notice there are two colors of bugs—red and black. Is 
y way to get rid of them ? Poison won’t do it, for I have 
fjndon purple. They suck the sap mostly, although I think 
the season they eat the leaves some, but am not sure of it. 
rk on pear worse than others.” 
rst of these species, Dolerus arvensis, was originally de¬ 
ny Thomas Say in 1824, and the second, less common but still 
t, by Beauvois, in 1805. Although the larvae of the former, 
have been known for a long time to feed upon the leaves 
v, they have not otherwise, so far as I am aware, been 
1 of * any injury to vegetation of economic importance, all 
ences to them in the literature of entomology being of a 
technical character. From other insects occurring in similar 
s, with which they are at all likely to be confounded, they 
distinguished by the following characters in addition to 
the family Tenthredinidae, to which these insects belong: 
rst, Dolerus arvensis, is a little more than one-third of an 
length by about one-third as wide, and measures not far 
>-thirds of an inch across the extended wings. The head 
(y are dark steel blue except the thorax, which is variegated 
ow and black. 
ther species, Dolerus bicolor, is a trifle smaller than the 
iwnish yellow except the wings, the head, the middle of the 
,md the legs, all of which are black. 
hese insects are abundant everywhere in early spring, and 
le of both, similar in appearance to green caterpillars, but 
shed by the possession of eleven pairs of legs, feed upon the 
[: the willow a little later in the season. 
1 watching in the field soon convinced me that these saw 
e neither biting nor piercing the buds or flowers, but that 
e merely licking off the semi-fluid exudation from the sur- 
he bud scales. Dissecting the specimens and examining the 
of their stomachs with the microscope, I found only a clear 
Ihout a trace of solid matter except occasional spheres con- 
f clusters of threads of fungous parasites. Critically search- 
surface of a bud scale which these flies had but just 
>ver, I saw that no injury whatever had been done to the 
f the plant, even the slender hairs with which the scales 
ered being wholly undisturbed. Watching the flies with a 
could see that their biting jaws remained ail the time closed, 
their flap-like maxilla) were continually employed in mop- 
the moisture from the viscid surface, and as they have no 
arts capable of piercing the substance of a plant, it was 
■i,t no injury was being done. Finally, I confined a lot of 
flies in a breeding cage with pear buds not yet open. The 
industriously worked over the surfaces of the unopened buds 
l entered the flowers as they expanded, but did neither any 
injury whatever. The buds afterwards all opened out in 
Jb bloom, and remained fresh for several days, while the 
flies, having lapped up all the syrup available, starved to 
the midst of the uninjured blossoms. A little experiment 
j 
