26 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[January, 
JB©YS & fflQ&M’ (DtWMMo 
The Doctor’s Talks. 
About Your JEyes.—Insects, etc. 
This time we will have a Talk about insects, and 
answer questions about specimens that have been 
sent. I am glad whenever any of you wish to know 
the name of a plant,an insect,or other natural object, 
and am always willing to help you all that I can. 
A great many—indeed, the larger number—of our 
boys and girls live in the country. I have seen 
many who were bom and grew up to be men and 
women in the country, who do not appear to notice 
a plant, or a bird, an insect, a stone, or any such 
object. I always think what dull and dreary lives 
their’s must be ; to how much that is beautiful and 
wonderful do they shut their eyes ! Such persons 
might just as well live among the brick walls of a 
crowded city for all the enjoyment they have of a 
country life. These people have eyes, but they 
have never learned the full use of them. Nowhere 
is there more need of eyes, properly trained eyes, 
than in the country, and it is to help you to use 
your eyes that I now and then talk about plants, 
insects, and other such things. Many are prevented 
from studying natural objects through fear of hard 
names, and others because they have not the proper 
books, or cannot give the time to such studies. 
Now, I do not expect that our boys and girls will, 
as a general thing, become students of science. 
There are two ways in which to study natural ob¬ 
jects ; one of these very few will follow, while the 
other is open to all of you. Let me illustrate this 
in the case of insects. One person carefully exam¬ 
ines all the parts of an insect; the shape of the dif¬ 
ferent parts of its mouth ; the number of joints in 
its leg or in its feelers ; the veins in its wings, and 
a great many other things about the anatomy of the 
insect. He sees how these parts in one insect agree 
with the same parts in other insects, and from these 
resemblances he places them in families, genera, 
and other groups, and thus classifies and names 
them. Another person notices at what season the 
insect makes its appearance, upon what plants it 
feeds, whether it is active by night or in the day ; 
when it changes from a caterpillar or grub to a 
chrysalis ; where it hides, what enemies it has, and 
what injuries it does. These, and a great many 
other things, can be learned from the insect itself. 
You lio Not Want a Book 
to tell them, and, while it would be interesting to 
know the name given to a particular insect, all 
these and other points in its life history can be 
learned without the name. It is this using your eyes 
and learning from the insect itself that I wish to 
encourage. Not only will what is thus learned be 
interesting, but the learning of it will be useful to you. 
If you carefully observe an insect and note the 
color or marks in which it differs from a similar 
one, that education of the eye will make one, if he 
afterwards should become a merchant, a better 
judge of woollens or furs, of grain and sugar. The 
proper use of the eyes is needed in all occupations, 
and in none is it more useful than in that of the 
farmer. So, my New Year’s greeting to you is— 
learn to use your eyes—to observe. Then, if you wish 
to know something about the plant, the insect, the 
stone, or whatever it may be, that your eyes do 
not tell you, I will try to help you to it. . . . The 
first is from a boy of eleven, who sends, in a neat box, 
a large insect, asking what it is. It proves to be 
“Tile Gigantic Water-Bug,” 
and belongs to that group of insects which includes 
the plant-lice, locusts, harvest-flies, leaf-hoppers, 
squash-bugs, the destroying chinch-bug, etc. It is 
not a beetle, but a true bug. Many call all iusects 
either butterflies or bugs, but, the name bug be¬ 
longs only to those insects which have no jaws, 
but live by sucking the juice of animals and plants, 
first piercing them with their beaks. They do not 
pass through the three distinct states of larva, or 
“ worm,” of the inactive pupa, and of full-grown 
mature insect, as do the beetles. The young, half- 
grown, and mature bugs are much alike, and 
equally active. Most of the water-bugs swim on 
their back, using their legs for paddles. There are 
several kinds of these bugs, differing in size and in 
other particulars. There is one even larger than 
our engraved one, as it measures four inches long. 
The entomologists have given bugs of this general 
make-up the name of Belostoma, which is formed by 
putting together two Greek words meaning- dart 
and mouth. The long, sharp-pointed sucker, is not 
seen in the engraving, because, when not in use, the 
insect hides it by folding it back under its chest. 
It is this weapon that 
makes the insect very 
destructive to young 
fish, of which it is 
said to destroy great 
numbers. Boys, when 
wading in ponds, have 
sometimes learned 
how sharp a wound 
this dart can give, 
the insect possibly 
mistaking their bare 
feet for something 
eatable. Several times 
this water-bug has 
been sent with the in¬ 
formation that it had 
suddenly appeared in 
great numbers, in 
places where they 
were not known be¬ 
fore. This sudden 
appearance is owing to the fact that they leave 
a pond at night, in large numbers, and take 
long flights, probably to find another pond. When 
on one of these journeys, a sudden shower or gust 
of wind sometimes stops their flight, they must 
alight, and often to the astonishment of the people. 
Bread Made of Insects’ Eggs. 
