THE NATURALISTS’ COMPANION. 
9 
A Remarkable Insect. 
Prof. A. J, Cook, otthe Michigan 
Agricultural College, says: A Tex¬ 
as correspondent complained some 
time ago of a bee-killer that “steals 
up to the entrance of the hives and 
picks up his bee, steps back, sucks 
the blood from his victim, and then 
proceeds as before.” He further 
says that this is a bad thiet. This 
insect is Prionotus novenarious of 
Say, Its common name is wheel- 
bug,so called from the crested thorax 
which looks not unlike a half cog 
wheel. The bug sent me was one 
and one-half inches long, the ground 
work of the body dark, almost black, 
while the head, thorax, basal half of 
the wings, and broad rings on the 
dorsal surface of the abdomen seem 
powdered with white, caused by the 
presence of short hairs of that color. 
This white color beneath is even 
' more marked. 
The rapacity of this species is truly 
wonderful. Almost any insect which 
is put into a box containing it falls 
at once a prey to its savage ferocity. 
It is very interesting to see it grasp 
and dispatch even large bees and 
beetles that are put into a box where 
it is contined. Indeed, such is the 
stength of its beak that it can make 
quite a painful wound if permitted 
to pierce cur own flesh. It is strange 
that it can grasp and kill bees with 
impunity. Kirby & Spencer, in 
their“Introduction to Entomology,” 
report that this insect can and will 
produce quite a severe electric shock, 
if taken, hold of. They also report 
that it leaves the print of all of its 
feet. If this be true, then this may 
be the reason that it can grasp 
the bees with no harm to itself. 
This insect, as one of our most 
predacious species, is a great aid in 
the destruction of our injurious in¬ 
sects. It is to be regretted that it 
adds to its good qualities the evil 
one of destroying our bees. If, how- 
ever,it only does its evil work about 
the hives and does not preform its 
captures on the flower stocks,where 
it may lie in wait to grasp the bee 
as it comes to sip the nectar, then 
we may capture the bugs and stop 
their mischief. I fear, thougn, from 
the habits of the family, that it may 
do as much harm in the field as at 
the hive. In this case it would be 
difficult to suggest any practical 
remedy —Exchange. 
We would like very much to add 
a specimen of the above mentioned 
insect to our collection. Collectors 
having one, in first-class condition, 
for sale or exchange will please no¬ 
tify us.—[Ed, 
ANCIENT TEEES. 
Trees have been found in Africa 
which were computed to be 5,150 
years old, and a cypress in Mexico 
is said to have reached a still greater 
age. The oldest individual speci¬ 
men of any species—in fact the oldest 
living thing upon the globe~is 
probably the cypress of Santa Maria 
del Tule, in the Mexican State oi 
Oaxaca, If estimates of tree ages 
are to be relied upon, the life of this 
venerable forest monarch may have 
spanned the whole period of written 
history. At last accounts it was 
still growing, and in 1851, when 
Humboldt saw it, it measured forty- 
two feet in diameter, 146 in circum¬ 
ference, and 382 feet between the 
extremities of two opposite branches. 
