hA >T 
 SB 
 2^ 
 N ' 1 
 
NOXIOUS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 STATE OF NEW ^ORK. 
 
 By ASA FITCH, M. D. 
 
 ENTOMOLOGIST OF THE NEW-YORK STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 Copy-right Secured to the Author. 
 
 INSECTS INFESTING DECIDUOUS FOREST TREES. 
 
 Such a multitude of worms and other insects as feed on the leaves and 
 other parts of our deciduous forest trees, I find it will be impossible for me 
 to fully comprise in a single Report. I therefore here present the more 
 common and pernicious ones, with a few others which are less common 
 but whose history has never before been published. The oaks being our 
 most important trees of this class, and attacked by a far greater number of 
 insects than any of our other forest trees, will claim a principal part of our 
 present Report. 
 
 1. TIIE OAKS .—Quercus alba, etc. 
 
 AFFECTING THE ROOT. 
 
 A disease to which the different kinds of oaks, in Europe, arc subject, 
 and to a less extent the beech and other forest trees, shows itself in the 
 form of small excrescences or galls about the size of ground nuts, which 
 grow upon the slender thread-like roots of the trees. These excrescences 
 are caused by a small insect which punctures the root and forces an egg 
 into the opening. The irritation which this egg occasions causes an 
 increased flow of sap to the part, whereby it swells and grows into one of 
 these gall-nuts. In the center of each of these nuts lies a small white 
 footless worm, which eventually changes into an insect of the gall-fly 
 kind, but which differs remarkably from all the other insects of the group 
 to which it pertains, in being wholly destitute of wings. It has lienee 
 received the specific name aytera, and forms a distinct genus named 
 Biorhiza by Mr. Westwood. I suppose this name to be derived, not from 
 life, as its orthography would indicate, but from j3ta, injury, and 
 pt^a, a root, and if so it should be written Biarhiza instead of as we find 
 it in books. 
 
 The roots of forest trees being so seldom exposed to our view, I know 
 not whether similar excrescences occur upon them in this country. But it 
 is quite probable that they do, since wingless gall-flies occur here, closely 
 resembling that of Europe. I have repeatedly met with these in forests, 
 
 ' 
 
 ON THE 
 
 AND OTHER INSECTS 
 
782 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 OAK. HOOT. 
 
 upon the surface of the snow, on mild days in the fore part of winter. The 
 warmth of the trunks of the trees melts the snow where it is in contact 
 with them, as every woodman is aware, producing a crevice or vacant space 
 down to the ground immediately around the tree; and I infer that it is 
 through this opening that these insects ascend from the roots of the trees, 
 and wander about upon the snow, to find and pair with their mates, after 
 which they again descend to insert their eggs in the roots; for it is at this 
 period of the year that their eggs are deposited, as we learn from seeing 
 them frequently extruded by recently captured individuals. Their eggs 
 are minute oval white grains, and are coated over with a glutinous white 
 fluid, by which, when the female is impaled, they are held together in a 
 continuous string. And this substance, in which the eggs of these as of 
 other gall-flies are enveloped, is supposed by its acridity to produce the 
 irritation of the vegetable tissues which causes the growth of the singular 
 tubers and excrescences in which the young of these insects are cradled. 
 
 The genus Biarhiza is defined by authors as being destitute of wings 
 and having the antennm composed of fourteen joints in the females. It may 
 further be added that these organs are thread-like and nearly as long as 
 the body. The abdomen also is strongly compressed, as it is in the flea, 
 to which insect these wingless gall-flies have tfonsiderable resemblance. 
 When viewed in profile the abdomen is broad egg-shaped with its smaller 
 end attached to the thorax ; its sutures are marked by fine impressed trans¬ 
 verse lines ; and its first segment is very large, about equal in length to all 
 the remaining segments. The abdomen is much more smooth and shining 
 than the head and thorax, which are bearded with minute gray hairs, the 
 head being broader than the thorax, and appearing about twice as broad as 
 long when viewed from above. 
 
 We have in the State of New York three insects which will pertain to 
 this genus as above characterized. One of these may appropriately be 
 named from its color, 
 
 290. The Black gall-fly, Biarhiza nigra, new spccica. (Hymcnoptera. CyDiphidsE.) 
 
 This is of a black color throughout, including its feet and antennae, and 
 like the kindred European species, it is destitute of any vestiges of wings. 
 It measures but eight hundredths of an inch (0.08) in length. 
 
 The two other species to which I have alluded, possess abortive or 
 rudimentary wings, in the form of small whitish and feebly transparent 
 scales, reaching about a third of the length of the abdomen. These scales 
 are of a long oval shape, rounded at their tips, and are densely covered 
 with minute punctures, and bearded with exceedingly fine short hairs. A 
 straight sub-costal or rib-vein of a brown color, extends about half their 
 length, parallel with the outer margin, and ends abruptly without curving 
 towards the margin. The scales representing the hind wings are shorter 
 and narrower than the forward ones. In addition to the difference now 
 stated, the last segment on the under side of the body, from out the hind 
 edge of which the ovipositor is protruded, is much more strongly elevated 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 783 
 
 OAK. ROOT. 
 
 than in the preceding species, forming a kind of sheath for the ovipositor, 
 and is fringed with rather long shining yellowish or golden hairs which 
 project backward, resembling a little tuft or brush when the body is viewed 
 from one side. These dilferences seem to require that these two insects 
 should be regarded as gcnerically distinct from the first, and I therefore 
 propose the name Philonix (qitlog, a lover ; vap, snow) for a genus for their 
 reception. This genus coincides with Biarhiza in the number of joints to 
 the female antennae, which is the only sex yet discovered, but differs in hav¬ 
 ing rudimentary wings and the ventral valve more prominently elevated 
 and ciliated with longish hairs. It may further be observed that the jaws 
 of these insects resemble those of an ant, being blunt at their tips, and 
 three-toothed, the inner tooth more slender and deeply separated from the 
 middle one, which latter is divided from the outer one by merely a slight 
 notch. And their feelers or maxillary palpi are four-jointed, the two first 
 joints cylindric, the third shortest and narrowed from its apex to its base, and 
 the last joint slightly thicker than those which precede it, egg-shaped, and 
 clothed with bristles, the two joints next to it also having a whirl of 
 bristles at their tips. 
 
 291. Yellow-necked gall-fly, Philonix fulvicollis, new species. (Hymenoptora. 
 
 CyniphidaL) 
 
 This measures 0.13 to 0.15, and is the species which I have most fre¬ 
 quently met with. It is black with the thorax tawny yellow, spotted ante¬ 
 riorly with black, the scutel brighter yellow, and the legs dusky or blackish 
 with the knees and hips of a paler dull yellowish color, the antennae being 
 black to their bases. The thorax when carefully inspected shows a broad 
 black stripe on its fore part, on each side of which is a small oval black 
 spot, and farther down upon each side, forward of the wing-sockets, is a 
 large triangular black spot. 
 
 These insects exhale a perceptible odor, resembling that of ants or bees. 
 They are oftenest met with on the first snows that fall, in the latter part 
 of November and the beginning of December, and wholly disappear, I 
 think, before the close of the latter month. They arc found in our forests, 
 associated with the Thick-legged snow-fly,. Chionea valga, Harris, and the 
 little Snow-born and Mid-winter Boreus, Borens nivoriundns et brumalis, 
 Fitch ; and it is a curious fact that these several insects inhabiting the 
 surface of the snow, and pertaining to widely different orders, all corre¬ 
 spond with each other in being destitute of wings. Why they are thus 
 deprived it is difficult to conceive. They hereby resemble small spiders 
 in their appearance, several kinds of which occur upon the snow in com¬ 
 pany with them. And it may be that they thus escape from being noticed 
 and devoured by the birds, a few species of which, pressed by hunger, are 
 industriously foraging our forests in winter. 
 
 292. Black -necked gall-fly, Philonix nigricolli$ y new species. 
 
 This is smaller than the preceding, being rather less than 0.12 in length, 
 and is black with the basal third of the antennae and the legs obscuro 
 
784 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 OAK. TRUNK. 
 
 brownish-yellow and the scutel dull yellow. The inner sides of its thighs 
 are slightly dusky. 
 
 AFFECTING THE TRUNK. 
 
 293* Locust Cossus, Cossus Robinicc , Peck. (Lcpidoptera. Ucpialidco.) 
 
 Boring large holes in the solid wood of the different kinds of oaks and 
 also in the locust, admitting the air and moisture to the interior of their 
 trunks and causing their decay; a large cylindrical worm of a bright rose 
 red color, with several purple pimples symmetrically arranged, each yield¬ 
 ing a hair, its under side greenish white, with sixteen’legs, and its head 
 shining black ; when fully grown three inches in length and as thick as 
 one s finger, and then appearing of a dull flesh-color instead of red and its 
 head tawny yellow; passing its pupa state in a cocoon in the tree, and 
 coming abroad in June and July, a large thick-bodied motli of a gray 
 color with a black stripe on each side of its thorax, and its fore wings with 
 black clouds and a net-work of black lines, when extended measuring three 
 inches in width ; the male smaller and more colored with black, with the 
 hind half of its hind wings bright orange yellow, its width 2.00 to 2.30. 
 
 Of all the wood-boring insects in our land this is by far the most per¬ 
 nicious, wounding the trees the most cruelly. The stateliest oaks in our 
 forests are ruined, probably in every instance where one of these borers 
 obtains a lodgment in their trunks. It perforates a hole the size of a half¬ 
 inch auger, or large enough to admit the little finger, and requiring thre 
 or four years for the bark to close together over it. This hole running 
 inward to the heart of the tree, and admitting the water thereto from every 
 shower that passes, causes a decay in the wood to commence, and the tree 
 never regains its previous soundness. 
 
 This is also a most prolific insect. The abdomen of the female is so 
 filled and distended with eggs that it becomes unwicldly and inert, falling 
 rom side to side as its position is shifted. A specimen which I once 
 obtained, extruded upwards of three hundred eggs within a few hours aftc 
 its capture, its abdomen becoming diminished hereby to nearly half its 
 previous bulk; and in the analogous European species more than a thou¬ 
 sand eggs have been found on dissection. It hence appears that a single 
 one of these insects is capable of ruining a whole forest of oak trees. This 
 calamity, however, is prevented, probably by most of the eggs being 
 destroyed, either by birds or by other insects, for these borers are by no 
 means so common in our trees as the fecundity of their parents would lead 
 us to expect. 
 
 An account of this insect was first given in the year 1818, in an article 
 written by the late Prof. Peck, but published anonymously, in the Massa¬ 
 chusetts Agricultural Repository, vol. v. pp. G7-73. Having bred tho 
 moth from larvae which he found in the locust (Robinia Pseud-acacia) and 
 ascertained its intimate relationship to the European goat-moth, named 
 Bombyx Cossus by Linnaeus and Cossus ligniperda by Fabricius, Prof. 
 P eck bestowed the name Cossus Robinice upon our insect. Dr. Harris 
 
state agricultural society. 
 
 785 
 
 OAK. TRUNK. 
 
 has also given an account of it in his Treatise, p. 31G, under the name 
 Xyleutes Robinice. This renders a few words of explanation necessary, 
 to unscientific readers, particularly since in one or two instances hereto¬ 
 fore I have followed Dr. Harris in sanctioning names which on more 
 mature reflection I regard as invalid. 
 
 It is now a well established rule or law with men of science, that a 
 specific name when once validly imposed upon any plant or animal can 
 never afterwards be changed. This rule, however, was disregarded by 
 Fabricius when he formed a separate genus to include the Goat-moth and 
 other similar insects, as he took the name Cossus which Linnaeus had given 
 to that moth as the name for this new genus and gave another name to 
 this species ; thus in effect robbing Linnaeus of the honor of having named 
 and described this insect. Hubner, therefore, proposed the name Xyleutes 
 for this genus, in order that the name Cossus might be restored to its typi¬ 
 cal species. Hut, on the other hand, it is to be observed that the law 
 alluded to had no existence in Fabricius’ day; the very course which he 
 pursued was at that period the established rule, sanctioned by the example 
 of his illustrious preceptor—Linnaeus himself having in repeated instances 
 selected his previous specific names as the names of genera of which those 
 species were the types, hereupon giving new names to the species. Thus 
 our common Lumpyris ( Photinus ) corrusca, Linn., was originally the Lan- 
 tharis Lampyris, Linn. Fabricius, therefore, so far from violating, con¬ 
 formed strictly to the received rules of his day in this matter. And to 
 condemn him now, upon an ex post facto law, will be grossly unjust. 
 Moreover, to cancel the several generic names which are in the same cate¬ 
 gory with the one before us, and which have been universally current in 
 our books for nearly a century past, will be too great an innovation to be 
 tolerated, except the propriety and justice of such a step were perfectly 
 clear. AVe hence regard the name Cossus as the legitimate designation of 
 the genus to which the insect before us pertains. 
 
 Dr. Boisduval has recently described this moth as anew species, (Annales 
 Soc. Ent., 2d series, vol. x, p. 323,) though under the same name, Cossus 
 Robinice, he having doubtless found it thus ticketed in some of the Paris 
 collections and being unaware that it had been previously described. 
 
 Prof. Peek states that he had repeatedly seen this same locust worm 
 and its burrows in the wood of the black oak. Dr. Harris more cautiously 
 says a larva which cannot be distinguished from this, occurs in the red oak. 
 Having bred several of these moths from larvae in the white oak, I 
 have ascertained them to be identical with the species described as infest¬ 
 ing the locust. Aud my observations lead me to the belief that, in the 
 State of New-York at least, these insects are bred in the oaks to a much 
 greater extent than in the locust, for I have never seen an instance of their 
 large perforations in the wood of the locust, whilst in the oaks they have 
 been noticed repeatedly, and for many years before I lcuew what insect was 
 t e culprit that occasioned this serious michicf. I therefore enter it under 
 [Ag. Trans.] 50 
 
786 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 OAK. TRUNK. 
 
 this head. Fortunately this insect is not a common one. If it were so, 
 few of the oaks in our forests could escape being ruined by it. From the 
 specimens sent me from the southern and south-western states, I infer it to 
 be more common there than it is with us. And we learn from Boisduval 
 that it also occurs in California. 
 
 The European analogue of this insect is popularly termed the Goat or 
 the Goat-moth, this designation haring been bestowed upon it in conse¬ 
 quence of the strong odor which it exhales, resembling that of the goat. 
 Locust goat-moth might therefore be the most suitable common name for 
 our insect, were it not that it is destitute of the odor alluded to, no per¬ 
 ceptible scent being given forth either by the larva, or by the moth, even 
 when the latter has newly burst from its pupa shell. I therefore deem the 
 name Locust Cossus the most appropriate by which to designate this insect 
 in common conversation. 
 
 This moth pertains to a small group or family named Hepialidcr, which 
 is intermediate in its characters between the twilight or crepuscular moths 
 and the nocturnal, and is usually arranged at the head of the latter in 
 systematic works, preceding the large species forming the Bombyx family. 
 The Hepialidce are distinguished by having the spiral tongue, the palpi or 
 feelers, and the spurs of the hind legs wholly wanting or very small. And 
 the genus Cossus may be known by its tapering antennae, which are as long 
 as the thorax and pectinated or comb-like in both sexes, the branches or 
 teeth being thick and short and continued to the tips of these organs. 
 Authors usually state further that there is but a single row of these teeth 
 to the antennae ; but in this species there are two rows. The name Cossus 
 which this genus bears, Pliny states was the name anciently given by the 
 Romans to a worm found under the bark of the oak, which they were 
 accustomed to fatten by feeding it meal, and to cat, it being esteemed a 
 great delicacy. 
 
 Our moth comes abroad as already stated in June and the fore part of 
 July. It flies only in the night time, remaining at rest during the day, 
 clinging to the trunks of trees, its gray color being so similar to that of 
 the bark that it usually escapes notice. In repose its wings are held 
 together in the shape of a roof, covering the hind body. From observing 
 her motions in confinement, I think the female does not insert her eggs 
 into the bark, but merely drops them into the cracks and crevices upon its 
 outer surface. They are coated with a glutinous matter which immediately 
 dries and hardens on exposure to the air, whereby they adhere to the spot 
 where they touch ; and if the short two-jointed ovipositor be not fully 
 exserted as the egg is passed through it, so as to carry the egg beyond the 
 hair-like scales with which the body is clothed, some of these touchiug 
 adhere to it, their attachment to the body being so slight. 
 
 The eggs are of a broad oval form, and about half the size of a grain of 
 wheat, being the tenth of an inch in length and three-fourths as thick, of a 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 7 87 
 
 OAK. TRUNK. 
 
 dirty whitish color with one of the ends black. When highly magnified 
 their surface is seen to he reticulated or occupied by numerous slightly 
 impressed dots arranged in rows like the meshes in a net. From the fact 
 that several worms of the same size are sometimes met with in a single 
 tree, indicating them all to be the progeny of one parent, it appears that 
 the female drops a number of eggs upon each tree that she visits, and 
 probably disposes'of her whole supply upon a very few trees. The size of 
 the eggs doubtless renders them a favorite article of food to some of our 
 smaller birds. And a bird on discovering one of these eggs, will be 
 incited thereby to search for others in the same vicinity, which search being 
 successful, will be perseveringly continued so long as an egg can be found 
 upon that or any of the adjacent trees. Thus it may be that of the whole 
 stock of eggs which a female deposits, scarcely one escapes being picked 
 up and devoured. This appears the most probable cause of so few of these 
 worms being met with, although the females arc so prolific. 
 
 The worm on hatching from the egg sinks itself inward and feeds at first 
 on the soft inner bark, till its jaws acquiring more strength, it penetrates 
 to the harder sap-wood and finally resorts to the solid heart-wood, residing 
 mostly in and around the centre of the trunk, boring the wood here usually 
 in a longitudinal direction, and moving backwards and forth in its burrow, 
 enlarging it by gnawing its walls as it increases in size, whereby the exca¬ 
 vation comes to present nearly the same diameter through its whole length. 
 In an oak in which I met with two worms fully grown and several others 
 but half grown, the whole of the central part of the trunk had been exten¬ 
 sively mined by preceding generations of this insect and was^n a state of 
 incipient decay. And I thus had an opportunity to notice the fact that 
 none of the worms were lying in the decaying wood, all being outside of 
 this, where the wood was still sound. Hence it is evident that it is living 
 healthy trees which this insect prefers, and not those which arc sickly and 
 decaying ; which latter are preferred by the European Cossus, some authors 
 say, though perhaps their observations have not been exact upon this point; 
 for in the instance here alluded to, it would have been said on a first glance 
 that these worms preferred decaying wood, since the diseased heart of the 
 tree was everywhere traversed with their burrows, and the sound wood 
 showed few of , them. And thus no doubt in many other cases we mistake 
 the cause for the effect, and on seeing semi-putrid wood filled with worm- 
 holes we suppose the worms have preferred wood of this character when in 
 truth it is these holes which have caused the decay of the wood. 
 
 These worms are probably three years in obtaining their growth. They 
 cast off their skin several times, and after the last of these moultings their 
 color becomes different from what it has previously been. 
 
 The larva previous to tho last change of its sliin is of a rose red or apale cherry red color, 
 often with a faint yellowish stripe along tho middle of its baok, on all except tho threo anto- 
 rior rings. It is of a cylindrical form, slightly broadest anteriorly and a little flattened bo- 
 ncath. It is divided by transverso constrictions resembling broad shallow grooves, into twelvo 
 
788 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 OAK. TRUNK. 
 
 rings, which arc twice as broad as long. On each of these rings are a few pimples of a deep 
 purple color, regularly placed, each giving out a pale brown bristle. Four of these pimples 
 are on the back, placed at the angles of an imaginary squaro or a trapezoid having its hind 
 side the longest, the two hinder pimples being larger. Small white dots confluent into broken 
 lines may also be perceived, forming a transverse square in which the two anterior pimples 
 are inclosed, and other dots less regularly placed, surrounding the two hind pimples except 
 upon their hind side. Above the breathing pores on each side is also a largo pimple, which, 
 upon the four rings bearing the pro-legs, has a white dot in its lower, edge, which dot docs 
 not appear in the corresponding pimples of the other rings. A minuto pimple is also seen for¬ 
 ward of the upper end of each breathing pore, below which all the under side of tho worm is 
 greenish white. The breathing pores arc oval and light yellow, with a rusty brown oval spot 
 in their centre and a dark purple ring around their outer edge. Below them the skin bulges 
 out, forming a longitudinal ridge, or rather two parallel ridges divided by a deep intervening 
 furrow. Upon the upper one of these ridges near the middle of each ring is a round cherry- 
 red spot in which arc two small pimples, and on tho lower ridge is a single one, placed farthor 
 back, whilst four others, equally minute, may be seen farther down and around the anterior 
 baso of the pro-legs. The second and third rings aro shorter, each with fourteen pimples of 
 different sizes, the larger ones forming a single transverse row. The first ring or neck is pol¬ 
 ished and of a dark tawny brown color on its upper side, with a white line in its middle disap¬ 
 pearing anteriorly in a black two-lobed cloud. The head is but half as broad as the body, 
 and is of a shining black color, tinged more or less with chestnut brown in its middle, with 
 scattered punctures from which arise fine hairs. The antennae are chestnut brown, conical 
 and three-jointed, tho last joint minuto, with a bristle beside it given out from tho apex of 
 the second joint. The palpi are similar, with two small processes from the summit of their 
 second joint, the outer one of which ends in a minuto fourth joint. Of the eight pairs of logs, 
 the three anterior aro conical and end in a single chestnut-colored claw. The others are short, 
 thick and retractile, with their soles surrounded by a blackish fringe-like ring composod of a 
 multitude of minute hooks, the last pair, however, having these hooks only around the ante¬ 
 rior and outer half of their soles. Placed in a glass or tin vessel this worm is perfectly help¬ 
 less, being unable to cling with these hooks to a hard smooth surface. 
 
 With the la^t change of its skin it loses its bright red color and is then white, tinged with 
 green at the sutures, and with a pale green stripe along the middle of its back which disap¬ 
 pears at the sutures. The pimples are of a pale tawny yellow color with black centres. The 
 head is light tawny yellow varied in its middle with greenish whito, its anterior edge blackish 
 and the jaws deep black. 
 
 As the moth into which this worm changes possesses no jaws or other 
 implements by which it is possible for it to perforate the wood, it is neces¬ 
 sary for the worm to prepare a way for its future escape from the tree. 
 And the provisions which it makes for this end are truly interesting, indi¬ 
 cating that the worm has a clear perception of what its future condition and 
 requirements will be, both in its pupa and its perfect state. This is tho 
 more surprising when we recur to the fact that since its infancy this crea¬ 
 ture has been lying deeply bedded in the interior of the tree, the only act 
 of its life having been to crawl lazily around in its cell and gnaw the wood 
 there, when impelled by hunger. How does it now come to do anything 
 different from what it has been doing for months and years before ? But, 
 having got its growth and the time drawing near to have it change into a 
 pupa or chrysalis, we see it engaging in a new work. It now bores a pas¬ 
 sage from the upper end of its cell, outward through the wood and bark till 
 only a thin scale of the brittle dead outer bark remains. It is usually at 
 the bottom of one of the large cracks or furrows in the bark that this 
 passage ends, whereby the hole inside is less liable to be discovered by 
 birds. The worm then diligently lines the walls of this hole with silken 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 189 
 
 OAK. TRUNK. 
 
 threads interspersed with its chips and forming a rough surface resembling 
 felt, as it withdraws itself backwards for a distance of about three inches, 
 thus placing itself beyond the reach of any bird or other enemy outside of 
 the tree, should its retreat be discovered. And it here incloses itself in 
 a cocoon which it spins of silk, of a long oval form, having the end towards 
 the outer opening much thinner and its threads more loosely woven. In 
 this cocoon it throws off its larva skin and then appears in its nymph or 
 pupa form. 
 
 The Pi: PA is an inch and three-quarters long and half an inch thick, of a dull chestnut 
 color, tho rings of its abdomen palor, and on the back near tho anterior edge of each ring is 
 a row of angular teeth, resembling those of a saw, of a dark brown color, and all of them in¬ 
 clining backward, theso rows of teeth oxtending downwards upon each sido below tho breath¬ 
 ing pores or about two-thirds of the distance around the body. On the middle of each ring 
 is also a much shorter row of little tubcroular points. Finally, upon tho under side of the 
 last segment are about four stouter conical teeth, tho tips of which aro drawn out into sharp 
 points which aro curved forward, so that when this last segment, which is tapering and 
 smaller than tho others, is bent downwards, these curved points will catch and hold tho body 
 from moving forward. 
 
 The pupa lies perfectly dorment in its cocoon probably a fortnight or 
 longer. It then awakes from its slumbers and begins to writhe and bend 
 itself from side to side. By this motion the rows of little teeth upon the 
 rings of its abdomen, which incline backward as above described, catch in 
 the threads of the cocoon, first upon one side and then upon the other, and 
 thus move the body forward, whereby its head presses upon the loosely 
 woven end of the cocoon, more and more firmly, until it forces its way 
 through it, and the pupa works itself forward out of its cocoon. And the 
 same writhing motion being continued, the teeth now catch iu the threads 
 with which the sides of the hole arc lined, and thus though destitute of feet 
 the pupa moves itself along, till it reaches and breaks through the thin 
 scale of bark which hitherto has cl-osed tho mouth of its burrow, and 
 pushes itself onward till about three-fourths of its length protrude from the 
 tree, when by curving the tip of its body downward, the four little hooks 
 thereon catch in some of the threads and hold it from advancing further 
 and falling to the ground. By so much motion of the pupa the con¬ 
 nections of the inclosed insect with its shell become sundered and tho 
 sutures of the shell are probably cracked open, so that the moth readily 
 presses them apart and crawls out therefrom, leaving the empty and now 
 lifeless shell projecting out from the mouth of the hole, with a small mass 
 of worm-dust surrounding it. 
 
 The male moth is of a gray color from white scales intermixed with black ones. Tho head 
 is furnished upon tho crown or vortex with longer or hair-like scales. Tho antennro aro taper¬ 
 ing and many-jointed, their basal joint thickest and eoverod with blaok and gray scales, tho 
 remaining joints being nakod, shining, coal-black, each joint bearing two branches on its 
 frontside, forming two rows of coarso teeth liko those of a oomb, tho teeth being six or more 
 times as long as thick, and all of tho samo length oxcept at the base and tip, whero they be- 
 oomo shorter, nil of them oilatod with lino hairs. Tho foolers are oppressed to tho faco and 
 roach as high as to tho middle of the eyes, and aro cyiindrio, clothed with short appresacd 
 scales, tho separation of tho terminal joint being slightly perceptible. Tho thorax has tho 
 shouldor-covers black, forming a stiipo of this color along oach side, whioh anteriorly ourro* 
 
790 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 OAK. TRUNK. 
 
 downwards and is continued backward upon the upper side of the breast. Itsbaso is clothed 
 with larger scales, forming tufts upon each side. The abdomen is conic and equals the tips 
 of the wings in its length, and is but slightly covered with scales except along each side, where 
 they form a brond stripe, the under side being entirely denuded; it is black and shining, with 
 the sutures dull yellowish. At its tip are three appendages, longer than the last rings of the 
 abdomen. The two lower ones aro broad thick flattened processes of a dull brownish yellow 
 color, with their tips rounded and slightly bent inwards towards each other. The upper ono 
 is a slender blaok shining hook or claw of the same length, its tip sharp-pointed and curved 
 downward. Abovo these appendages and hiding them from view is a brush of black hairs, 
 forming a conical tuft at the end of the abdomen, blunt at its apex. The legs are more or less 
 denuded of scales, black and shining, with the hind shanks thicker towards their tips and with 
 two pairs of spurs, the forward shanks having only a single spine which is placed on the mid¬ 
 dle of their inner sides, the same as in other moths ; and the feet are compressed, and fivo- 
 jointed, with the basal joint longest and the following ones successively shorter. Tho foro 
 icings are black with groups of whitish scales forming gray spots or clouds which are netted 
 with black lines, varying greatly in different individuals. Often a transverse gray spot is 
 situated towards the base and another on tho anal angle, the outer and hind margins being 
 gray alternated with black. The hind icings are black with their posterior half of a rich 
 marigold yellow color bordered with a black line upon the hind margin, the yellow color being 
 irregularly notched on its anterior side and narrowed to the inner angle, and not extended to 
 the outer ungle, the two outer cells being black. The outer or anterior margin, except at its 
 base and tip, is usually gray alternated with transverse black streaks and blotches, and in¬ 
 side of this is a large ash-gray spot occupying the outer anterior part of the disk. Tho under 
 ■ides of both wings is similar to their upper surface. 
 
