151 



upon economic entomology. This is Homalodisca coagulata, a specie* 

 described by Say in 1832 from specimens captured by Barabino in 

 Louisiana. It is generally known as the " Sharp-shooter" in the South^ 

 on account of the peculiar effect of its puncture on young cotton bolls, 

 which look as though pierced by a minute bullet, and also because of 

 its rapid and forcible ejection of minute drops of liquid. It is a large 

 species, nearly half an inch in length, and somewhat resembles the com- 

 mon Froconia undata^ a species common in the Southern States and 

 which is frequently responsible for the '^weeping trees" to which Ave 

 have several times referred in the pages of Insect Life. The two spe- 

 cies are, in fact, often associated with each other on the same plant and 

 are commonly confounded. The species under consideration, however, 

 may at once be distinguished from the Proconia by its more elongate 

 snout and by the more shining and glassy appearance of its wing-covers, 

 as well as by many other minute but more important structural char- 

 acters. 



In July, 1885, we received specimens of the Homalodisca from Mr. L. 

 C. Bryan, of Savannah, Ga., who had found it injuring the LeConte 

 Pear. Mr. Bryan described it as being very shy and difficult to catch, 

 and stated that it sucked the sap from the pear leaves. He mentioned 

 it also in an article entitled ''What is to be the future of the LeOonte 

 Pear," in the Savannah Weekly JSl'ews, of about July 16, 1885. 



In August, 1887, other specimens were received, together with a few 

 of Froconia undata, from Mr. C. F. A. Bielby, of Deland, Fla., who 

 found them in considerable numbers upon the twigs of the new growth 

 and that of the previous year in an orange orchard affected by " die- 

 back." Mr. Bielby had watched them most carefully and described 

 their extreme shyness and their interesting habit of ejecting a spray 

 of fluid from the anus. He could not see them feeding on the twigs, 

 but strongly suspected that they were, at least in part, responsible for 

 the " die-back." In later letters he stated that he had seen the insect 

 insert its beak into the young wood, and surmised, from the color of 

 the fluid contents of the abdomen, that it fed upon the yellow essential 

 oil. This correspondence with Mr. Bielby is published in full in In- 

 sect Life, vol. i (pp. 52-54). As there stated in our published an- 

 swers, it is impossible to connect the punctures of this or any other 

 orange-feeding insect with the disease known as "die-back." Even 

 the so-called " die-back fungus "is secondary in its attack, and the 

 disease itself is probably physiological, or rather not caused by anjr 

 parasite, either animal or vegetable. 



In June, 1891, we again received specimens, and this time from Mr. 

 Louis Biediger, of Idlewild, Bexar County, Tex. Mr. Biediger wrote 

 us that he found them upon his wild mulberry trees and that the trees- 

 were " full of them." Up to the time of writing (May 29, 1891) he 

 had not been able to see that they had caused any appreciable damage. 



In August of the present year (1892) still other specimens of the 



