14 
trees delight in a fringe of suckers and grass about the collar of the tree 
on which they oviposit, the former a little above, the latter at or a little 
below the surface of the ground. 
The Plum Curculio and the Plum Gouger , Striped Grape-vine Caterpillar .— 
Notes to Correspondents. (Prairie Farmer, June 3, 1871, v. 42, p. —.) 
Plum curculio and plum gouger received from Central Illinois. Both 
are native insects and must have lived formerly in the wild plum. The 
curculio has of late years been as destructive to the peach as to the plum, 
while the gouger has been found to some extent on smooth-skinned 
peaches. Its history was first traced by Walsh in 1863. It attacks the 
kernel, while the curculio feeds on the pulp of the fruit. The gouger is 
the more difficult to deal with. 
Grape-vine Worms.— Eudryas unio larvas received from Plainview, Illinois. 
Two other larvae of similar appearance feed on the vine. Not serious pests,, 
and may be destroyed by hand picking and by burning rotten wood, decay¬ 
ing corn cobs, and such rubbish, in which they hibernate as pupae. 
Grubs of seventeen-year locust received from Southern Illinois. 
Sundry Insects from Michigan and Iowa. (Prairie Farmer, June 10, 1871, v. 
42, p. —.) 
Received from Benton Harbor, Mich., package of insects, among 
which were Doryphora trimaculata , Clirysomela similis, and Chrysomela Phila¬ 
delphia a, found on potato leaves. Their presence probably accidental. Also, 
Callidium undatum , from fold of peach leaf. The grubs live in decaying: 
wood, perhaps peach. The only really noxious insect in the lot is the peach 
aphis. This may be destroyed by syringing the leaves with a decoction of 
tobacco. 
Shall ice Kill all Kinds of Insects? (The Western Rural, June 10, 1871, v. — v 
P- —•) 
We cannot suppose that the half million species of insects in existence 
are as a whole antagonistic to human interests 
Next to heat and moisture insects constitute the most extensive and 
efficient instrumentality in hastening decomposition of animal and vege¬ 
table matter, and their next most important function is in the fecunda¬ 
tion of plants. Though one third of the recognized families of insects- 
contain noxious species, the seriously injurious species as compared with 
the whole number are not more than one in two hundred, in Illinois. 
The indiscriminate destruction of insects is not only cruel but unwise, 
and they should never be destroyed unless known to be injurious. The 
whole order of Neuroptera contains no noxious species, and the parasitic 
Hymenoptera, a large section, are useful in checking the multiplication of 
other insects. Probably nine tenths of the noxious insects belong to the 
orders Coleoptera and Lepidoptera, effecting their damage, however, 
almost exclusively in the grub or caterpillar stage; but a few of our worst 
insects, the chinch bug and Hessian fly, for example, are found outside 
these orders. Caterpillars more generally, injurious than any other one 
division of insects, but sometimes very useful in destroying weeds. In 1865 
or 1866 nearly exterminated a troublesome thistle in Northern Illinois by 
destroying blossom buds. 
The Lesser Apple Leaf-Roller. (Amer. Nat., June, 1871, v. 5, pp. 209-212.) 
Infested trees looked as if scorched by fire. Larva, pupa, and imago- 
described as Tortrix maliyorana, n. sp., as follows: 
“The larva of this moth is a small greenish naked caterpillar, with a 
pale amber-brown head and pale incisions. In some individuals the whole 
body is of a pale brownish tint. These caterpillars occupy the upper side- 
of the leaves, usually singly, but sometimes two or three in company, 
eating off the upper cuticle and curling the sides upwards till the edges- 
nearly or quite meet, and tying them together with a web. In this en- 