 The female would not be supposed to pertain to the same species with the male, her size 
 is so much larger, her colors so much paler gray, and her hind wings being wholly destitute of 
 the bright yellow coloring which forms so conspicuous a mark in tho other sox. The branches 
 of her antenna) arc also shorter, being but about four times as long as thick. The ground 
 color of her fore wings is gray, variously netted with black lines dividing the gray in places 
 into small roundish spots and into rings having black centres. Tho black color usually form* 
 a broad irregular band across tho middle of the wings parallel with the hind margin, and an¬ 
 other between this and tho hind edge, chiefly on the outer half of the wing, tho hind edge 
 and fringe being whitish alternated with black spots placed on tho tips of the veins. Tho 
 hind wings arc dusky gray and towards their bases blackish, their posterior half being feebly 
 transparent and faintly netted with darker lines. The body is densely coated with gray 
 scales, its under side hoary white; and the legs are gray with black bands on tho shanks and 
 black feet with gray rings at their articulations. 
 
 We have but a single suggestion to make upon the subject of remedies 
 against this truly formidable though fortunately rare enemy. It is proba¬ 
 ble that soft soap applied the fore part of June to the bodies of trees will 
 be equally efficacious against this and other borers as it is against that of 
 the apple tree. This remedy may well be resorted to, to protect the locusts 
 and oaks which we value as ornamental trees ; and scarce and valuable as 
 timber is becoming in all the older settled sections of our country, I doubt 
 not it will be found to be good economy to bestow similar attention upon 
 the more valuable trees standing in our forests. 
 
 It should also be observed that whenever a hole made by a borer is dis¬ 
 covered in the trunk of a tree, it should be immediately closed by inserting 
 a plug therein, to exclude the wet which will otherwise be admitted hereby 
 to the interior of the tree and produce a decay .of the surrounding wood. 
 
 294. Oak Cossus, Cossus Qucrciperda, now species. 
 
 A moth smaller in size than C. HobinicB, with thin and slightly trans¬ 
 parent wings which are crossed by numerous black lines, the outer margin 
 
STATlf AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 *791 
 
 OAK. TRUNK. 
 
 only of the forward pair being opake and of a gray color; the hind wings 
 of the male colorless, with the inner margin broadly blackish and the hind 
 edge coal-black. 
 
 This description will suffice to distinguish a species of which the two 
 sexes were recently found at rest upon the trunk of an oak tree in Scho¬ 
 harie, by I. A. Lintner, Esq. It is altogether probable from these facts 
 that it is a borer in the oak, with other habits similar to those of the pre¬ 
 ceding species. This discovery is the more interesting, since, so far as I 
 am aware, the Locust Cossus has hitherto been the only species of this genus 
 known as inhabiting our country, the Cossus Pynni of 1* abricius evidently 
 pertaining to the genus Zeuzera. 
 
 The Pigeon Tremex, T. Columba, I have met with inserting its eggs 
 in the oak, but being much oftener found in the maple, will be described 
 under that head. 
 
 295. Northern Brentuus, Arrhcnodes septentrionis , Herbst. (Coleoptcra. Attclabiiho.) 
 
 Perforating a cylindrical hole about the tenth of an inch in diameter, 
 transversely through the bark and into the solid wood of standing, and 
 much more often of newly felled trees, and thrusting its chips out at the 
 orifice ; a slender cylindrical whitish worm an inch or more in length and 
 scarcely 0.10 in diameter, with three pairs of legs on its breast and a thick 
 fleshy pro-leg at its tip, its last segment horny and dark chestnut colored, 
 and obliquely hollowed at its end, forming a kind of scoop with little teeth 
 along its edge; changing in its burrow to a long yellowish white pupa, 
 having its head bent down under its breast and its long beak lying between 
 its leg and wing-sheaths, its back with transverse rows of little sharp teeth 
 and two sharp spines at its tip; changing into a long cylindrical beetle 
 about 0.60 in length, of a mahogany brown color, it wing-covers usually 
 black and with narrow tawny yellow spots upon the rounded spaces between 
 the furrows, its thorax egg-shaped and highly polished, its head ending in 
 two large jaws in the male, and in the other sex a slender cylindrical beak 
 with small jaws at its tip, whereby it bores into the bark and then pushes 
 an egg into the opening. 
 
 Though most common in oaks this beetle is not limited to wood of this 
 kind. On removing the loose bark from fallen trees it will sometimes be 
 seen projecting partly out of its burrow in the wood ; but the collector will 
 most readily supply himself with specimens among the piles of sawed oak 
 lumber in mill yards in May and June. It differs remarkably in its size. 
 I have a specimen the total length of which is but 0.25, and which is pro- 
 portionably slender. It was one of these dwarfs from which Drury 
 described this species under the name minimus, long anterior to Herbst. 
 But this being the name of a mere variety, it cannot supplant the name 
 subsequently given, which has been universally adopted and is highly 
 appropriate, since the several species nearest akin to this all inhabit warm 
 climates. And Olivier hence deemed South Carolina to be tho northern- 
 
792 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 OAK. TRUNK. 
 
 most extent of the geographical range of this species, and that the name 
 given it by Ilerbst was therefore inapplicable. He consequently proposed 
 the name, maxillosus for this species. The insect, however, occurs in all 
 parts of the United States and Canada. 
 
 2296. Gray-sided weevil, Pandclctcius hilaris , Hcrbst. (Colooptera. Curculionidso.) 
 
 A smaller perforation than that of the preceding insect, containing a 
 worm resembling that of the plum curculio, and which is the young of a 
 weevil met with upon the leaves of the oak from May till th6 last of Sep¬ 
 tember, 0.20 long and of a pale brown color, its wing-covers on each side 
 usually gray bordered above with black, and sending two gray branches 
 obliquely inwards towards the suture, with very stout fore legs and a short 
 broad beak having a furrow along the middle of its upper side; with its 
 beak boring a hole in the bark and placing an egg therein. Sec Harris' 
 Treatise, page 61. 
 
 297. Silky timber-beetle, Lymenjlonsericeum, Harris. (Coleoptcra. Lymoxylonidee.) 
 
 Boring small long cylindrical burrows in the wood of the oak, probably, 
 and other trees ; a slender odd-looking worm with six legs placed on its 
 breast, a prominent hump upon its neck, and a leaf-like fleshy appendage 
 at the end of its back; changing into a long narrow chestnut-brown beetle, 
 0.50 long, bearded with short, shining, yellowish hairs, giving it a silky 
 lustre, its eyes large and almost meeting together above and below, and its 
 wing-covers tapering and shorter than the body. See Harris’ Treatise, 
 p. 51. 
 
 298. American timber-beetle, Hylvccctus A7ncricanus f Harris. (Coleoptcra. Lymcxy- 
 
 lonidco.) 
 
 A worm very similar to the preceding, but with a straight sharp-pointed 
 horn at the end of its back in place of a leaf-like appendage; changing 
 into a pale brownish-red beetle 0.40 long, its wing-covers, except at their 
 base, and its breast black, its eyes small and a glassy dot on the middle of 
 its forehead resembling a small eyelet. See Harris’ Treatise, p. 51. 
 
 This and the preceding are very rare insects, and their larvae have never 
 been detected, but are inferred by Ur. Harris to inhabit oaks and to have 
 the singular forms above indicated, from the analogy of the perfect insects 
 to two European species. Foreign writers, I see, are misled by Dr. Har¬ 
 ris’s account, into supposing that it is authentically ascertained that our 
 insects coincide in their larva state with the European species. 
 
 299. Feedle OAK-BORER, Goes debilis, Leconte. (Colooptera. Cerarabycidm.) 
 
 A cylindrical long-horned beetle, which has recently been described by 
 Dr. Le Conte, under the above name, is so uniformly found upon white 
 oak trees in July and August, that I doubt not its larva is a borer in tho 
 trunks of these trees, perforating the wood, probably, in a manner similar 
 to that of the marked pine borer. No. 230, and tho worm resembling that 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 193 
 
 OAK. TRUNK. 
 
 in its appearance. This beetle is half an inch long and scarcely a third 
 as broad, of a black color, its wing-covers chestnut red, its surface having 
 a marbled appearance, produced by short prostrate hairs ot a dull ochre 
 ve llow color, except on the anterior half of the wing-covers, where they 
 are gray, and are here followed by a tawny brown spot destitute of these 
 paler hairs. It has only been found, as yet, in the State of New York, in 
 the northern sections of which it is not rare. 
 
 300. Tuunderbolt, Arhopalus fulminant, Fabricius. (Colcoptcra. Cerambycidsc.) 
 
 Excavating a burrow in the soft sap-wood, about three inches long and 
 
 0.20 in diameter, this burrow having the shape of a much bent bow or a 
 letter U ; a worm similar to that of the apple-tree borer, which passes its 
 pupa state in the same cell and produces a long-horned beetle which comes 
 abroad the beginning of July, and is three times as long as broad, varying 
 from a half to nearly three-fourths of an inch in length, of a black color, 
 with transverse zigzag gray lines often broken into small spots on its 
 wing-covers, and readily distinguished from all other species by its thorax, 
 which is nearly globular and gray, with a large egg-shaped coal-black spot 
 on the middle of its upper side. 
 
 301. WniTE-BANDED PiiymAtodes, Phymatodcs albofasciatus, now species. (Colcoptcra. 
 
 Cerambycidoo.) 
 
 A black long-horned beetle 0.25 in length or slightly less, and about a 
 third as broad, somewhat flattened, clothed with fine erect gray hairs, its 
 wing-covers with two distinct slender white bands which do not reach the 
 suture, the anterior one more slender than the hind one and curved, the 
 antennae and slender portions of the legs usually chestnut colored. 
 
 Several specimens of this beetle were met with a few years since, the 
 last of May, on the trunk of a black oak, in which, it is probable, their 
 younger state had been passed. It is closely related to the black varieties 
 of P. varius Fab., but is a third smaller, with the white bands much more 
 slender, and the surface of the wing-covers arc perceptibly more rough 
 than in my specimens of that insect, notwithstanding their smaller size. 
 Its thorax is densely punctured, with a short smooth stripe between the 
 centre and the base. One of the specimens varies in having the posterior 
 white band wholly wanting. 
 
 Several others of our long-horned beetles aro usually found upon oaks, 
 in the trunks or limbs of which the larvae probably reside. 
 
 302. Tooth-legged BurnESTis, Chrysobothris dentipes, Germar. (Colcoptcra. Bu- 
 prcstidco.) 
 
 A slender, winding, serpent-shaped worm-track between the bark and 
 wood of newly felled trees ; formed by a white footless grub, its anterior 
 end enormously large, round and flattened ; sinking itself probably slightly 
 into the wood to pass its pupa state ; producing a flattish oblong purplish- 
 black beetle about 0.50 in length, coppery beneath, its faoo brassy and 
 
794 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 OAK. TRUNK. 
 
 with two smooth raised dots, its thorax with two smooth raised stripes 
 separated by an intervening groove; often found basking in the sunshine 
 on the bark of the trees in June and July. See Harris’s Treatise page 43. 
 
 The ArrLE Buprestis, No. 3, before apple trees were introduced upon 
 this continent, was cradled in the oaks, and is still frequently found in 
 them. It is also probable that others of the American species of this 
 same genus, of which there are quite a number, whose preparatory state 
 are yet unknown, are nurtured in the oaks. 
 
 The larvae of the IIorn-bug, No. 6— very large, soft white grubs, with 
 their bodies doubled together in the shape of the letter U, their tips, 
 which are thick and of a livid bluish gray color as though discolored from 
 being bruised, being held against their breasts—are quite common in the 
 damp putrid wood in the centre of old trees and in their stumps, and also 
 occur in the decaying sapwood. The larvae also of the big-eyed snap¬ 
 ping beetle No. 9, and of several other beetles of smaller size than 
 these, are found in the same situations. 
 
 303. Quercitron bark borer, Graphisurus fasciatus, Degcor. (Colcoptera. Ccramby- 
 cidao.) 
 
 Feeding upon and destroying the quercitron bark (the inner bark of the 
 black oak, Quercus (tnctoria,) of newly felled trees, forming large tracks 
 therein which are filled with worm-dust, and in an oval cavity at the end 
 of these tracks a white footless grub about 0.60 long and a fourth as 
 broad, slightly tapering, and with a transverse oval tawny yellow spot on 
 the middle of each ring above and below ; changing to a pupa lying naked 
 in the same cavity, and in June coming out, a long-horned beetle about 
 0.50 long and a third as broad, of an ash-gray color freckled with blackish 
 spots and punctures, and baqk of the middle of its wing-covers an irregular 
 oblique black band, the female with a tail-like ovipositor. 
 
 The black oak is most highly valued for its bark, the quercitron of com¬ 
 merce, yielding a bright yellow dye. The bark of the dead tree, it is said, 
 is not at all inferior for coloring purposes, to that cut from living trees. 
 But unless this bark is peeled immediately after the tree foils to the 
 ground, it becomes very much worm-eaten and nearly worthless. The 
 worms which burrow in and destroy it are produced by a long-horned 
 beetle differing remarkably from all the other beetles of this group in that 
 the female is furnished with a straight awl-like ovipositor nearly a quarter 
 of an inch in length, projecting horizontally backwards from the end of her 
 body. The importance of this implement becomes manifest when we 
 observe the thickness of the bark of the black oak, with its outer layers so 
 dry and hard that they form as it were a coat of mail, protecting the trunk 
 of the tree against the attacks of its enemies. Equipped as she is, 
 however, the female of this beetle is able to perforate this hard outer bark 
 and sink her eggs through it, placing them where her young will find them¬ 
 selves surrounded with their appropriate food. The worms from theso 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 795 
 
 OAK. THUNK. 
 
 eggs mine their burrows mostly lengthwise of the grain or fibres of the 
 hark, and the channels which they excavate are so numerous and so filled 
 with worm-dust of the same color with the bark, that it is difficult to trace 
 them. The eggs are deposited the latter part of June, and the worms 
 grow to their full size by the close of the season, and will be found during 
 the winter and spring, lying in the inner layers of the bark, in a small oval 
 flattened cavity about an inch in length, which is usually at the larger end 
 of the track they have travelled. 
 
 This LARVA is divided by transverse constrictions into twelve rings, the last one being 
 doubly. The head is small and retracted more or less into the neck, its base white and 
 shining, and its anterior part deep tawny yellow, and ulong each side black. The neck or 
 first ring is much longer as well as thicker than any of tho others, the two rings next to 
 it being shortest. From the neck the body of tho worm is slightly tapered backwards to tho 
 middle, from whence it has nearly the same diameter to the tip, where it is bluntly rounded. 
 Upon tho upper side of tho neck, occupying tho basal half of this ring, is a large transverse 
 tawny yellow spot, rounded upon its forward side, but no corresponding spot appears on 
 the under side of this ring. On the middle of all the other rings except the two last, both 
 above and below, is an elevated, rough, transverse, oval spot, of a tawny yellow color. 
 
 The BEETLE, like othor species of the family to which it pertains, vanes greatly in its sue, 
 specimens before me being of all lengths, from 0.35 to 0.58. It is of an ash-gray color from 
 short incumbent hairs or scales, which have a faint tinge of tawny yellow except along the 
 suture of tho wing-covers. It is also bearded with fine erect blackish hairs which arise from 
 coarsish black punctures which are sprinkled over tho thorax and wing-covers, several of 
 which punctures are in tho centre of small black dots, which in places are confluent into 
 small irregular spots. Tho head is of tho same width ns tho anterior end of the thorax, and 
 has a deep narrow furrow along its middle its whole length, and on the crown is an oval black¬ 
 ish spot on each side of this furrow. The face is dark gray, and the anlennm are black with 
 an ash-gray band occupying tho basal half of each of the joints. The thorax is narrower 
 than the wing-eovers, more broad than long, and thickest across its middle. Upon each sido 
 slightly back of tho middle is an angular projection or short broad spine, blunt at its tip. On 
 the middle of the back between tho centre and the base is a short impressed line, and on each 
 side of this, extending tho whole length of tho thorax is a wavy blackish stripe, which is sud¬ 
 denly widened towards its hind end, and is sometimes interrupted in its nuddlo. Often, also, 
 there is a blackish spot between tho anterior ends of these stripes, extending from the centre 
 of tho thorax to its forward end. The scutcl is ash-gray in its middle and black upon each 
 sido. The wing-covers almost always show a largo oblique and irregular triangular spot of 
 black on their outer sido forward of the middle, and always behind tho middlo is an irregular 
 black oblique band, which seldom reaches to the suture, and which has a notch in the middle 
 of its anterior side and opposite to this on its hind side a large angular projection extending 
 backward. Immediately back of this band is an irregular spot of a paler black color, which 
 is sometimes confluent with the band; and there is also a small blackish spot on the outer side 
 of tho tips. The tips aro cut off, sometimes transversely in a straight line, hut usually con- 
 cavcly, and sometimes presenting a slight tooth-like projection on each side. The legs are 
 ash-gray, the thighs with two black spots on their upper side, and tho shanks with a black 
 bund at their base and another at their tip, these bands being more broad on the hind pair. 
 
 On elevating the loose hark of fallen trees the fore part of June, these 
 insects will be found therein, lying in the cavities already mentioned, some 
 of them being still in their pupa state, whilst others arc changed to their 
 perfect form, ready with the stout jaws and sharp teeth with which they 
 are furnished, to guaw their way through the bark and come abroad. 
 
 This species occurs throughout the United States and Canada. Different 
 specimens of it, however, vary greatly in their aspect. Even when newly 
 
796 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 OAK. TRUNK. 
 
 born, among the individuals in the bark of the same tree, considerable 
 diversities in size and markings may be noticed. And the beetles found 
 in this situation have their colors so much brighter and their spots and 
 bands so much more distinct and clearly defined, that I supposed them to 
 be a different species from fasciatus for several years, and until specimens 
 came to hand'showing a gradual transition from these to the older indi¬ 
 viduals which we usually capture abroad, and meet with preserved in cabi¬ 
 nets, in which the colors have become faded and dim and the marks obscuro 
 and partially obliterated. In the shape of some of its parts, also, different 
 specimens are liable to vary. And I cannot persuade myself that the 
 species named pusillus by Kirby is really distinct from the one under con¬ 
 sideration. Dr. Lc Conte supposes it may be distinguished by its smaller 
 size, and by the spine on each side of its thorax being smaller and perfectly 
 straight on its hind side, instead of concave. But in the smallest speci¬ 
 men in my collection, measuring but 0.35, this spine is about as prominent 
 as in any of the larger ones, and its hind margin is straight, as it is also 
 in several other examples, one of which is 0.58 in length. This form of 
 the spine, therefore, is not peculiar to the smaller sized specimens. More¬ 
 over, in one instance before me, this margin is wavy instead of straight, 
 and in several others it is straight nearly to its outer end, where it sud¬ 
 denly curves outward by reason of the tip of the spine being slightly pro¬ 
 longed or attenuated; whilst in other cases still, this margin is regularly 
 concave or curved through its whole length. We thus, in different speci¬ 
 mens, meet with a regular gradation from the straight margined spines of 
 pusillus to the concave of J'aciatus ) as these species arc distinguished by 
 Dr. Le Conte ; showing that no such difference as has been supposed, really 
 exists in nature. And we therefore regard the pusillus of Kirby as being 
 merely a dwarf variety of this species. 
 
 304. Oak Lciorus, Leiopus Querci, new species. (Colcoptcra. Ccrambycidm.) 
 
 A very small long-horned beetle, which I am unable to refer to any of 
 the described species, I am assured lives at the expense of the red 
 and white oak, from meeting with it upon those trees standing apart from 
 others in fields. As the larvae of kindred species burrow in the bark 
 of trees, this will probably bo found in the same situation in oaks. The 
 beetle is met with upon the leaves of these trees early in July. It is very 
 closely related to the Facetious Leiopus, No. 286. 
 
 It is 0.20 long, and black with ash-gray wing-covers, which are punctured nnd marked 
 with a large black spot on the base of their suturo in the form of a cross, nnd a broad black 
 band slightly back of their middle, which is angulatod, somewhat rosembling an inverted 
 letter IV, this band often having a small nsh-grny spot placed in it near its outer ends. For¬ 
 ward of this band are two black dots or short lines on each wing-cover, nnd sometimes a 
 third dot back of it. There is also a dusky spot, usually, on the tips of the wing-oovors, and 
 their deflected outer margin is black. The wing-covers nro rounded at their tips. The thorax 
 sometimes shows threo faint gray stripes above. It is narrowed anteriorly, and on each side 
 slightly forward of the base is a short, broad, sharp-pointed spino, from the tip of which, for- 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 797 
 
 OAK. LIMBS. 
 
 •ward, the sides arc straight. The long thread-like antennae are dull yellow, with a slight 
 duskiness at the end of each joint. The legs are blackish with the bases of the thighs, and 
 frequently of the shanks also, pale dull yellow, the hind thighs being less thickened towards 
 their tips than the four forward ones. 
 
 AFFECTING TIIE LIMBS AND TWIGS. 
 
 305. Oak fruxeb, Elaphidion putator, Peck. (Colcoptcra. Cerambycidae.) 
 
 [See Report Third, plate 2, fig. 2.] 
 
 The limbs towards their ends cut smoothly off, transversely, the latter 
 part of summer, and found through the autumn and winter lying on the 
 ground beneath the trees with their withered leaves adhering to them ; a 
 hole bored in their severed end, and extending up their center, in which 
 lies a white footless worm, over a half inch long and a fourth as broad, 
 slightly tapering and divided into twelve rings by very broad deep con¬ 
 strictions; changing to a somewhat active pupa within the limb, from 
 which in June comes a slender cylindrical long-horned beetle half 
 an inch long, of a dull black color with brownish wing-covers which 
 have two sharp points at their tips and ash-gray hairs forming small spots 
 here and there, its thorax with coarse close punctures and its under side 
 and legs chestnut colored. 
 
 The singular habit of this insect of severing the limb in which it is 
 cradled and dropping itself herein to the ground, varying its operations to 
 accord with the size and nature of the limb, renders it one of the most 
 interesting native species of our country. Its biography has never yet 
 been written, that I am aware, except very imperfectly. The leading facts 
 in its life were first made known in the year 1819, by Prof. Peck, in an 
 article published in the Massachusetts Agricultural Repository, vol. v. pp. 
 307—311, accompanied with a plate; and some slight additions arc made 
 thereto, by Dr. Harris, in his Treatise, p. 86. 
 
 The purpose for which this insect cuts off the limb, is probably as Prof. 
 Peck, suggests; as the worm is to remain in the limb through the winter, 
 it appears to forsee that, from being wounded as it is, it will perish and 
 become too dry if it remains elevated in the air; it therefore drops it to 
 the earth, where, lying among the fallen leaves and buried beneath the 
 winter’s snowS, it remains moist and adapted for the development of the 
 insect within it. 
 
 The severed limbs arc usually but eighteen inches or two feet in length, 
 but Prof. Peek states that limbs an inch in thickness and five feet in length 
 are sometimes found. I have seen a limb cut off by this insect, which was 
 ten feet in length and an inch and a tenth in thickness, and have repeatedly 
 met with them seven and eight feet long, and usually an inch, but in one 
 instance an inch and a quarter in thickness. 
 
 The parent beetle seems aware that her progeny, in their infancy, will 
 be too feeble to masticate the hard woody fibres of the limb, bhc there¬ 
 fore selects one of the small twigs which branch off from it, which is not 
 thicker than a goose quill, with its base composed of soft wood, the growth 
 
798 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 OAK. LIU133. 
 
 of the last year, all the remainder of the twig being the green succulent 
 growth of the present year. She places her egg near the tip of this twig, in the 
 angle whole one of the leaf-stalks branch off from it. The young worm 
 which hatches therefrom sinks himself into the center of the twig and feeds 
 upon the soft pulpy tissue around him until it is all consumed, leaving only 
 the green outer bark, which is so thin and tender that it withers and dries 
 up, and ere long becomes broken. By the time this green tender end of 
 the twig is consumed the worm has acquired sufficient size and strength to 
 attack the more solid woody portion forming its lower end. He accord¬ 
 ingly cats his way downward in the centre of the twig, consuming the pith, 
 to its base, and onward into the main liinh from which this twig grows, 
 extending his burrow obliquely downward to the center of the limb, to a 
 distance of half an inch or an inch below the point where the lateral twig 
 is given off. 
 
 The worm being about half grown, is now ready to cut the limb asunder. 
 But this is a most nice and critical operation, requiring much skill and cal¬ 
 culation ; for the limb must not break and fall whilst he is in the act 
 of gnawing it apart, or he will be crushed by being at the point where it 
 bends and tears asunder, or will fall from the cavity there when it breaks 
 open and separates. To avoid such casualities, therefore, he must after 
 severing it, have time to withdraw himself back into his hole in the limb 
 and plug the opening behind him, before the limb breaks and falls. And 
 this little creature accordingly appears to be so much of a philosopher as 
 to understand the force of the winds and their action upon the limbs of 
 the tree, so that lie can bring them into his service. He accordingly 
 severs the limb so far that it will remain in its position until a strong gust 
 of wind strikes it, whereupon it will break off and fall. 
 
 But the most astonishing part of this feat remains to be noticed. The 
 limb which he cuts off is sometimes only a foot in length and is, conse¬ 
 quently quite light; sometimes ten feet long, loaded with leaves, and very 
 heavy. A man by carefully inspecting the length of the limb, the size of 
 its branches, and the amount of foliage growing upon them, could judge 
 how fur it should be severed to insure its being afterwards broken by the 
 winds. But this worm is imprisoned in a dark cell only an inch or two 
 long, in the interior of the limb. How is it possible for this creature, 
 therefore, to know the length and weight of the limb, and how far it 
 should be cut asunder ? A man, moreover, on cutting a number of limbs 
 of different lengths, so far that they will be broken by the winds, will find 
 that he has often miscalculated, and that several of the limbs do not break 
 off as lie designed they should. This little worm, however, never makes a 
 mistake of this kind. If the limb be short, it severs all the woody fibres, 
 leaving it hanging only by the outer bark. If it be longer, a few of the 
 woody fibres on its upper side are left uncut in addition to the bark. If it 
 be very long and heavy, not more than three-fourths of the wood will bo 
 severed. The annexed figures represent the severed ends of limbs of different 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 799 
 
 OAK. LIMBS. 
 
 sizes, the coarse¬ 
 ly dotted parts 
 of the two first 
 , indicating the 
 ragged broken 
 ends of the 
 woody fibres, the 
 
 Ends ofT^UhAbs as cut off by the Oak pruncr—designed to show that remainder being 
 where the limb is small it cuts it all off except the outer bark: "hen sm00 th sur- 
 tho limb is larger, it leaves a ring of wood on one side, in addition to . 
 
 the bark; and when very large it leaves a largo piece of wood unsev- lace cut by tUO 
 ered—showing also the hole out of which the worm comes. worms, and the 
 
 large black dot representing the perforation loading up the limb to where 
 the worm lies. The first of these figures was taken from the limb already 
 spok-in of as ten feet in length, and here it will be noticed that a portion 
 of the stouter wood towards the center of the limb was preserved, as 
 though the worm had been aware that the weaker sappy fibres outside, 
 next to the bark, could not be relied upon for sustaining a limb of this 
 size, as they are where the limb is smaller. With such consumate skill and 
 seemingly super-terrestrial intelligence does this philosophical little car¬ 
 penter vary his proceedings to meet the circumstances of his situation in 
 each particular case ! But by tracing the next stage of his life we shall be 
 able to see how it is that he probably performs these feats which appear so 
 much beyond his sphere. 
 
 Having cut the limb asunder so far that he supposes it will break with 
 the next wind which arises, the worm withdraws himself into his burrow, 
 and that he may not be stunned and drop therefrom should the limb strike 
 the earth with violence when it falls, he closes the opening behind him by 
 inserting therein a wad formed of elastic fibres of wood. He now feeds at 
 his leasure upon the pith of the main limb, hereby extending his burrow up 
 this limb six or twelve inches or more, until he attains his full growth 
 quietly awaiting the fall of the limb, and his descent therein to the ground. 
 It is quite probable that he does not always sever the limb sufficiently in 
 the first instance, for it to break and fall. Having cut it so much as he 
 
 deems prudent, he withdraws and commences feeding upon the pith of the 
 limb above the place where it is partially severed, until a high wind occurs. 
 If the limb is not hereby broken, as soon as the weather becomes calm he 
 very probably returns and gnaws off an additional portion of the wood, 
 repeating this act again and again, it may be, until a wind comes which 
 accomplishes the desired result. And this serves to explain to us why it 
 is that the worm severs the limbs at such an early period of his life. 
 For the formidable undertaking of cutting asunder such an extent of hard 
 woody substance, we should expect he would await till he was almost 
 grown and had attained his full strength and vigor. But by entering upon 
 this task when he is but half grown he has ample opportunity to watch the 
 result, and to return and perfect the work if ho discovers his first essay 
 fails to accomplish the end he has in view. 
 
