THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



231 



like the up-aad-down movement of the Sphinx 

 tribe of caterpillars, gives it a still more menac- 

 ing appearance ; yet it is entirely harmless and 

 cannot possibly hurt any one, for as we have 

 proved by experiment, the prick of its spines has 

 no poisonous effect whatever. Mr. Abbot tells 

 us that this caterpillar is called in Virginia the 

 Hickory Horned Devil, and that when disturbed 

 it draws up its head, shaking or striking it froin 

 side to side; which attitude gives it so formid- 

 able an aspect, that no one, he aiiirms, will ven- 

 ture to handle it, people in general dreading it 

 as much as a rattle-snake. When to convince 

 the negroes that it was harmless he himself took 

 hold of this animal in their presence, they used 

 to reply that it could not sting him but would 

 them.* How many moi-e intelligent white folks 

 are there who have the same superstitious fear 

 of this caterpillar! It is solitary in its habits. 

 and after accjuiring its growth, descends 

 from the tree on which it lived and enters into 

 the ground. Here it forms an oval chamber, 

 and within five days works off its prickly skin 

 and becomes a chrysalis. The chrysalis is 

 pitchy-black, short, thick, and with protuber- 

 ances and ridges as in the figure. It remains 

 in this last state through the fall, winter and 

 spring months, and the moth escapes from it at 

 the time above specified, leaving a 

 strong thick shell behind, which read- 

 ily retains its proper form. The male 

 moth is readily distinguished from 

 the female by his smaller body, but 

 more especially by his antennie being 

 larger, and strongly pectinate or tooth- 

 ed along their basal half, while hers 

 are impectinate and of a uniform thickness 

 throughout. 



Both the chrysalis and the moth have a char- 

 acteristic strong odor which cannot easily be 

 described for the lack of comparison, though it 

 reminds us forcibly of the peculiar odor of the 

 English Broad Beau. 



Though a great feeder, this insect is altogether 

 too rare to be classed with those that are injuri- 

 ous, especially as its food-plants are abundant. 



riame color with bluuk extremities. Abdominal prolegs 

 orange with black pads and a distinct black outer mark ex- 

 tending upwards somewhat on to body. Venter of the same 

 green as tei-gwra, except between prolegs, where it inclines 

 to orange. 



Chrysalis. — Length nearly two inches; greatest diameter, 

 0.75 inch. Thick,comparatively short; black, with four eleva- 

 tions anteriorly , two of which are rounded and on top of 

 thorax, and the other two bluntly oblong and run transverse- 

 ly across first abdominal segment. There are also two slight 

 longitudinal interrupted ridges along the back of the 

 three succeeding segments. The larger abdominal seg- 

 ments each with a narrow transverse ridge near both the 

 anterior and posterior edge. The teeth on these ridges en- 

 tirely obsolete in some, and but partly so in others. A slight 

 anal' projection terminating in two small dull points. 



•Sni. & Abb. Ins. of Georgia I, 121— Quoted by Kirby & 

 Spence. 



INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE GRAPE-TINE. 



The Grape has been cultivated from the very 

 earliest dawn of civilization, and has justly been 

 esteemed as one of the most delicious of fruits. Its 

 culture in the United States assumes vaster pro- 

 portions from year to 5'ear, and as our people are 

 fast learning the luxury and the health-giving 

 properties of good grapes, and as our native wines 

 are fast taking the place of the imported kinds, 

 Grape culture has scarcely begun to assume that 

 importance which will soon attach to it. Of all 

 the evils with which the Grape-grower has to 

 contend, none are greater or more difficult to 

 overcome than are the injuries of insects; and 

 this is especially the case in the Mississippi 

 Valley, where the number of sijecies destructive 

 to the Grape in one way or another, seems to be 

 greater than in other parts of the country. In 

 view of these fiicts we give in this number the 

 first of a series of articles under the above head- 

 ing. In these articles we intend to treat of, and 

 illustrate most of the more injurious species, 

 and to suggest the means for their prevention 

 or destruction. 



The Gigantic Root Borer. 



{Priomis laticolUs, Drury). 

 [Fig. 1(19.] 



It will be remembered by most of our readers 

 that on page 19 of our first number, we gave a 

 description of a new 

 Grape root Borer, which 

 had been received from 

 AV. D. F. Lummis of 

 Makanda, Ills. This was 

 the first account ever 

 published of such aborer, 

 and it was impossible to 

 state definitely what par- 

 ticular insect it would 

 prove to be in the perfect 

 state. We interred, how- 

 ever, that it was the larva 

 of the Cylindrical Ortho- 

 soma {Orthosoma cylin- 

 dricttm, Fabr.), which is 

 Coior-Mahogany-browu. i-gpresented in the an- 

 nexed cut, (Fig. 170) for the reason that we 



