THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



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A most Precious Bu^ — Dr. E. S. Mohiws, Grand 

 Rapids., Mich. — The orcliuiiry-looking, din^y-colorcd, 

 cyhndrieal beetle, seareelv half an ineli long, and 

 about four or live times as Ion,!; as it is wide, of wliieh 

 you sent us four (j* one $ , delighted the very coekles 

 of our heart, the instant that we got a lens to bear 

 upon his body. Ue is a most preeious rarity — the 

 Melancholy Tiniber-pest (I[iile,;etiix ?w;7»i;7s)— deseriljetl 

 34 years ago by Say as found by him in Indiana, in 

 eonsiderable numbers, flying and rumiing over the 

 bark of a prostrate maple on the lUth day ot A])ril. 

 Say's collection of insects, as is well known to ento- 

 mologists, was destroyed after his death; and since his 

 time no one has been fortunate enough to meet with 

 this iuseet, and not a single speeinien of it, so far as we 

 are awai'e, existed in any cabinet, whether public or 

 private, up to this day. At all events. Dr. LcCoute, 

 both in his edition of Saifx Worls in 1859 and in his 

 Catalogue of N. A. Coleoptera \n I9>i6 , marks the species 

 as unknown to him. It \\ill from this period no longer 

 remain unknown to him; for, in the noble generosity 

 of our hearts, hearing in mind the many favors that we 

 have received IVoni this geiitlenuni, we mailed liiui one 

 fine (^ specimen on the very next day after wi' reci-ived 

 your letter. lu the Great i5ook, where Sterne's Re- 

 cording Angel keeps tlio Ur. and Cr. account of all us 

 poor frail mortals, we have no doubt that tins lilieral 

 act on our part is set down with as wide a margin to 

 our credit, as if we had donaled one th.>usand dollars 

 for the civilization of tlie sni>tv iubaliitauts of llnrra- 

 bhoolaGha. Talk indeed of the vaunted Ub.rality of 

 Veabody or Stewart, in giving away one-tenth or one- 

 twentieth of their vast pecuniary "possessions, when 

 they had already a tlnnisand times as nuich money as 

 they knew howto spend upon tbcmselvesi M'liy, we 

 have actually given away with a free heart one entire 

 tifth of our newly-ac'(|Uii-ed entomologii-al wealth, 

 although we can lind good \ise for a luuidred more such 

 precious gilts as vouhave bi-en kind enough to send vis! 

 All the N. A. "species of tlie small group of beetles 

 (Zy»i«j7/Zo« Family), to which this insect lielongs. are of 

 extreme rarity in this country, though a European 

 species of this grinip, th"e Nava'l Timber-jiest 

 (Lymexijlon naeti1e),K\vY): connnon and destructive in 

 dock-yards and bnnber-yards in the more northerly 

 parts of Europe, boring'up ami spoiling in some in- 

 stances millions of dollars' worth of valuable ship- 

 timber. It was against this last ins.'ct that Linmeus 

 devised the ingenious expedient of sinking under water 

 such timber, as the Swedish (iovcrnment wished to 

 preserve from its attacks, during the short ]iei-iod of 

 ■ the year wlu-n the i)n"_'nant fcniide flies abroad to 

 depo'sit her i-gs. You will lind further details on the 

 subject of this simple r.'medy— wbicli iiroved afterwards 

 to be entirely satisfactory— in Harris's book on /«/«;■/')«« 

 /nefrfs (ji. r)7). V(nir specimens, as you tell us, came 

 out on March Kith, in an old cigar factory, uow used 

 for office inirposes. As S.ay's specimens came out just 

 a month later and ill a mucli nioi-<! southerly region, the 

 probability is tlial the aiiiieaiam-e of yours was artiti- 

 cially acre'leratrd by the liri's kept up' in the Ijuilding 

 during the winter" Doubtless, like other species of 

 the family, they are timber-borers, and not, as you 

 suggest may be possible, the perfect form of some kind 

 of tobacco-feeding larva. 



Throughout this entire family, of which but two 

 genera arc found in tie- IJiiteil "states (Z//«!t>,iy/"» and 

 Hilhccytiis), the maxillary fi-.-lers (/«,(//<(■) 'of tile males. 

 luive a singular branched process of very eonsiderahle 

 size growing from the side of the last joint but one. 

 This process you noticeil yourself, hut do not si'cm to 

 have remarked that it was iieculiar to the male se.v. 

 The use of it is mosi probably to ^ooth the reluctant 

 coynessof the feiiiales during tiie nitringseasoii. Nat- 

 uralists generally consider the specialization of any par- 

 ticular organ for any p;irti<Milar |Hii'posc as a sure iinli- 

 eation, so far as tha't cliarailir liocs, ,,f a lii-h -rade in 

 , the scale of nature. If this l,c llic correct diM-trini — 

 I and we tiniilv believe in il oiiisclvcs— vour hi'ctlcs, so 

 , far as this particular ornaiuzalion of tleir lecb-rs goes, 

 nmst be of a higher grade than the species to which we 

 ourselves have the honor of belonging. For when a 

 young gentleman wishes to coax a kiss out of some coy 

 young virgin, be has no specialized organ that he can 

 call into play forthis ]icculiar purpose, butis compelled 

 to pass the very same arm round her waist or round her 



neck, which has perhaps been employed all the pre- 

 ceding day in wielding the sledge-hammer, the trowel 

 or the jack-plane. 



