98 



that still cling to the trees or have already dropped to the hard and 

 heated earth. 



A large prune tree on the grounds of the writer which has been in 

 bearing for eight or ten years, but which is such a bait for Co?i- 

 otraclielus nenupliar that we have seldom been able to obtain a per- 

 fect fruit, yielded recently quite a crop of undersized but not wormy 

 prunes. As entomologists all know, the pup?e of many moths and 

 beetles require a certain amount of moisture to enable them to emerge 

 from the ground, beneath which their transformation takes place, and 

 to expand their wings. It would seem as though the midsummer 

 broods had not been able to do this, as the strongest lights have for 

 weeks failed to attract anj^ ^octuids. Geometers, or Bombycids, and 

 scarcel}' any leaf -feeding beetles are to be found even on such vege- 

 tation as is still green. Incid entail}' it may be said that for the stu- 

 dent of the life histories of insects this is the most disappointing sum- 

 mer on record, but what its influence may be ux3on many well-known 

 forms is a matter of not a little economic interest. 



The horseli}', very numerous and annoying to cattle during May 

 and June, entirely disappeared some weeks since, the inanure drying 

 out too rapidly to aiford the larv?e time to develop. Even the house 

 flj- and other annoying Muscidpe are comi^aratively few in number. 



At this ^^1'iting in this immediate locality almost the onh' grass- 

 hoppers to be seen in meadows and pastures are in a very immature 

 condition, and few in number. The chorus of other orthopterous 

 species, usually so full and obtrusive during the evening hours at 

 this season of the year, is very thin and interrupted. Occasionally 

 one can distinguish the soft whirring of an Orchilimum or Xix3hidium, 

 and, at remote distances and intervals, the ear-splitting shrill of the 

 "cone head." 



The true katydid does not this year interrupt conversation in the 

 evenings on the lawn or piazza with its hoarse iterations, neither does 

 the angular- winged form with its noisj' rattle. Butterflies have dis- 

 appeared with the flowers from our gardens, and bees are consuming 

 the stores accummulated for winter use. But insects, especially the 

 obnoxious kinds, have great and inexplicable i^owers of adaptation 

 and endurance, and there is much interest attaching to the problem of 

 their survival and multiplication under present adverse conditions. 



It must not be forgotten that there are a few species that seem to 

 revel in the lieat and aridity. Among these are the ants, large and 

 small. With no showers to inundate their galleries and temporarily 

 arrest their activities they have increased beyond computation, and 

 have become an almost insupportable nuisance about dwellings. The 

 black crickets also seem to have found in the heat and drought of 

 the present summer circumstances exactly suited to their enjoyment 

 and multiplication. Their shrill chirpings on field and lawn and 

 about our dwellings replace the notes of arboreal insects and indicate 

 their presence in very unusual numbers. 



