THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



207 



StraiTberry Bugs — Jno. M. Pearson, Godfreij, 

 Ills. — The highly poUshed black insects, about one- 

 tenth of an inch in length and three-fourths as broad 

 as they are long, wliicli have lately swarmed on the 

 strawberries around Alton, are the Corimelmna pulicaria 

 of Germar., and may be known in English by the name 

 of the Flea-like Corimelajna. They are not Chinch 

 Bugs as some of the members of your society supposed . 

 At Figure 138 of our present number, a good cut of the 

 Chinch Bug is given, and you will at once perceive the 

 difference upon comparing that figure with yoiu- Straw- 

 berry insect. This last, hke the Chinch Bug, is a true 

 bug (order IJeteroptera) but belongs in a very different 

 family (Scutellerid.e), all the insects of which are 

 distinguished by the great size of the scutel. In the 

 Chinch Bug the scutel lorms that little triangular picic 

 (seethe Figure) innnediately behind the thorax, while 

 in the Strawberry bug it covers the whole body, the 

 hemelytra lonuing but a pale dirty yellow stripe alon^; 

 cacli side. We ourselves (bund these bugs quite abun- 

 dant on strawberries last spring, puncturing the stem 

 and thus causing cither blossom or fruit to wilt. It i^ 

 likewise destructive to that plant in Canada, judgiii^c 

 from a description given in the Canada Farmer loi 

 August 1st, 1807. A year or two ago, it; was sent us 

 with an account of its having ruined a crop of raspbu- 

 ries; and this year we receive it from Mr. G. Wilgus 

 of Richview, III. , with an account of its infesting both 

 cherry and (luince. "On cherry," as hejnforms us, 

 "it occurs ill very large numbers, causing the stems 

 of the young fruit to wilt and shrivel. It also attacks 

 the blossoms and leaves, but seems to do most dam- 

 age on stems." Ilencc it may be considered as a 

 pretty general feeder. In the summertime it maybe 

 ■found in very large numbers upon a variety of wild 

 flowers, and it is also very injurious to certain gai- 

 den flowers, and especially to the Coreopsis. Nevei 

 having made experiments with a view to its destruc- 

 tion, we can not give a remedy. They might be cap 

 tiired by hand or with a sweeping net, or kept a« ly 

 Irom the vines by an application of cresylic soap. 



Eges on Apple-trees — //. Compton, Wells Corneis, 

 Erie County, I'a. — The eggs about the size of a common 

 pins' head, laiil in two parallel rows on apple limbs 

 and each egg bordered round its tip end with a fringe 

 of short prickles, are those of a true Bug very commou 

 xipon trees , of which we herewith present a skett h 

 This insect belongs to the Eeduiiu^ 

 Family, all of which without ex- 

 ception are cannibals, and it pre\ s 

 upon a great variety of insects, and 

 among others upon young cankti 

 worms. Consequently it should 

 be encouraged and protected, in- 

 stead of being persecuted and de- 

 stroyed. The eggs of the Solilici - 

 bugs (genus Arnm), another can- 

 nibal group of the true Bugs {JJd- 

 erojitera), are very similar to thest 

 of yours; but instead of being laid 

 in two rows, they are deposited in 

 a round mass, and the prickles round their tip are much 

 longer, slenderer and sharper. 



liady-bird liarvce — Emory S. Foster, Ihishhurq, 

 Mo. — The active little insects, marked with blue, black 

 and orange, which you tind in such great numbers on 

 yourgrape vines, are the larva; of the Convergent Lady- 

 [Fic. H3.] bird (Ilippodamia conrergens, 



Guer). It is represented at 

 Figui-e 143 a. together with the 

 pupa h and the beetle c. They 

 should be protected. Fortu- 

 nately for the tivrmer and fruit- 

 grower. Ladybirds are very 

 abundant this spring, espe- 

 cially the species just men- 



„ tioned, the Spotted Ladybird 



''ta,?ir:%'^'rno.,°arr?5".;;3(Fig- 130), and the Nine- 

 black ■ (c) omuEe red, Mack marked Ladybird (Fig. 37), 

 and white. They are , indeed, so very abun- 



dant, not only in your vicinity but iu other parts of 

 St. Louis county. Mo., and Southern Illinois, that a 

 reasonable immunity Irom such injurious insects as 

 they arc known to prey upon, may be expected iu 

 those sections. 