800 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 OAK. limbs. 
 
 Thus the first part of the life of this worm is passed in a small twig 
 branching off from the main limb. This is so slender and delicate that on 
 being mined as it is by the worm and all its green outer end consumed, it 
 dies and becomes so decayed and brittle that it is usually'broken off when 
 the limb falls, whereby it has escaped the notice of writers, hitherto. 
 The remainder of his larva life is passed in the main limb, first cutting off 
 this limb sufficiently for it to break with the force of the winds, and then 
 excavating a burrow upwards in the center of the limb, both before and after 
 it has fallen to the ground, feeding hereon until lie lias grown to his full size. 
 
 It is most frequently the limbs of the red and the black oak that I have 
 met with, severed by the Oak pruner, though it is not rare to find those of 
 the scarlet oak (Q. coccinea ) and of the white oak lopped off in the same 
 manner. Limbs of the beech and chestnut not unfrequently, and those of 
 the birch, the apple, and probably of other trees, are sometimes similarly 
 severed. Mr. P. Weter, of Tirade, Walworth count}', Wisconsin, informs 
 me that the peach in his vicinity, suffers in a similar manner, and to such 
 an extent some years, that the severed limbs, varying from a few inches to 
 two feet in length, are seen lying under almost every tree. We have in 
 our country several species of beetles very closely related to the Oak 
 pruner, hut no attempts have yet been made to ascertain their mode of 
 life. It is very probable that they all have this same habit of cutting off 
 the limbs of trees, one perhaps preferring the wood of one kind of tree, 
 another, another. This is the more probable, since there is considerable 
 diversity in their operations, as shown by an examination of the fallen 
 limbs. Thus the scarlet oak, instead of having a hole bored in the 
 severed end of its limbs, commonly has half the wood ate away on one 
 side of the limb for the length of an inch or more, with the cavity thus 
 formed under the bark packed with worm dust, and a cylindrical burrow 
 from the upper end of this cavity running upwards in the centre of the 
 limb, the same as in other cases. 
 
 It further appears that the female, when ready to drop an egg, is not 
 always able to find a small twig with a green succulent end adapted to 
 her wants. She then consigns her progeny to the bark of the main limb, 
 and the young worm subsists on the soft pulpy matter between the bark 
 and the wood, excavating a shallow irregular cavity which is packed with 
 worm dust, till it has acquired sufficient strength to gnaw the wood, when 
 it cuts off the limb as in other cases. It may, however, be a different 
 species from the common Oak pruner, which cradles its young thus beneath 
 the bark instead of in a lateral twig. It is usually in the fallen limbs of 
 the beech, though sometimes in those of the oaks also, that I have met 
 with these worm tracks under the bark. 
 
 The bark of the beech, it will be recollected, is quite thin and very 
 brittle, so that it will illy serve to hold the limb in its place if the wood 
 underneath is cutoff in the usual manner. And accordingly a remarkable 
 modification of this operation will be noticed in the amputated limbs of 
 this tree. The worm eats its way down the limb beneath the bark until 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 801 
 
 OAK. LIHB3. 
 
 it has acquired sufficient strength to sever the woody fibres. It then 
 passes transversely around the limb beneath the bark, girdling it by cut¬ 
 ting off all the %ofter outer fibers and leaving the harder ones in the 
 middle of the limb uncut, whereby the limb is sustained until the wind 
 strikes it. How surprising that these little creatures have such intelli¬ 
 gence given them as enables them to vary their operations to such an 
 extent, according to the circumstances of their situation in each particu¬ 
 lar case! I should be inclined to think the beech pruner a different 
 species from that of the oak, as it dwells beneath the bark instead of in a 
 lateral twig, and cuts off the outer instead of the inner wood of the limb; 
 but the worm is identical with that of the oak in its external appearance, 
 and one of these worms which I placed in a cage, falling from its fractured 
 burrow in the beech limb, forsook this wood and commenced boring* into 
 an oak limb lying beside it. 
 
 Not only the limbs but small young trees, at least of the white oak, are 
 sometimes felled by these insects; in which cases the worm, instead of 
 cutting the wood off transversely, severs it in a slanting or oblique direc¬ 
 tion, as though it were aware the winds would prostrate a perpendicular 
 shoot more readily by its being cut in this manner. 
 
 The LAitva grows to a length of 0.60, and is then 0.15 thick across its nock, whore it is 
 broadest. It tapers slightly from its neck backwards, the hind part of its body being nearly 
 cylindrical. Is is a soft or fleshy grub, soinowlmt shining and of a white color, often 
 slightly tinged with yellow, its head, which is small and retracted into the neck, being black 
 in front. It is divided into twelvo rings by very deep, wide, transverso grooves. The neck 
 or first ring is much the largest, and shows two very pale tawny yellow bands on its upper 
 Bide, the anterior one slightly broken asunder in its middle, and on each side beyond the ends 
 of theso bands is a spot of tho same color. Tho two or three rings next to the neok are 
 shorter than the others, and leas widely separated from each other. A faint stripe of a 
 darker color may be discerned along the middle of tho baok, widely broken apait at each of 
 the sutures. The last ring is much narrower and more shining than tho others, and is out 
 across by a fine transverse line, dividing it into two parts, of which the hinder one or tip is 
 bearded with small blackish hairs, and a few fine hairs are perceptible upon the other rings. 
 The two last rings are retracted into tho ring which precedes them, at the pleasure of tho 
 animal, whereby this ring becomes humped and swollen; and it appears to bo chiefly by thus 
 enlarging the end of its body that the worm holds and moves itself about in its coll, its feet 
 being so weak and minute that they are scarcely poroeptiblo and can bo of little service. It 
 has three pairs of soft conical jointed feet, resembling its antenna) in their size and sliapo. 
 The first pair is placed on an elevated wrinkle of the skin in tho suturo between the first and 
 second segments of the thorax, more distant from each other than aro those of the second and 
 third pairs, which are situated on the rniddlo of the elevation of the second and third segments. 
 
 Some of the worms euter their pupa state the last of autumn, and others 
 not till the following spring. Hence in examining the fallen limbs in the 
 winter, a larva may be fouud in one, a pupa in another. Preparatory to 
 entering its pupa state, the larva places a small wad of woody fibres, 
 sometimes intermingled with worm-dust, below it, in its burrow, and 
 sometimes another wad above it if the burrow runs far up the limb, thus 
 partitioning off a room one or two inches in length in which to lie during 
 its pupa state. The shrivelled cast skin of the larva will be found at 
 the upper end of this cell, after it has changed to a pupa. 
 
 [Ac. Trans.] 31 
 
802 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 OAK. I-IMBS. 
 
 Usually those insects which undergo a complete metamorphosis, remain 
 at rest, lying dormant and motionless during their pupa state. The 
 Oak pruner, however, is a remarkable exception to this* Whenever its 
 cell is opened it will be seen moving from one end of it to the other 
 with quite as much agility as it shows in its larva state. The sutures of 
 its abdomen have the same deep transverse grooves as in the larvae, 
 admitting the same amount of motion to this part of its body that it pre¬ 
 viously had. And lying on its back, it uses the tip of its abdomen as 
 though it were furnished with a pro-leg, the little sharp points with which 
 it is covered being pressed against the rough walls of the cell, and the 
 body pushed forward or drawn backward hereby, step after step, at the 
 will of the animal. 
 
 ThoTUPA is of much the same size with the larva and of a yellowish white color. Its eyes 
 are sometimes white, sometimes blackish brown. The antenmo-sheaths arise in the notch 
 upon the inner side of the eyes and passing directly across the surface of these organs, extend 
 down along each side of the hack above the sheaths of tho fore and middle pairs of legs, then 
 curving inward they pass back to tho eye along the inner side of the same legs, their ends 
 being placod upon the eye slightly insido of their origin. Tho knees of the hind legs protrudo 
 far out from under the upper sides of the wing-sheaths forward of their tips, whilst tho feet 
 of these legs occupy the space between the tips of the wing-sheaths. Tho back of the abdo¬ 
 men shows a distinct pale brown stripe along the middle, on each side of which tho surface 
 of the segments is furnished with numerous small erect sharp points of a dark brown color, 
 those on the apical segment being double the length of the others. 
 
 Prof. Peck bestowed upon this insect the name Stenocorus putator, the 
 latter epithet meaning a pruner or vine-dresser, and he characterizes the 
 beetle thus named, as varying in length from 0.45 to 0.60, the largest 
 individuals being but 0.12 in thickness, and being of a dull or obscure 
 brown color with white hairs, its thorax without spines, its wing-covers 
 two-toothed at their tips, and its autennoe of the length of the body, the 
 two joints next to the base with a small spine at their tips. Dr. Harris 
 adds to this that the surface is sprinkled with gray spots composed of very 
 short close hairs and the scutel is yellowish white. These characters, 
 however, will include what at present stand in the books as several distinct 
 species. I would therefore observe that the specimens which I have 
 obtained from the severed oak limbs of this vicinity and which I therefore 
 regard with confidence as being the true putator of Prof. Peck, present 
 the following characters. They are usually from 0.50 to 0.55 in length 
 and 0.12 broad, of a slender cylindrical form, of a dull black color, tinged 
 more or less with brown on the wing covers, more evidently so towards 
 their tips, whilst the antenna) are paler brown, and the under side and legs 
 chestnut colored, sometimes bright, sometimes dark and blackish. The 
 surface is everywhere clothed with shortish prostrate gray hairs, and on 
 the wing-covers these are in places more dense, forming small gray spots, 
 and on each side of the thorax, in the middle, is a whitish dot, formed in 
 the same manner. Sometimes also on the base of the thorax, on each side 
 of its middle, a short gray stripe formed by these hairs, is very obvious, 
 whilst in other individuals no traces of these stripes can be discorned. 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 803 
 
 OAK. LIUBS. 
 
 The seutel also is densely covered and gray from these hairs. The surface, 
 above, is occupied by numerous coarse round punctures, those on the 
 thorax being of the same size with those on the wing-covers, but more 
 crowded, many of them running into each other. Towards the tips of the 
 wing-covers these punctures become perceptibly smaller. Among the 
 punctures of the thorax, slightly back of its center, a smooth shining 
 callous-like spot or short line may be discerned ; and sometimes, forward 
 of this, on each side of the middle a small dot, smooth and shining, 
 is very distinct, such specimens appearing to constitute the species named 
 rusticu.ru by Dr. Le Conte. In some specimens, also, on the wing covers, 
 sometimes one, more often two, slightly elevated, smooth longitudinal 
 lines are very manifest, these appearing to be the oblitum of the same 
 author. What I regard as the females of this species, although as yet I 
 have bred no specimens of this kind from oak limbs, differ from the pre¬ 
 ceding in being of a slightly broader and more robust aspect, with the 
 back more flattened, and the wing covers of a lighter brown color, 
 and sometimes as pale as the antennae. And in these no smooth callous- 
 like spot back of the center of the thorax is to be perceived, in the few 
 specimens which I at present have in my hands. 
 
 Although Prof. Peck and Dr. Harris regard this insect as different from 
 any thing described by Fabricius, our latest authorities place it as a syno¬ 
 nym of the Slenocarus villosus of this author. There, however, is nothing in 
 the original description of the species thus named, to indicate it as being this 
 more than any one of a half dozen other insects of our country. The 
 villosus is merely said to be a slender medium-sized Carolina species of a 
 dull or dusky color, slightly clad with ash-gray down, its thorax unarmed 
 and its wing covers two-toothed. We And nothing in this description 
 whereby it can be decided to which particular one of several species it 
 refers. And if the name villosus ought not to be wholly rejected in con¬ 
 sequence of this uncertainty, I am disposed to regard it as belonging to a 
 southern species, the same, I suppose, which Dr. Le Conte places under this 
 name, which is larger in size, and with the punctures of its thorax much 
 more flue dense and confused than in our Oak pruuer. 
 
 This insect is co-generic with a West India species named by Fabricius 
 S/eiwcorus irroratus , for specimens of which aud many other interesting 
 species from the same locality, I am indebted to F. J. Barnard, Esq., of 
 Albany. In the year 1833 M. Serville proposed a new genus, named 
 i'/aphidion (Ann. Soc. But. France, ii., 540) for the reception of this 
 species. From the remarks of llev. F. W. Hope in Trans. Loudon Zool. 
 boc., iii., 1ST, it might be inferred that a genus named Cycliopleurus, 
 founded by him upon this same West India species, had been published in 
 the Proceedings of said Society, May, 1833, a few months anterior to Scr- 
 'ille. But though an abstract of Mr. Hope’s paper was given in the place 
 referred to, this genus is not noticed therein, and did not appear in print 
 till the first volume of the Transactions of the Society was published, two 
 
804 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 OAK. 1.1MBS. 
 
 years later. Elaphidion, therefore, appears to be the legitimate name of 
 the genus to which our Oak pruncr pertains. 
 
 In at least three-fourths of the fallen liiuhs no worm is to be found ; and 
 an examination of them shows that the insect perished at the time the limb 
 was severed, and before it had excavated any burrow upward in its center, 
 no perforation being present except that leading into the lateral twig. It 
 is probable that in many of these instances the limb broke when the worm 
 was in the act of gnawing it asunder, either from its own weight or from 
 a wind arising whilst the work was in progress. And even though the 
 worm may have withdrawn into its hole and plugged the opening behind it, 
 it is frequently discovered here, probably, and devoured by birds. Atter 
 a violent wind in the summer season, some of our insect-eating birds may 
 always be noticed actively in search of limbs and trees that have thereby 
 been broken, their instinct teaching them that this breakage usually occuts 
 from the wood being weakened by the mining operations of worms therein, 
 whose lurking places are now opened to them. And they will be seen 
 industriously occupied in picking around the fractured ends of the wood, 
 and feasting upon the grubs which they there find. Numbers of our wood¬ 
 boring larvae are thus destroyed, and the Oak pruner, notwithstanding the 
 precautions it takes to secrete itself, doubtless frequently falls a prey to 
 these sagacious foragers. 
 
 These insects will undoubtedly at times occur in such numbers as to 
 render it important that they be destroyed, at least where they resort to 
 the peach or other valuable trees. And this may readily be effected by 
 gathering and burning the fallen limbs in the winter or the early part of 
 spring. 
 
 The Single striped tree hopper, No. 102, is common upon oak 
 limbs, puncturing them and sucking their juices. 
 
 30G. Oak bligut, Eriosoma Qucrci, now species. (Homoptcra. Aphidce.) 
 
 A species of blight, or a wooly aphis upon oak limbs, puncturing them and 
 exhausting them of their sap, was met with in northern Illinois, but I have 
 never seen it in New York. It is very like a similar insect upon the bass¬ 
 wood. The winged individuals are black throughout, and slightly dusted 
 over with an ash-gray powder resembling mold. The fore wings are clear 
 and glassy, with their stigma-spot dusky and feebly transparent, their rib- 
 vein black, and their third oblique vein abortive nearly or quite to the 
 fork. It is 0.1G long to the tips of its wings. I find no wooly aphis men¬ 
 tioned by European authors as infesting the oak, except the Eriosoma 
 Quercvs of Sir Oswald Mosley (Gardener’s Chronicle, i. 828), which, in 
 the List of Homopterous insects of the British Museum, p. 1083, is sup¬ 
 posed to be the Coccus lanatus of Geoffroy, and would hence appear to bo 
 a very different insect from the one now described. 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 805 
 
 OAK. LIUBS. 
 
 30“. White oak scabs issuer, Lecanitim Quercifex, newspecies. (Homoptera. Coocidas.) 
 
 Adhering to the smooth bark on the under side of the limbs of the white 
 oak, in June, an oval, convex, brownish black scale about 0.30 long and 
 0.18 wide, its margin paler and dull yellowish, from which come myriads 
 of lice so minute as to be scarcely perceptible to the eye, and which distri¬ 
 bute themselves over the surrounding bark, sucking its juices. 
 
 I am unable to refer to any description of the European scale insect of 
 the oak, L . Quercus , Lino., but as Geoffrey terms that species the Kidney- 
 shaped oak scale (Queraes reniformis) I am led to conclude it is different 
 from the regularly rounded-oval scale of the oaks in this country. 
 
 308. Quercitron oak scale insect, Lccanhim Quercilronis, new species. 
 
 On the small limbs of the black oak, a similar scale to the preceding, 
 but smaller and of a nearly hemispherical form, its color varying from 
 biownish black to dull reddish and pale dull y r cllow, with a more or less 
 distinct stripe of paler yellow along the middle of its back, and the paler 
 individuals usually mottled with black spots or stripes. Length of the 
 larger scales about 0.20, width 0.16. 
 
 These scales, the reader will be aware, are the relics of the female, cover¬ 
 ing and protecting her eggs. Interspersed with them are usually seen 
 other scales and smaller, only 0.10 in length, and of an elliptic form and a 
 glossy black color with a wide margin of pale yellow, which margin has a 
 Plaited appearance from fine raised radiating lines. These smaller scales 
 are the pup® of the males, a small winged fly coming from each of them, 
 whereas the females never acquire wings. 
 
 Often a round hole will be noticed in these smaller scales, perforating 
 them near one end. This hole is gnawed by a minute parasite, which has 
 fed internally on the insect and completed its transformations beueath the 
 scale. Of five of these pupm scales which were gathered on the first day 
 of June, one was found to be already perforated. From another the para¬ 
 site came out five days afterwards, and a second specimen made its exit 
 from another of the scales five days later. This same parasite also de¬ 
 stroys the male pupae of some of the other species of this genus. It per¬ 
 tains to the family 1 ’roctotrupiDvE, and appears to belong to the genus 
 Platygaster . It may be named P. Lecanii , or the Scale insect parasite. 
 It is quite small, measuring 0:035, and to the tip of its wings 0.05. It is 
 shining black, with its scutel pale yellow and appearing like a large 
 crescent-shaped spot of this color placed crosswise upon the hind part of 
 its thorax, its legs are white with the thighs black except at their oppo¬ 
 site ends. Its abdomen is slightly smaller than the thorax and shaped 
 bko the bowl of a spoon, being deeply hollowed on the back and convex 
 beneath. Its antenn® are thread-like with the joints cylindrical and three 
 times as long as thick, the last one not enlarged. Its wings are clear and 
 glassy, strongly reflecting the colors of the rainbow. They are wholly desti¬ 
 tute of veins, except a rib-vein running parallel with the outer margin the 
 
806 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 OAK. L1MB9. 
 
 first half of its length and then uniting with the margin to beyond the mid¬ 
 dle, where it is slightly incurved and ends in an irregular triangular knob. 
 
 309. Oak-tumor gall-fly, Cynips Quercus-tuber, new species. (Hymenoptera. 
 
 Cyniphid®.) 
 
 On or near the ends of the small limhs and twigs of the white oak, hard 
 irregular swellings thrice as thick as the twig below them, the bark upon 
 them of a brighter cherry red color than elsewhere, and their substance in¬ 
 ternally corky and woody ; produced by the stings of a small black gall-fly 
 with dull pale yellow antennae, mouth and legs, its hind shanks and its 
 antennae towards their tips being dusky, its length 0.08 and to the tips of 
 its wings 0.13. 
 
 These tumors or galls are quite common, particularly upon the soft and 
 tender limbs of small young trees. Two distinct varieties in their form 
 will be observed as they grow at the ends of the limbs, or lower 
 down upon their sides. Those upon or near the tips of the limbs 
 are shorter routided galls, little longer than broad, and usually of 
 a deeper red color and a more irregular uneven surface. They are 
 about a half inch in length and a fourth less in thickness. Those 
 growing along the side of the stem are longer elliptic galls of about 
 the same width as the preceding, but twice or three times as long, 
 and of a paler though still a deep cherry red color. The whole 
 circumference of the limb is involved in this diseased swelling, ex¬ 
 cept a narrow stripe along its hind side where the bark retains its 
 natural striated appearance. When fully grown the surface of both 
 kinds of these galls becomes glaucous white, as though thinly coated 
 with moldiness. Sometimes two, three or more of these tumors 
 occur on the same limb, placed irregularly one below the other, or running 
 partially into each other. A single one, however, always suffices to kill 
 the limb at and above the point where it is situated, thus arresting its 
 onward growth until one of the lateral shoots below grows to become a 
 leading shoot in place of the one thus destroyed. 
 
 On cutting into these galls the small limb on which they grow is found 
 to have its wood thickened or swollen, and over it, forming the chief bulk 
 of the tumor, is a corky substance of a yellowish brown or snuff color, 
 between which and the wood are several small hard grains resembling 
 seeds, each having a cavity in its center, in which, doubled together, lies a 
 soft white footless worm or maggot. This, on completing its growth, 
 changes to a pupa in the same cell, and subsequently to a fly like its par¬ 
 ent above described ; whereupon, to escape from its confinement, it gnaws 
 out of this hard seed-like envelope and onward through the corky sub¬ 
 stance and the external bark, thus producing those small perforations like 
 pin-holes, which are always seen in these tumors after the insects have 
 made their exit therefrom. 
 
 As several kinds of galls and gall insects are to be noticed in this part 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 807 
 
 OAK. LIMBS. 
 
 of my Report, some general remarks respecting them should here be intro¬ 
 duced for popular information. 
 
 The term “ gall ” is currently understood, and is quite common as a 
 proverbial word in our community, as implying a substance of an extremely 
 bitter taste; and this originally #as the'true and sole signification of this 
 word. Several of these vegetable excrescences being intensely bitter, they 
 hence came to be called galls and gall-nuts. And thus this term was extended 
 to other similar substances, though destitute of this property, and has now 
 in different languages become the technical designation for all kinds of 
 vegetable swellings, excrescences, and other unnatural growths which are 
 produced by the stings of insects, whether they possess any bitterness or 
 not. Even the knot-like swellings which arc formed in the stalks of 
 wheat by the Hessian fly and the Joint worm are true galls in the modern 
 sense of this term. And the insects producing such swellings are called 
 gall-flies. Nearly all of these insects pertain to two families, those which 
 have four wings, like the one now under consideration, constituting the 
 Cynips family in the order Hymenoptf.ra, and those with two wings form¬ 
 ing the Cecidomyia group in the order Diptera. But as the insects of 
 these two groups have no resemblance to each other, and correspond only 
 in the one particular of producing excrescences by their stings, the latter 
 are more correctly and definitely termed gall-midges, and it is the members 
 of the Cy?iips family only to which the name gall-flies truly belongs. 
 
 From ditlerences in their form and in the number of joints in their anten¬ 
 nae, the gall-flies are divided into several genera. Of these genera that 
 which retains the name Cynips is much the most numerous in its species. 
 They are mostly very small insects resembling bees or ants of a short thick 
 form, but with their antenna straight instead of elbowed, and with none 
 of that activity in their movements which belong to the insects named. 
 They are mostly of a coal black color, with pale legs and antenna, several 
 of the species differing from each other only very slightly in size and in 
 the hue of some particular part, being known with more certainty from the 
 different galls from which they come than from the characters which the flies 
 themselves present. In the several species here noticed, and ranked in the 
 genus Cynips , five small longitudinal furrows may be seen on the thorax. 
 I heir scutel is rounded and protuberant, with a rough granular surface. 
 Their abdomen is highly polished and shining, in the females compressed 
 and shaped like a lens, its outline being nearly round when viewed in pro¬ 
 file, with its hind end usually more or less truncated or cut off in a straight 
 line perpendicularly, with a projecting valve at its lower end, and above 
 this the end of the sting protruding obliquely upward. It is equal in its 
 size to the thorax, but is smaller in the males, and without the projecting 
 sting. The wings are transparent and colorless, the forward pair with 
 three longitudinal veins and two transverse or oblique vcinlets. The 
 inner and middle longitudinal veins are abortive, being marked merely by 
 very fine colorless lines, scarcely perceptible in the smaller species, and in 
 strong contrast with the other vein and the vcinlets, which are coarse> 
 
808 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 OAK. LIMBS. 
 
 often dark colored, and very distinct. The middle longitudinal vein arises 
 from the middle of the anterior veinlet, but is often obliterated at its com¬ 
 mencement. It is widely forked, slightly before it reaches the second 
 veinlet sending off a straight and very coarse branch to the outer margin. 
 By the inner end of the second veinlet crossing this fork slightly back of 
 its commencement a small triangular cell is formed in the center of the 
 wing. Westwood, in defining this genus, says this small cell is bounded 
 by veins of equal thiokness ; but in all the American gall-flies known to me 
 the veins on one or both the anterior sides of this cell are much more 
 slender than the one on its posterior side. Finally, the antennas are 
 thread-like, or of the same thickness through their entire length, and aro 
 about half the length of the body. Their joints are separated by very 
 slight constrictions, whereby they are counted with difficulty by the aid of 
 a common magnifying glass ; but this instrument is sufficient to show their 
 number, even in the smaller species. Westwood states the number of 
 joints to be fourteen in the females and one more in the males. Ilartig 
 differs with him as to the latter. Brulle (Hymenopt. iv. 635) merely 
 cites these authors without affirming anything on this subject himself. 
 Had he no specimens at hand whereby to determine a point which appears 
 so simple ? Doubtless he had, and on examining them found he was 
 unable to decide this matter. For, though the number of these joints 
 appears to be constant in the same species, they differ in different species. 
 Thus, in the gall-flies of the oak here described, of six species of which I 
 possess examples of both the sexes, I find the number of joints to be as 
 stated by Mr. Westwood in three only. In two of the others the females 
 have but thirteen joints. Whilst in the remaining species, which is the 
 Oak-tumor gall-fly now under consideration, the antennae of the males have 
 only fourteen and those of the females twelve joints. And in a seventh 
 species, only the females of which are known to me, the number of these 
 joints amounts to fifteen. It hence appears that the antennae of these 
 insects have sometimes one sometimes two more joints in the males than 
 in the opposite sex, and that in the latter the number is from twelve to 
 fifteen in different species. 
 
 In all parts of the world the oaks are far more infested with gall-flies 
 than trees of any other kind. The naturalist Bose during his residence in 
 Carolina observed sixteen different kinds of galls, of which eight grew upon 
 oaks; but all his endeavors to rear the flies from them were futile. My 
 own efforts have been more successful, as will be seen by the accompany¬ 
 ing notices. And a number of oak-galls, in addition to those herewith pre¬ 
 sented, are known to me, from which I have not yet been able to obtain 
 the flies, from some of them parasites having come in their stead. I regret 
 that I am unable to refer to the memoir of Bose on the insects of this 
 family, long since published in the second volume of the Paris Journal of 
 Natural History, and also the Monograph of Brisehke, which appeared a 
 few years since at Berlin. Hence I may perchance here be giving as new, 
 some species which have already been named in this latter work. 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 809 
 
 OAK. LIMBB. 
 
 Linnaeus, in this group of insects, set us the example of bestowing names 
 which express not merely the kind of tree but the particular part thereof, 
 or the appearance of the gall from which the respective species are pro¬ 
 duced (Cy flips Quercus baccarum , Oak berry gall-fly, C. Quercus ramuli , 
 Oak twigs, etc.), and though such compound names are to be avoided as 
 being inconveniently long, a departure from the general rule may well be 
 permitted in this family, since hereby the names alone, in most instances, 
 definitely indicate the species to which they refer, and these names also 
 serve to diversify and relieve the science somewhat from that wearisome 
 sameness and uniformity which pervades its nomenclature. 
 
 Where any of these insects attack a valued tree which it is desired 
 to preserve from their depredations, the remedy is obvious and simple. 
 Before the galls which they produce are so far matured that the inclosed 
 insects have perforated and escaped from them, they should be cut from 
 the tree and burned. Fortunately, it is only small young trees that gall¬ 
 flies are liable to destroy or greatly injure by their attacks. And their 
 parasitic and other onemies restrain them from multiplying so that it is 
 seldom they will require any interference from man. 
 
 310 . Oak-tkee gall-fly, Cynips Qucrcus-arbot ?, new species. 
 
 Swellings similar to those above described, growing on the tips of the 
 limbs of aged and large white oak trees; producing a small black gall-fly 
 having all its legs and antenna) of a bright pale yellow oolor, and one 
 more joint in the latter organs than in the preceding species in the males, 
 which sex is 0.06 in length, and to the tips of its wings 0.10. 
 
