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THE AMEEIOAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Crane Fly I^arvae. — It. I>. Alexander, Mexico, 

 Mo. — The worms which you find in such great numbers 

 in your garden, and which you forwarded to us through 

 Mr. O. A. A. Gardner, of "Columbia , Mo . , are the lar- 

 vic of some species of Crane fly (Tipula). You say you 

 have noticed that they stand freezing with impunity. 

 The larvae of these Crane flies all have this same at- 

 tribute. We do not know what particular species will 

 be produced from the larvse which you send , but they 

 resemble some which we received during the month of 

 February, 1867, from B. Seevers,of Oskaloosa, Iowa, 

 and which were found by him, crawling over the snow 

 and ice in a meadow, while the thermometer showed 

 but 10 degrees above freezing point in the sun. These 

 laiTa;, for the most part, feed on decomposing vege- 

 table matter; though they are sometimes found in great 

 numbers in meadows, where they feed on the roots of 

 the grass, as well as the vegetable portions of the soil. 

 In meadows they do a good deal of damage by detach- 

 ing the roots and causing them to dry. The larva; of a 

 European species of Crane fly, have been noticed, in 

 parts of Northern Europe, to have the cimous habit of 

 collecting together by thousands, each one fixed to 

 another by a sticky substance, and forming together 

 a serpent-like auimal, at times a few feet long, at other 

 times several yards in length. The whole company 

 thus linked together travel at a snail's pace over the 

 ground. 



Mr. Iliciman, ColamUa, Mo. — The worms you found 

 at the root of a decaying apple tree, are the larvse of the 

 Three banded crane fly (Tipula trivittata, Say), alarge 

 species which we have bred from larvae found in similar 

 situations. You need not fear they will trouble you. 

 They can hardly be considered injurious. 



Punctured Grape Canes. — 2j. L. Kingslui'y, 

 Alton, Ills. — The straight rows of punctures on your 

 grape canes, each puncture about one-third of an "ini-h 

 apart, and appearing as though made by a r,ather large 

 sized pin, are most likely the work of some species of 

 Tree cricket. Each of these punctures loads to irom ten 

 to twelve narrow eggs , about a tenth of an inch long, and 

 deposited on either side of the puncture , lengthwise in 

 the pith. They are not the punctures of the common 

 Tree cricket {(Ecanthus niveus, Serv.) which are placed 

 » / In a row contiguous to each other, with an egg placed 

 ^ slantingly across the pith leading from each. We have 

 never seen grape canes punctured like those you send , 

 and therefore do not know positively what particular 

 insect makes them, but we suspect it to be the Jumping 

 cricket {Orocliaris saltator. Uhler) and the more readily, 



y since you yourself found this insect associated with the 

 common Tree cricket on your grape vines, and hke this 

 last insect severing the grapes from their stems. We 

 have ourselves found tins Jumping cricket around St. 

 Louis, and know it to have this destructive habit, and 

 we therefore strongly urge the burning of all punctured 

 canes. It would be a good plan for the vineyardLst, to 

 always burn the wood which he primes, and thus destroy 

 these and other eggs that they contain . 



Insects to be Named. — W. S. Marine, Greencastle, 



iSalUvati county. Mo. — The insects which you find in your 



apple and peach nurseries, and which you send for de- 



, termination, are as follows: The slender, long-legged, 



\ long-bodied insect is the Stick-bug (Spectrum femoratam, 



' ^ Say), for an accoiuit of which see JSfo. 3, p. 58. The 

 large black beetles are the Murky Ground-beetle (Hur- 

 pahis caliginosus, Say), illustrated at Kig. 48. The 

 smaller beetle of the same form, with brown legs, is thes 

 Harpalus pennsylvanicus of DeGeer. That with a black 

 head and thorax, and orange wing-covers, is Tragidion 

 fuMpenne, Say. The small ground-beetle, resembling 

 'Eig. 46 in form, is Carahus sihosiis. Say. There were 

 also in the box a fractured $ specimen of the Ob- 

 long leaf- winged Katydid (I'lnjlloptera ohlongifolia, 

 DeGeer); the chrysalis of some large Moth unknown to 

 us, and dried anil shriveled specimens of the Round- 

 headed Apple-tree-borer (Saperda hii'ittata, Say). In 

 sending insects you should never put them loosely into 

 a box, and it will be to your advantage in future to 

 number each specimen you send, and retain duplicates 

 that are numbered correspondingly. 