In Mexico the eggs of a related water-bug are de¬ 
posited in immense numbers on the sedges and 
other plants that grow in the ponds. These eggs are 
collected and made into a cake which is used as 
food by the Mexican Indians, who are fond of it. 
Another insect came in a wooden match-box, but 
I have mislaid the name of the sender. Below (fig. 
2) is its portrait, of the real size. The hinder part 
of the body is black, with bright yellow bands; the 
fore part is rust-colored, and the wings are smoky 
brown. At the end of the body is a short horny 
point, which is not seen iu the engraving. It 
could not be shown distinct from the ovipositor , or 
egg-placer, which consists of a borer or awl, very 
highly polished, and roughened and toothed around 
the lower end; this is attached near the middle of 
the body, and there are two side pieces which form 
a sheath for it, when not in use. The end of this 
awl projects beyond the body. The insect is the 
Pigeon Tremex. 
The scientific name is Tremex Columba. Tremex 
means a maker of holes, and columba, a pigeon; the 
reason for giving this last name is not plain, as 
there is nothing pigeon-like about it. This insect 
bores holes through the bark and into the wood of 
THE pigeon tremex ( Tremex, Columba ). 
various forest and fruit trees to the depth of half 
an inch or more, puts an egg into the hole, and then 
bores another one. Sometimes the awl is driven in 
so tightly that it cannot be drawn out, and the in¬ 
sect, thus made fast, must die. The eggs hatch, 
and the grub feeds upon the wood of the tree until 
it has made its growth; it then forms a chrysalis, 
and finally comes out of the tree as a perfect insect, 
to go on with the destructive work again. How 
long it takes for these changes is not well known. 
Large numbers of the grubs in a tree of course must 
greatly injure it, and the insect is to be regarded as 
an enemy. Fortunately it is not likely to increase 
to any great extent, as it has its insect enemies in 
Some of the Ichneumon Files, 
which are related insects. Some of these have- 
borers three and four inches long; they seem to- 
know whereabouts in the tree to find the grub of 
the Pigeon Tremex, and they bore for, and, having 
reached it, place an egg, not in the wood of the 
tree, but in the body of the grub l Figure 3 shows a 
Pimpla, one of these Ichneumon flies, in the act of” 
boring, its long awl being as slender as a horse¬ 
hair. I am sorry to say that this friendly insect 
sometimes is unable to remove its awl, and, like the 
injurious one, meets its death. When the egg of 
the Ichneumon fly has hatched, its grub feeds upon 
the grub which holds it, and by the time it has 
killed that, it is full grown, and ready to change 
into a perfect Ichneumon fly. These insects are 
called Ichneumon flies, as they do for other insects 
what the Ichneumon, the quadruped, does for the 
crocodile, which lives upon the crocodile’s eggs. In¬ 
sects that thus live upon other insects are very nu¬ 
merous, and they do much to prevent a great in¬ 
AN ICHNEUMON FLY AT WORK. 
crease of many troublesome pests. They are called' 
parasites or parasitic insects, and, if you use your 
eyes properly, you will no doubt find other insects 
which live in this strange manner. The Doctor. 
Our Pnzzle-ISox. 
ADDITIONS and transpositions. 
(In the following puzzle a letter is added to a 
word, which word is transposed into another word 
in the same sentence. Find the words. Example r 
These things must all be thoroughly aired; hang 
the sheets and blankets on the line. S is added to 
these, and transposed into sheets.) 
1. 1 shall take the North River boat rather than 
the cars ; they arrive about the same time. 
2. The chief actor wore top-boots, a cocked hat, 
and a coat of mail. 
3. It made him so nervous to have the people 
stare at him, that he could not get a moment’s rest. 
4. It made them stare more when several police 
officers came to arrest him. 
5. She sent for some shoes, a ream of paper, a; 
quart of ink, pearl earrings, and amber beads. 
NUMERICAL ENIGMAS. 
1. I am composed of 9 letters : 
My 6,7,4,2, is generally seen around and in front 
of a house. 
My 6, 7, 4, holds man in subjection. 
My 5, 7, 4, 2, is a young animal. 
My 5, 3, 4, 6, is the generic name of certain ani¬ 
mals. 
My 1, 2, 7, 2, 9, is void. 
My 8, 7, 6, 9, is vegetable. 
My whole is seen in winter. Perry A. Mc.I.. 
2. I am composed of 19 letters: 
My 10, 7, 19, 9, is an army. 
My 1, 5, 16, is a pocket. 
My 8, 7, 12, is a young animal. 
My 16,14,15, 3, may be found in a crockery store* 
My 18, 11, 4, 13, 2, 6, is a color. 
My whole is good advice to farmers’ sons. 
Charles A. S. 
TRANSPOSITION. 
There are five letters, which, transposed, 
Five different words will show ; 
Some land, a sport, a name, a fright, 
And what we all must know. A. S.. 
THE GIGANTIC WATER-BUG. 