 I have in repeated instances observed these swellings at the tips of the 
 lofty limbs of mature and aged oaks, when the trees were felled and their 
 limbs thus brought within view. But having until this moment supposed 
 these galls the same with the preceding species, I have taken no care to 
 obtain the flies from them. 
 
 Lhe fact has heretofore been stated that where trees are standing apart, 
 for furnishing a shade in pastures and other cleared lands, or as ornamen¬ 
 tal trees in parks and pleasure-grounds, they gather more insects and are 
 hence more stinted and deformed in their growth, than when they arc asso¬ 
 ciated together in forests. A large solitary oak which formerly stood in 
 prominent view from the door of my dwelling was noticed for many years 
 as making no perceptible advance in height or in the size of its body and 
 limbs, although apparently healthy and clothed luxuriantly each summer 
 with foliage. One morning in March this tree was observed cut down, and 
 on repairing to it, it was discovered that the extreme ends of all the more 
 vigorous and thrifty limbs and twigs were swollen into knobs or galls, 
 wherefrom these ends would perish and their onward growth be thus 
 arrested, all the other more puny limbs showing on their ends dead and 
 decaying knobs of the same kind, which had grown in preceding years, 
 ihus it was evidently this small gall-fly, which, by killing the ends of all 
 the most vigorous and thrifty shoots, year after year, had been retarding 
 
810 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 OAK. LIMBS. 
 
 the further growth of this majestic tree. The galls were at that time per¬ 
 forated with pin-holes, showing that the fly had come from them the pre¬ 
 ceding autumn. On a careful search, however, two were found with the 
 insect still in them. These w'ere placed in a glass jar, and a single male fly 
 was obtained from them, which I now discover to be unlike the foregoing 
 species. I hence infer this to infest mature and aged trees, whilst all my 
 specimens of that were reared from the more accessible galls growing on 
 the tender juicy branches of young shoots and saplings. 
 
 311* Oak-potato gall-fly, Cynips QuercuS-batatus, new species. 
 
 A large, hard, uneven swelling, three-fourths of an inch thick and twice 
 or thrice as long, resembling a potato in its shape, growing 
 on white oak twigs more distant from their ends than the 
 Oak-tumor ; producing a small black gall-fly with the basal 
 joints of its antennae and its legs dull pale yellow, its 
 thighs and hind shanks black and its middle shanks often 
 dusky, the antennae in the female with thirteen joints, and 
 the length of this sex 0.09. 
 
 This gall might be mistaken for a large example of the 
 Elliptic variety of the one first described, but at each end 
 the swelling arises much more abruptly from the limb, and 
 on all sides of it, whereby the limb is wholly obliterated. 
 Its surface is coated with a glaucous pale blue bloom. 
 Internally it is of a dense corky texture in which are hard woody spots. 
 And the fly which comes from it is readily distinguished from the Oak- 
 tumor fly by the black color of its thighs. 
 
 312, 313. Oak-bullet oall-flies. Calluspidia Quercus-globulus, now specie*, and 
 
 Cynips oneratus, Harris. 
 
 Smooth globular galls the size of a bullet, growing singly or two, three 
 or more in a cluster, upon white oak twigs, internally of a corky texture, 
 each containing in its center a single worm lying in a oval whitish shell 
 resembling a little egg 0.15 in length j producing sometimes a black gall¬ 
 fly with tawny-red legs and the second veinlet of its wings elbowed or 
 augularly bent backwards, its length 0.15; sometimes a smaller fly (C. 
 oneratus) of a clean pale yellow color, almost white, with a broad black 
 stripe the whole length of its back, which color in the males is more ex¬ 
 tended, reaching down upon the sides, its length 0.12. 
 
 Although Dr. Harris regards these two flics as varieties of one species, 
 they certainly are very distinct, differing in size, clothing, color and struc¬ 
 ture, insomuch that they pertain to two different genera. The first is 
 bearded over with fine short gray hairs, whilst the other is smooth. Its 
 sting is also evenly bearded with longer coarser hairs, which are wanting 
 in the other. The second veinlet of its wings is bent nearly to a right 
 angle, whilst in the other it is straight. The antennae have the same num¬ 
 ber of joints (15 and 14) in the sexes of both, but in the one fly they are 
 black, in the other pale yellow, and with the joints evidently shorter. And 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 811 
 
 OAK. LIMBS. 
 
 I cannot but think that further researches will show that the galls from 
 which they conic grow upon different parts of the white oak, if those of 
 both flies really he .produced by this one tree ; and that the galls them¬ 
 selves will present some differences in their structure. My specimens of 
 the"smaller brighter colored fly were found in a jar in which had been 
 placed quite a number of galls, and -which had produced an equal number 
 of the larger flies, and several parasites, whereby it was impossible to 
 ascertain the particular galls from which they respectively came. 
 
 I retain the name of Dr. Harris for the species of which he gives an 
 independent description, and which he says comes out in June and July ; 
 and present a new name for his dark colored variety, specimens of which I 
 have captured on the wing early in May, and again in September, and 
 which thus appears to be two-brooded, W’hilst of the other there is probably 
 but one generation annually. 
 
 The species which I present as new, is subject to considerable variety 
 in its colors. A broad tawny red ring usually surrounds its eyes, and on 
 each side of its thorax is one or more spots of the same color. Sometimes 
 the scutcl is also red, and the under side and tip of the abdomen is fre¬ 
 quently of a resin-like red color, instead of black. Its wing -veins are 
 black and the second transverse veinlet is margined with smoky along its 
 hind side. This veinlet is angularly bent not only at half the distance 
 from its outer end to the small ccutral cell, but also a second time, where 
 it forms the hind boundary of this cell, and hereby the cell, instead of its 
 usual triangular form, has the shape of a spear head in this species. Its 
 size, its aspect, and some other characters are similar to the Oak-apple and 
 Cloudy-winged gall-flies, under which latter species, $ 318, its generic 
 relationship will be more particularly stated. 
 
 These bullet-like galls are most common and often- 
 est noticed of any of the galls on our oaks. When 
 growing they are of a pale greenish color, shaded 
 into bright red upon the side which is most exposed 
 to the light,and with the fading of the leaves in 
 autumn, they also fade to the same pale dull yellow 
 hue with the dead leaves, even though the insect be 
 still inclosed in them, to pass the winter, as it some¬ 
 times is. 
 
 I have obtained two parasites from these galls. 
 
 They probably destroy both kinds of these flies indif¬ 
 ferently, and also the flies of other galls ; for the 
 parasites of these gall insects arc not limited, each 
 to a particular species, as we know from frequently 
 obtaining the same parasite from the galls of totally different trees and 
 shrubs. These parasites pertain to the family CiialcididA5, and resemble 
 gall-flies in their general appearance, but are at once distinguished from 
 the latter group of insects by the absence of veins in their wiugs. In 
 
812 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 OAK. LIMBS. 
 
 addition to the galls from which they are bred, only a brief description 
 will be required to enable one to recognize them. 
 
 The Oak-ball parasite, Mncroglenes Querci-globuH, new species. 
 
 This much resembles the gall-fly from which it is named, in its size and 
 general appearance. It is black, with the basal joint of the antennas and 
 the legs dull white, the thighs pale dull yellow, and the abdomen tinged 
 with this last color along its under side. Length 0.15. 
 
 The Oak-bcllet parasite,’ Pteromalus onerati, new species. 
 
 This is smaller and more beautifully colored than the preceding, being 
 of a brilliant coppery hue with a green reflection, and the under side of its 
 abdomen golden yellow. Its legs are sulphur yellow and its antenmc dark 
 brown with the first joint pale yellowish. It is 0.10 in length, with the 
 females somewhat larger. I have also obtained this species from one of 
 the galls of willow twigs. 
 
 314. Oak-fib gall-plv, Cynips Qucrcus-ficvs, new species. 
 
 Surrounding the twigs of white oaks in a dense cluster, resembling pre¬ 
 served figs packed in boxes, each molded to the shape of 
 those pressing against its sides, hollow bladder-like galls 
 of the pale dull yellow color of a faded oak loaf, each gall 
 producing a small black fly with the lower half of its 
 head, its antennae and legs pale dull yellow, its hind 
 shanks dusky and its abdomen beneath reddish-brown, 
 its antennae with fifteen and in the female thirteen 
 joints. Length 0.06, females 0 10, and to the end of 
 their wings 0.14. 
 
 These galls are common upon the long slender shoots 
 of young and thriftily growing white oaks. No com¬ 
 parison occurs to me which wilPgive so correct an idea 
 of their appearance, as that of preserved figs, as we sec 
 them packed in boxes, each conforming to the shape of 
 those surrounding and pressing against it on every side, 
 and their outer surface showing irregular rounded eleva¬ 
 tions with intervening hollows and fissures, resembling 
 the convolutions of the brain or of the intestines. These 
 masses of galls sometimes form a roundish ball, a half 
 or three-fourths of an inch in diameter, with the twig 
 passing through its center. But more frequently they 
 extend along the twig three, six or more inches, in an 
 uneven knobby mass. 
 
 It is interesting to notice the first commencement and 
 subsequent growth of these galls, which is as follows : 
 The female pierces the bark with her sting and inserts 
 a number of eggs at short distances from each other, sinking them 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 813 
 
 OAK. LIMBS. 
 
 into the wood beneath the bark, it would appear, for a little discolored 
 spongy spot runs inward from each gall to the pith of the limb. The 
 wounds of the bark from these punctures become so entirely healed 
 that no indications of them can be detected with a magnifying glass. But 
 a little smooth round swelling or elevation of the bark soon commences 
 above each egg, which swelling increases, until at length the bark bursts 
 and a small round granule, the size of a pin’s head, protrudes from the 
 opening. These grow more and more, resembling a cluster of grapes when 
 they have attained half their size and are beginning to crowd one against 
 another. They finally attain from a quarter to a half inch in diameter. 
 Their outer surface is covered with fine short hairs, which become rubbed 
 olf from their more exposed parts. The worm lies in a small oval cavity 
 at the base of each gall, the walls of this cavity being whitish, tough and 
 leathery, resembling a small seed, from the outer surface of which numerous 
 crinkled, brittle, wooly fibers of a rusty yellow color radiate to the outer 
 envelope of the gall, which is a thin paper-like membrane, soft and flexible 
 when moist but brittle and breaking from a slight pressure when dried. 
 Most of these galls are found perforated in the winter season, when they 
 and all other excresenees are more particularly noticed, the foil of the 
 leaves then exposing them to view ; but particular clusters will at that 
 season be discovered with the insects still remaining in them, to come forth 
 the following June. There hence appears to be two broods of this fly 
 annually, one having come from the perforated galls the preceding summer, 
 whose eggs have produced tho unperforated galls in which the insects 
 repose during the winter. 
 
 The fly from these galls is very similar to that of the Oak tumor, differ¬ 
 ing from that species only in being slightly larger, with its abdoineu paler 
 beneath, and in having more joints in its antennae. 
 
 315. Wool-sower gall-fly, Cynips seminator, Harris. 
 
 A round mass resembling wool, from the size of a walnut to that of a 
 goose egg, growing on the side of or surrounding white oak twigs, in June 
 of a pure white color or tinged or speckled with rose red, and in autumn 
 the color of sponge; producing small shining black gall-flies with bright 
 tawny yellow legs and antennae and in the female the head and thorax cin¬ 
 namon red ; their antennae of fifteen and fourteen joints, length 0.08 and 
 the females 0.11. 
 
 These galls first show themselves on the thriftiest young succulent 
 shoots in the month of June, and they then resemble a lock of fine soft 
 wool ot a pure white color or with a delicate rose red tinge upon one side, 
 or sometimes they are clean white with numerous elevated points of deep 
 rose red, and arc then truly beautiful in their appearance. From these 
 galls I have obtained the flies the fore part of July. These flics imme¬ 
 diately sow their eggs for another crop, and the oak twigs having now 
 become harder and more woody, the galls growing on them are of a coarser 
 
814 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 OAK. LEAVES. 
 
 texture and duller color, resembling 
 a ball of sponge rather than wool. 
 These remain through the winter, 
 though their attachment to the twig 
 is so slight that birds picking into 
 them, they are often torn off and fall 
 to the ground. Internally, adjoining 
 the twig, they consist of a mass of 
 white hard grains resembling seeds, 
 each of which yields a fly. 
 
 The two sexes differ remarkably 
 in their colors, the head and thorax 
 being black in the male, with the 
 mouth only cinnamon red, whilst in 
 the female the whole of these parts 
 is of this color, the abdomen only 
 being black. It is the male only 
 which is described by Dr. Harris, 
 and a person with specimens of the 
 female in his hands would not sus¬ 
 pect them to be the species of which 
 he treats. The female is much the 
 most common. A single gall gave 
 me forty specimens of this sex and 
 only one male. 
 
 AFFECTING THE LEAVES. 
 
 3IG. Oak-wool gall-fly, Cfjnips Quercus-lana, new species. 
 
 A round mass resembling wool, the size of a hazelnut or walnut, and of 
 a white or buff color, growing upon one of the principal veins on the under 
 side of white oak leaves, and producing several small black flies with white 
 or straw colored heads, antennae and legs, and with shining smoky yellow 
 abdomens, having a black or blackish cloud occupying their back and sides, 
 the females with fifteen-jointed antennae, and their length 0.09. 
 
 It is not a little curious that two insects so nearly identical as the Oak- 
 tumor and the Oak-fig gall-flies, should produce galls which are totally 
 dissimilar—the one being merely a smooth swelling of the bark, the other 
 a mass of semi-collapsed bladders the size of acorns crowded together around 
 the limb—whilst here, on the other hand, we have two insects which have 
 little resemblance to each other, yet producing galls which can scarcely be 
 distinguished the one froth the other. No one noticing on our white oaks 
 these little round bunches of buff colored wool in which the young of the 
 AVool-sower and of the Oak-wool gall-flies are cradled, growing perhaps 
 but a few inches apart, one on a leaf the other on a twig, would suspect 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 815 
 
 OAK. LEAVES. 
 
 anything else than that both were the same thing, produced very probably 
 by a single insect puncturing and inserting a part of its eggs in the vein of 
 
 the leaf and then moving a short distance aside and bestowing the remainder 
 on the adjacent twig—dividing them thus, as do many other insects, to 
 increase the chances for a portion of its young to escape destruction should 
 any casualty befall them in the one or the other place. And if a person 
 were curious to know the kind of insect which with such maternal care had 
 formed these velvety little beds for the secure and comfortable repose of its 
 young, he would scarcely deem it worth his while to gather but one of the 
 two bunches; though to make the research more certain of a successful 
 issue he might perchance secure them both. And on placing them in a 
 covered tumbler and moistening them occasionally, till after a time a mul¬ 
 titude of little black Hies made their appearance in the glass, what would 
 be his astonishment to find there were four different kinds of insects there, 
 when he had expected to see but one. The result would be a riddle, a per¬ 
 fect paradox to him, unless from being somewhat versed in the habits and 
 aspects of this class of creatures, he would be able to discern that two of 
 these kinds being gall makers must have come one from the one wad of 
 wool and the other from the other — thus showing these two little tufts 
 of wool to be in reality two distinct natural substances, although the only 
 
816 
 
 ANNUAL REPOUT OK NEW YORK 
 
 OAK. LEAVES. 
 
 perceptible difference between them is that one grows upon the leaves and 
 the other upon the twigs. And the other flies in the glass boing found of tho 
 parasitic hind, he would perceive they must have subsisted on and destroyed 
 other individuals of these gall makers, and had thus come out of the galls 
 in their stead. Thus, where he supposed he had simply one vegetable pro¬ 
 duction from which a single kind of insect would come, he finds nature has 
 actually formed two of the former and four of the latter. With such 
 astonishing profusion and seeming superabundance is every little corner 
 and recess in the domain of nature diversified and teeming with life. 
 
 Internally in these little masses of wool are numerous hard seeds about 
 the size of grains of wheat, of a bright chestnut color, crowded together 
 and attached by their lower ends to the vein of the leaf. In each of these 
 is a worm, which, on completing its transformations, gnaws off the upper 
 end of its cell, and eats directly outward through the wool and escapes 
 from its confinement, hereby making the same pin-hole perforations in these 
 soft wooly galls that are seen in the other harder kinds when the insects 
 have evacuated them. 
 
 I have not succeeded in obtaining the males of this species, its galls 
 having in all but one instance yielded me parasites only. This is the more 
 remarkable, since, from the very similar galls of the wool-sower growing 
 on the twigs, I have never obtained any insects of this kind. And it would 
 hence appear that the one gall being firmly fixed whilst the other vibrates 
 and swings with the leaf, nature has left the multiplication of the one to bo 
 cheeked by the birds, and they being unable to pick into the other, these 
 parasitic destroyers have here been formed and commissioned to execute 
 the same work. 
 
 Like most of the other parasites which infest this group, these pertain 
 to the family Ciialcididaj, belonging to the same order of insects with 
 the gall-flies. They may bo named and distinguished as follows : 
 
 The Oak-wool parasite, Spalangia Querci-lanai, now species. 
 
 Black, with the face, antennae, sides of the collar, and legs whitish or 
 greenish-yellow. Length 0.08 to 0.10. Some individuals have the upper 
 side of the hind thighs and of the first joint of the antennae black. The 
 abdomen is smooth and polished, its under side of a tawny red color, and 
 it is separated from the thorax by a pedicel. The stigma of its fore wings 
 is a semicircular black shining spot with a small appendage on the inner side 
 of its hind end and its base slightly separated from the robust rib-vein, which 
 vein is of a dark brown or black color. Its cubical head, which is about 
 as long as wide, indicates its relationship to Spalangia, though in some 
 other respects it does not appear to fully coincide with the characters 
 assigned to this genus. 
 
 Specimens frequently occur, so very different in their colors that they 
 might almost be deemed a distinct species. They maybe termed the Lino- 
 backed variety ( dorsalis) of the Oak-wool parasite. In them the thorax 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 817 
 
 OAK. LEAVES. 
 
 is pale greenish yellow, with a black stripe along its middle, and the abdo¬ 
 men is yellow, with the back black, and commonly with black bands upon 
 its sides. 
 
 The Wool-toft parasite, Eurytoma lanula, new speoics. 
 
 This is black throughout, with only its feet white and their tips dusky, 
 and the abdomen smooth and polished. It is 0.08 long. This is less com¬ 
 mon than the preceding, and is obtained as frequently from galls on wil¬ 
 lows, as from these wooly galls on oak leaves. 
 
 317. Oak-apple gali.-flv, Callaspidia confluenta, Harris. 
 
 Large smooth globular galls resembling apples, growing on the larger 
 veins on the under side of the leaves of the red oak, each gall producing a 
 large black gall-fly with deep tawny red legs, and its wings with a smoky 
 brown spot margining the second vcinlet on its hind side, the female 
 antennas with thirteen joints, her length 0.25. 
 
 This is our largest kind of gall-fly. There are probably two generations 
 of it annually, for early in June the galls are found upon the trees grown 
 to their full size, which varies from an inch to an inch and three-quarters 
 in diameter. Their attachment to the leaf is so slight and brittle that 
 when the leaves are agitated with a strong wind numbers of them break off 
 and fall, so that the ground under particular trees is copiously scattered 
 with them, even when they are but half or two-tlnrds grown, the latter 
 part of May. They then resemble large nice smooth gooseberries, being 
 of a lively pale green color, freckled with large blackish or purplish brown 
 dots, and clear and semi-transparent when held between the eye and the 
 light, with an opake cloud-like spot in their center. Cut open, this central 
 spot is seen to be a pale greenish yellow ball the size of a pea, with numer¬ 
 ous white threads beautifully radiating from its surface to the outer wall, 
 and holding this ball in its place in the otherwise vacant cavity. On cut¬ 
 ting this ball asunder it is found to be very juicy and white internally, 
 with a round cavity in its center, in which lies a small plump white maggot, 
 curved into the shape of a crescent, and lying motionless and without any 
 signs of life. The exterior wall is 0.05 thick, or about the thickness of 
 the rind usually taken from an apple when it is peeled, and of a similar 
 succulent juicy texture. 
 
 These green immature galls, so smooth, plump and semi-transparent, 
 have a most tempting appearance, as though they were some fine juicy 
 fruit, of which the taste will be delicious. But though so tender and 
 succulent they are perfectly tasteless, neither the outer rind nor the central 
 ball having any perceptible flavor. But their luscious aspect, in connec¬ 
 tion with their popular name of “ Oak apples,” excites the children in 
 many neighborhoods all over our country, to gather and eat them, reject¬ 
 ing the central core containing the worm. They are probably inert and 
 destitute of any effect when thus eaten. Certainly they are not deleteri- 
 [Ag. Trans.] 32 
 
818 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 OAK. LEAVES. 
 
 oua. A school teacher who waa reoently employed in Michigan, in a 
 school house which was surrounded with shrub oaks which were loaded with 
 these galls, informs me that for many days the pupils at every recess were 
 filling their pockets with them, and eating them almost incessantly, yet 
 without ill effects therefrom in any instance. 
 
 318. Clovdy-tyinoed gall-fly, Callaspidia nulrilipennis, Harris. 
 
 Galls like the preceding, hut only the size of a hazelnut or grape, grow¬ 
 ing through the leafy expansion of the red oak, a third of the sphere pro¬ 
 jecting from the upper surface of the leaf and the remainder opposite on 
 its under side ; producing a large black gall-fly with tawny yellow legs and 
 its wings smoky on their disk and tips, with none of the veins continued 
 into the margin, the antennae thirtcen-jointed in the female, which is 0.20 
 long, and to the tips of her wings 0.30. 
 
 I met with this fly among fallen oak leaves early in April, where it might 
 have been reposing through the winter; and from the brief, indefinite 
 notice which Dr. Harris gives of it and its gall, I infer it to be from the 
 gall above described, which I have only found after the fly had escaped. 
 Galls perfectly the same, however, except that they show no vestiges of 
 any attachment to a leaf, being smooth and even on every side, are some¬ 
 times found among fallen leaves, perforated, early in the spring. 
 
 This species and the Oak-apple gall-fly, having none of the wing veins 
 prolonged into the margin, and the scutel obtuse and rough, will belong to 
 Dalman’s genus Callaspidia. But while the antennae are thread-like in 
 the Oak-apple gall-fly, they are slightly thicker towards their tips in the 
 present species, and are also shorter, not reaching the base of the thorax. 
 The second veinlet of the fore wings is curved like a bow in both these 
 species, which appears to be a generic character of much value. And I do 
 not hesitate in referring the Oak-bullet gall-fly (C. Qvercus-globnlus) to 
 this genus also, notwithstanding the one additional joint in its antenna;, its 
 aspect being so very like that of the Oak-apple gall-fly, as Dr. Harris has 
 observed. Its size, its pubescence, its second veinlet edged with smoky 
 along its hind side and angularly bent, show its greater affinity to these 
 than to the species of the genus Cynips. And the outer longitudinal 
 or subcostal vein dees not fully reach the margin, although it is much less 
 widely separated therefrom than in the two other species. On the whole, it 
 should probably be regarded as forming the type of a new genus. 
 
 319. Oak-pea gall-fly, Cynips Quercus-pisum, now species. 
 
 On a vein on the under side of white oak leaves, a globular gall resem¬ 
 bling a pea, its surface finely netted with fissures or cracks and intervening 
 elevated points like the surface of a strawberry, usually with two cavities 
 in its center divided by a thin partition ; producing a black gall-fly with 
 legs, antennae and the valve of the lower tip of its abdomen pale dull yel¬ 
 low or straw color, and also the face and mouth in the males, the antennoo 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 819 
 
 OAK. LEAVES. 
 
 fifteen-jointed, in the females thirteen and dusky towards their tips. 
 Length 0.08. female 0.11 and to the end of her wings 0.16. 
 
 These galls are not rarij, and in 
 the same situation a similar though 
 somewhat smaller gall occurs, the 
 surface of which is smooth ; but from 
 these I have not yet succeeded in 
 obtaining the fly. When young the 
 surface of these galls is rough, but 
 not cracked into the net-work of 
 lines that is afterwards seen. The 
 interstices between these cracks are 
 sometimes flat but oftener show an 
 elevated point or pimple in their 
 center. The galls are carried to the 
 ground with the leaves when they 
 fall in autumn, the insects remaining 
 in them till the following spring. 
 
 They are of a pale greenish yellow 
 color tinged on one side with red, 
 when growing, but fade in autumn to the same color as the dead leaves. 
 
 In addition to gall-flies the two following parasites come from these galls, 
 hatching therefrom as early as the middle or latter part of April. The 
 first of these is oftencst obtained, and what appears to be the same species 
 comes also from galls upon whortleberry bushes. 
 
 Tlio Oak-pea parasite, Macroglcnes Querci-pisi, new species. 
 
 Black, the feet white, the hind thighs black and their shanks black in 
 the middle, the four anterior thighs black or brown in the middle and their 
 shanks white but often in the middle brown, the eyes red. Length 0.10 
 to 0.13. 
 
 The Oak-pill parasite, Pteromalus Querci-pilula new species. 
 
 Brilliant green tinged with coppery, the legs light tawny yellow, their 
 thighs brilliant green in front, black behind, the middle pair tawny yellow 
 with a green-black stripe above and another beneath, the feet dull white 
 with black tips, the abdomen with a fine gray beard, its conical tip purple 
 black. Length 0.18. 
 
 The gall from which this parasite came had but a single cavity in its 
 center, instead of the two usually found there ; and I suspect that having 
 consumed one of the larvae of the gall-fly, it breaks through the thin 
 partition dividing the cells, and then feeds upon the other, this amount 
 of nourishment being apparently necessary to complete its growth to a size 
 so much larger than that of the gall-fly and the other parasite which sub¬ 
 sists upon it. 
 
820 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 OAK. LEAVES. 
 
 320. CniNQUAriN-oAK gall-fly, Figites Chinquapin , new species. 
 
 Arising perpendicularly or obliquely from the upper surface of the leaves 
 of the Chinquapin oak (Quercus Chinquapin), like pins inserted therein, 
 little slender club-shaped galls nearly a half inch long, formed of a pale 
 green elliptic head like a minute pod, tapering into a slender dull brown 
 stalk twice as long as the head, the surface thinly clothed with fine short 
 hairs ; producing a small black gall-fly with bright tawny yellow antennae 
 and legs, its length 0.10. 
 
 These singular little galls are met with in May, one or more growing 
 upon the same leaf. The walls of the little pod at their summit arc 
 exceedingly thin and the fly comes out through around hole which it gnaws 
 near the upper end. It is remarkably large in comparison with the small 
 delicate gall in which it is nurtured. Its antennae in the female, the only 
 sex known to me, arc thirteen jointed, thicker towards their ends, and do 
 not reach the base of the thorax. The second veinlet of its wings is angu¬ 
 larly bent. Its seutel has a slight furrow in its middle and the suture, on 
 each side of its base, is widened into a small roundish excavation. 
 
 Oak spangles, perfectly the same as noticed by Westwood, Introduc¬ 
 tion, vol. ii, p. 130, occur on the under surface of the white oak leaves in 
 this country. These are small circular flat scales, less than a quarter of 
 an inch in diameter, varying from a pale to a bright vivid rose red color, 
 fading to dull red in autumn, and are attached to the leaf by a short 
 slender footstalk. So much do they resemble a parasitic plant growing 
 upon the leaf that they have been a subject of much controversy among 
 writers. I have not as yet succeeded in obtaining the flies from them ; 
 but they will no doubt yield a species different from that of Europe. For, 
 it may have been observed, that several of the galls above described appear 
 to be the same with some of those growing on the oaks of the old world, 
 yet the insects coming from them arc manifestly different. 
 
 3^1* Forest caterpillar, Clisiosarnpa silvatied, Harris. (Lepicloptcra. Bombycidco.) 
 
 A caterpillar closely resembling that of the Apple-tree, §28, but at 
 once distinguished from it by having a row of diamond-shaped or oval 
 white spots along the middle of its back instead of a white stripe ; living in 
 large societies, under a slight thinly-woven cobweb-like nest placed length¬ 
 wise against the side of the tree, and coming out to feed upon the leaves ; 
 when nearly grown dispersing themselves and wandering about; spinning 
 a cocoon like that of the Apple-tree caterpillar, in which it lies twenty days, 
 the moths appearing abroad the fore part of July, these being pale umber 
 brown or cinnamon color, their fore wings gray and crossed by two narrow 
 oblique bands, parallel with each other and with the hind margin, these 
 bands dark brown instead of whitish as in the Apple-tree moth, and often 
 obliterated by the whole space between them being dark brown; its width 
 1.25 and the female 1.75. 
 
