118 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



COLORADO POTATO BUGS POISONOUS. 



£ditors AmerUaii Entomologist : 



A friend of mine from Pierce county, Wiscon- 

 sin, where these bugs have enhanced the value 

 of potatoes to one dollar per bushel, tells me 

 that the prairie chickens eat them readily, but 

 that it sickens them, and some of them die in 

 consequence ; and people have quit hunting and 

 eating the fowls. Domestic chickens seem 

 to be aftected in the same way, but turkeys 

 will uot touch them, though curious as it 

 may seem, geese eat and thrive on them. A 

 family within his knowledge, all ate of prai- 

 rie chickens, and all were taken ill. His 

 own son burned a lot of the bugs, and the 

 fumes made him very sick. These things serve 

 to confirm the poisonous nature of these bugs, 

 and warn us to handle them carefully. 



J. G. Irwix. 



Haxxibal, Mo. 



ENTOMOLOGICAL ANNUAL. 



"We have received the following prospectus 

 from our friend A. S. Packard, Jr., of Salem, 

 Mass. : 



Entomological Annual for 1868 —It is pro- 

 posed, should sufficient encoiu-ageraent be given, to 

 publisli a Year Book of Progress hi American jEntomol- 

 ogy, to be edited bv Dr. A. S. Packard, Jr. .Dr. J. 

 L. Le Conte will contribute a chapter on the Coleoptera; 

 Jlr. S. H. Scudder, chapters on tht Butterflies and Or- 

 thoptera; Baron R. Osten Sacken, a chapter on the 

 Diptera; Mr' P. R. Uhler, a chapter on the Hemiptera 

 and Jv'europtera; and the Editor expects to receive aid 

 from other; entomologists. It is hoped it will prove 

 a useful hand-book to every one interested in the 

 study of insects. It will be published in I'irao size in 

 the spring of 1869. An edition of five hundred will be 

 printed, provided three hundred names can be secured. 

 Will all entomologists desirous of aiding in the publica- 

 tion of such an annual, send in their subscriptions in 

 advance, that the means of publishing sudi a usefnl 

 book be afforded at the outset? Kubscriptions, i^evcn- 

 ty-tive Cents a copy, received by W. S. AVest, Pcabody 

 Academy of Science, Salem, Mass. 



TRANSFORMATIONS OF INSECTS. 



It is commonly and correctly said that there 

 are four stages in the life of every insect: 1st, 

 the egg; 2d, the larva; 3d, the pupa, and -ith, 

 the perfect or imago staie. In most insects the 

 dividing line between these stages is well 

 mai'ked, the larva and imago being active loco- 

 motive creatures, capable both of eating and dis- 

 charging fmces, and the pupa lying still all the 

 time and neither eating nor discharging faices 

 But in certain great groups, lor instance the 

 true Bugs and the Grasshoppers, the pupa is as 

 active and locomotive and ravenous as either the 

 larva or the imago, and sometimes can not be 

 readily distinguished by the inexperienced eith- 

 er from the former or the latter. 



DO BEES INJURE RASPBERRIES ? 



[From the PioceecUngs of the New York Fruit Growers' Club.] 



A con-espondent writes : I am informed by an 

 extensive berry grower that one who keeps bees 

 must not expect to grow raspberries. The bees 

 meddling with the pollen of the flowers is de- 

 cidedly injurious to this fruit, whatever may be 

 the case in regard to apples, pears, etc. Can this 

 be so? Such a question ought to be settled be- 

 fore the opening of spring, so that choice could 

 be knowingly made between the bees and the 

 berries. 



J. Crane — It is certainly a mistake that bees 

 are injurious to the raspberry, or any other fruit. 



A. S. Fuller — I supposed that this question 

 had been fully, satisfactorily, and scientifically 

 settled years ago, in favor of the honey bee. 

 We are greatly indebted to these little friends 

 for the assistance thej'^ give us in producing 

 fruits, by distributing the pollen from one fl.ower 

 to another, or upon the stigmas of the one In 

 which it is produced. Bees are very partial to 

 the flowers of the raspberry, because it yields a 

 large quantity of honey, but I am quite positive 

 that they do no injury, even if they are not 

 beneficial. 



Dr. .T. E. Snodgrass — If bees were injurious 

 to any plant, it seems to me that the buckwheat 

 would be the first to sutFer, for as every one 

 knows, bees will work continually on it from the 

 time the first flower opens, until the last is gone. 

 But I never heard of any one complaining of 

 bees injuring this grain, and I am inclined to 

 believe that nature is a much better guide in 

 these matters, than any of our coiTespondents. 



[It is undoubtedly true that bees and many 

 other flower-hunting insects are very beneficial 

 by carrying the pollen from blossom to blossom, 

 and it has been proved by Chas. Darwin and 

 others that many plants, when secluded from 

 the visits of insects by artificial means, always 

 fail to set any fruit. But, on the other hand, it 

 has been also proved by the most undeniable 

 evidence, that honey-bees occasionally destroy 

 quinces, peaches and grapes, and probably other 

 fruits as well, for the sake of the sugary matter 

 contained in them. See the Ajif;Ric.\x Exto- 



MOLOOiST, No. .'5, page 56. — Eds.] 



♦ ♦ • 



Errata. — On page 90, column 1, note, line 'J, 

 for '• Anchylopera',^' read '■ Anchylopera" ; same 

 page, column 2, line 12, for "too" read " two." 

 On page 99, column 1, od paragraph, for 

 "Greenhouse Plants," read "Greenhouse 

 Pests" ; same page, column 2, line 25 from 

 bottom, for "wing, covers," read "wing- 

 covers." 



