166 



THE'AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



JEffgs «rt" the 01»loiig:--w^iiia:ed Katydid — T. 



A. 'Ihrop, Troy, /Zfe.— The eggs which you found on a 

 [Fig. 120.] twig of a Jlountain Ash, and which are 

 . laitlilully represented in' the annexed 

 (Figure " 120) , are those o( the Oblong 

 winged Katvdid (Pliiillopiercb olilongifolia, 

 De aeer). They differ from tliose of the 

 common Broad-winyed Katydid {Platy- 

 lyllum concai'mn.liavi- .) An being narrow- 

 ■in width and thii-ker in depth, wliich 

 gives them a more rounded appearance. 



J. L. Rice, Zee's Summit, Mo.— The 

 eggs which are so abundant on j'our grape 

 vines, are of tlie same Iviml as the above. 

 J3. J. Gamphell.—'r\\e. eggs you find on 

 your grapevines are likewise of the same 

 kind as those above referred to. You 

 ask if the eggs would be killed by bury- 

 ing them in the fall, together with the 

 canes on which they occur; those canes 

 to be used in the spring for cuttings. 

 We cannot say ])ositi\'ely, but are deci- 

 dedly of the opinion that such a treat- 

 Imcnt would destroy the eggs, as they 

 .„ «iJ'i''6 thereby placed in very unnatural 



i lIB conditions . 



rm urn ^^,_ jj Qie^^ey, Old liipUy, llh:—Thc 

 ggs you send are also of the same kind. 

 Color— siatj'- A. McMoore, Louisiana, Mo. — The eggs 

 gray ou your Concord and Delaware vines, as 



you will perceive from the engraving above, are eggs of 

 the same species of Katydid. ^V^■ advise their destruc- 

 tion as they appear to be very mniierous this year; 

 but as a general rule these ' ' Katies ' ' do us Imt little, 

 if any, injury. 



mossy Kose Gall— X W. Collins, EocJicder, Mw 

 York.— The bunch growing from the twig of Sweet 

 Briar, about the size of a chestnut, and co^•cred with 

 dense moss-like filaments, is composed of an agglomer- 

 ation of hard cells, and is in reality a polythalamous 

 gall. Since its receipt, we have bred two $ specimens 

 of the gall-maker, which proves to be Ji/toJiiis rosm 

 of LinnaiUS. This fly measures a))OUt 0.1.5 of an inch 

 in length, and is principally distinguished by the $ 

 having a black tip to her reddish abdomen. Baron 

 Osten Sackcn ruuld perceive no difference between 

 this fly and one liearini; the sann- name which forms a 

 very similar gall on the i osc in Europe, which gall is 

 known as the"//.,/.-///.,/' ot lli.' i-nsc. The genus Ilhodites 

 seems to be i-\clushclv rdulim-d to tie- rn>c, and bears a 

 general i-eseuibhuicc io tlie ge-iuis r///</>.s- {Fig. 81), 

 which infests the oak and gives its name to the Family to 

 which both these two genera belong. Osten Sackcn has 

 described eight different galls which occur on the dif- 

 cerent kinds of roses in this country, and we are ac- 

 quainted with a ninth, which is produced liy his Rho- 

 dites ujnofa. This last gaU occurs on the le;ives, is of 

 the size of a large pea, and has the form of a mangel- 

 wurzel or beet seed. 



Caterpillars on liOinbardy Poplars—/. F. 

 Gurley, Burlington, louKi.—The caterpillar which you 

 found last summer on vour Lonibardy poplars, with 

 long straw-colored or bright yellow hairs roveriug each 

 side of the body, with slender iilack tiilTs issuing IVdUi the 

 back, and with black heads; were t'\ ideutly tile larv* 

 of a gray moth known by the name of A,'fniiij,1a ,iveri- 

 coVa Guenee, and figured on page l:iU of llariis's ■ ■ In- 

 jurious Insects." There are two broods of the rater- 

 l)illai-s during the year, the first brood spinning up 

 about the first of July, and coming out as moths about 

 the end of July, and the second brood wintering 

 in the chrysalis state. AVe have found this pretty 

 caterpillar tolerably common on both the Cottonwood 

 and Poplar and have fre(iu<mtlv bred it to the moth 

 state. It is subject to the attacks of a minute iehneu- 

 mon fly and also to those of a Tin-liina tty. The story 

 told you by the Doctor, about these caterpilhu-s being 

 poisonous, is, in our opinion, all balderdash, as we 

 liave handled great numbers of them with impunity. 