 This caterpillar is particularly interesting from its close similarity in 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 821 
 
 OAK. LEAVES. 
 
 appearance and habits to our common and well known Apple-tree cater¬ 
 pillar. Its nests, however, are very seldom seen, even though diligently 
 sought, being of so slight a texture and placed along the side of the trunk or 
 of one of the larger limbs of the tree, and hereby rendered inconspicuous. 
 It is only after the worms leave their nests and are leisurely rambling 
 about singly, that they como to our notice. Almost every year, the fore 
 part of June, some three or four of these wanderers may be observed, and 
 occasionally a season arrives when they are remarked as much more com¬ 
 mon, but never numerous. This, in brief, has been their history, within 
 the sphere of my own observation. Abbot states (Insects of Georgia, p. 
 117,) that they are “ sometimes so plentiful in Virginia as to strip the 
 oak-trees bare ” He was probably misinformed, however, upon this point; 
 for Dr. Morris, of Baltimore, informs me they are no more common in that 
 district than I represent them to be here in New York, and nothing 
 approaching to the statement of Abbot has ever been known there, at least 
 by the present generation. In his own vicinity in Georgia, Abbot says it 
 is rare. It thus appears that this caterpillar is about equally diffused 
 throughout our country and is nowhere common. 
 
 Tho catf.upili.au, as seen after it has forsaken its nest and is wandering about, is an inoh 
 and a half long and 0.20 thick. It is cylindrical and of a pale blue color, tinged low down on 
 each side with greenish gray, and is everywhere sprinkled over with black points and dots. 
 Along its back is a row of ten or eleven oval or diamond-shaped white spots which are simi¬ 
 larly sprinkled with black points and dots, and are placed ono on the fore part of each seg¬ 
 ment. Behind each of these spots, is a much smaller white spot, occupying the middle of each 
 segment. The intervening space is black, which color also forms a bordorsurrounding eaoh of 
 the spots, and on each side is an elevated black dot from which arises usually four long black 
 hairs. The hind part of each segment is occupied by three crinkled and more or less inter¬ 
 rupted pale orange yellow lines, which are edged with black. And on each side is a continu¬ 
 ous and somewhat broader stripe of tho same yellow color, similarly edged on each of its sides 
 with black. Lower down upon each side is a paler yellow or cream colored stripe tho edges of 
 which are more jagged and irregular than those of the one above it, and this stripo also is 
 bordered with black, broadly and unevenly on its upper side and very narrowly on its lower 
 side. The back is clothed with numerous fine fox-colored hairs, and low down on each side 
 are numerous coarser whitish onos. On the under sidcisa largo oval black spot on each segmont 
 except the anterior ones. Tho legs and prologs are black and clothed with short whitish hairs. 
 The head is of a dark bluish color freckled with numerous black dots and clothed with short 
 blackish and fox-eolorcd hairs. Tho second segment or neck is edged anteriorly with cream 
 white, which color is more broad upon the sides. The third and {fourth sogmonts have oaeh a 
 largo black spot on each sido. The instant it is immersed in spirits the blue color of this 
 caterpillar vanishes and it becomes black. 
 
 Several of these caterpillars found abroad upon the last days of May 
 and inclosed in a cage ate scarcely anything afterwards, yet did not spin 
 their cocoons until the 10th and 18th of June, and the moths come out 
 therefrom twenty days afterwards on the 6th and 8th of July. It selects 
 a sheltered spot for its cocoon, such as a corner or angle formed by the 
 meeting of two or three sides. Across this angle it first draws a curtain, 
 which is thinly woven of white silk threads, nearly two inches in length 
 and width. Under the space thus inclosed similar threads are crossed in 
 all directions, in the center of which the inner pod-like cocoon is sus- 
 
822 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 OAK. LEAVES. 
 
 pended. This is about an inch in length and half as broad, and is placed per- 
 pendicularly, obliquely, and probably horizontally also, according to the 
 direction of the angle in which it is situated. It is more closely and 
 evenly woven than the parts exterior to it, and like similar fine muslin 
 fabrics from human looms, it is “ starched ” by the manufacturer, to 
 render it more stiff, smooth and substantial, the meshes between the 
 threads being filled with a thin yellowish paste from the mouth of the cater¬ 
 pillar, which dried, gives the cocoon the appearance of being thinly dusted 
 with powdered sulphur. The inclosed insect can be faintly seen through 
 its walls. I he moth issues from the upper end of the cocoon, by crowding 
 the threads there apart after it has softened and loosened them by wetting 
 them with a fluid from its mouth, which imparts a pale brown tinge to the 
 orifice thus formed. 
 
 The MALE MOTH usually measures 1.20 across its spread wings. Its thorax is densely 
 coated with soft hairs of a nankin yellow color. Its abdomen is covered with shorter hairs 
 which are light umber or cinnamon brown on the back and tip and paler or nankin yellow on 
 the sides. The antennae are gray, freckled with brown scales, and their branchesarc very dark 
 brown. The face is brown with the tips of the feelers pale gray. The fore wings are gray, varied 
 more or less with nankin yellow, and they are divided into three nearly equal portions by two 
 straight dark brown lines which cross them obliquely, parallel with each other and with the 
 hind margin. The space between these lines is usually brownish and darker than the rest of 
 the wing, being quite often of the same dark brown color as the lines, whereby they become 
 wholly lost. Sometimes the hind stripe is perceptibly margined on its hind side by a palo 
 yellowish lino. The fringe is of the same dark brown color with tho oblique lines, with two 
 whitish alternations towards its outer end. But sometimes it is of tho same color with tho 
 wings and edged along its tip with whitish. Tho hind wings aro of a uniform pale umber or 
 cinnamon brown, sometimes broadly grayish on the outer margin, and across their middle a 
 faint darker brown band is usually perceptible, its edges on each side indefinite. The fringe 
 is of the samo color with the wings or slightly darker and is tipped with whitish. The under 
 side is paler umber brown, the hind wings often gray, and both pairs are somotimes crossed 
 by a narrow dark brown band, which on the hind wings are curved outside of tho middle. 
 All back of this band, on both wings, is often paler, and more so near the band. 
 
 The female is 1.75 in width, and in addition to the shortness of the branches of her 
 antenna:, differs from the malo in her fore wings, which are proportionally narrower and 
 longer, with their hind margin ent off more obliquely and slightly wavy along its edge. 
 Hence also the dark brown lines cross tho wings more obliquely, the hind one in particular 
 forming a much more acute angle with tho outer margin. And all the wing back of this lino 
 is sometimes paler or of a brownish ashy color. And the fringe of these wings has not the two 
 whitish alternations which arc often so conspicuous in the male. The head and fore part of 
 the thorax is cinnamon brown. The abdomen is black, clothed with brown hairs, though 
 very thinly so on the anterior part of each segment, where these hairs are intermingled with 
 silvery gray scales. 
 
 The scales of the wings of this moth are very slightly attached, rubbing 
 off with the gentlest touch, as though they were mere dust that had fallen 
 upon the wings Hence it is almost impossible to secure specimens which 
 are perfect and uneffaced, the insect fluttering with such strength and 
 extreme vivacity when captured. And individuals taken wIicd abroad in 
 the forests are usually worthless for the cabinet, all traces of their marks 
 being obliterated and the wings having become more or less transparent 
 from this loss of their scales. 
 
 In addition to the oak this caterpillar is found upon the apple and cherry, 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 823 
 
 OAK. LEAVES. 
 
 the walnut and other trees. On the apple-tree it is said to be more 
 voracious and injurious than the common caterpillar, often nibbling the 
 stems of the young apples and causing them to wither and fall. 
 
 Other caterpillars and large thick-bodied worms occurring on oaks arc 
 the larvae of 
 
 The Hickory tussock both, § 183. 
 
 The All ERICAS LAPPET MOTH, § 84. 
 
 The.Io EMPEROR HOTH, § 81, and 
 l'ho Polyphemus moth, § 181. 
 
 322. Senatorial Dryocampa, or Yellow-striped oak-worm, Dryocampa senatoria, 
 Smith and Abbot. (Lepidoptcra. Bombycidee.) 
 
 In August, consuming the leaves, a black worm with four orange yellow 
 stripes upon the back and two along each side, with two long black horns 
 back of its neck and the rings of its body with two black prickles above 
 and two on each side ; burying itself some five inches below the surface and 
 the following June producing a large bright ochre yellow moth, its wings 
 often freckled with blackish spots, the forward pair having a large white 
 dot near the center and a faint purple streak from the middle of their inner 
 edge to the tip ; its width 2.50 ; the male much smaller, 1.75 wide, and its 
 wings of a much darker purplish red color, but with the same white dot 
 and dark streak. 
 
 These worms occasionally become quite numerous in particular neighbor¬ 
 hoods. The latter part of August, 1858, I observed them in greater num¬ 
 bers than I had ever before seen, in the cemetery at Saratoga Springs, 
 where they had stripped most of the oaks of tlicir leaves, and were then 
 descended from the trees, probably in search of food elsewhere, as few of 
 them appeared to be grown to their full size. They were everywhere 
 crawling sluggishly about, upon the surface of the dry sandy soil and up 
 the sides of the monuments. In the paths, the dresses of the ladies sweep¬ 
 ing over them, these worms frequently adhered to and crawled up them, to 
 the great annoyance of every one and the alarm of the more timorous. 
 Nor was this alarm altogether groundless. The prickles of these worms, 
 if they happen to penetrate the skin, produce a stinging sensation like that 
 of nettles and a slight redness of the spot, both these symptoms, however, 
 lasting but a short time, as in the case of nettle stings. Relief in all such 
 eases is speedily obtained by bathing the part with tincture of opium 
 (laudanum), or with spirits of camphor. 
 
 The larva when full grown is two inches long and about tho thickness of a lead pencil, 
 cylindrie, and of a coal black color in stripes alternating with orange yellow, as follows: 
 Along tho middlo of the back is a black stripe with a yellow ono of tho sarno width on each 
 side of it. Outside of these is a broader black stripo followed by a yellow one on each side of 
 the back slightly broader than the two middlo ones. Below these is another black stripo still 
 wider than the ono above, and below this along tho sides aro two yellow stripes with a black 
 ono between them in which tho breathing pores aro placed. Tho upper of these two last 
 yellow stripes is somewhat wavy and less smooth than those on the back, and the lower one is 
 often widened on the fore part of each segment, or sends off a branch downward and back¬ 
 ward. Below this is an oblong yellow spot on each segment, which is sometimes lengthened 
 to unite its anterior end to the lower yellow stripo. The under side is black with a yollow 
 
824 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 OAK. LEAVES. 
 
 stripe along the middle, which is more or loss interrupted. The legs and prolegs are black. 
 The yellow stripes are not prolonged upon the posterior and the two anterior rings, but are 
 here often replaced by small yellow spots. The head is black. The skin is tough and 
 leathery, with numerous small elevated smooth grains, of which two on the forepart of each 
 sogment, placed in the yellow stripes, are larger and are sometimes elevated into small 
 prickle-like points, and two others, similar to these, also occur posteriorly on each segment 
 hut placed further apart. In addition to these there are six larger, black, shining, conical 
 prickles in a transverse row around the middle of each ring, some of which are occasionally 
 forked at their tips into two sharp points. On the second ring in place of the two upper 
 prickles are two black curved cylindrical horns, equalling two of the rings in length, and 
 usually standing obliquely upwards and forwards, their tips blunt and shining. The last 
 segment is rough from several prickle-like points of different sizes. 
 
 The moth is quite simple in its colors and marks, compared with its 
 larva, presenting nothing to notice in addition to what has already been 
 given above, except those structural characters which belong to other species 
 of the genus in common with it. 
 
 323. Spotted-winged DnYOCAMi-A, or Tiiorky oAK-wonu, Dryocampa stigma, Fabri¬ 
 cating the leaves in September, a worm like the preceding, but of a 
 bright tawny or orange color with a dusky stripe along its back and bands 
 on its sides, and its prickles lengthened into thorn-like points; producing 
 a moth with similar colors and marks, but having in addition thereto a 
 slight purplish streak across the middle of its hind wings and a curved 
 purple band near the base of the fore ones, and both pairs always freckled 
 with blackish, its width 2.50 to 3.00, the male 1.75 and its wings ochre 
 yellow. 
 
 The skin of this worm has numerous white elevated points or granules 
 of different sizes, as in the following species, but differs from that and the 
 other species of this genus in not having its colors arranged in stripes, 
 except the single dusky one along the back. On the hind part of each 
 ring is a dusky band, which is widened at the breathing pores. The 
 prickles also are longer in this than in the other species, forming thorn-like 
 points, of which those of the two rows upon the back are the tenth of an 
 inch long, with one, two or three smaller prickles branching from them. 
 The two horns back of the neck have the same blunt shining tips as in the 
 preceding species. 
 
 The female moth has the fore wings usually of a purplish red color for¬ 
 ward of the anterior band and behind the posterior one, and this color is 
 frequently tinged more or less with glaucous-like gray. The anterior band 
 is strongly curved, or rather, is abruptly bent slightly outside of its middle. 
 This band is obliterated in many specimens. The narrow cloud-like streak 
 of darker purplish red across the middle of the hind wings is sometimes 
 quite distinct, and in other instances its presence can merely be discerned. 
 Thus this moth sometimes can scarcely bo distinguished from the preceding. 
 
 324. C g^."''^ , n j 0 *^ b ® RyocA " rA ’ OT O^ve-gkay oak-wokh, Dryocampa pellvcida, 
 
 Eating the leaves in July, a two-horned prickly worm of an obscuro 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 825 
 
 OAK. LEAVES. 
 
 olive gray or greenish color with dull brownish yellow stripes and its shin 
 rough from white granules ; remaining under ground in its pupa state 
 through the winter, and the fore part of June producing a large ochre- 
 yellow moth with thin and semi-transparent wings of a purplish red color 
 throughout, with a very large white dot near the center of the fore pair and a 
 faint darker streak ; its width 2.50 ; the male 1.75, with the fore wings 
 hyaline except on their margin. 
 
 For many years this worm has been common on the white oaks in my 
 own vicinity, where the preceding has seldom been seen; and though the 
 Yellow-striped oak-worm is so abundant only twenty-five miles distant from 
 my residence, I have never met with it here. 
 
 When full grown, these worms are two inches long and as thick as a pipestem. They vary 
 somewhat in their colors, being oftenest obscure grayish yellow or grayish green, hut some¬ 
 times blackish. Along the back is a broad stripe of this color, interrupted at tho sutures by 
 pale brownish yellow, and with a narrow blackish lino on the middle of the back. Each side 
 of this is a dull brownish stripe, below which is a broader one of the same color with that on 
 the back, and having a whitish streak along its middle and the breathing pores in its lower 
 margin. Eelow this is a second broad dull yellowish stripe, followed by a narrower dark olive 
 green or blackish one, occupying the base of tbo prolegs, which below this stripe are black 
 with a few small white granules, similar to those with which the surface is everywhere cover¬ 
 ed. Tho six anterior legs and the head are dull olive yellow. In a transverse row on the 
 middle of each segment are six short polished blaok prickles, two above and two on each side, 
 those on tho hind segments being somowhat longer, and the two on the back are sometimes re¬ 
 placed on most of the segments by black dots. The two horns on the top of tho second ring 
 are the same as in the two preceding species. In smaller individuals, probably before tho 
 last change of their skin, these horns havo been observed to have short branching prickles. 
 
 When alarmed the worm holds its anterior end rigidly upward and for¬ 
 ward, with the horns extending obliquely forward and outward. Several 
 of the worms are usually found near each other on the same limb, up to 
 the time of their leaving the tree. They mostly enter the ground early in 
 August, though some individuals may be seen on the trees as late as the 
 middle of the following month. 
 
 325. TniPLE WIIITE-SPOT measure-woem, Amilapis triplipunclata, now species. (Lepi- 
 doptera. Geometridoe.) 
 
 Eating the leaves the fore part of June, a cylindrical gray measure- 
 worm, 1.40 long, sprinkled with blackish dots and short lines, its head and 
 neck slightly thicker than its body, each ring with a small squareish white 
 spot above on its hind edge and with two blackish parallel lines on each 
 side of this spot, its six anterior feet with a slight tinge of rose red; its 
 pupa lying naked between the leaves, fastened by its tip ; the beginning of 
 July producing an ash-gray moth thickly sprinkled over with black dots 
 and small brown spots, with the broad hind border of both wings dusky, 
 which color is bounded on its fore edge by a somewhat scalloped narrow 
 black band running parallel with the hind margin and having on its hind 
 side near the outer margin of the fore wings three large contiguous white 
 dots, whereof the outer one is largest and most distinct; its width 1.50. 
 
 This moth is so very similar in the cut and designs of its wings to the 
 
826 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 OAK. LEAVES. 
 
 unipunctata of Haworth, that it may prove to be only a variety of that 
 species, which I have never met with in this State, and know only from 
 specimens received from Hr. Morris of Baltimore, and the figures and des¬ 
 criptions of authors. In these I discern no traces of but the one white 
 spot, whilst here there are three, in a transverse row, contiguous and 
 somewhat confluent with each other, their edges illy defined and the inner 
 two less clear and bright, yet perfectly distinct. The colors also are gray 
 and blackish, without any tinge of rusty yellow. The fore wings, as in 
 unipunctata, show faintly a curved darker band near the base, and a 
 Straight cloud-like streak still more faint from the middle of the inner to 
 the middle of the outer margin, in which is a faint black crescent-shaped 
 spot near the center, and the black band or line margining the dusky hind 
 border has back of its inner end a curved transverse gray spot, and at its 
 outer end a broader one of the same color, occupying the space between the 
 outer white spot and the outer margin. The larva, moreover, of this moth, 
 appears to be unlike that of unipunctata , as described by Guenee* from 
 a drawing of Abbot’s ; though there can be but limited confidence in the 
 accuracy of descriptions thus obtained. And furthermore, the Single white- 
 spot moth is said to come abroad at the end of the season. 
 
 Authors are discordant and in doubt with respect to the place of these 
 moths in the family to which they pertain. I am inclined to think their 
 true location is beside the genus Hypcretis of Guenee. 
 
 320. Oak-i.f.af Tortrix, Argyrolepia Qucrcifoliana, now species. (Lepidoptera. Tor- 
 tricidee.) 
 
 The fore part of June, the sides of particular leaves curved upward and 
 drawn slightly together by numerous cobweb-like threads, beneath which 
 lies a slender grass-green sixteen-footed worm, about three-fourths of an 
 inch long and the thickness of a rye straw, which eats the end of the leaf, 
 and passes its pupa state in the same situation ; about the first of July 
 giving out a small moth of a pale straw color with its body and hind wings 
 glossy white, its fore wings prettily speckled with numerous small rusty 
 yellow spots which run together in many transverse bands, leaving a space 
 at their tips more vacant; its width 0.70. 
 
 The moth here noticed may frequently be captured in our forests the fore 
 part of July. Its larva resides under a thin cobweb covering which it 
 constructs over the upper surface of the leaf towards its end, hereby draw¬ 
 ing the sides somewhat together into a concave shape. As it merely cats 
 off the end of the leaf, transversely, moving its quarters further back as it 
 thus consumes successive portions of it, it is obviously liable to do no 
 seusible amount of injury, unless like some of its kindred, it has the habit 
 
 tlmt the important volumes of this author on the nocturnal Lepidoptera (Suites 
 a Button) have not been in my hands a sufficient time for me to avail myself of them but 
 slightly in the present Report. Hence, also, a number of species which 1 had prepared for 
 insertion herein, are withdrawn, until their nomenclature can bo revised and compared with 
 that ol these volumes. 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 827 
 
 OAK. LEAVES. 
 
 at times of becoming excessively multiplied. But as the history of so 
 very few of these small moths is at present known, I avail myself of this 
 opportunity to place this species on record ; and I add such a description 
 of it as will henceforth serve for its clear identification. 
 
 The larva is grass green throughout, or towards each end and beneath of a slightly paler 
 apple-green color, and along its back is a narrow stripe of a deeper green, produced by the 
 internal viscera. It tapers slightly posteriorly and less so anteriorly. On each of its rings 
 small pimples are symmetrically placed, from each of which grows a short white hair; and 
 low down on each side is a slight fold of the skin, forming a slender elevated line. The head 
 is round and slightly flattened and as thick as the neck into which it is sunk. If expelled 
 from its retreat, it wriggles violently about, and by means of a fine thread drops itself very 
 suddenly towards the ground and hangs suspended, till the disturbance ceases, whereupon it 
 climbs up again to its former quarters. 
 
 The moth has fore wings which aro twice as long as wide, their opposite sides parallel, their 
 outer side very nearly straight with an inward curve at the base, their hind ends cut off some¬ 
 what obliquely and rounded like a slightly bent bow. Their surface is feebly glossy and about 
 equally occupied by straw yellow and tawny or light brownish yellow, this latter color form¬ 
 ing numerous small spots which are confluent into broken and irregular bands, tbe bands also 
 running into each other. Two of those bands are more distinct and continuous, and when 
 viewed vertically aro of the same tawny yellow color with the other marks, but when viewed 
 obliquely they are of a darker leaden or silvery brown hue, nnd are imperfectly edged with 
 lines of a deeper brown color. One of these bands extends from the middle of (he inner to the 
 fore part of the outer margin. The other is almost parallel with this, running from the hind 
 margin near the inner .angle to the outer margin, where it is usually thickened or forked. 
 The space back of this last band is slightly paler and less densely spotted, its only marks fre¬ 
 quently being a broad oblique stripo from near the middle of the band to the tip, eiosscd by a 
 curved band running nearly parallel with the hind margin, both these markshaving thesamo 
 leaden brown reflection with tbe two bands. Back of this on the hind edge nnd base of the 
 fringe is a smooth tawny yellow band. The head is rough from loose scales, the feelers pro¬ 
 jecting in front like a short conical beak, their apical joint being small but distinct; and the 
 spiral trunk is quite short, when uncoiled reaching but little beyond the tips of the feelers. 
 
 327. Oak leaf-miner, Argyromigcs QucrcifoUella, now species. (Lcpidoptcra. Ypono- 
 moutidte.) 
 
 A whitish blister-like spot half an inch long and showing upon both 
 surfaces of the leaves of the white oak, this spot on the upper side elevated 
 into a fold, forming a cavity in the interior of the leaf, in which lies a 
 small white flattened worm abruptly thicker at its fore end, which feeds on 
 the interior of the leaf, and passes its pupa state in the same cavity, finally 
 producing a minute snow-white moth, its fore wings pale golden yellow 
 with a black dot on their tips, a white stripe on their outer side at base, and 
 four triangular silvery white spots along the outer and two larger ones upon 
 the inner margin, its width 0.30. 
 
 This leaf-miner is a minute worm which subsists upon the parenchyma or 
 green pulpy substance inside of the leaf. This it consumes, leaving the 
 cuticle or thin outer skin which covers it entire. The worm is flattened 
 and little thicker than writing paper, appearing as though it had been dis¬ 
 torted from being pressed between the two surfaces of the leaf. Upon the 
 under side of the leaf its cell resembles a blistered spot ot a dull nankin 
 yellow color and an irregular oval form, half an inch long or a little more 
 
828 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 OAK. LEAVES. 
 
 and half as broad. In smallish leaves this cell extends from near the mid¬ 
 vein quite to the outer margin, where it is most elevated, the margin being 
 often drawn together into a plait or fold as though it had been pinched 
 between the fingers. Thus at this blistered spot a deep cavity is formed 
 between the flat skin of the under side and the elevated fold of skin upon 
 the upper side of the leaf. On this latter side the spot is white, more or 
 less stained with dirty yellow and showing upon its surface a net-work of 
 dirty yellow lines which are the veinlets of the leaves, made thus conspi¬ 
 cuous by the parenchyma in the cells between them having been consumed. 
 This dirty yellow stain renders the spot so opake that the worm inside can 
 seldom be seen. This concealment is the more necessary, to enable the 
 inclosed insect to elude the search of its enemies. It remains in this cell 
 till near the end of its pupa state, held near the center of the cavity by a 
 number of fine threads like cobwebs irregularly crossed in every direction. 
 And when ready to disclose the moth, the pupa breaks through the thin 
 dry skin of the uuder surface of the cell and crowds itself out till it is only 
 held by its tip, when its shell cracks apart and the moth evacuates it. 
 Sometimes a spider’s web may be noticed on the under side of the blistered 
 leaf, placed there with the evident purpose of entrapping this pupa when it 
 breaks from its cell. 
 
 It is the latter part of summer when these blister spots begin to appear 
 on the oak leaves. They occur upon the topmost leaves of the tallest 
 trees as well as on those that are lower and near the ground. After the 
 leaves have fallen in autumn, a portion of these blisters will be found 
 empty, whilst others have pupae or sometimes larvae in them ; showing 
 that the moths come out from them in autumn and also in the spring. 
 
 The LARVA is white with a dusky or cinnamon brown stripo along its middle from internal 
 alimentary matter, and the tips of its jaws are bright cinnamon brown. It is sparsely clothed 
 with fine long white hairs. Its shape is analngous to that of a Buprcstis larva, the segments of 
 its thorax being much broader than thoso of the abdomen, which are of equal width. It has 
 three pairs of legs anteriorly and three pairs of very small prolegs placed on tho third, fourth 
 and fifth narrowed abdominal rings. 
 
 The pupa lies naked in the centre of the fine threads which the larva spins across its cell, 
 without inclosing itself in a cocoon. It is at first palo yellow throughout, but the sheaths of 
 its wings and legs afterwards become dusky and its head blackish. When disturbed in its 
 cell it writhes or turns itself over and over, with much strength and vivacity. 
 
 The moth is snowy white with the antenna) and feet a little dusky. Its foro wings are palo 
 gdlden or shining tawny yellow, with five white streaks on tho outer margin, of which the 
 first is longitudinal, placed on the margin and widened towards its hind end; tho others 
 are triangular and margined on their fore sides by a black line, tho second and third ones 
 being more transverse, and tho fourth or last one is directed obliquely forward and inward. Tho 
 two spots on the inner margin are also edged with black on their foro sides. Tho first of theso 
 spots forms with its opposite when tho wings are closed a large crescent-shaped spot across tho 
 middle of the back, and the second forms a transverse diamond-shaped spot. Tho fringe is 
 white with a dusky line on its base, and its outer half dusky also along tho tip. Tho hind 
 wings are white or cream yellow, and their fringe silvery white. 
 
 328. White-oak leaf-miner, Argyromiges Querci-albella, now species. 
 
 lhating the iutoiior of White-oak leaves and hereby producing a white 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 829 
 
 OAK. LEAVES. 
 
 blister-like spot on their under sides, a minute flattened pale yellow worm 
 which is gradually narrowed from before backwards, 0.18 long when mature, 
 surrounding itself with a thin membrane-like wall forming an oval cell in 
 the center of the cavity, in which it remains during its pupa state ; produc¬ 
 ing a minute snow white and silvery moth, its fore wings pale golden yel¬ 
 low posteriorly, where are three black lines on the outer and two on the 
 inner mirgin radiating from a common center and bordered with silvery 
 white on their hind sides, and with a large black dot on the tip and 
 a blackish stripe at the base ; width 0.28. 
 
 The white blister-like spot of this leaf-miner appears on the under side 
 of the leaf, with but slight, if any traces of its presence on the opposite 
 side. It is broad oval and a half or three-fourths of an inch long. 
 Among the fallen leaves in autumn those thus blistered may be found, 
 some having the insect in its larva, others in its pupa state, 'fhe larva is 
 very much flattened and tapers gradually from before backwards. It is 
 divided into thirteen very distinct segments, including the head, by deeply 
 impressed transverse lines. It is of a pale yellow color, with a deeper 
 orange yellow band on the middle of each segment, and it also sometimes 
 shows a dusky longitudinal stripe along the middle, from internal visceral 
 matter. Its head is small, and its legs the same as in the preceding 
 species. If ejected from its cell, it wriggles and lets itself down by a fine 
 thread which it spins from its mouth. When it has finished feeding it 
 stations itself in the middle of its burrow and then weaves around itself a 
 curtain, from the floor to the roof, of a fine dense texture resembling the 
 paper of bank bills. It thus forms a little oval cell nearly a half inch 
 long and two-thirds as wide, and almost a tenth of an inch in height, the 
 floor and roof being concave, as though they had been pressed outwards, 
 thus making the apartment more roomy. In this cell the insect reposes 
 during its pupa state, with its cast-off larva skin beside it, the black grains 
 or castings of the worm and all other rubbish being outside of this in the 
 burrow. The pupa is of a uniform dull orange yellow color, and of the 
 same length with the larva. 
 
