf. For instance, the common Mildew 

 on the Grape-vine is nothing but a microscopic 

 fungus ; and upon the leaves of the wild Crab 

 orange-colored patches are in certain seasons 

 very abundant, with the lower sm-face of the patch 

 exhibiting a curious ring of dark projecting dots, 

 each of which is hollow, and crowned with 

 a fringe of minute hairs at tip. This last is a 

 true fungoid growth, aud was described as such 

 more than 30 years ago by Schweinitz under the 

 name oi CEcidium pi/ratum. An excellent fig- 

 ure of it will be found in the American Ac/rictd- 

 turist for December, 1868, where it is stated to 

 be so abundant in an apple orchard in Tennes- 

 see as to have killed several trees. "We our- 

 selves formerly received from Ohio apple-leaves 

 attacked by this fungus, with a statement that it 

 was quite conmion there upon certain trees. 

 According to the Agriculturist, the English 

 name for fungoid growths presenting the gen- 

 eral appearance of the above is " cluster-cups." 

 Many other such cases might be readily enu- 

 merated, but we forbear. 



It is well known that in Europe the common 

 silk worm has, for a long series of years, been 