Cresylic Soap — Jno. A. Pettingill. Bunlcer Hill, 

 Ills. — Y'ou can obtain this soap of the St. Louis Coal 

 Tar Company, 324 North Third street, St. Louis, Mo. 



Supposed Cause of Ifelloiivs in Peacli Trees. 



— 0. R. SoleHs, Pouglihcepsie, N. K— The peach twigs^, 

 with a minute puncture of some insect at almost every 

 bud, came safely to hand Y'ou hold these punctures to 

 be the cause of the " yellows,' ' as the trees from which 

 they were taken were affected vrith this dire disease; 

 but, as you yourself remark, "it scarcely seems possible 

 that these punctures can be the cause of the ' yellows ' 

 and yet escape the observation of such a close observer 

 as Downing." The "yellows" of the peach tree is, 

 according to the best authority, and according to our 

 own judgment of it, a disease of vegetable origin, though 

 it is not unprobable that trees affected 'with it are more 

 subject to the attacks of insects than are healthy trees. 

 [Fig. 77.] 



That our readers may at once obtain a good idea of the 

 appearance of a tree afl'ected with yellows , we introduce 

 the above cut [Fig. 77] which represents, above, a dis- 

 eased limb, with a healthy limb below; both photo- 

 graphed last summer from the same tree by order 

 of Mr. Peabody, President of the Missouri State 

 Horticultural Society. We know of no insect which 

 would produce any such effect. The punctures in 

 the present instance have most likely been made by 

 some species of Tree-hopper [Memhracis fimiily) long 

 ago, as we could find no trace of eggs now within 

 them. The Buffalo Tree-hopper ( Co-csa JuSafes, Fabr.), 

 a light grass-green species, freckled with whitish i 

 dots, and shaped something like a beech-nut, save that 

 it has a sharp thorn projecting from each side of the 

 thorax, has long been known to occur on the peach, as 

 well as on other fruit trees, in your State. In the "In- 

 sects of New York," byE. Emmons, you will find a 

 colored figure of this Tree-hopper on Plate 3, Fig. 17; 

 while the same figure, uncolored, is repeated on Plate 2, 

 Fig. 4 of Dr. Fitch's Third Report. 



Eg^gs of Katydid. — A. A. Hilliard, Brighton, 

 \Els. — The flat slate-colored eggs, placed iii two rows, ^ 

 Jand shghtly overlapping each other, on the canesof your 

 "Chnton grape vine, are the c.ggs of the Katydid (Platy- 

 ph/lh/n concacum, Harris). These eggs arc not confined , ' 

 as you suppose, to the Clinton grape vine, but maybe 

 found on other varieties of the grape vine and on other 

 fruit trees. The Katydid is not particularly injurious, 

 and it win do no harui to let the eggs remain. 



Apple-twig: Borer. — /. T. Ziminerman., Cameron, 

 Mo. — The beetles which we I'equcsted, came safely to 

 hand, and proved to be, as we suspected, the Apple- 

 tvi\^TAovev (Bostrichus licamlattts. Say). Forthe benefit "* 

 of the rest of our readers we quote jiart of yoiu' letter. 

 "They work during the months (.if August, September 

 and October, on both pear, chcri-y an(.i apple trees. I 

 find sometimes as many as ten twigs bored on a single 

 two or three year old tree. The twigs thus injured us- 

 ually break off by the wind." 



T. GLOVKR 