 The moth appears to be closely like the European Argyromiges Clerck- 
 ella , but possessing some marks not mentioned by authors as present in 
 that species. Its fore wings are snow white on their anterior half, with a 
 shining silvery luster, and with a blackish stripe inside of their outer edge. 
 Their posterior half is of a pale golden yellow color, with a large black dot 
 at the tip and three or four triangular spots on the outer and two on the 
 inner margin, each spot with a black streak on its anterior edge, which 
 streaks radiate from a common center. On the hind margin is a black 
 band. The fringe is white, tipped with blackish on the outer half of the 
 wing. The long narrow hind wings and their long fringes are silvery 
 white. I have captured these moths abroad in the woods the latter part 
 of May. 
 
830 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 2. 1HB LOCUST .—llobinia Psendacacia. 
 
 AFFECTING THE TRUNK AND LIMBS. 
 
 329. Locdst-trkk borer, Clijtus Iiobinicc , Forster. (Coleoptera. Ccrainbycidas.) 
 
 Boring a hole nearly a quarter of an inch iir diameter, beneath the hark 
 and more or less deeply into the wood, usually in an upward direction ; 
 ejecting its chips and worm-dust through an orifice in the bark; a yellowish 
 white worm similar in its appearance to the Oak pruner, $305 ; passing its 
 pupa state in its burrow, and beginning to be seen abroad soon after the 
 middle of August, and often seen during the autumn on Golden rod and 
 other flowers; a black nearly cylindrical long-horned beetle from a half to 
 three-fourths of an inch long, its legs and sometimes its antennae tawny 
 yellow, its globular thorax and its wing-covers ornamented with several 
 bright lemon-yellow bands, of which the second one back of the base of the 
 wing-covers forms a letter W. 
 
 This is a common insect, and the greatest obstacle to the cultivation of 
 the locust-tree with which wo have to contend. An instance of the devas¬ 
 tation it is liable to cause may here be recorded. One of the principal 
 thoroughfares leading east from the city of Utica, was formerly planted on 
 its south side for some distance with locust-trees. These had become so 
 large and ornamental as to render this one of the most admired avenues in 
 the suburbs of that city, when, some thirty years since, these trees were 
 invaded by this insect, to such an extent that in the course of two or three 
 seasons they were totally ruined, many of them being killed outright and 
 the remainder having their limbs and branches so lopped off that they could 
 never recover from the deformity. We learn from Micheaux that fifty 
 years since, this insect had become so destructive that many in different 
 parts of our country were discouraged from planting the locust. Hitherto 
 it appears to have been a pest chiefly in the older settled sections of our 
 country. But it will no doubt in time show itself equally destructive in 
 the newer districts. And in those parts of the western States where, to 
 supply in some measure the natural deficiency of wood and timber, planta¬ 
 tions of the locust are extensively made, it will probably yet prove to be a 
 greater evil than it has ever hitherto been. 
 
 This insect abounds in all parts of the United States. A recent writer, 
 in one of our agricultural periodicals, says it has not yet made its appear¬ 
 ance on the west side of the Mississippi river ; but from the number of 
 specimens sent me year after year, by Wm. S. Robertson, from the Indian 
 territory west of the State of Arkansas, it would appear to be more com¬ 
 mon there than in this section of the country. And it in all probability 
 occurs over all that portion of our continent in which the locust grows. 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 831 
 
 LOCUST. TttUKK. 
 
 Another writer says, it “ is not of more than thirty years introduction into 
 the United States.” But Drury informs us he “received it from New 
 York, where it is found on the locust-tree.” And Forster says, it “inha¬ 
 bits the Robinia Pseudacacia in the province of New York.” It hence 
 appears that this beetle and its habits were known in our State almost a 
 century ago. And fifty years anterior to these writers, Petiver gave a 
 figure and description of it, in his “ Gazophylacium,” published in London 
 in 1702, this being the first notice of it, probably, which has ever 
 appeared. Moreover, as this beetle has never been found in any other part 
 of the world, it was not introduced, but is undoubtedly a native species 
 which has always existed here. 
 
 From our American authorities, one would be at a loss to know by what 
 scientific name to designate this insect. It is the Clytus pictus of Dr. 
 Harris’s Treatise, the Clytus Rnbinice of Prof. Ilaldeman’s Monograph, 
 the Arkopalus Robi?iice of Dr. Lc Conte’s Monograph, though changed in 
 the errata to Arhopalus pictus, and still later, in the Smithsonian Cata¬ 
 logue of Coleoptera, Clytus Jlexuosus is its preferred name. It fortunately 
 happens in this instance, that of the several names the species has 
 received, that which is preferable and most appropriate is that which also 
 has the priority. It is circumstanced like another species which I have 
 heretofore noticed. It was figured and described by Drury in 1770 but no 
 name was then given to it. In 1771 Forster described it, naming it 
 Leptura Robinice. Drury, in the appendix to his second volume, which 
 was published in 1773, supplied the names which had been omitted in his 
 first volume, terming this species Leptura picta. And two years after this, 
 Fabricius, in his Systema Lntomologia, first noticed this species, naming it 
 Callidium Jlexuosum, removing it into his new genus Clytus twenty-five 
 years afterwards. Dr. Lc Conte refers it to the genus A? hopalus of 
 Serville, making this genus more comprehensive than its author originally 
 proposed, Serville himself placing it under Clytus. Which is the better 
 generic arrangement I do not pretend to decide. 
 
 This beetle is so prettily and peculiarly marked that it will readily be 
 recognized, from the short description given, in the opening paragraph 
 above. It is subject to some variations. The antennm are either black or 
 tawny yellow. Sometimes the base of the wing covers are tawny yellow. 
 Sometimes the zigzag band resembling the letter W is white instead of yel¬ 
 low ; and specimens even occur in which all tho bands are white. I his 
 insect breeds in the black walnut as well as the locust, and it is said to be 
 individuals reared in this tree which have the bands more or less white. 
 
 The only feasible method of checking the multiplication and destructive¬ 
 ness of these borers, which I am able to suggest, is, to plant a small patch 
 of the Golden rod ( Solidago) where locust trees are grown, that the beetles 
 when they issue from the tree may resort to the flowers, as is their habit. 
 They can readily be found thereon and captured and destroyed. It will be 
 a pustimo to the children of the household, whose sharp eyes qualify them 
 
832 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 LOCUST. TRUKK. 
 
 well for this employment, to search these flowers, more or less frequently 
 as the search is more or less successful, varying as it will with the common¬ 
 ness or rarity of the insects in different years, gathering and destroying all 
 that are found thereon. 
 
 The Locust Cossus, already described, $ 294, bores similar but still 
 larger holes and more in the ulterior of the tree. Fortunately it is a much 
 less common insect than the Locust borer. 
 
 AFFECTING THE LEAVES AND TWIGS. 
 
 The Io emperor moth, already described, $ 81, I find is frequently 
 reared upon the locust, and is the largest worm known to us feeding on 
 the leaves of this tree. The parent moth deposits her eggs in a cluster side 
 by side, glueing them to the under surface of a particular leaf, which leaf 
 sometimes fades and turns yellow, probably in consequence of the weight 
 thus placed upon it. The eggs hatch soon after the middle of July, and 
 the young worms for two or three days remain huddled together upon the 
 under side of the same leaf, feeding upon the shells of their eggs till they 
 are wholly consumed, before they commence eating the leaves. They are 
 at first of a totally different color from the large worm which we afterwards 
 see, being dull yellow with black heads and small black prickles like the 
 points of needles. They remain at rest during the day, and feed by night, 
 all repairing to a leaf adjacent to that on which they were born, and eating 
 its end off transversely till a third or more of it is consumed, when they 
 repair to another leaf in the same vicinity. But if the leaf on which they 
 are resting be touched by the hand, or if they in any other manner discover 
 they are noticed, they on the following night migrate to another part of 
 the tree, there clustering together again on the underside of a single leaf. 
 But they soon grow to such a size that a single small leaf of the locust can¬ 
 not hold the whole brood, when they begin to separate. After they have 
 grown to a half inch or more im length they prefer the small young leafets 
 at the end of the main stems, all of which leafets they eat, together with 
 the tender succulent end of the stem, for a short distance downwards, and 
 then leave it and repair to .the end of another stem, feeding now some of 
 the time by day. When they become so large that the under side of a leaf 
 is quite too small to cover and conceal them, each worm draws three or four 
 leaves around it with a few silken threads, forming a kind of loose basket 
 open at the top, in which the worm lies when it is not feeding. Sometimes 
 two worms unite in forming and occupying one of these baskets. 
 
 The Hickory tussock moth larva, § 183, or a caterpillar very simi¬ 
 lar to it, is also sometimes found on the locust, 
 
 330. Tittrus skipper, Eudamus Tityrus, Fabricius. (Lcpidoptera. Hcsperidra.) 
 
 The last of July, under a folded edge of a leaf when small, afterwards 
 in two or more leaves drawn together in a kind of pod, a pale green worm 
 with darker green bands, red neck and rough dull red head, 2.00 long 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 833 
 
 LOCCST. LEAVES AND TWIGGS. 
 
 when full grown ; the pupa wintering in a slight cocoon coated outside 
 with shreds of dead leaves; the middle of the following June giving out a 
 dark hrown butterfly with a yellow glossy band on the middle of its 
 fore wings and a broad silvery white one narrowing outwardly, across the 
 middle of the hind ones on their under side, its width 2.00. See Harris’s 
 Treatise, p. 243. 
 
 331. Black locust midge, Cecidomyia Pscudacacice, new species. (Diptera. Tipulidie.) 
 
 In July and August, the tender young leafets near the tip of the stem 
 folded together like a little pod, the cavity inside containing from one to 
 three small milk-white maggots, which descend below the surface of the 
 ground, remaining there in their pupa state about ten days, and then hatch 
 a small blackish midge, the base of its thorax tawny yellow, its abdo¬ 
 men pale yellowish with the tip dusky and clothed with fine hairs as is the 
 neck also, its legs black with the thighs pale except at their tips, its wings 
 dusky, feebly hyaline, with the fringe short, its antennae with thirteen 
 short cylindrical joints separated by short pedicels, its length 0.065 to the 
 tip of the body in the females, which is the sex now described. - 
 
 Before the small young leafets, which put forth along the opposite sides 
 of the main leaf stalks at their tips, become expanded, they are closed 
 together like two leaves of a book ; and it is probably at this time that the 
 female midge inserts her eggs in the cleft between them, the irritation from 
 which and from the small maggots which hatch from them, keeps the leafet 
 permanently closed, a slight cavity forming within, in which the worms 
 reside, the leafet hereby coming to resemble in its shape a small bivalve 
 shell, of the genus Chtinta, the margin being usually more or less wavy. 
 The surface remains unchanged outside, but within it assumes a pale greenish 
 yellow color. The larva; are milk-white and somewhat glossy, with a light 
 green cloud along the middle of their bodies from alimentary matter inter¬ 
 nally in the viscera. When menaced with danger, they have the faculty of 
 throwing themselves away with a sudden skip, the same as the larvae of the 
 Wheat midge. The attachment of the leafets to the stalk becomes so 
 weakened when infested by these worms, that I presume they are generally 
 broken off by the wind and the worms are thus carried to the ground, 
 instead of crawling down the stalks by night as is the habit of the Wheat 
 midge. 
 
 I notice these pod-like leafets every summer, upon the locusts in my yard, 
 as well as the deformity produced by the following species; but neither of 
 these insects have ever been so numerous as to injure the trees in any sen¬ 
 sible degree, in my vicinity. 
 
 333. Yellow locust nidge, Cecidomyia Robinicc, Haldeman. 
 
 In July and August a portion of the edges of the leaves rolled inwards 
 on their under sides and thickened, inclosing one or two very small white 
 maggots which are varied more or less with orange yellow ; producing a 
 [Ag. Trans.J 53 
 
834 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 LOCUST. LEAVES AND TWIGS. 
 
 pale orange midge with the sides of its thorax and often three oval stripes 
 on the back and the wings dusky, its antennae blackish and of fourteen 
 joints in the females, twenty-four in the males, its length 0.12. 
 
 In midsummer the margins of many of the leafets of the locust may be 
 noticed rolled inwards upon their under sides for a length varying from 
 over a quarter to a half inch, the upper side showing a concavity or rounded 
 hollow at this point. This rolled portion is changed in its color to a paler 
 yellowish green, and its texture is thickened and succulent. The same 
 leaf sometimes has two or more of these folds along different parts of its 
 margin. The worm concealed therein is colorless-watery when young, 
 becoming, as it approaches maturity, opake and milk-white varied more or 
 less with bright yellow. It is long oval, broadest in the middle and taper¬ 
 ing thence to a sharp point anteriorly, the opposito end being bluntly 
 rounded, and is divided into thirteen segments by transverse impressed 
 lines. 
 
 Prof. Haldeman, who described this species in Emmons’s Journal of 
 Agriculture and Science, October, 1847, says it, in conjunction with the 
 following species, had been so numerous in south-eastern Pennsylvania, the 
 two preceding summers, as to kill the leaves upon the locusts, the trees in 
 August appearing as though they had been destroyed by dry weather. 
 
 333. Locust IIispa, Aiioplitis scutcllaris y Olivier. (Colooptera. Ilispidao.) 
 
 In July, blister-like spots appearing upon the leaves, within which is a 
 small flattened whitish worm, attaining a quarter of an inch in length, 
 tapering from before backwards, with projections along each side like the 
 teeth of a saw, and with only three pairs of feet, which are placed on its 
 breast; eating the parenchyma and leaving the skin of the leaf entire ; 
 remaining only a week in its pupa state, in the leaf, and towards the mid¬ 
 dle of August, coming out therefrom a small oblong flattish beetle of a 
 black color with the thorax and wing covers, except along] their suture, 
 tawny yellow, its length 0.25. 
 
 This is the Hispa suturalis of Dr. Harris, (Boston Journal of Natural 
 History, i, 147, and Treatise on Injurious Insects, p. 107,) but cannot be 
 the species thus named by Fabricius and Olivier, which is stated to have 
 the head, under side and legs, yellow or testaceous. It is very plainly de¬ 
 scribed by Olivier under the name scutellaris. Though the species is com¬ 
 mon in the southern part of New York, I have never met with it in the 
 eastern section of the State, where the following which much resembles it 
 in its habits and larva, is common. 
 
 334. Flattened locust leaf-mineii, Anacampsis liobiniella, now species. (Lcpldop- 
 
 tera. Yponomeutida).) 
 
 In July, white blister-like spots on the under side of the leaves, occupy¬ 
 ing about a fourth of the surface or half the space on one side of the mid- 
 vein, containing within a flattened pale green or whitish worm, tapering 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 835 
 
 LOCUST. LEAVES. 
 
 posteriorly, with a darker green streak along its middle ; passing its pupa 
 state in the leaf, which falls to the ground, and the following June gives 
 out a minute moth 0.45 wide across its spread wings, which are blackish 
 brown on their outer half, tawny yellow on their inner side, and marked 
 with an oblique white band before the middle, a broad grayish white band 
 or large triangular spot on the middle, and half way from this to the tip a 
 white spot on the outer and a pale rose red one opposite it on the inner 
 margin, and also a small white spot on the tip and on the base. 
 
 Of the seventeen small leaves or leafets which commonly form each com¬ 
 pound leaf of the locust, usually two or three, and frequently double that 
 number, show these white blisters on their under sides. And it is not rare 
 to see two or three of them upon the same leafct, which usually turns 
 yellow and drops prematurely from the tree, when thus severely invaded. 
 But where it has only one insect preying upon it, it usually remains green 
 and survives the attack. For of the two layers of parenchyma in the 
 leaves, it is only the lower that is ate by these worms, the upper one being 
 left entire, whereby the upper surface of the leaf remains green, or is but 
 slightly discolored with a yellowish cloud at this place. The white sep¬ 
 arated skin of the under surface is very thin and delicate, so much so that 
 frequently the worm may be perceived beneath it, sometimes feeding at the 
 outer edge of the spot, but more commonly at rest towards its centre, or 
 turning its head with a sudden spiteful jerk, first to one side and then to 
 the other, being evidently aware that it is interfered with, and resorting to 
 this motion to frighten away the intruder. And not unfrequently two 
 worms are seen occupying the same cavity. 
 
 The Larva when young and as found in the smaller spots, is of a very palo green or white 
 color with a darker green or a pale brown streak along its middle. It is very much flattened, 
 and is broadest anteriorly across its neck, gradually tapering from thence to the tip. It is 
 divided into thirteen segments by deep transverse constrictions, giving it a serrated appear¬ 
 ance along each side, and from the tip of each of the projecting teeth arises a short white 
 hair. When full grown it measures 0.18 in length and then presents a somewhat different 
 aspect, the middle of the body being now as broad or slightly broader than the anterior end, 
 with the sutures more doeply impressed, and the projecting teeth along each side arc rounded 
 and not so angular at their ends as before, and are of a yellow color, at least those at each 
 end. And now small retractile legs are perceptible, enabling the worm to move about with 
 more facility than when it was young. There are three pairs of small conical watery-white 
 legs placed on the three thoracic segments, and on the third, fourth and fifth abdominal seg¬ 
 ments is a pair of minute pro-legs, scarcely to be discerned except whon the worm is crawling. 
 
 The pupa lies in a small, broad, oval cocoon, 0.18 long, and 0.12 thick, 
 woven of exceedingly fine white silk, through the sides of which the insect 
 within is scon, of a pale yellowish color. This cocoon is suspended near 
 the centre of the cavity, by a few threads of fine silk, crossing irregularly 
 in different directions; the cavity in the leaf having now become much 
 more deep and spacious than when it was first mined by the worm. The 
 manner in which nature has so adjusted her work, here, as to cause this 
 cavity to grow more deep and roomy, is truly curious. We have already 
 stated that it is only the lower layer of the parenchyma of the leaf on 
 
836 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OP NEW YORK 
 
 LOCUST. LEAVES. 
 
 which this worm feeds. This being consumed from the mid-vein to the 
 outer margin, the thin membrane of the under surface of the leaf which is 
 hereby separated, loses its vitality and ceases to grow ; whilst the upper 
 layer of parenchyma, being uninjured, continues to expand. But the dead 
 membrane on its under side holds it, like a bridle, from expanding further 
 outwards, and it hence bulges upward, convexly. Thus the cavity in the 
 leaf assumes the shape of an oven, ite floor flat and its roof arched or con¬ 
 cave. Thus ample room is furnished for the cocoon to be suspended, like 
 a hammock, in the centre of the cavity. 
 
 Frequently, instead of the cavity in the leaf being occupied with a few 
 fine threads supporting a cocoon in the centre, we meet with one or two 
 smaller and much narrower snow-white cocoons, promiscuously placed. 
 They are 0.12 long and a fourth as broad. In due time the ends of these 
 cocoons are raised, like a lid, and a minute parasitic fly comes from them, 
 the larva of which have subsisted upon and destroyed the larva of this 
 leaf miner. It pertains to the family Braconidce, and the genus Micro- 
 gaster, and may be called 
 
 The Locust leap-miner parasite, Microgaster Rolinire. — It is 
 cream yellow or straw yellow, with the antenna; and legs pure white, the 
 female being deeper yellow or orange, with the tip of the abdomen often 
 dusky. Its wings are pellucid whitish, with colorless veins, the small cen¬ 
 tral cellule being open on its hind side. The male is 0.07 long, and to the 
 tip of its wings 0.11, its antennae being 0.10. 
 
 335. Slender locust leaf-miner, Argyromigei PseudacacielUi, new species. (Lepi- 
 doptera. Yponoineutidue.) 
 
 In similar white blister-like spots, a much more slender worm, not flat¬ 
 tened, very deeply constricted at the sutures and resembling a string of 
 beads; producing a minute moth only 0.24 in width, its fore wings golden 
 yellow with four white bands on their outer side, the forward ones oblique, 
 broader and edged with black lines, and also three or four similar white 
 bands on their inner side and a large black dot on their tip half encircled 
 with whitish. 
 
 This larva occurs in the blister-like spots of locust leaves at the same 
 time as the preceding, but is at once distinguished from it by its more 
 slender form, very little tapering from before backwards, and not at all 
 flattened. Its legs are also much larger and more distinct, showing three 
 pairs anteriorly, three on the middle abdominal segments and one pair at 
 the tip. A few soft hairs are scattered over its body. Its head is small 
 and is sometimes wholly retracted within the neck. It is divided into 
 twelve rings by very wide deep constrictions, giving to the worm a striking 
 resemblance to a string of very small beads, usually of a watery whitish 
 color with a brown line along the middle, but sometimes curiously diver¬ 
 sified from internal alimentary substances in different stages of digestion. 
 Thus a worm was in one instance noticed as having the threo first rings 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 837 
 
 tOCtJST. LEAVES* 
 
 ■white, the four following ones light green, the next, or eighth of the series, 
 light yellow, the ninth and tenth pale brownish green, the eleventh black¬ 
 ish, and the last semi-transparent and like colorless glass—as though it 
 were designed to imitate a string of beads of different colors. Its length 
 when full grown is 0.18. The convex upper side of its cell forms a kind 
 of fold or plait, in which the worm spins its cocoon, which is snow-white 
 and more closely woven than that of the preceding species, and the pupa 
 enclosed therein is of a darker or dusky color. A portion of these pupae 
 probably remain unhatched during the winter, lying in their burrows in 
 the dead fallen leaves. Others give out the moths in autumn, and as cold 
 weather comes on these delicate tiny creatures creep into the crevices 
 under the loose scales of bark upon the trunks of trees, and similar situa¬ 
 tions, where they remain in a torpid state through the winter, and if so 
 fortunate as to escape the notice of the spiders which hide themselves in 
 the same places, they come abroad again upon the wing the following 
 spring. 
 
 The genus Argyromeges of Mr. Curtis, to which this and two species 
 on oaks described in the preceding pages pertain, comprises quite a number 
 of very minute moths, as will be inferred from their larvae occupying such 
 a narrow space as half the thickness of leaves so thin as those of the 
 locust. But what they lack in size is in many of the species compensated 
 in the brilliancy of their colors and the prettincss of their adornment. 
 Men have often exerted themselves to write the Lord’s prayer or the 
 decalogue within the compass of a sixpence, and it would seem that in 
 these minutest kinds of moths as in many other insects Nature had aimed 
 to show how much splendor and elegance she could include within the 
 smallest limits. In this genus the fore wings are frequently of the most 
 brilliant golden and silvery hues and marked with oblique streaks. They 
 are narrow and rolled around the body when at rest. The hind wings are 
 very narrow and fringed on both sides with long fine hairs. Their heads 
 have a rough uncombed appearance from a tuft of dense erect and radiating 
 bristles placed upon the crown. 
 
 Tliis species is allied to Klcmannella and other similar European moths of this genus in its 
 oolois and marks. Its fore wings are of a uniform brilliant golden color, with four silvery 
 white triangular spots or hands ou their outer half, which are bordered with black and are 
 placed at nearly equal distances from each other, the anterior two being larger and placed 
 obliquely and the others transverse. On the innor half of these wings are also three or four 
 similar bands, the two last ones with their inner ends running into the onds of the two hind 
 ones of the outer sido. On their tips is a large black dot with a broad whitish border on its 
 hind side, followed by a curved black band on the hind edge of the wing, boyond which 
 comes the fringe which is of a smoky gray color. Often a longitudinal black indentation or 
 short stripo occurs on the middle of these wings forward of the black dot and between the 
 inner ends of the second and third bands. The hind wings are blackish with a smoky gray 
 fringe. The legs are alternately banded with white and black. 
 
 I lmvc sometimes met with numbers of these moths in their winter 
 quarters beneath the large loose scales of bark on hickory trees, and at 
 such a distance from any locust trees as to render it probable they had 
 
838 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 LOCUST. LEAVES. 
 
 been nurtured in the leaves of some other tree, perhaps those of the 
 hickory. Minute moths of several other species arc met with, in company 
 with them in this situation, some of them of this same genus and so closely 
 resembling the locust leaf-miner that they merit a notice in connection with 
 it, although I know not the kind of leaves in which they are reared. 
 
 336. Morris’s leap-miner, Argyromiges Morrisella, new species. 
 
 This moth is similar to the preceding in its size and marks, but the 
 entire inner half of the fore wings is black, slightly tinged posteriorly with 
 golden yellow, and interrupted at equal distances by three white spots or 
 short bands narrowing towards their inner ends, and between each of these 
 is a less distinct white spot or cloud. Forward of the anterior white spot 
 the color is more pure and coal-black, forming an oblong square spot 
 occupying the inner half the base of the wing, which spot is bordered 
 along its inner side by a slender white stripe placed upon the middle of the 
 wing at its base, its hind end uniting with the inner end of the anterior 
 white spot. 
 
 337. Uhler’s leap-miner, Argyromiges Uhlerella, now species. 
 
 This resembles Pseudacaciella, but is throughout of paler colors, the 
 fore wings being golden gray, with five white spots along their outer sides, 
 of which the hindmost ones arc small, the others quite large and bordered 
 with blackish upon their anterior sides ; and the black dot on the tip of 
 the wings is here replaced by a short black stripe thrice as long as it is 
 wide ; whilst the hind wings and their fringes are pale silvery gray. These 
 marks will suffice to distinguish this from the two preceding species. 
 
 333. Ostensacken’s leap-miner, Argyromiges Ostensuckenella, new species. 
 
 Another moth of this genus, which comes abroad in July and August and 
 sometimes enters opened windows in the evening, alighting around the 
 lighted lamps upon our tables, I here introduce to notice, it having much 
 similarity to those above described. Its body, hind wings and all the 
 under side is black, its head.silvery white, and its fore wings of a deep 
 orange tint with the brilliancy of gold. These wings are crossed by four 
 equidistant straight broad silvery white bands, each edged on its fore side 
 with a black line, the second of these bands being placed in the middle of 
 the wing and the trvo hind ones having an interruption in their middle. 
 There is no black dot on the tips as in the preceding species, but on their 
 hind edge is a curved black line. Its width when the wings are spread is 
 but 0.20. 
 
 Numerous other leaf-mining moths of our State pertaining to this and 
 kindred genera are known to me, some of them rivalling or surpassing the 
 preceding in their highly burnished metallic colors and the elegance of their 
 marks, but as they have less resemblance to the Locust leaf-miner, there is 
 no occasion for a particular notice of them in this connection. 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 839 
 
 LOCUST. LEAVES. 
 
 339. Sat’s weevil, Apion Sayii, Schonhorr. (Colcoptera. A ttcl abides.) 
 
 From June till September, eating numerous small round holes in the 
 leaves, a little black weevil with a slender projecting beak, its thorax with 
 close coarse punctures and an oval or longitudinal indentation back of its 
 centre, and the furrows of its wing-covers with coarse punctures, its length 
 0.09 and to the end of its beak 0.12. 
 
 This species is common throughout the United States and is perhaps the 
 most numerous of any beetle of the weevil kind which we have in our 
 country, but being so very small it is seldom observed. It probably breeds 
 in the seeds of the locust and of various other species of the Natural Order 
 Leguminosce, Ur. Harris having met with it in all its stages in the seeds 
 of the Baptisia or wild indigo. It would be regarded with confidence as 
 forming two or three distinct species were specimens in the cabinet alone 
 examined. Thus, among a number of individuals taken upon- the leaves 
 of the locust, some will usually be met with in which the indentation back 
 of the centre of the thorax is round and appearing like an impression made 
 by the head of a pin, instead of being oval or oblong. And in others this 
 indentation is prolonged, forming a small furrow along the middle of the 
 thorax its whole length. It is quite customary at the present day to re¬ 
 gard all such differences in the sculpture of beetles as sufficient characters 
 by which to separate them into distinct species. We however cannot but 
 deem that a large portion of the species which are thus founded will eventu¬ 
 ally be discovered to have no valid existence in the domain of nature. 
 
 340. Two-spottkp tuee-uoppeu, Thclia bimaculata f Fabrioius. (Homopfcera. Mem- 
 
 bracidte.) 
 
 In September, puncturing the twigs and sucking their juices, a brown 
 triangular tree-hopper 0.50 long and having a form analagous to that of a 
 beech-nut., with a long horn running obliquely forward and upward over¬ 
 hanging the head and compressed and rounded at its end, a large oblong 
 bright yellow or dull gray spot on each side, widening anteriorly, its thorax 
 as long as the wings, sharp-pointed at its tip and with elevated lines 
 posteriorly. 
 
