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a handle several feet long. (4) Never apply it to vines near which small chil¬ 
dren will be likely m to play. (5) Do not apply it to currant bushes, nor in 
any other case, after the fruit is much advanced. 
Noxious Larvce. —(Am. Ent., June, 1870, v. 2, pp. 232-234.) 
Larval state of insects most important, as it is in this state that most 
food is required and most damage done. As a rule insects live longer in 
the larva state than in any other. Complete and incomplete metamor¬ 
phoses discriminated. By far the larger proportion of noxious insects be¬ 
long to the Coleoptera and Lepidoptera. Of one hundred and seventy- 
eight families recognized by Westwood sixty-live contain noxious spe¬ 
cies, and of these, six have species injurious exclusively in the imago 
state. As a general rule hairy caterpillars produce moths, while spiny or 
naked ones produce butterflies or sphinges. Wood-boring larvae belong 
mostly to Coleoptera: but also to a few families of Lepidoptera. All leaf- 
sucking larvae belong to the order Hemiptera: all leaf-gnawing larvae 
except grasshoppers and caterpillars belong to one tribe of Coleoptera (Phyl- 
lophaga) [Phytophaga],—generally indentifiable by short wrinkled forms, slug¬ 
gish motions, and sometimes by habit of protecting their bodies by their own 
excrement. Underground larva 1 , except those which enter the earth to 
transform, are divisible into two sections: subterranean larvae proper, and 
those that enter it for concealment. The former are found in the orders 
Coleoptera. Hemiptera, Homoptera, and Diptera: the latter section is 
limited almost exclusively to cutworms, of the order Lepidoptera. 
Answers to Correspondents. (Prairie Farmer, July 2, 1870. v. 41, p. -.) 
Poisonous Applications to Currants and Gooseberries.—Cautions against 
eating berries where poisonous applications have been made to the bushes, 
especially because of the la p k of the usual rains by which the poison is 
washed off. 
Grape Leaf Beetle.—The grape-vine Fidia sent and said to be eating 
numerous holes in grape leaves. Recently, about Bloomington, found the 
Delaware vines badly eaten by them, while the Concords and Hartfords 
in the same Held were not seriously infested. 
Tent Caterpillars.—Cocoons received: most of them empty. Moths briefly 
described. Egg-masses are placed' on twigs of apple and wild cherry, 
where they remain all winter. 
Answers to Correspondents. (Prairie Farmer, July 9. 1870. v. 41, p. 210.) 
Insect-Egg Destroyers.—The tarnished plant bug reported by corre¬ 
spondent as piercing the eggs of the potato beetle: a curious fact, perhaps 
not before observed. They are troublesome insects, causing the death of 
voting shoots of apple, pear, potato, and other plants. The part beyond 
their puncture seems poisoned, withers down, and blackens. 
New Curculio.—A slender snout beetle piercing the peach. Possibly 
passes the larval state in the peach kernel. 
Answers to Correspondents. (Prairie Farmer, July 16, 1870, v. 41, p. 218.) 
Insects on Elm Leaves.—Insects, in swellings resembling cockscomb, are 
similar to those in reddish tumors on leaves of cottonwood. Chiefly 
voting elms are affected. If only a few trees are infested, cut them down 
and burn them: or if only a few leaves are attacked, pick them off while 
the pouches are full of lice. The “teat-like” galls on plum leaves are 
similar to galls on grape leaves formed by Cecidomyia. Maple leaves have 
4alls formed by Acari. Applications to "the tree, if the proper time can 
be determined, may check the female from placing eggs upon it. The 
woolly aphis of the elm sometimes kills the tree. 
Answers to Correspondents. 
(Prairie Farmer, .July 23, 
1870. v. 41, p. 226.) 
Pieces of Apple Bark infested with Bark Lice.—These are the oyster- 
■diell bark lice which have been such a pest in the Northern States, but 
are less numerous as we go south. Hancock county, Ill., is near their 
southern limit. Effectual remedies may be reduced to two: scraping off 
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