90 



circular or hiuate gash that is so characteristic of the *' little Turk." It 

 deposits a single egg in each plum attacked. But some plums examiued 

 were fouud to contain several eggs, several weevils having no doubt 

 used the same plum for ovipositiou. When the egg has hatched and 

 the young grub commences to bore into the fruit, a transparent, gummy 

 substance oozes from the puncture. Fruit containing the grubs of this 

 weevil does not necessarily fall prematurely, nor does it appear to be 

 greatly injured for use. The mature insects from the new brood begin 

 emerging b^' the time fruit commences ripening, and from that time on 

 to late ill the fall. They winter in the ground and in various sheltered 

 localities about plum patches. In spring they appear with the first 

 buds and blossoms, and can be jarred from the trees like their ally, the 

 *' little Turk." They cling more tightly, however, than that insect does, 

 and a much severer jarring is required to dislodge them. Their punc- 

 turing, while not so marked as that of the other insect, begins just a 

 very little earlier and continues perhaps somewhat later in summer." 



RECENT SWARMINGS OF INSECTS. 



The Eeading (Pa.) Times for August 2, 1888, contains an account of 

 an appearance of " bugs " in that place, with detailed remarks by a 

 local savant (Prof. G. H. Thompson), who stated that the insects in 

 question were " a species of a cotton bat, usually called the moth," and 

 that ''it comes from the cotton fields of the South." Who this professor 

 is we do not know, but it is clear he is not familiar with the subject he 

 tries to discuss. In a letter from Herman Strecker we are informed 

 that the moth which appeared in such large numbers for the one night, 

 August 1, was a Tortrix [Tortrix fractivittana Clem.). He also states 

 that the article above referred to was on the authority of a fire-escape 

 or lightning rod man, who, to use Mr. Strecker's words, knew about as 

 much of such things as an intelligent cow. The case is more correctly 

 stated in the Reading (Pa.) Evening Telegram for August 2, 1888, 

 some of the information therein being derived from Mr. Strecker him- 

 self. He also adds in his letter that " the next evening but a few were 

 about and subsequently scarcel^^ any." The sudden abundance of this 

 Tortricid is certainly very extraordinary. It fluttered about the elec- 

 tric lights by thousands. According to a note in the Scientific Ameii- 

 can for August 18, 1888, they were first noticed flying around the lights 

 about 8 o'clock. They soon infested the air to such an extent as to re- 

 semble at a distance a snowstorm, and passengers on the street-cars, 

 as they passed under the lamps, were covered with the insects, which 

 caused vast annoyance by getting into their ears, eyes, and mouths. 



In the same number of the same journal Mr. Thonms Latnam is re- 

 sponsible for the statement that myriads of moths were at date of his 

 writing circulating around the electric lights upon Third avenue, New 

 York. The note does not give the species, but states that the moths 

 are barely half an incli long. 



