302 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[August, 
make up a purse from which to pay children for 
hunting them. It would be a very good invest- 
ment to pay $1 per 100 for all the white butter- 
flies that are delivered, and an active boy with 
a light net (made of ordinary mosquito-cloth) 
can catch several hundred in a day. Every 
butterfly killed, especially if early iu the season, 
means a good many heads of sound cabbage 
saved from the destroyer. It behooves cultiva- 
tors to give their minds to this matter, for this 
insiguificnnt-looking worm promises within a 
very short time to remove the cabbage from the 
bill of fare of that very large part of our popu- 
lation to whom "boiled dinner" is a semi- 
weekly necessity. 
[While we agree with our associate, from 
whom the above is received, as to the import- 
ance of attacking the "worm" in the butterfly 
state, we can not subscribe to his statement that 
it can not be fought successfully while a worm. 
Our garden patch of early cabbages was badly 
infested by the worms early in the season. A 
few siftings of air-slaked lime completely 
routed them. — Ed.] 
I ., 
Eggs in Grape Canes and Apple Twigs. 
ET C. V. RILEY. 
[The following note, with specimens, from M. 
H. Garland, Amherst Co., Va., was forwarded 
to Mr. C. V. Riley, State Entomologist of Mis- 
souri, who returns the accompanying full reply, 
with illustrations. — Ed.J 
"Inclosed you will find acutting from a grape- 
vine (Eumelan), which you will observe has been 
punctured by some insect. By splitting through 
the center you will find imbedded in the pitli a 
small worm or grub, about '/ B of an inch in 
length; yellowish white in color; but apparently 
iu a dormant state. Is the vine injured by it? 
If so, what is the remedy ? What is its name? " 
The above letter with the accompanying twigs 
came to hand some time ago. 
From the frequency with which 
queries regarding these and similar 
punctures are made, it is evident 
that little is known about them, 
and that a few explanations will 
prove interesting to many of your 
readers. 
Those sent by Mr. Garland are 
illustrated at Fig. 1. The punc- 
tures are in a straight row, about 
oue third to one half-inch apart, 
and appear as though made by a 
rather large-sized pin (b b). Each 
puncture leads to from ten to twelve 
slender, elongate eggs (c), about a 
tenth of an inch long, and deposited 
on either side of the puncture, 
lengthwise, in the pith (a). About 
the first of May they hatch out into 
little dingy crickets, and though I 
have not yet kept them until the 
last molt, and no one has ever bred 
the perfect insect, I have little 
doubt but it will prove to be the 
Jumping Cricket (Orocharis salta- 
tor, Uhler), so named, I suppose, 
by my friend P. R. Uhler, of Baltimore, be- 
cause it does not jump as mucti as some of its 
confreres. This insect (Fig. 2) is of a pale 
yellowish brown color, and the female («) dif- 
fers from the male (b) in possessing a long 
ovipositor, and in her wings being more rounded 
and less ribbed and veined, so that she can not 
chat and sing as does her lord. 
These Jumping Crickets are at times quite in- 
jurious, for they have a vicious habit of sever- 
Fig. 1. 
PUNCTURED 
CANE. 
ing green grapes from their stems, and uselessly 
scattering them upon the ground — always per- 
forming their nefarious work at night. The eggs 
should therefore be destroyed ; and this is best 
done by cutting and burning in the winter-time. 
Other eggs, which I receive quite often, are 
those illustrated at figure 3. 
The twigs or canes of various cultivated plants, 
and notably those of the Grape-vine, Apple, 
Peach, Raspberry, Blackberry, White Willow, 
and Soft Maple, are often more or less split or dis- 
figured by a series of closely set but irregular 
punctures, as illustrated at a. Upon cutting into 
such twigs we find that, unlike the eggs we have 
already mentioned, these all lie diagonally across 
the pith, close together, iu a single, irregular, 
Fig. 2.— JUMPING CRICKET, MALE AND FEMALE. 
longitudinal row, as at b. More carefully exam- 
ined with a lens, each egg appears pale yellowish, 
sub-elliptical, a little curved, more pointed at 
lower end (c), and capped at the head or more 
rounded end with regularly arranged white, 
opaque granulations, which, under a low- 
power microscope, appear as shown at d. 