 I have never met with this species north of Albany, although it is not 
 rare in the southern part of this State and of New England, and extends 
 ' from thence through the southern and south-western States. 
 
 The Buffalo tree-hopper, $21, is also common upon the locust, 
 stationing itself in the axijla or angle where the leaf stalk arises from the 
 limb. In August, upon the green succulent twigs it is not rare to find one 
 of these tree-hoppers thus stationed, at the base of almost every leaf. 
 
 3. THE ELM — Ulmus Americana et fulva. 
 
 AFFECTING THE TRUNK. 
 
 341. Trident Saperda, Saperda tridentata, Olivier. (Colcoptera, Cerambyoidffl.) 
 
 Consuming the inner bark of the slippery elm, (Ulmus fulva,) in decay¬ 
 ing and dead trees, a white grub about half an inch long, slightly tapering 
 and with strongly constricted sutures dividing it into twelve rings, of which 
 
840 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 ELM. TRUNK. 
 
 the first is largest and has a flattened tawny space above covered with 
 minute rust colored dots; its pupa lying in an oval cavity in the bark and 
 the latter part of May coming out, a cylindrical blackish long-horned 
 beetle with an orange yellow or red stripe along each side of the body, 
 which on the wing-covers sends three equidistant branches inward towards 
 the suture, the two hind ones oblique, its length 0.38 to 0.55. 
 
 Where the slippery elm trees are killed, as they all are in my own 
 vicinity, by having the bark peeled from around their trunks for medi¬ 
 cinal purposes, the remaining bark immediately becomes filled with these 
 worms, by which all its inner layers are consumed within a few months and 
 changed to worm-dust. The beetle deposits its eggs upon the bark in 
 June, and the young larvae therefrom nearly complete their growth before 
 winter, and soon after warm weather arrives the following spring they pass 
 
 into their pupa state. 
 
 \ 
 
 The larva when mature is about 0.65 long and 0.12 broad across the anterior end where 
 it is broadest and slightly tapers from thence backward. It is divided into twelve segments 
 in addition to the head, separated from each other by deep wide constrictions., the last segment 
 being double or having a small additional segment received into its apex. Along the middle 
 of the back is an impressed line or furrow. It is of a white color and clothed with fine short 
 hairs. Its head is tawny yellow and sunk into the neck, the jaws black and slightly notched 
 at their tips or two-toothed. The neck or first ring is the longest one in the series and has a 
 flattened space on its upper side of a tawny tinge and covered with numerous minute rust- 
 colored points but showing no impressed line along its middle, and on its under side in the 
 middle is a faint transverse oval spot with similar rusty dots, and upon each side is a shining 
 impressed crescent-shaped spot of a tawny tinge. The two segments following this are shorter 
 than those beyond them. 
 
 The surface of the beetle is occupied with small punctures from which 
 numerous flue short hairs arise, which stand erect. This surface is of a 
 glaucous grayish tinge, and or each side of the thorax below the orange 
 stripe are two black dots. All the specimens which I have seen from the 
 southern part of the State have an aspect so different from those of my 
 own vicinity, that in the collections of amateurs they may frequently be 
 noticed arranged as distinct species. They are of a darker livid gray hue, 
 and their marks are dark orange red, instead of ochre or orange yellow, 
 and on the wing-covers these marks are more prolonged, the middle one 
 extending to the suture. This may be named the lfcd-marked (rubro- 
 notata) variety. 
 
 Another variety is sometimes seen, in which the branches from the 
 lateral stripe upon the wing-covers are of a gray hue, and so very faint 
 that they are scarcely perceptible. This may be named the Intermediate, 
 [intermedia,) it being so slightly different from the following species as to 
 excite doubts whether it is a hybrid produced by a crossing of these two 
 species, or whether these insects are not in reality one species, varying 
 merely from being reared in different species of the elm. 
 
 342. Lateral Saperda, Saperda lateralis, Fabriciug. 
 
 Mining the inner bark of dead trees and logs of the common elm, a 
 grub in every respect the same with that last described above, and about 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 841 
 
 ELM. TUtTHK. LEAVES. 
 
 the first of June producing a similar beetle, differing in being destitute of 
 the transverse bands branching from the lateral stripe upon the wing- 
 covers, its length varying from 0.35 to 0.55. 
 
 Two varieties of this beetle may be noticed, the one (abbreviata) having 
 the stripe along the outer side of the wing-covers narrow and not extend¬ 
 ing to their tips, the other (suturalis) showing a slender orange colored 
 line along the inner edge of the wing-covers their whole length. 
 
 343. Six-banded Dryobius, Dryobius, 6-fa8ciatu8 y Say. (Coleoptera. Cerombycidco.) 
 
 A similar but larger worm than the preceding, found in the same situa 
 tion, producing a black beetle of similar form, with the margins of its 
 thorax yellow, and also its scutel and four equidistant oblique bands on 
 its wing-covers, the last one placed on their tips, its length about 0.70. 
 This species is exceedingly rare, but probably occurs in all parts of the 
 Union. 
 
 The Elm bark-beetle, $ 60, produces small pin-hole perforations in 
 the bark ; and the Pigeon Tremex, which will be described under the 
 Maple, bores in the wood of this tree. 
 
 AEPECTING THE LEAVES. 
 
 Quite a number of different worms are met with upon the elm, eating 
 its leaves; but nearly all of these are oftener seen upon other trees, under 
 which their description more properly belongs, and to most of them has 
 already been given. A word or two as to the general appearance of these 
 is all that will be required in this place. 
 
 Of large thiclc-bodied worms, there is found on this tree 
 
 The Polyphemus moth larva, $ 181, of an apple green color, with 
 bright orange points and a row of oblique pale yellow stripes along each 
 side. 
 
 The Io emperor moth larva, $ 81, apple green, with branching 
 prickles and a brick red or orange stripe along each side. 
 
 The Ash Spinx (Sphinx quadricornis ) larva, a cylindrical green worm 
 with a pale blue or green horn at the end of its back. See Ash insects. 
 
 The American Cimbex larva, a cylindrical glaucous yellowish white 
 worm, coiled like a snail’s shell and having two black lines along its back ; 
 much more common on willows, under which it will be described. 
 
 Of more slender bodied thorny worms there are 
 
 The White-bordered butterfly larva, black, with a row of rust- 
 red spots on the back, and more often met with on willows, which see. 
 
 The Progne, $ 142, and the Wiiite-C. butterfly, $ 143, similar but 
 paler colored worms. 
 
 Of hairy-bodied caterpillars there are 
 
 The Fall web worm, $ 81, in cobweb-like nests the latter part of 
 summer. 
 
 The Vapoiier moth larva, $ 32, with pencils of long black hairs, and 
 on its back short yellow brush-like tufts. 
 
842 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 ELM. LEAVES. 
 
 Of measure worms , having but ten feet, there are 
 
 The Canker worm, $ 38, the V-mariced measure worm, § 39, and 
 the New York measure worm, (Erannis subsignaria, Hubner,) which 
 has been so noted a pest for many years in the metropolis of our State, and 
 is most destructive to the lindens, under which the description of it will be 
 given. 
 
 Of worms which are peculiar to the elm, or are more common on this 
 than other trees, there are several, which are not yet known to me in their 
 perfect state, and I have but one species to present at this time. This is an 
 inhabitant of northern Europe, and has not been known hitherto as occur¬ 
 ring also upon this continent. 
 
 344. November moth, Oporabia dilutala, Schifferrmyllcr. (Lopidoptcra. Goometridre.) 
 
 Feeding on the leaves in spring, a dirty green measure worm, beneath 
 
 paler bluish white, its breathing pores forming a row of orange red dots 
 along each side, where is sometimes a yellow line also; living openly 
 exposed upon the leaves and in the summer entering the ground to pass its 
 pupa state; the moth coming out in November, its wings usually as thin 
 as bank note paper and semi-transparent, very pale gray, the fore pair 
 with faint indistinct transverse marks of a darker color, whereof two near 
 to and parallel with the hind edge are commonly the most distinct, and two 
 others extending from the middle of the inner margin to a small dusky 
 streak in the centre of the wing, the hind wings fringed all around with 
 whitish hairs. Width about 1.30. 
 
 Slowly flying among the leafless bushes upon mild days in November I 
 have met with this moth. It coincides so perfectly with the figures and 
 accounts given of the European November moth, as it is termed in 
 English works, that I cannot deem it anything else than the same species. 
 A more accurate representation of my specimens could scarcely be made, 
 than is the figure of the pale variety of this species, in Westwood and Hum¬ 
 phrey’s British moths. It is often more fully and distinctly marked, 
 according to the statements of authors, than in the specimens from which 
 the above description was taken. So extremely variable is it, that nearly 
 a dozen species have been made from its varieties, by different writers. 
 
 345. Ladder Ciirvsomela, Chrysomcla, sealaris, Le Conto. (Colcoptcra. Chryso- 
 
 mclidao.) 
 
 Feeding upon the leaves throughout the season, a shining hemispherical 
 bottle green beetle with silvery white wing-covers, on which are several 
 bottle green spots and a broad jagged stripe on their suture, its wings rose 
 red and its antennae and legs rusty yellow. Length 0.30 to 0.40. Com¬ 
 mon also upon willows. 
 
 340. Ei,m Galerdca, Galcruca Calmariensis, Linnaeus. (Colooptora. Galcruoidco.) 
 
 An oblong oval beetle 0.25 long, of a grayish yellow color with three 
 small black spots on its thorax, a broad black stripe on the outer part 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 843 
 
 ELM. LEAVES. 
 
 of its wing-covers and a small oblong spot near their base, though 
 originally named by Linnaeus from a small seaport town of Sweden, is 
 common over the chief part of Europe, feeding upon the leaves of the elm, 
 to which it is sometimes very destructive. It has been introduced from 
 thence into this country, and on its first appearance in the city of Balti¬ 
 more some twenty years ago, it and its larvae, which are thick cylindical 
 blackish six-footed grubs, wholly denuded the elms of their leaves, for 
 several successive seasons. 
 
 The following incident, verbally communicated to me by the Rev. Jolm Gr. 
 Morris, D. D., of Baltimore, merits to be related in this connection.it being 
 one of the prominent popular errors prevailing in our country with respect 
 to insects, to regard them as a unit, all alike in their nature and habits, 
 and hence, if a remedy is discovered to be efficacious against one particu¬ 
 lar insect, the experimenter at once concludes, with the fullest confidence, 
 that it will be similarly efficacious against all other insects. 
 
 Soon after this beetle commenced its destructive career in Baltimore, a 
 representation of the evil was communicated to one of the most eminent 
 and justly distinguished men of science in our country, with a request that 
 he would inform them of some remedy for it. He, not being versed in this 
 particular branch of Natural History, inferred the insect to be the Canker 
 worm, which had not long before made very similar havoc upon the elms 
 in his own neighborhood ; and he accordingly replied, informing them that 
 if they would surround the trunks of their trees with collar-like troughs 
 and keep these filled with fish-oil, he doubted not they would find it an 
 effectual remedy. With much care and at some expense this measure, 
 coming from such a respectable source, was extensively resorted to. But 
 they soon learned that what is sauce for the goose is not always sauce for the 
 gander, or in other words, that what is an effectual remedy for one insect 
 on elms is not equally efficacious for all other insects upon the same tree. 
 As some had predicted who had informed themselves of the habits of this 
 beetle, the protected trees received not the slightest benefit from this 
 measure. 
 
 The Grape-vine flea-beetle, §128, a very small greenish-blue or 
 purple jumping beetle, and the Goldsmitii-beetle, §57, a large shining 
 lemon yellow beetle, also inhabit the elm, eating the leaves. 
 
 347. Elm gall-louse, Byrsocrypta Vlmicola, new species. (Homoptera. Aphidce.) 
 
 In June, an excrescence or follicle like a cock’s comb, arising abruptly 
 from the upper surface of the leaf, usually about an inch long and a quarter 
 of an inch high, compressed and its sides wrinkled perpendicularly and its 
 summit irregularly gashed and toothed, of a paler green color than the leaf 
 and more or less red on the side exposed to the sun ; opening on the under 
 side of the leaf by a long slit-like orifice ; inside wrinkled perpendicularly 
 iuto deep plaits and occupied by one female and a number of her young, 
 Eomeof which are often strolling outside upon the under surface of the leaf. 
 
844 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 POPLAR. TRUNK. 
 
 minute oval yellowish white lice 0.02 long, with blackish legs, the femalo 
 more or less coated with white meal on her back, 0.07 long, oval and pale 
 yellow with blackish legs and antennas. Though I have not yet met with 
 winged individuals, they in all probability pertain to the genus to which I 
 have referred this species above. The galls may frequently be noticed on 
 elm leaves. By the middle of summer they become tenantless, dry and 
 bard and of a blackish brown color. 
 
 4. THE POPLAR— Populus grandidentata, etc. 
 
 AFFECTING THE TRUNK. 
 
 348. Broad-necked Prionus, Prionus laticollis, Drury. (Colcoptcra. Cerambycidm.) 
 
 In the wood of the trunk and roots of different poplars, a white soft grub 
 
 as thick as one’s thumb and otherwise similar to that of the Chestnut-brown 
 or Pennsylvania Prionus, § 234*; producing an oval moderately convex 
 black long-horned beetle 0.90 to 1.50 long and less than half as broad, its 
 wing-covers rough from confluent irregular punctures and with two or three 
 raised lines, its thorax with three irregular teeth along each side, and its 
 antennee of twelve joints resembling little conical cups placed one within 
 the other and projecting upon their lower side like the teeth of a saw; ap¬ 
 pearing abroad in July. 
 
 349. Pgplar-uorkr, Sapctda calcar at a , Say. (Colcoptera. Cerambycideo.) 
 
 Beneath the bark and in the interior of the wood boring a hole 0.45 wide 
 and less than half as high, a yellowish white footless grub 1.75 long, slightly 
 tapering and divided by strong constrictions into twelve rings, the first one 
 largest and with its upper side flattened, tawny and slopeing forwards, and 
 in all other respects resembling the Apple-tree borer, § 2 ; passing its pupa 
 state in the tree and coming out in August and September, a pale bluish 
 gray long-horned beetle, about an inch long and a fourth as broad, finely 
 dotted with black, its scutel ochre yellow and also three stripes on its tho¬ 
 rax and several spots on its wing-covers. See Harris’ Treatise, p. 93. 
 
 AFFECTING THE LEAVES. 
 
 350. Wuite-S Ci.ostera, Clostera albosigma, Fitoh. (Lcpidoptcra. Notodontidoo.) 
 
 Early in July, eating the leaves and reposing in a cavity formed of 
 leaves drawn together like a ball, a large black caterpillar with white and 
 yellow dots and stripes and a hump on the back of its fourth and eleventh 
 rings; its pupa lying in a cocoon attached among the leaves, and in ten 
 days giving out the moth the latter part of July ; the moth grayish-brown, 
 its fore wings crossed by three faint paler streaks, the two first parallel, 
 the hind one with its outer half silvery white and strongly waved in the 
 shape of the letter S ; width 1.50. See Transactions, 1855, p. 506. 
 
 • Since my lost report was in print I have ascertained that the fifth volume of Dcgecr’s 
 work was not published till 1775. Forster's name of this insect consequently 1ms the priority, 
 and Chestnut-brown Prionus, Orthosoma brunnea, Forster, should be substituted for tho 
 name I have in that place givou. 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 845 
 
 POPLAR. LEAVES* 
 
 351. Americas Clostera, Clostera Americana, Harris. 
 
 Consuming the leaves in summer, a pale yellow caterpillar with two 
 little black warts close together on the back of its fourth and eleventh 
 rings, three slender black lines on its back and three in a broad dusky 
 stripe along each side ; its pupa passing the winter in a cocoon under 
 leaves or rubbish on the ground; the middle of June giving out a pale 
 grayish moth more or less varied with brown, its fore wings with three 
 whitish bands, the first transverse and dislocated, the second oblique and 
 giving off a transverse branch from its middle which runs to the inner 
 margin uniting with the third band, the two thus forming a letter V, a faint 
 whitish band across the middle of the hind wings; width about 1.35. See 
 Harris’ Treatise, p. 334. 
 
 The Clostera suffusa of Stephens was very probably described from a 
 specimen of this species which found its way accidentally into the collec¬ 
 tion from whence he obtained it. Our moth shows a whitish spot or 
 stigma near the center of the fore wings, this spot being sometimes dusky in 
 its middle, as represented on the left side in Stephens’ figure. Were the first 
 band in this figure dislocated with its outer half carried somewhat towards 
 the base of the wing, and the pale shade across the middle of the hind wings 
 less angularly bent, all doubts upon this subject would be removed. 
 
 352. V-markeb Clostera, Clostera van, new species. 
 
 A moth which is very similar to the preceding, but darker colored and 
 smaller, with the bands more slender and distinct, may be readily distin¬ 
 guished from that species by its having the first band not dislocated but in 
 its middle strongly curved backwards, the apex of the curve usually form¬ 
 ing an acute point. The last band also is much more strongly undulated 
 near its outer end, curving backwards almost in a semicircle, and is of a 
 much more vivid white color, and broadly bordered on its hind side with 
 bright rust-red. Its hind wings also are destitute of the paler band across 
 their middle. Its width is about 1.20. 
 
 I am unacquainted with its larva, but like the other species of this 
 genus, it doubtless feeds on the poplars and willows. Though quite rare 
 in my own vicinity, it is ofteuer met with than the two other species. 
 
 Other worms feeding on the leaves of poplars are larvse of the Io empe¬ 
 ror moth § 81, the White-bordered butterfly, oftenest met with on 
 willows, the New York measure-worm more attached to the linden, and 
 others which are yet unknown in their perfect state. 
 
 353. Poplar-stem gall-louse. Pemphigus Populicaulis, now specie3. (Homoptera. 
 
 Apliidso.) 
 
 Forming imperfectly globular galls the size of a bullet at the junction 
 of the leaf with its stalk, these galls having a mouth-like orifice on their 
 under side, and a large cavity within, crowded with small dull white lice 
 and their white cast skins, and with winged lice of a blue black color, their 
 antonme reaching beyond the base of their wings, the rib-vein of their 
 
846 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 FOPLAB. LEAVES. 
 
 fore wings black, thick, much thicker at its apex along the inner margin 
 of the stigma-spot, and the short veinlet bounding the anterior end of this 
 spot more slender than the rib-vein ; its length 0.10, and to the tips of its 
 wings 0.15. 
 
 This insect is attracting much notice in the city of Albany at the time 
 these pages are passing through the press. The latter part of June, an 
 article appeared in one of the daily papers of the city, directing attention 
 to the remarkable phenomenon presented by the poplars in a particular 
 yard on the opposite side of the river in Greenbush, most of the leaves 
 having at their base a little ball filled with insects. Several of the leaves 
 of these trees were kindly procured and forwarded to me by L. A. Orcutt, 
 Esq. Visiting the city personally a fortnight after, I was informed the 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 84 1 
 
 POPLAR. LEAVES. 
 
 same bullet-like excrescences were then growing on the poplars everywhere 
 in and around the city, and were so numerous on particular trees that 
 scarcely a leaf could be found which was destitute of them. The speci¬ 
 mens shown me were taken from the River poplar or Cotton tree, (i opu- 
 lus Icevigata , Aiton.) 
 
 Three years since, on the twenty-seventh of June, a leaf which had 
 fallen from a Lombardy poplar in my yard, was found wilted and some¬ 
 what shrivelled, which showed on the middle of its stalk, a bullet-like 
 gall, of which, and the insects within it, full memoranda were taken, 
 which describe these Albany leaves perfectly ; and when the leaves fell 
 from this tree in autumn, a few were found among them, more faded than 
 the others and having these same excrescences, but placed at the base of 
 the leaf instead of on the middle of its stem, and the galls having now 
 become black, dry and hard. 
 
 These excrescences are about a half inch in diameter and somewhat 
 more long than thick. They arc of a pale green color, similar to that of 
 the stalk on which they grow. At their base they are wrinkled with 
 parallel plaits running from the excrescence a short distance downwards 
 upon the stem on which they grow, which stem is slightly thickened at this 
 point. On their upper side the surface is rough from numerous small 
 smooth elevations resembling pimples, some of them round, others oblong, 
 which are green at first, but soon become whitish and remain of this color 
 after the gall is dead and black. They are of a weak leathery texture, 
 having a large cavity inside, the walls being the thickness of thin leather. 
 The cavity within is completely filled with a confused mass of little lice, 
 sprinkled over and obsured-by a white meal-like powder, and intermingled 
 with them are a multitude of white shrivelled cast skins. These lice when 
 more particularly examined, are fouud to be of three different kinds, 
 namely, larvae, pupae, and perfect or winged flies. In the first gall which 
 I inspected more than a hundred and fifty of these insects were counted. 
 
 The Laiivas, or smallest insects in those galls, are about 0.03 long, but variable in size. 
 They are of a dull white color with the knees a little dusky and the eyes blackish. They are 
 oval, slightly narrower anteriorly, with their sutures well marked by transverse impressed 
 lines. 
 
 The Pupa 2 are similar to the larvm in color and form, but of a larger size, and particularly 
 distinguished by having little oval scales, which are the wings in their rudimentary state, 
 pressed a'gainst each side of the body. Their feet as well as their knees are dusky, of a 
 much darker shade in some than in others, and in some individuals the head and thorax have 
 a reddish tinge. Their length is about 0.07. These were far the most numerous individuals 
 in the gall first examined. 
 
 The Winged flies are of a blue black color throughout, sometimes with the base of the 
 abdomen and of the legs dull brownish yellow, and when newly hatched the under side or 
 even the whole of the abdomen is dusky lurid greenish. The wings are closed together hori¬ 
 zontally upon the back before the fly has left tho gall, but after it has used them, they are 
 held together above the baok in a stoop roof. They are whitish hyaline, not clear, being like 
 the body so dusted over and dimmed with white moal-liko powder that they appear almost 
 opake until this extraneous matter is brushed ofF. The vein forming tho outer margin is 
 coarse and blue-black from tho base to tho commencement of tho stigma, and very fine and 
 slender beyond that poiut. Tho rib-vcin also has tho samo color and is still more thick and 
 
848 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 POPLAR. LEAVES. 
 
 coarse till it reaches tho stigma, where it is widened to twice its previous thickness, forming 
 a broad blue-black margin along tho inner side of tho stigma to its tip, whilst the branch 
 running to the outer margin and bounding the anterior end of the stigma is much more fine 
 and slender. The stigma is dull whitish and much more opake than tho rest of the wing. It 
 has an elliptic outline, its length about doublo its width and slightly wider thnn the space 
 forward of it between the rib-vein and the outer margin. The oblique veins are pale yel¬ 
 lowish and towards their tips slightly thicker and dusky. Around the origin of the two first 
 a slight duskiness is perceptible upon the inner side of the rib-vein. The first obliquo vein is 
 straight. The second arises almost in contnot with it, and is straight till near its tip, where 
 it perceptibly curves towards the inner margin. The third vein is abortive or invisible 
 through the first fourth of its length. Tho fourth, which arises from the middle of the inner 
 side of the stigma, at first slightly approaches tho third vein and then curves gently towards 
 the outer margin, and at its tip bends again in tho opposite direction. Its tip is somewhat 
 nearer the tip of tho third vein than this is to the second, tho tips of the first and second 
 being still more distant from each other and about tho same distance that tho tip of tho 
 fourth is from that of tho rib-vein. The antennm are rather thick and thread-like. Tho 
 body varies in length from 0.08 to 0.10, but to the tip of the wings it is more uniform, 
 measuring 0.15. These individuals are winged females, producing larva) of a pale yellow 
 color. 
 
 Galls analagous to those here described grow upon the leaf stalks of the 
 Lombardy and the Black poplar in Europe, from the attacks of the Pem¬ 
 phigus bursarius of Linnaeus ; but I judge our insect to be different from 
 that, from specimens of the fly and its gall received from Dr. Signoret, and 
 the full description of it in its different stages given by M. Fonscolomb 
 (Ann. Soc. Ent., France, x, 193), the fly being paler in its color, and its 
 gall spirally coiled somewhat like the shell of a snail. 
 
 The manner in which these insects produce these galls on poplar leaves 
 is described by Mr. Rennie in his Insect Architecture, and may here be 
 repeated, as the process is no doubt the same in ours that it is in the Eu¬ 
 ropean species. 
 
 Often when the galls are opened a single individual is noticed therein 
 much exceeding any of the others in its size and destitute of wings. This 
 is the female parent from which the whole brood in each gall is descended. 
 After wandering about upon the limbs and leaves during the first period of 
 her life, she becomes stationary at this point on the leaf stalk, occupied first 
 in erecting a house for her shelter and protection and then rearing her 
 family therein. As she turns herself around, she makes a number of punc¬ 
 tures in the leaf-stalk with her sharp needle-like beak. The sap which 
 issues from these wounds, by its exposure to the air becomes thickened and 
 curdled, whereby a thick fleshy wall of a living vegetable substance grows 
 up around her, intermediate in its texture as in its situation between the 
 wood and the leaf, being softer than the former and harder than the latter. 
 And by puncturing this at its summit, a further exudation of the sap occurs, 
 whereby the wall closes together over her, thus forming a little globe the 
 size of a pea, within which the insect is securely sheltered from birds and 
 predaceous insects. If in want of food sho has only to insert her beak in 
 the side of her cell and suck therefrom the nourishment she requires. Her 
 eggs are next strewed around upon the inner surface of this gall, although 
 the cavity has only sufficient space to contain them and tho parent. But 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 849 
 
 POPLAR. LEAVES. 
 
 ilie young insects hatching therefrom, puncturing and drawing their suste¬ 
 nance from the same surface, cause the gall to increase gradually in its size, 
 in the exact ratio in which the family within grow to require additional 
 room. I observed no orifice in the smaller galls ; but when a portion of 
 the inclosed insects have acquired wings and are ready to come abroad, a 
 longitudinal slit is formed upon the under side of the gall, like a mouth 
 with the lips closed, and the gall then has some similarity to a bivalve 
 shell, as that on the European poplars has to a univalve. Through this 
 orifice the flies coming out into the light of day, open their wings a few 
 times to air and strengthen them, and then mount upon them and pass 
 away. If two or three of the galls happen to be laid upon a table, on the 
 adjacent window will soon be found a multitude of these flies which have 
 been arrested in their flight outwards. As already stated, at least a por¬ 
 tion of the flies which begin to issue from these galls the last of June, are 
 females giving birth to living young instead of eggs. But their further 
 history and in what state they pass through the winter and till another 
 crop of leaves put forth for their accommodation yet remains to be investi¬ 
 gated. 
 
 In some instances two females fix themselves at the base of the same leaf, 
 whereby their galls grow into each other, making an excrescence of double 
 the usual size, in which are two cavities and two orifices. 
 
 Secluded as these insects are within the tough leathery walls of these 
 galls, they are but little molested by those numerous insect enemies 
 whereby the forces of the Aphides are so often routed and infested vegeta¬ 
 tion is cleansed from these pests. In one instance, however, the larva of a 
 lady-bird ( Coccinella) was noticed standing like a vigilant sentinel at the 
 orifice of a gall, occupying himself no doubt in seizing and devouring the 
 flies one after another as they issued therefrom, before their wings had 
 acquired the requisite suppleness to enable them to fly away. 
 
 Although the leaves at whose bases these galls grow retain a healthy 
 vigorous aspect till after the insects have escaped, they are undoubtedly 
 weakened from having such an amount of their juice drawn away for the 
 support of these galls and the insects within them, and will prematurely 
 wither and fall from the trees. And when these insects become so numer¬ 
 ous as they at present are around Albany, the trees will be enfeebled by 
 them. But as it is merely the leaf stems which they infest, the life of a 
 thrifty ti-ee will be jeopardized only by their continuance in force through 
 a series of years, and that they will thus continue is not to be expected. 
 
 354. Poplar oall-lodse, Pemphigus Popularia, new species. 
 
 Late in autumn, wandering up and down the trunk of the Balsam pop¬ 
 lar, a gall-louse closely like tho preceding, but its abdomen green, its 
 antennae short, reaching but two-thirds the distance to the wing sockets, 
 and tho rib-vein of its wings not thicker along tho inner margin of tho 
 stigma; its length 0.13 to the tip of its wings. 
 
 [Ag, Trans.] 34 
 
850 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 POPLAR. LEAVES. 
 
