184 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



[Fig. 127,] 



Colors— (a) green; {I) brow 



REAR-HORSES vs. GRASSHOPPERS. 



General Engelnianu of St. Clair county, 

 Southern Illinois, has found by experience, that 

 tlic best way to get rid of the grasshoppers in a 

 vineyard is to raise Rcar-liorses there, which 

 [L IS? i-s ] are also known as Devil's- 

 horses, alius Praying Nuns, 

 alias Intelligence Bugs, alias 

 Devil's Eiding-horses, but the 

 correct English name of which 

 is "Camel-cricket." Figure 127 

 gives a very good view of the 

 sexes of this insect, 6 repre- 

 senting the male and a the 

 female. The female has such 

 short wings that she is incap- 

 able of flight ; but the male flies 

 as readily and as strongly as an 

 ordinary grasshopper. The 

 General's mode of colonizing 

 this insect in his vineyard is, 

 to collect the masses of eggs 

 in the dead of the year and 

 place them upon his grape- 

 vines. Figure 128 will enable 

 the reader to recognize these 

 singular egg-masses whenever 

 he may happen to meet with 

 them. Persons are very gener- 

 ally ignorant of their real na- 

 ture, and on the principle that "Everything that 

 is unknown must be something hateful and des- 

 tructive," are apt to cut them off and throw theni 

 into the fire. They should under no circum- 

 stances be destroyed. As a general rule Camel- 

 crickets are only found in the central and south- 

 ern parts of ISIissouri, in the southern part of 



Illinois, and in oth- 

 er southerly re- 

 gions. But Mr. D. 

 B. Wier is domesti- 

 cating them at La- 

 con on the Illinois 

 river, and on one 

 occasion one of their 

 egg -masses w.as 

 found as far north 

 as Lee county, ]ior- 

 thevu Illinois. We 

 are inclined to be- 

 lieve that, with a 

 little care and at- 

 tention they may be 

 acclimated at points 

 farther North than 

 these. 



APPLE-TREE PLANT-LICE. 



{Aphis mali, Linn.) 



From Georgetown in Ohio ; from Columbia, 

 Kirkwood aiid Eureka in Missouri; and from 

 Bunker Hill and Alton in Illinois, we have 

 received apple buds covered with the above 

 named plant-louse, accompanied with queries 

 as to what they are, and how to destroy them. 

 "VVe have ourselves scarcely been able to find an 

 apple tree in the vicinity of either St. Louis, 

 Mo., or of Alton, 111., that was not teeming- 

 with these lice, and they are in all probability 

 quite numerous throughout the "VYest. Our , 

 subscribers will recollect that we repeatedly V 

 received the little oval black shiny eggs of this 

 insect during the past winter, and that we 

 pi-edicted that under favorable circumstances 

 the lice would swarm on the trees in the spring. 

 "We have also suggested the proper remedy, 

 namely, that of drenching the trees with strong- 

 soap suds or tobacco water. 



"Wc are of opinion that no great alarm need.be 

 felt on account of the great numbers of these 

 lice. They swarm in like manner almost every 

 year in some part or other of the country, but 

 they have so many enemies in the form 

 of the different cannibal insects and of 

 the small birds, that their numbers arc 

 soon reduced. They arc also susceptible 

 to the influence of the weather, and a 

 good sharp frost would clean them oft" as with 

 a besom. On the nights of the 12th and 13th of 

 April there was frost in the Mississippi Valley, 

 but as we proved from observation, it was not 

 severe enough to destroy them. Their numbers, 

 however, are now (April 19th) fast waning, 

 which ma}' be attributed to the late heavy rains, 

 and to the perseverance of the birds. 