IJnKmo-wii Larva;. — Geo. W. Copley, Alton, Ills. — 

 The larva; you send belong to some two-winged fly, 

 but to what particular species we know not. 



aiuse-nm Pests— i^. W. EoH, Jr., G. M. L. and 

 J. Muggins. — "We learn from Mr. E. T. Cresson, the 

 .Secretary of the American Entomological Society, that 

 the common European Museum Pest {Anthrenus 

 museorum, Linn.) is not known to occiu'iii this country; 

 hut that it is the closely allied species — Anthrenus ■varius, 

 Fabr. — which attacks in such a serious manner, our 

 American collections of insects. In further con'obora- 

 tionof this fact, we have since bred several specimens of 

 the last named species from the larvae received from Mr. 

 Huggius, and which we erroneously referred to A. 

 museomm on page 79 of No. 4. These two beetles 

 are very much alike , both in size , form and general 

 appearance , and their larva; are so much alike , that, as 

 [Fig. 121.] already stated (p. ' 



79), it is very doubt- 

 ful whether they 

 could be distin- 

 guished from each 

 other in this last 



state. The annexed 

 outUnes (Fig. 121) 

 will give a good 

 idea of the hu-va (a) , 

 the pupa (i), and 

 the perfect beetle 

 a II <' (c) of either species. 



Both species have wavy bands running across the 

 wing-covers, and the pattern of these bands seems 

 alike in both; but while Anthrenus museorum has . 

 these bands very indistinctly marked, and is a dull 

 looking insect, A. varius has them very distinctly 

 marked, and paitly spotted with white. The two in- 

 sects are furthennore distinguished by the antemise in 

 varius being ll-jointed,the club consisting of three joints , 

 while those of museomm are but 8-jointed, the club 

 consisting of two joints. 



Cockroacb eggs — IT. C. Freeman, South Pass, III. 

 —The shining mahogany-colored bean-shaped body 

 not quite y, inch long, which you found in the rotten 

 cavity of a'))each-tree, is the egg-case of our common 

 Cock'voaeh (Platam.odes mricolor, Scudder). This spe- >- 

 cies is > erv abundant in Illinois under the loose bark of 

 old stumps, &c., where also the empty egg-cases may 

 be found at all times of the year. The nisect acquires 

 •wings and becomes full grown in June, the wings of 

 the perfect female only reaching about K of the way to 

 the tip of the abdomen and those of the perfect male 

 much beyond the tip. About this time the females 

 mav often be seen running along with the egg-case 

 partly protruding from their tails; and if you then 

 open' one of these egg-cases, you will see that it is laid 

 off internallvin two'tiers of little cells, one tier on each 

 .4de and ea'eli cell containing an egg. In the empty 

 cgg-eascs the cells remain, but the eggs have hatched 

 ouiaiiil the vouna'iiu-\ai made their escape. There is a 

 smaller si)e.-ies ot Cockroach {Eciohia germauiai). known 

 in the East as the ' ' Crotfui Bvig, ' ' which we found last 

 sunuuer to lie connnon in the houses at Cairo, Ills. 

 Unlike the oilier species, which runs wild in the woods, 

 this is a ei\ilized bu"' and inhabits towns and cities. 

 It is very common and a great pest in Eastern cities', 

 but unti'l we met with it at Cairo was not known to 

 have made its way out to the West. It was originally 

 introduced into this country from Europe, along with 

 a siii'cies still larger than either of the two referred to 

 aliine , (i:hiH,i ori,:-iifali.^) , which was first imported into 

 Europe iVoni Asia and Juis now been imported into 

 America from Euroi)c. This last is a terrible pest in 

 the City of London, in England, and traps for catching 

 it may'bc seen exposed for sah' in all the hardware 

 stores' there . 



Currant Borer ; Angle "Worms — Geo. W. Cop- 

 ley, Alton, llls.—Fovan ans^ver to your queries about 

 Currant Borers, see page 79 of the present volume,' 

 under this same head. Angle worms never "assume 

 the fly state. ' ' Tliev do not belong to the true insects, 

 but to a distinct class ( r'e/7;e .s) of the Jointed Animals 

 (Artioulata), and undergo no transformations. 



Apple-tree Iieat - crumplcrs — /. F. Jones, 

 Mexico, Mo.— The worms which you send and which 

 twist up the leaves of your apple trees, and thereby 

 retard their growth, are the larva; of a little gray moth 

 known as Phycita nehulo, Walsh. See answer to J. J. 

 Thomas, of Kaoine, Wis. , on page 99 of No. 5. 



