THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



117 



able to eat; aud, consequently, he thought it 

 must inevitabl}^ soon die. One day, however, 

 three large, dark, pear-shaped larva; emerged 

 from its body, from the region of (he kidneys, 

 and dropped on the bottom of the cage. These 

 Mr. 11. placed on a pot of earth, and the next 

 morning one of them had gone into the ground, 

 and the other two had changed into blunt, oval- 

 shaped pupie on the surface of the earth. After 

 this the Squirrel recovered its health, ate, and 

 became as lively as usual, and in due time was 

 set at liberty. One of these pupse died, and re- 

 mains a pupa still, and from the other a fly only 

 partially emerged, and died in the effort, and it 

 also remains so still. From the one which bnried 

 itself, however, a perfect fly in a few days 

 evolved, which in every respect corresponded 

 ■with the one in my collection. I afterwards 

 sent my specimen to Baron Osten Sacken, whilst 

 lie yet resided in "Washington, ami he pro- 

 ' nounced it Cuterebra huccota. Fabr. 



So you see here was a case where these bots 

 were not found in the scrotum of the animal at 

 all. The coincidence is also singular, that both 

 those that came under the observation of Dr. 

 Fitch, as well as of my own, were always in the 

 Strijjcd Squirrel, a spe(;ies wliich our hunters 

 never pretended were emasculated by other 

 species. Tlic matter does not seem to be quite 

 clear yet. S. S. M. 



Lancaster, Pa. 



[It appears to us tiiat, n the above facts prove 

 anything at all. they rather tend to contlrm Dr. 

 Fitch's theory than otherwise. It is not stated 

 that the sick Squirrel was a female, or that if a 

 male, it was nnmutilated when it recovered its 

 .health and was set at liberty. As to the para- 

 sitic larva; emerging "from the region of the 

 kidneys," it is not diflicult to understand that 

 three such large larv.T as must be those of this 

 Fly, which is the si/e of a humblc-bce, would 

 soon entirely consume the testi<;les — supposing 

 lliem to have been originally located there — and 

 be compelled to stray off for food into the ad- 

 joining regions of the body of so small an ani- 

 mal as a Striped Squirrel. In one of the two 

 cases recoi'ded by Dr. Fitch, a single grub was 

 actually found alive inside the scrotum of a 

 Squirrel caught by a cat, and from this grub the 

 lly was bred the next summer. In the second 

 case tM"o apparently imniatnro grubs were 

 found, considerably torn and injured, in the 

 scrotum of a Squirrel that had been shot; audit 

 is expressly stated that, even by these two 

 partly-grown grubs, the testicles appeared to be 

 entirely consumed. Hence we may safely infer 

 that as many as three such grubs could not 



reach maturity in the body of a single Striped 

 Squirrel, without consuming other parts besides 

 the testicles. — Eds.] 



Notes on the Periodical Cicada— It does uvi|iosit 

 in Evergreens. 



EiUtnrs Amerwan- Knto)noIogni : 



In the interesting account of the C'irada sep- 

 temdecim, in No. 4 of the Amkrioax Extomolo- 

 GiST, on page 65, you say that '' the females 

 deposit their eggs in the twigs of different trees, 

 but never in evergreens." I had noticed them 

 with some attention during the past season here, 

 and enclose you these specimens of their work 

 in three of our commonest evergreens — Thuja 

 occidentalis, .Juniperus virginiana and Abies 

 canadensis. I have so far been unable to tliul 

 any traces of their work in either of our common 

 pines — Piims Austriaca, P. strobus or P. sylves- 

 tris. Should I succeed in finding them in these 

 pines I shall send you a sample. 



Your reference, page 66, to the fungus found 

 in tiic posterior part of the abdomen of the 

 Cic((da septcmdfcim. contlrnis my observations 

 here, except that the '•mould'" seemed to be a 

 drying up of the contents and membranes of 

 the .abdomen, generally of a brown color, and 

 dry and brittle. I found that in many cases the 

 male organs of generation remained so tirmly 

 attached to the female daring copulation that 

 the male could only disengage himself by break- 

 ing away, leaving one or two posterior joints 

 attached to the female, and it- is these mutilated 

 males which I found afl'ected by the peculiar 

 fungu.s mentioned, and therefore concluded that 

 the '•■ dry rot " might be the result of the broken 

 membranes. I never found one thus affected 

 in the very early part of their season, and I 

 never found a perfect male thus affecied. ]?ut 

 this is not jiositive proof. 



Their I'avages on parts of the young orchards 

 in this vicinity were very severe— some young 

 pear and apple trees being very much injured. 



Allow me to thank yon for the clear and pop- 

 ular manner and style of your paper. I hope it 

 may be as successful as it deserves to be. 



Truly, P. IT. "VVakhku. 



Ci.EVES, Ohio, .Inn. 22, lS6n 



[We examined the twigs with a good deal of 

 interest, and fouiul that the eggs had hatched in 

 all but one specimen of Abie.t rnnadcnxis. Will 

 our correspondent make still further investiga- 

 tions and report whether the eggs in this tree 

 have generally failed thus to hatch? Those eggs 

 which failed to hatch are solid and discolored, 

 while the shells of those that hatched arc ex- 

 tremely fine and silvery. — Eds.] 



