THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



199 



of thorn from oft" the face of tlie earth; but from 

 the rapid rate at whicli tlicy imiltiply there will 

 always be enough left for seed for another year. 

 It may be laid down, not only as a general, but 

 as a universal rule, that this insect is never 

 ruinously destructive, except in those sections 

 of country where there is continued hot dry 

 weather; and that if, in two adjoining districts, 

 tlicre has been a dry summer in one and much 

 wet weather during the summer season in the 

 other, however plentiful and destructive the 

 bug may be in the first district, it will scarcely 

 be heard of in the second. Certainly this stale 

 of facts is not exactly that from which any rea- 

 sonable man Avould infer, that the paucity of 

 (Jhinch Bugs in a wet season is caused by an 

 Epidemic Disease taking them otf. We might as 

 well maintain that, althongh there was no Epi- 

 demic Disease among the children of Israel that 

 had just crossed the lied Sea, or among the 

 Egyptians that staid at home, it was simply and 

 solely an Epidemic Disease that slew the pur- 

 suing hosts of the Egyptians and covered the 

 bottom of (he Ked Sea with their carcases. 



/ 



CABBAGE-WORMS UPON GILLY-FLOWEltS. 



There is a small green worm, about one-third 

 of an inch long, which commonly infests cab- 

 bage leaves in the West, eating holes through 

 their substance, and when very numerous 

 riddling them like a sieve. When full-fed this 

 larva spins a very slight cocoon of white net- 

 work upon the cabbage-leaf, inside which it 

 transforms into the pupa, and subsequently into 

 Die perfec;, moth state. The moth — which may 

 be recognized by the white hind margin of its 

 gray fx-ont wings, and wliich scarcely measures 

 half an inch across its expanded wings — has 

 been imported into this country from Europe, 

 and according to Staintou, into all the lour quar- 

 ters of the globe, wherever cabbages are grown. 

 In this country, and probably in Europe also, 

 there arc two broods of them every year, one 

 coming out in the middle of the sunnner and 

 the other in October. (The proper name of this 

 insect is J'/ute/la crucifemrnni; but the late Dr. 

 Clemens, not being aware ot its identity with 

 the European species, re-described it as FluteUu 

 limb i pen ndla, and under the same circum- 

 stances Dr. Fitch gave it the name of Cerostoma 

 brassiucUu.) 



We have received specimens of this moth 

 from Capt. Edw. 11. Beebc, of Galena, Ills., 

 along with some of its cocoons. He says that 

 the larva is very destructive to gilly-flowors, and 



some other plants in gi-een-houses, and that in 

 green-houses it hatches out into the moth state 

 as late as the end of November. This hatching 

 out as late as November, instead of in October, 

 is no doubt due, as Capt. Bccbe suggests, to 

 artificial warmth. The gilly-fiowers upon which 

 the insect occurred belong to the same botanical 

 family (Crncifera-) as the cabbage; and we 

 Icarn from its European name, that the larva 

 feeds in Europe upon a variety of species be- 

 longing to this great group of plants. 



I'RACTR'AL IMPORTANCE OP SCIENCE. 



irniii.shitLil Irom Lf N;vUiKilisti.' CiuKUliuii , No. i.] 



We lately met a friend who, thinking that it 

 was necessary to apologize to us for not having 

 subscribed to our Journal, told us that ho had 

 paid no attention whatever to Natural History. 

 "I care but very little,"' he added, "to know 

 whether a butterfiy has a yellow tail or a red 

 one, and I willingly let that question alone 

 without troubling my head about i(.'' " It is 

 fortunate,"' we replied, " that there are other 

 people who do not think as you do, for the tiling 

 is of more importance than you suppose. If all 

 the world had reasoned as you do, steam, elec- 

 tricity, magnetism, etc., would have never re- 

 ceived from man those i^ractical applications 

 which astonish the intellect to-day, and consti- 

 tute the wonder of the age. A buttcrtly's tail 

 beio.g yellow or red contains nothing which 

 ought intrinsically to interest us; but if by that 

 character one is enabled to distinguish a fiiend 

 from an enemy — a beneficial being from a dan- 

 gerous animal capable of causing considerabhj 

 damage — then this eharacler acquires a very 

 special importance. And you ought to think 

 yourself fortunate," we added, " that others 

 have done for you what you do not feel the 

 courage to undertake for yourself, and have given 

 you the power, by means of such publications 

 as ours, to jump to results without having boon 

 subjected to the toilsome labor of the demonstra- 

 tion — that is to say, to draw your interest with- 

 out liaving deposited any capital in the great 

 Bank of science.'' 



The majority of our readers will, we think, bo 

 of our opinion. They will proclaim with us, 

 that progress among men demands the concur- 

 rent action of every intellectual power, and that 

 in working, each of us iu the speciality which 

 has fixed our choice, we promote the general 

 good of the comn^unity, and engineer efTectively 

 for the great cause of veritable progress. 



