THE AMEEICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



249 



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Parasites on "Hateful Grassbopper" — S. 



K. Faulkner, WMtesville, Andrew county, Mo.— The deop 

 scarlet-red parasites which you find attacking the grass- 

 hoppers ( CaZoptoju* spntus), and which, as you say, are 

 causing said grasshoppers to rapidly die off, are mites 

 belonging to the same class [Arachnida) , of articulate 

 animals as the spider. They have evidently but six legs, 

 and we have found jiarasites under the wings of the 

 common house liy in this country, which scarcely dif- 

 fered from them. "We believe these i)arasites have 

 never been described, but as similar six-legged red 

 mites beloMKing to Latreille's genus Astoina, are known 

 to aiiuck the house-fly and other insects In Eiu'ope, 

 ours in all probability belong to the same genus, and the 

 Senior Editor has suggested the name of Astoma hrun- 

 tartim for the species in question. (See PractiQtil Eiiio- 

 molngiat, vol. 1, p. 12G). These mites have been very 

 conuuon the present year on the Ilateful or Colorado 

 tlrasshopper, and we have received specimens of the 

 latter Irom Holt county. Mo., so thickly covered 

 with the mites, that we have no doubt that they seri- 

 ously affected the health of the ' ' hoppers . ' ' 



Crippled Moths — Ghas. P. Faulhwr, Bndgeport. 

 donii: — The wings of almost all moths will fail to ex- 

 pand to their proper proportions, if, on bursting forth 

 ftom the pupa state, the moths have no facilities for 

 climbing so as to allow their wings to hang down, while 

 the fluids of the body are gradually being disseminated 

 through the appropriate channels. A large heavy moth, 

 like the Polyphemus, would probably be unable to climb 

 the sides of a glass jar, but almost all small insects will do 

 so with ease. The popular idea that house-flies have 

 air-pumps in their paws, to enable them to walk up 

 glass windows, is a myth! It has been proved that 

 they can walk up the sides of an exhausted receiver; 

 and besides, many insects without any pad (omjchiam) 

 between their tarsal claws walk upon glass as readily as 

 a house-fly. In all such cases, the tarsal claws seize 

 hold of the small roughnesses in the glass, which are im- 

 perceptible to the naked eye. 



Insects on tlie Oleander — T. W. Gordon. — The 

 flattened oval scales attached so thickly to the leaves of 

 [FiK> 185.] your Oleander, are a foreign species of 

 bark-louse. A little diluted kerosene 

 — say one part water and one of kero- 

 sene — would perhaps be the best thing 

 to kill them and thus cleanse your plants. 

 Thi! black beetle of form and size of a 

 '^°'°b*.dired. "'"' split pea, with two blood-red spots on the 

 wlng-eovers, is the Twice-stabbed Lady bird. (See 

 Fig. 185). It was undoubtedly preying on the bark-lice, 

 and if unmolested would soon have <-learcd the plant. 

 Insects found on Apple Tree — J. W. Wati-rs, 

 Upringjield, Mo. — No. 1 are the eggs of the Rapacious 

 Soulier Bug {Reduvius raptatorins. Say,) which you will 

 And illustrated on page 207, Figure 142. No, 2 is the 

 Twice-stabbed Lady-bird {ChUocoriis iioiilnerus, Muls.) 

 which is figured above. (Fig. 18.')). They are both ben- 

 eficial insects, and were doubtless preying on the plant- 

 lice on your trees. ' 



Beetles Named — /. M. Shaffer, Fairfield, Iowa. — 

 The beetle that comes into your house in great numbers 

 is Agonnderus pallipes, Fabr. The black blister beetles 

 caught last fall on " Rag- weed " are rAjtta at rata, 

 Kabr. 



Gig'antic Water Bu^ — E. M. Downdng, Beloit, 

 JFi'*.— The large bug of which you can find neither 

 iVvf. 186.] description orname, and 



which would eat no- 

 thing that was given to 

 it, is the Gigantic Water 

 Bug (Belostoma grandis.) 

 It lives in the water and 

 feeds on other aquatic 

 insects and small ani- 

 mals. As we are ever 

 and anou receiving this 

 insect for determina- 

 tion, we reproduce 

 lierewith its photograph 

 (Fig. 180.) by which it 

 may at once be recog- 

 nized by the rest of o\ir 

 readers . , 



Worm eating: into 

 ^reen Tomatoes — 



D. L. Mall, Alton. Ills. 

 — The worm eating into 

 yoiu' green tomatoes is 

 not as you suggest, the 

 Cuior-Light-iirown. BoU-womi described in 



last number, but that rascally Stalk-borer {Gortyiiu 

 nitela, (Juen.), which bores into such a variety of plants 

 and which we have on sevei-al occasions referred to. 

 (See especially Figs. llaudUO.) It has long been known 

 to bore into the stalk of the Tomato, but now you add 

 to its crimes that of attacking the Iruit, and we have 

 this summer found it even Ijoring into the fruit of the 

 Strawberry . 



Miscellaneous — Geo. W. Copley, Alton, Ills.— The 

 golden green •• bugs with the Fenian uniform," which 

 you found quite plenty amongst your standing wheat, 

 are Chrysochus auratus, Fabr., or the Gilded Chryso- 

 chus. These beetles belong to the great Ohrysonula 

 family and feed on the leaves of the Dog's-bane 

 {Apocynum aridrosaimifoUum), but their larval habits are. 

 we believe, unknown. The black prickly caterpillar 

 found on a rose bush is the larva of the Buck Moth, 

 heretofore referred to. The yellow louse which is so 

 badly crumpling the leaves of the Red currant, is the 

 Currant Plant-louse {Aphis ribis, Linn.), long known to 

 thus attack the Currant both In this country and in 

 Europe, but never known to occur on the ctlosely allied 

 Gooseberry. The apples you send were a fleeted with 

 the common apple rust. The common form of this rust 

 is caused by a microscopic plant of fungoid growth, 

 but a very similar appearance is caused, as we know 

 from experience, by the shallow gnawings of a small 

 grass-green worm which produces a yellowish-brown 

 moth (Loxotxnia rosaeeana, Harr) . It is tlie normal habit 

 of this worm to fold up and devour the leaf, but it Is also 

 very fond of gnawing oil' the rind of green apples, and 

 such gnawed places soon become brown and rusty and 

 sometimes crack. 



A Mixed Mess— i\ F. F., Hamilton. --The insects 

 you sent presented a most heterogeneous and broken 

 appearance on their arrival, the inevitable result of the 

 loose manner of packing. We cannot undertake to 

 name or say anything about dried specimens of insects 

 that are not well packed and numbered . 



