THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



217 



must be the real mother insect, and should be 

 destroyed ! No reader of the Entojiolo(;ist will 

 be apt to make such a grave blunder, for they 

 will know when they observe this large buzzing 

 lly, tliat it Is doing them good service. Tliis fly 

 is of a dark gray color witli a satiny lustre, and 

 the last abdominal joint is brick red or reddish- 

 yellow. When we recollect that besides this 

 Tachina Fly which had provided foi- the des- 

 truction of nine-tentlis of the worms, there are 

 five oilier distinct jjarasites which are known 

 (o attack them, by deiiositing their eggs in the 

 body of their victim, ■where these eggs cannot 

 be seen; we shall have no cause to wonder if 

 tliere should be no vestige of tlie Army-worm 

 around llimiiibal next year. 



The Foe. Sometiiiios jinives to lie the Fiieiul. 



We have heard of the Army-worm, some- 

 times passing througli a wheat field when the 

 wlieat was nearly ripe, and doing good service 

 liy devouring all the chess and leaving un- 

 loudied the wheat; but the following item from 

 CoUinsville, Illinois, which we clip from the 

 Missouri Democrat, contains still more start- 

 ling fiicts: 



" Harvest and Crops. — Not.withst.anding tlie 

 unfavorable weather, many farmers have com- 

 menced tlie wheat harvest. The yield in this 

 immediate vicinity will be superabundant. Some 

 fields were struck with rust a few days since, 

 but the Army-worm making its appearance 

 simultaneously, stripped the straw entirely bare 

 of blades and saved the berry from injury. These 

 disgusting pests have saved thousands of dollars 

 to farmers in this neighborhood. A few fields 

 of corn and grass have been partially destroyed, 

 but by ditching around fields, the worms' rav- 

 ages iiave been confined within comparatively 

 narrow limits." 



BEIiVTED INDIVIDUALS of the PERIODICAL CICADA. 



On page C-t of the present volume of the En- 

 tomologist, we stated that scattering individuals 

 of tlie Periodical Cicada, and more especially of 

 the 13-year brood (C tredecim), frequently ap- 

 licar tlie year before or the year after their 

 proper period. It was onr good fortune to meet 

 with two of tlie empty pupa shells of this insect, 

 on the 7th of June, while Major E. S. Foster of 

 Bushburg, Mo., caught a single perfect J insect. 

 Their song has also been heard in If^OO by several 

 persons who are well able to distinguish it from 

 that of any of the other species wliicli make their 

 advent among us each year. Yet the woods 

 seem strangely quiet, when we recall the loud 

 resonance of the 13-year Cicada, which animated 

 tliem a year ago. 



IS THE CURCULIO SCARCER THAN IT WAS 

 LAST YEAR? 



On page 202 of our last number we published 

 a letter from Judge A. M. Brown of Villa 

 Ridge, Ills., stating that he found the Cnrculi3 

 much scarcer than it wa? a year ago; and W3 

 gave our own experience as corroborative of 

 the fact in Missouri. We have been informed 

 that at the June meeting of the Alton (Ills.) 

 Horticultural Society, Dr. Hull gave it as his 

 conviction that this conclusion was hastily 

 drawn, and that the Curculio was mors 

 abundant than ever before, and that it was 

 utterly impossible for them to obtain a croii 

 of peaches in Southern Illinois. Now we car^j 

 little for opinions, for we write for truth ancl 

 are ever ready to stand corrected when there \i 

 occasion, but wc are not in the habit of forinin^j 

 hasty conclusions, and though, as a general rule, 

 we highly esteem the Doctor's opinions, we ai-'j 

 unwilling tliat tlie ipse dixit of any one indi- 

 vidual shall stand as record for all future. Wu 

 know not how much territory the Doctor in- 

 tended to embrace in his assertion, but as iii) 

 qualification is given we suppose he refers tii 

 the whole AVestern country. As to the lasfi 

 statement, that it is impossible for them to hava 

 any peaches the present year in South Illinois, 

 we leave the result to confirm or disprove it. 

 We have ourselves made personal observationsi 

 in Missouri, at various points along the Iron 

 Mountain and along the Pacific Kail Roads, as 

 well as at Hannibal, and can truly say that wa 

 have often had difficulty to find any trace o^' 

 this little pest, especially where there was a. 

 failure of the crop a year ago. "We have also 

 made observations in Illinois, both at Alton 

 and at Warsaw with the same results. And 

 surely if the conclusion we formed a month ago 

 had been as false and hasty as the Doctoi- 

 claims, it would have been contradicted by ;t 

 number of our readers. Now what are tlie ex- 

 periences of others? 



To commence with, near Rock Island, Ills., 

 the plums have been punctured by the Plum 

 Gouger about as extensively as we ever saw 

 this insect work; but there are very lew Cur- 

 culio crescents on the same trees to be met with. 



Mr. G. Wilgus of Warsaw, Ills., writes an 

 follows upon this very important subject : 

 "Most of my peach-trees are loaded willi fruit. 

 Only a few peaches appear to have been stung 

 by the Curculio, and but a very small number 

 indeed of those which bear the crescent mark 

 have fallen from the tree, or contain either egg 

 oj- worm. The wounds appear to have healed 