These are the eggs of the Snowy .Tree- 
cr\c\iel((Ecanthu9 niveus, Harr.). The young 
also hatch about the first of May. After • 
eating through ils egg-cap, the new-born 
cricket is still enveloped in an exceedingly 
fine membrane, from which it soon extricates 
itself, and which it leaves at the orifice of 
the puncture. These young crickets are 
whitish and very act- 
ive, and generally con- 
ceal themselves in the 
thick June foliage of 
our woods or our or- 
chards. At this time of 
their life they subsist 
principally on plant- 
lice, eggs of insects, and 
other delicate animal 
food; and if they can 
get nothing better, will 
exhibit their cannibal- 
istic propensities b y 
devouring the weaker 
individuals of their own 
kind. Subsequently, as 
they grow larger, they 
are often content with a 
vegetable diet, and thus 
thej r perfectly combine 
iu one species herbiv- 
orous and carnivorous 
habits. After the first 
molt they begin to vary 
a good deal in color, the 
females generally being 
quite dark. When ma- 
ture, the female insect presents the appear- 
ance of figure 4, and the male that of figure 5. 
I have at the present time an extensive young 
brood of these little crickets in one of my breed- 
.— PUNCTURED 
TWIGS. 
ing cages. They were hatched from a Soft-ma- 
ple twig, which furnished material for our illus- 
tration, and it is astonishing how quickly they 
will clean oif an aphis-crowded twig, of what- 
5.— SNOWY TREE- 
CRICKET — MALE. 
Fig. 4. — SNOWY TKEE-CRICKET — FEMALE. 
soever kind. When in the course of a few 
weeks more they acquire their full growth, and 
with it their wings, it is likely that I shall con- 
sign them to chloroformed oblivion ; for the 
male swells willi such pride at the acquisition 
of wings, that he sets them a-going, fiddle-aud- 
bow-fashion, until the shrill- 
ing and shrieking fairly 
distract. He becomes al- 
most as much of a nuisance 
iu-doors, as the young and 
ambitious musical boarder 
who grates eternally on his 
catgut. The only difference 
is that our little six-legged 
musician is denied (but not 
veryjustly, since he has an 
object) discriminating reason, while the two- 
legged fiddler is supposed to have reason, which, 
however, does not always make him considerate 
of others' feelings! 
But — not to wander — this Snowy Cricket 
shares with his more robust Jumping compan- 
ion in the nefarious midnight-work of gnaw- 
ing, girdling, or severing different parts of the 
grape tbyrse, causing the berries either to shrivel 
or fall, and producing what is often known as 
" shanking." The virtues of its youth do not 
6 
Fig. 6.— PUNCTURED TWIG. 
atone for the bad habits of its after-life; and 
this GUctinthus must be classed with the bad bugs. 
Still a third kind of punctured twig is illus- 
trated at fig. 6. The punctures consist of a row 
— more or less straight — of little raised slits in 
the bark (b) in each of which upon careful ex- 
amination may be found an oval, dark-colored 
egg (a). These slita have been mistaken by the 
uninitiated for the crescent cuts of the Plum Cur- 
culio, and thus the false story goes that Madam 
Turk sometimes oviposits in twigs. They are 
in reality those of the Buffalo Tree-hopper (fie- 
resa bubalus, Fabr.), a yellowish-green, hump- 
backed iusect, with two little horns on the pro- 
thorax, which render its name not inappropriate. 
A side view,natural size, is shown at a and a back 
view at b, fig. 7. The young 
are at first brownish, with 
a formidable row of ten 
pairs of compound spines, 
and looking totally unlike 
the mature insect. After 
the first and second molts 
they are still furnished 
with these sprangling spines on the back, but 
are of a paler color, with some transverse lilac- 
colored lines. With the third and last molt 
they suddenly acquire the mature characteristics. 
This insect subsists during its whole life on 
the sap of apple, pear, and other trees, but 
never does serious injury. 
These three are the more common kinds of 
twig-eggs that attract attention ; and although 
there are many other kinds that are of interest 
to the fruit-grower as well as to the entomolo- 
gist, this article is already too long to allow us 
to undertake a description of them at present. 
£ *f3. 
Fig. 7. — BUFFALO 
TREE-HOPPER. 