Blackberrjr-cane Borers — (7/«,v. Parrii, Cinna- 

 minsoii, N. J. — The pale-yi'llow boring larva, about an 

 inch long, with a red bead ami blackish jaws, wliieh 

 bores into the heart or rather pith of your blackberry- 

 canes near the root, and more especiallv into those "of 

 the Din-cbester variety, an- identical with a single 

 spccinii'ii which we n-ceived two years ago from A. S. 

 Fuller, of Ridgewood, in your State. That specimen 

 unfortunately died, before "it reached maturity; but we 

 hope to have better success with yours. Till the per- 

 fect insect is bred, it is impossible to say what par- 

 ticular species this larva belongs to, as, with the 

 exception of what has been statid above, it isunkiiown 

 to Science. It will, however, heyoiul all (piestioii pro- 

 duce some moth or other, and most iirobably some 

 species belono;ing to the same genus (.-/uierin) to which 

 al.so belongs tiie common reach ISorer. 'iS'o such larva 

 has hitherto, so far as we know, been recorded by any 

 one else as infesting the blackben-y; the coiiiiiion 'borer 

 of that ]ilant being a legless grub a ml ]iidduciiig a 

 beetle {Oberea perxpiciUatir, MM'.). whei-eas your larva '^ 

 has sixteen legs and must necessarily there/ore produce 

 some kind of'^moth. Besides the species belonging to 

 this genus (.Efieria) which inhabits the reach-tree, 

 there are distinct species known to infest the Pear- 

 tree, the Ash, the tame ('urraiit. the wild Currant, 

 the Grape-vine, the Sipiasb and riuiiiikin vine, the 

 Poplar, the Maple and the Lila.'. Asa general rule, 

 each species seems to confine itself to a disliiict genus of 

 plants; but the Peach-tree bonr is occasionally found 

 to attack the closely-allied Clierry-tne and I'lii'm-tree, 

 and \vc have bred what apjiears to be one and the same 

 species (Ao«/i«*, Walsh) both from a woody black fun- 

 goid swelling found on the twigs of ISlack and Red 

 Oaks and fi'om a similar fungoid growth on the Pignut 

 Hickory . 



You "remark that " the hollow tube formed in' the 

 centre of the blackberry cane extends about three or 

 four inches abo\e the surface of the ground, and occa- 

 sionally for a short distance into the root, the entrance 

 to the tube being always near the surface of the 

 ground." What you call the "entrance," is not the 

 hole by which the "young larva originally entered into 

 the cane, after it hatched out from the egg deposited l»y 

 the mother-moth on the surface of the cane. Siicii 

 minute holes, bored by young larva; no thicker than a 

 small pin, always till up by the growth of vegetable 

 matter. Your so-called "entrance" is, in reality, the 

 bole made bv almost all boring larva- to atlord a'ready 

 means of esc"a|ie to the iierfect iiisi'cl. and is fberefori'", 

 not the point of ,ulran,r. but flic poiiil of c.il. 



The preference (d' the niofber-nioth of your Black- 

 berry borer for the Dorchester variety of blackberry is 

 another curious illustration of that remarkable "smart- 

 ness" of certain bugs, to which wo have calli'd atten- 

 tion on p.age 160 of this number ot the ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Bo-ws ot Eggs in Pear twigs—//. C. Freeman., 

 South Pau, I!!s.—Ot' the two rows of eggs in pear 

 twigs, om^ has liatcbecl out already, as may be seen 

 from the minute puiiiturc in llie bark covering each 

 egg; in the olher row the eug is sfill fhi-rr, and is a 

 flattened, oval, yellowish body placed immediately 

 under the thin outer bark in an eU'vateil sack, each egg 

 eloselv adjoining its neiglilior, so that the whole forms 

 a whitish rid^-e, "^ iiicii long and containing IS eggs. 

 We ha\e never seen anything like this before and do 

 not know what insect they belong to. We will try and 

 hatch Ihcm out when the spring (■pens, and if success- 

 ful will then advise you finflier. As to the Hr>t row 

 that formerly contained eggs, we must reinain in ig- 

 ncn-anee; for'lliis too is new and unknown to us. The 

 eggs of insec'ls an' many id' them so closely alike, that 

 it is ofii'ii ditticult to identify them with certainty. 



Small Knots on Apple tivigs — G. 0. Uracieit, 

 Luirniire. /wivi.M/.s. — The minute swellings or knots on 

 the apjile twiirs which you send are most likely egg 

 ne.sts of some Tre.-hopiier. If you semi us fresh 

 specimens about tin- time that the buds begin to hurst, 

 we shall perhaps be alile to ascertain deflnitely the 

 species which produces them. Orange Judd & Co., 

 of Kew Y'ork, have just published a new edition of 

 Harris's work on Injurious Insects. 