[Fig. 142.] 



Color — Light brown. 



Wbite Grub Fung-us. again — Wm. C. Holmes, 

 Plattslurg, Mo. — You send specimens of the White 

 Grub which, as you say, did a great deal of damage iu 

 your neighborhood last year. You also enclose a num- 

 ber of brown beetles wliieli you rightly infer to be the 

 [Fig. i-H.] perfect state of these grubs. And 



tiiiaily you send some of the grubs 

 with long sprouts arising from the 

 neighborhood of the head, and wish 

 to Ijiiow what these sprouts will til- 

 timatcly turn to. These grabs are 

 attacked by the same kind of fungus 

 spoken of and tigured on page 186 

 of our last number. We present 

 herewith another cut (Fig. 144) rep- 

 resenting the sprouts of the length 

 which they have now usually at- 

 tained . These vegetative grubs afe 

 still a good deal of a mystery to us, 

 hut as we now have them growing 

 in our garden, we may soon be able 

 to give our readers some definite in- 

 formation as to the mode in which 

 the fungus reproduces itself. Botan- 

 ists would evidently call it a Sphmria, 

 but as cryptogams of this group bear 

 their spores and reproduce them- 

 selves in a variety of different ways, 

 it is difficult to coiijecture what will 

 be the ultimate form of ours . Mean- 

 while, as we desire to ascertain over 

 how much territory this fungus ex- 

 tends, we sliall be glad to hear from 

 any of our subscribers who have 

 noticed it this spring. 



Ratten Fear Root— Wm. P. 

 Pierson, Onarrja, Ills. — The pear 

 roots which you send are, to all ap- 

 pearances, aflected with the "rot- 

 ten root" about which so much was 

 said at the meeting of your State 

 Horticultural Society at Bunker Hill 

 last winter. At all events if as you 

 .say "the roots of nearly two hun- 

 dred of your finest looking trees are 

 thus affected , " we can assure you 

 that you must not lay the blame to 

 insects, for there is no insect work 

 about it. We almost regret that it 

 is not the work of insects, because, 

 as they are something tangible we 

 could i"n all probability overcome the 

 dirticulty, or at least check its 

 spreading. But these fungoid dis- 

 eases are so insidious and conta- 

 gious that they are Iipyoiidour con- 

 trol, and as a ?;cnenil rule, we have 

 to see the liest .jf oiii- trees smitten 

 by them, withuutthe least power to 

 avoid the calamity. We do not 

 know that this root disease has yet 

 received any distinctive name, but 

 Colors— Dirtv white and it will pi'olKiblv receive due consid- 

 brown eration. during the year, from your 



State Horticulturist, I)r Hull. Tlie doctor will" not 

 want for material, for we were lately called to the apple 

 orchard of Mr. Groshen of Webster, Mo. , where some 

 thirty of what were last year the thriftiest trees, mostly 

 of the early varieties, were dying from this same root 

 rot, and it is in like manner (lecimating many other 

 orchards iu South Illinois and :Mis.-(>iiii. 



Since the above was written, we liave conversed with 

 Dr. Hull, and find that he has ]ikiwis(> received speci- 

 mens of these dead roots. He d">s not think they are 

 attacked by the fungus however. Imt lielicves they have 

 simply diecl from having been eNposetl tu the action of 

 frost while the trees wore being tiaiisiilanted. 



Bagivorms — Chas. Parrel, ('nuniiiiiii.^nii, N.J. — The 

 "worm that carries its cocoon on its back, and formerly 

 fed on the Arborvita;, but now relishes nearly all our 

 nursery evergreens and many deciduous trees," is 

 doubtless the common Bagworm, alias Biisketworm, 

 alias Dropworm ( Thyridopteryx ej)/iemerai/ormis). It can 

 be readily got rid of by gathering its cocoons off the in- 

 fested trees in the winter; for it is in these cocoons that 

 the eggs are deposited. 