 In connection with the Poplar-stem gall-louse I introduce this species, 
 it is so very similar, although I know nothing of its habits, beyond the 
 fact that it was noticed in great numbers upon a Balsam poplar, P. balsami- 
 fera, Linn., upon a warm sunny day in the middle of October, wandering 
 up and down the trunk of the tree, in company with a species of Aphis. 
 These were winged females, one of which was observed to extrude a small 
 larva 0.02 in length, of a pale yellow color with watery white head and 
 legs. 
 
 As noticed at that timo, these flics were black, slightly dusted over with a glaucous gray 
 powder; the abdomen dull green with a small coating of white flocculcnt wool, its oppo¬ 
 site sides parallel and its tip abruptly rounded; the antennas short, thick and thread¬ 
 like; the wings dull hyaline, their rib-vein black and the oblique veins slender and blackish 
 with the basal third of the third vein abortive and the fourth vein perceptibly thicker 
 towards its base; and the small branch of tho rib-vein bounding the anterior end of the 
 stigma having nearly the same thickness with the rib-vein. 
 
 355, Poplar-bullet gai.l-louse, Pemphigus Populi-globuli , new species. 
 
 Iu July, on the leaves of the Balsam poplar slightly above their base, 
 an irregular globular apple green gall the size of a bullet, projecting from 
 the upper surface of the leaf, with a curved mouth-like orifice on the under 
 side, the cavity within containing numerous small pale green and smaller 
 dusky lice with the end of their bodies covered with short white cotton¬ 
 like threads, and larger winged ones which are of a black color, with the 
 abdomen dusted over with white meal and with thin white woolly fibres on 
 the back, and their antennm reaching the base of the wings, which are 
 clear hyaline, their veins slender and white or colorless, except the outer 
 marginal vein which is black to the end of the stigma, and also tho rib- 
 vein, which is much thicker at its apex; their length 0.07 and to the tip of 
 the wings 0.11. 
 
 I find several galls of this kind on a Balsam poplar in my yard, at the 
 moment of sending these pages to the press. That I might render the 
 history of the preceding species more complete, I wanted to think I here 
 had the same insect at its summer employment which I had previously met 
 with in autumn after its work for the season was closed. But on placing 
 the two side by side I see some diflercnces between them, so slight that it 
 may not be in our power to distingish them with any degree of confidence 
 iu preserved specimens iu the*cabinet, yet so palpable that I am compelled 
 to regard them as distinct species. And as in the gall-flies on oaks so also 
 in the gall-lice on poplars it would seem that Nature designed to show how 
 closely alike she could make several of these minute insects, and then 
 placed them in dissimilar galls that the observer of her works might be 
 assured they were really different the one from the other. 
 
 These flies differ from those of P. Popularia in being uniformly a sizo smaller, with 
 wings more clear and glassy, their veins more slender and quite colorless, the stigma less 
 opake than in that and other species of these insects, and the rib-vein more thick where it 
 bounds the inner margin of the stigma and especially at its apex. Tho oblique branch of the 
 rib-vein bounding the anterior end of tho stigma is more slender than the marginal vein. 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 851 
 
 POPLAR. LEAVES. 
 
 The fourth oblique vein is slightly thicker at its base, where it is also a little dusky. The 
 abortive basal third of the third vein is traced by a very slender line, which here appears to 
 be more distinct than in any of the kindred spocies. The inner margin shows the same duski¬ 
 ness for a short distance at and forward from the tip of the first vein that is common to the 
 insects of this family. The abdomen is dusted over with a white mealy powder, with a black 
 band on the hind part of each segment from the absence of this powder. 
 
 The gall grows from the midvein of the leaf slightly above the point 
 where it passes into the stem, instead of at or slightly below this point 
 where the Poplar-stem gall first described is situated. And hereby 
 this gall has a narrow portion of the base of the leaf below it. It 
 grows either wholly upon the upper side of the leaf, or with a small portion 
 protruding outwards from the under side. It is of a spherical form, but 
 more or less irregular and with the surface uneven. It varies from a little 
 over a quarter to a half inch in diameter, and is of a pale apple green 
 color, sometimes with a deep carmine red cloud on the side most exposed to 
 the light. Its walls arc nearly a tenth of an inch thick and very juicy 
 and brittle, but become, as in other galls, more dry, wilted, and leath. r- 
 like when old. The midvein where the gall is situated becomes thickened 
 and curved or otherwise distorted, and the orifice of the gall opening along 
 its side partakes of this curve. 
 
 The winged flies are females, producing eggs of a dull wax color, the 
 eyes of the inclosed larva appearing like two black dots near one end, as 
 in other instances in this genus. These eggs hatch within a few moments 
 after they are extruded. Before they leave the interior of the gall these 
 flies are mostly of a pale lurid green color with the knees and feet dusky, 
 and only the antennae and the'thickened tip of the rib-veins are then of the 
 black hue which the body acquires after its exposure to the light. And 
 after they have come abroad the under side of the abdomen often retains 
 this same lurid green color. 
 
 305. Poplar-vein gall-lodse. Pemphigus Populi-vcnw, new species. 
 
 In July an oblong compressed excrescence like a cock’s comb, of a light 
 red color varied with pale yellow, growing from the midvein of Balsam 
 poplar leaves on their upper side with an orifice on the opposite under 
 side ; a cavity within containing a multitude of lice and their white cast 
 skins, interspersed with a whitish meal-like powder; those with wings being 
 black, with coarse thread-like antennae reaching to the base of the wings, 
 which, with their oblique veins, arc pellucid and colorless, the coarse rib- 
 vein being blackish and more thick at its tip along the inner margin of 
 the stigma, and the vein of the outer margin being blackish and somewhat 
 coarse from its base to the stigma ; its length 0.05 and to the tip of the 
 wings 0.08. 
 
 A number of these galls may sometimes be observed upon the leaves of 
 particular trees. They are nearly semicircular and half as high as long, 
 being usually over a half inch in length, with an uneven surface, their 
 walls thick, brittle and suoculeut. They arc commonly placed near the 
 
852 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 POPLAR. LEAVES. 
 
 base of the leaf, but sometimes in its middle. Among the insects in the 
 cavity inside may be found the larvae, pupae and perfect insects of both 
 sexes, which sexes can be distinguished in all the stages of their growth by 
 their colors, the females being dusky and the males dull green with whitish 
 legs and antennae. A single wingless individual, larger than any of tho 
 others in the gall, is the parent or at least the progenitor of the entire 
 family. As an instance of the tenacity of life which insects possess in 
 their pupa beyond any other period of their existence, it may be observed 
 that a wingless female with a larva and a pupa of this species, having been 
 attached with gum to a slip of card, the two first were noticed twenty-four 
 hours afterwards dead and shrivelled to mere shapeless specks, whilst the 
 pupa remained alive, plump and strong, actively engaged in efforts to break 
 its feet from the dried gum wherein they were fettered. 
 
 The female LARV.E are dusky on tho body and legs, with a tuft of white flocculcnt cotton¬ 
 like fibres projecting backward from the end of the body, and a coating of white mealy powder 
 over the rest of the surface. They are quite small, measuring about 0.025 in length, straight 
 along each side and slightly narrowing from behind forward. 
 
 The MALE LARvas are less numerous than those of the female and double their sizo. They 
 are very pale dull green with whitish antennas and legs, the feet sometimes slightly dusky. 
 They are coated with white meal and tufted at tho tip like the female, but their bodies are 
 more tapering forward and show the impressed sutures quite distinct. 
 
 Tile male PUP.E are oval with tho head and first, segment of tho thorax narrower. They 
 are dull pale green with tho second segment of the thorax and tho wing-scalcs paler and 
 watery in their appearance, and the suturos of the abdomen less distinct Than in the larvto, 
 which they slightly exceed in their sizo. 
 
 The female pupa, are dusky like their larvto, with the wing-scalcs and the thorax 
 between them of an obscure whitish or pale watery color. 
 
 Tho WINGLESS female, the parent of the colony, is as broad as long, measuring 0.04 to 
 0.05 in length, the hind end being usually concave or notched, and the abdomen elevated or 
 humped in its middle, resembling that of some spiders. She is pale dusky with two rows of 
 snow white dots formed of a mealy or pruinose substance, along each side of tho back, the 
 dots of tho inner row being more numerous. Her head is darker and her legs dull pale yel¬ 
 lowish with the feet dusky. 
 
 As some of the gall-lice now described may every year be met with upon 
 the poplars planted in the grounds around our dwellings, I have given a 
 somewhat extended account of them, thinking some of the persons into 
 whose hands this Report will come, will, with the aid thus furnished them, 
 be curious to examine these insects, whose habits are in many respefcts so 
 interesting and truly remarkable. In addition to those which have now 
 been noticed, several other species of the Aphis family dwell more openly 
 exposed upon the leaves and green twigs of our poplars. I refrain from 
 presenting these and similar insects belonging to oaks and other trees, until 
 I shall have re-examined them in their living state, and compared them 
 with the figures in the beautiful Monograph of Koch, that I may assure 
 myself more fully whether several of them be not, as I suppose them, iden¬ 
 tical with those occurring upon similar vegetation in Europe. 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 853 
 
 BIRCH. LEAVES. 
 
 5. THE BIRCH —Betula lent a, etc. 
 
 AFFECTING THE LEAVES. 
 
 The several kinds of bireli appear to be the least infested by insects of 
 any of our forest trees of the deciduous class. This fact recommends them 
 strongly to public favor as ornamental trees for parks and pleasure grounds, 
 they being also easy of cultivation though rather slow in their growth. 
 They probably owe their immunity from insects to the spicy essential oil 
 which imparts to their bark so pleasant a flavor. I know of no borer in 
 the wood or bark of the birch, and very few worms which feed upon its 
 leaves. Occasionally the V-markf.d measure worm, $ 39 has been noticed 
 in this situation and two or three other larvae of small moths whose perfect 
 state is not yet known. A few insects which puncture the leaves and green 
 succulent twigs to sip their juices and a single beetle eating the leaves, are, 
 according to my observations, the only insects which are oftener met with 
 upon birch than on other trees, and are therefore to be considered under 
 this head. 
 
 357. Triple-rowF.D Crioceris, Syneta tripla, Say. (Colcoptcra. Ciioceridco.) 
 
 In May and the fore part of June, eating the leaves of this and various 
 other trees, an oblong chestnut-brown and closely punctured beetle, with 
 wing-covers usually pale dull yellowish except on their suture and their 
 punctures forming about three rows between each of the three raised lines, 
 its length 0.25 and about a third as wide. A common insect in our State. 
 
 358. Variable leap-hopper, Athysanus variabilis , Fitch. (Ilomoptcra. Tettigoni- 
 
 idro.) 
 
 Puncturing the leaves and succulent shoots and extracting their juices, 
 from the middle of June till the middle of July, an oblong oval leaf-hopper 
 of a sulphur yellow color, its wing-covers commonly with an oblique black 
 stripe, their tips hyaline, its thorax and scutel often tawny yellow or black, 
 its length 0.20. 
 
 This insect may every year be met with in numbers upon birch trees and 
 also upon alders. It was once found literally swarming upon a white birch 
 standing apart from other trees. 
 
 350. Smaller leaf-hopper, Athysanus minor, Fitch. 
 
 From the middle of June till the middle of August, a similar leaf-hopper 
 to the preceding, but of a cinnamon color, including its face, and having a 
 colorless hyaline spot on the middle of its wing-covers and a larger one on 
 their tips, its length 0.18 to 0.20. 
 
 300. Windowed LEAF-noppEn, Athysanus fencstratus, Fitch. 
 
 From the middle of June till the last of July, a leaf-hopper resembling 
 the foregoing species, but with blackish wing-covers with similar hyaline 
 spots and a smaller third one plaoed on the middle of the inner margin, 
 
854 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 BIRCH. LEAVES. 
 
 anil its forehead black with a pale yellow band between the eyes, its length 
 
 0.20. b 
 
 The Spruce leaf-hopper $ 282 is also frequent upon the birch, and a 
 few additional species which are common to this and the hornbeam and 
 alder may hereafter be noticed under these last. The Butternut Tingis, 
 § 193 is also common on birch leaves. 
 
ERRATA. 
 
 Page 416, 1st line, “ sods,” not rods, 
 
 Page 426, 9th line from top, “ hole,” not pole. 
 
 Page 433, lowest line, “above,” not alone. 
 
 Page 437, 18th line from top, “ style of board fence.” 
 
 Page 454, top line, “ the side,” not aside. 
 
 Page 465, and other places, “bowlders,” not holders. 
 
 Page 466, 21st line from top, “ leveled off,” not beveled. 
 
 Page 467, 8th line from bottom, “ to be built.” 
 
 Page 472, 10th line from bottom, “sheeves,” not sheers. 
 
 Page 475, figs. 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, are reversed. 
 
 Page 483, 16th line from top, “ pin them,” not pin in. 
 
 Page 489, 5th line from top, “ vise,” not vice. 
 
 Page 492, 21st line from top, “ animals,” not animal. 
 
 Page 501, 9th line from bottom, “full of doubt,” not free from. 
 
 Page 476, fig. 63 reversed. 
 
 Some other typographical errors have escaped notice in the correction of 
 the proof, but will readily be correctjd by the rea ler. 
 


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 . 
 
SIXTH REPORT 
 
 ON THE 
 
 NOXIOUS AND OTHER INSECTS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 STATE OF NEW YORK. 
 
 By ASA FITCH, M. D. 
 
 ENTOMOLOGIST OF THE NEW YORK STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 Copy-right Secured to the Author. 
 
 INSECTS INFESTING GRAIN CROPS. 
 
 For the most part the same insects are common to the several 
 cereals, wheat, barley, rye and oats. Wheat as being the most 
 delicate and nutritious of these grains suffers most severely from 
 the attacks of these enemies. Rye being the most hardy and 
 rapid in its growth escapes with the least injury. After treating 
 upon the insects infesting the wheat crop, therefore we shall find 
 very few species remaining to be Separately considered as belong¬ 
 ing exclusively to the other grain crops mentioned. 
 
 1. WHEAT .—Triticum vulgare. 
 
 1. Wheat midge, Cecidomyia Tritici, Kirby. (Diptora, Tipulidas.) Plate ii, fig. 1, 4. 
 
 Minute orange yellow maggots lying inside of the chaff upon 
 the surface of the young kernels, causing them to be dwarfish 
 and shrunken when ripe; these maggots descending into the 
 ground and forming very minute cocoons, from which in the fol¬ 
 lowing June come bright orange colored flies or midges 0.10 long 
 with clear glass-like wings. 
 
 Among the insects infesting our grain crops the Wheat midge 
 is entitled to take precedence. It has in this country and in 
 our own day fully vindicated its claim to the character assigned 
 it upon another continent nearly a century ago — “These little 
 insects are the wheat crop’s greatest enemy.” The experience 
 which the generation which is now passing off the world’s stago 
 has had with this insect, has been such that every tiller of the 
 
746 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 MIDGE. 
 
 soil throughout the Northern States of the American Union and 
 the adjoining British Provinces will with one consent respond to 
 the truth of this maxim. 
 
 It is now sixteen years ago, that, being solicited by an 
 esteemed friend to contribute to a scientific journal which he was 
 publishing, I furnished an Essay on this insect, which was also 
 inserted in the Transactions of this Society for the year 1845. 
 It was my first effort at authorship in this science, undertaken 
 after the observations of but one season. It was necessarily an 
 imperfect production, and I have for a long time intended to 
 write the history of this important insect anew, that I might 
 prebent it in a more correct and complete manner than was done 
 in this early performance. I now come to execute this design ; 
 and I propose first to give a summary view of the history of this 
 insect and its depredations abroad and in our own country, and 
 then to present a description of the insect and an account of its 
 habits and transformations, so far as they have at this date 
 become known to me. 
 
 Its Foreign History. 
 
 The first notice which we find of the Wheat midge, carries us 
 back to those days of ignorance when every remarkable pheno¬ 
 menon in the natural world was superstitiously regarded as an 
 omen of some impending calamity. In the winter of 1740 the 
 cold was so intense from Christmas till the middle of February, 
 that the Thames was frozen over at London so solidly, that a 
 fair was held on the ice of that river. We are told in Ellis’ 
 Modern Husbandman, that, “ After this, we had a melancholy 
 sight, for as soon as the wheat had done blooming, vast numbers 
 of black flies attacked the wheat ears, and blowed a little yellow 
 maggot which ate up some of the kernels, in others part of them, 
 and which caused multitudes of ears to miss of their fulness, 
 acting in some measure like a sort of locust, till rain fell and 
 washed them off; and though this evil lias happened in other 
 summers to the wheat in some degree, and not done much harm, 
 yet if the good providence of God had not hindored it, they 
 might have ruined all the crops of wheat in the nation.’ 
 (Hind’s Essay, page 76.) The knowledge which we now possess 
 of this insect, renders the crude ideas respecting it which we 
 meet with in this extract, doubly interesting. The “ black flies ” 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 747 
 
 HIDGK. HISTORY ABROAD. FIRST NOTICED IN 1740. 
 
 we recognize as the parasitic destroyers, hosts of which every¬ 
 where accompany the midge in its native countries. And the 
 yellow larvae washed from the wheat ears by the rains reminds 
 us of their evacuating the grain when the straw is wet, being 
 unable to adhere to and crawl down it when dry. 
 
 Thirty years later, a more correct knowledge of this insect had 
 been obtained, as appears from a brief notice of it, given by 
 Christopher Gullet, in a letter, “ On the effects of elder in pre¬ 
 serving growing plants from insects and flies,” published in the 
 Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society for 1772. This 
 letter shows the writer to have been a careful and intelligent 
 observer. Under the third head, “ The preservation of the crops 
 of wheat from the yellows and destructive insects,” he says— 
 “ What the farmers call the yellows in wheat, and which they 
 consider as a kind of mildew, is in fact occasioned by a small 
 yellow fly with (iridescent-) blue wings, about the size of a gnat. 
 This blows in the ear of the corn, and produces a worm, almost 
 invisible to the naked eye ; but being seen through a pocket 
 microscope, it appears a large yellow maggot, of the color and 
 gloss of amber, and is so prolific that I last week distinctly counted 
 forty-one living yellow maggots in the husk of one single grain 
 of wheat — a number sufficient to eat up and destroy the corn in 
 a whole ear. * * * These small insects are the crop’s greatest 
 enemy. One of these yellow flies laid at least eight or ten eggs 
 of an oblong shape on my thumb, only while carrying by the wing 
 across three or four ridges.” 
 
 Some twenty-five years after this, when all Europe had become 
 alarmed by the accounts of the appaling ravages of the Hessian 
 fly in the wheat crops of America, and men of science were exa¬ 
 mining the grain fields to discover if any such insect existed 
 there, Mr. Marsham, in the year 1795, brought the wheat midge 
 to public notice, in an article published in tho Transactions of 
 the Linnaaan Society, vol. iii, p. 142, aud a subsequent one in vol. 
 iv, p. 224 | and the Rev. William Kirby, now in the dawn of his 
 entomological eminence, gave quite an interesting and for the 
 most part a very accurate account of its economy and habits, and 
 its parasitic destroyers, in the same publication, vol. iv, p. 230, 
 and vol. v, p. 96, describing the midge scientifically under the 
 Tipula Tritici, and naming its three parasites the Ichneumon 
 Tipula, I. inserens and /. punctiger, by which names they continue 
 
748 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 VIDGK. HISTORY ABROAD. IN 1828, IN SCOTLAND. IN FRANCK. 
 
 to be known, except that the advance of science has since led to 
 a separation of numerous generic groups from Tipula and Ichneu¬ 
 mon , whereby these insects now fall in genera bearing other names 
 than these. As we shall have frequent occasion to refer to these 
 articles in the following pages, a more particular statement of 
 their contents in this place is unnecessary. 
 
 Little further notice was afterwards excited by this insect till 
 about the year 1828, when, simultaneously with the commence¬ 
 ment of its destructive career in our own country, it for a few 
 seasons became very injurious in several parts of Scotland and 
 England. East Lothian, so celebrated for its heavy crops, we 
 see is stated by the North British Agriculturist to have yielded 
 but fifteen bushels of wheat to the acre, in the years 1827-’8-’9- 
 ’30 and ’31, in consequence of the wheat midge and mildew, whilst 
 the four following years, from 1832 to ’35, thirty-five bushels per 
 acre was its average crop. (Cultivator, 1854, p. 69.) Its visit 
 at this time elicited several communications in Loudon’s Maga¬ 
 zine of Natural History and other periodicals, by Messrs. Gorrie, 
 Bell, Shirreff and others, which were soon after followed by Prof. 
 Henslow’s able account of it, in his Report on the diseases of 
 wheat in the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society, vol. ii, 
 and subsequently, in the sixth volume of the same publication, 
 appeared the invaluable articles and illustrations of this insect 
 and its parasites, by Mr. Curtis, to which we shall also have fre¬ 
 quent occasion to refer. 
 
 Upon the continent of Europe, the wheat midge appears to 
 have been rarely met with and was scarcely known to exist there, 
 at least as an injurious insect, till recently. In France it was first 
 noticed in 1842, by M. Herpin, who met with yellow larvrn in the 
 wheat cars, which were subsequently ascertained by M. Amyot to 
 be this insect, as I shall more fully state hereafter. At several 
 points in the north of France the harvests of 1854 and 1855 were 
 unusually deficient. This untoxVard result was currently imputed 
 to late frosts, fogs, excessive heat of the sun, and mildew. But 
 M. Charles Bazin, of Fumerault in the department of the Yonne, 
 upon directing his attention to this subject, immediately disco¬ 
 vered in the wheat fields numbers of this yellow midge with yet 
 greater numbers of another insect which appeared to be its par¬ 
 asitic destroyer; and he became convinced that this was the 
 chief if not the sole cause of the deficiency in their wheat crops. 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 149 
 
 MIDGE. ITS AMEpiCAN H1STOBY. 
 
 (Bulletins Soc. Entom. 1856, p. viii.) M. Bazin is assiduously 
 continuing his observations upon the habits of these wheat in¬ 
 sects, submitting specimens of them to Dr. Sichel and M. Amyot, 
 distinguished entomologists of Paris, for the authentic determi¬ 
 nation of their scientific names. He has heretofore done me the 
 favor of forwarding to me specimens of these insects, and the 
 past winter, with another suite of specimens from him came one 
 of the most precious remittances which could be made me from 
 abroad for aiding me in the researches in which I am now en¬ 
 gaged. This was a vial filled with different insects just as they 
 are promiscuously gathered by the net in the wheat fields of 
 France. I am^ hereby enabled quite accurately to compare the 
 insect enemies which the cultivators of this grain in Europe have 
 to contend against, with those which we are obliged to encounter 
 here. And the result of this comparison as contained in a sub¬ 
 sequent page of this report cannot fail of deeply interesting the 
 reader. 
 
 Its American History. 
 
 Previous to the arrival of the wheat midge upon the American 
 continent, a malady in the wheat appears to have sometimes 
 occurred, which produced a similar appearance in the grain to 
 that now caused by this insect. One of my neighbors has here¬ 
 tofore informed me ho has a very clear recollection of the fact, that 
 in his youth a field of wheat on his father’s farm upwards of forty 
 years ago presented the same aspect with which we are now 
 familiar in fields infested by the midge — this field yielding but a 
 scanty crop of very inferior grain. I have supposed it was pro¬ 
 bably some similar appearance seen in the wheat, that has led 
 Mr. Elner Rowell to state that the midge occasioned injury in 
 some places in Athens county, Ohio, in the year 1821. (Pat. 
 Off. Report, 1852—’3, p. 252.) And to see if any further light 
 could be obtained on this subject, in the Circular soliciting infor¬ 
 mation upon the wheat midge issued by the State Agricultural 
 Society in May, 1858, the query was inserted — “ Before the midge 
 came in your vicinity, is any instance remembered thirty years 
 ago or more, in which a field of wheat was badly injured in the 
 same manner it now is by this insect — with the heads rough and 
 ragged and the kernels shrivelled ? If so, state the year and the 
 particulars so far as remembered.” A negative response was 
 
750 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 MIDGE. PROBABLY BROUGHT FIRST TO QUEBEC. APPEARS IN VERMONT. 
 
 returned to this inquiry in all except two instances. John John¬ 
 ston states that a number of years ago, perhaps about thirty, the 
 heads of wheat were injured, resembling the heads injured by 
 midge, but it was not midge, but a small white worm, which did 
 considerable damage. The following year we still had a few, but 
 since I have never seen them. (Transactions, 1848, p. 295.) 
 Joseph Watson states that in Schoharie county about the year 
 1835—’G, a worm a quarter of an inch long, white with a brown 
 head, appeared in the wheat heads, and roughed them, or the 
 birds did it in catching the worms, but they have not appeared 
 since. (Trans. 1848, p. 301.) 
 
 As this insect first attracted notice on this continent in the 
 northwestern part of Vermont bordering on Canada, it has here¬ 
 tofore been a mystery to me how it could have become introdu¬ 
 ced so far into the interior of the country, some two hundred 
 miles from the sea-coast, and fifty miles from Montreal, the nearest 
 inland port open to the sea. A statement which we meet with 
 in a letter from Hon. Janies S. Wadsworth, throws important 
 light on this subject. He says that Mr. Coverdale, a neighbor of 
 his, an Englishman by birth, resided in the year 1828 upon the 
 St. Lawrence, forty miles above Quebec, and met with the wheat 
 midge there, recognizing it as the same insect he had previously 
 seen in England. (Transactions, 1858, p. 300.) Hence there is 
 every probability that this insect was originally brought from 
 Great Britain to Quebec, when lying in its larva state in some 
 unthreshed wheat; and that it extended itself from thence along 
 the St. Lawrence and Chambly (Sorelle) rivers, and thus reached 
 Vermont—the inhabitants along those rivers being so little intel¬ 
 ligent and the wheat crop there so scanty and uncertain, that 
 any injury which the insect occasioned failed to excite public 
 attention. 
 
 A letter in the New England Farmer, (vol. xix, p. 301) from 
 Solomon W. Jewett of Weybridge, Vt., one of the most distin¬ 
 guished farmers in his state at that period and a frequent contri¬ 
 butor to our agricultural periodicals, forms our earliest record of 
 the appearance of the wheat midge upon this continent. He 
 states that it was first seen in northwestern Vermont in the year 
 1820, though it was not until 1828 and ’29 that it became so 
 numerous and destructive as to attract public attention. And 
 all the other early accounts concur in representing it as having 
 overspread the surrounding country from that point. 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 751 
 
 MIDGE. ARRIVES IN EASTERN NEW YORK AND MAINE. 
 
 Here in Washington county, N. Y., one hundred and fifty miles 
 south of Canada line, previous to the arrival of the midge we had 
 intelligence of its cutting off the wheat crops to the north of us 
 in Vermont, and that it was steadily advancing towards us. The 
 larv® or little yellow worms were found in our wheat here in 
 1830, and in 1832 they had so multiplied as to completely des¬ 
 troy the crop in many fields. This was the year in which the 
 malignant cholera swept over our land, and it was a common re¬ 
 mark that what the pestilence spared famine bade fair to destroy. 
 
 It was currently reported that by mowing the wheat and dry¬ 
 ing it for hay while it was yet green and the worms were small, 
 it would destroy them. This practice was resorted to in numer¬ 
 ous instances, in fields where such multitudes of worms were 
 found in the wheat ears as to render it evident that none of the 
 kernels would fill. But no benefit was perceived to result from 
 this measure. For two or three years the wheat crop continued 
 to be ravaged in this manner, when further attempts to raise this 
 grain were abandoned, only small patches of wheat being after¬ 
 wards seen here and there, in this quarter of the country. 
 
 Previous to the arrival of this insect, a considerable quantity 
 of wheat was annually sent to market from this county, but at 
 no time since has it been able to grow but a small fraction of the 
 amount it has needed for its own consumption. 
 
 Some two years later the midge was progressing on its way 
 south, through the adjoining counties of Rensselaer and Saratoga, 
 devastating the wheat fields there in the same manner it had done 
 here. I well remember the merriment that was occasioned in one 
 of the villages of the latter county in the year 1834, by an aged 
 and respectable though illiterate farmer, reporting through the 
 place that “ them pesky weasels had destroyed all his wheat.” 
 Yet thousands of our people continue to this day to speak of this 
 insect under a name that originated in ignorance little less 
 gross. 
 
 In the year last mentioned, the midge having advanced east¬ 
 ward across Vermont and New Hampshire, began to show itself 
 in the state of Maine ; and in the opposite direction, it had be¬ 
 come 60 numerous around Montreal as to injure the crop there. 
 
 In 1835 and ’6, over all the territory to which it had now ex¬ 
 tended and where wheat still continued to be sowed, it was so 
 extremely destructive, that further attempts to cultivate this 
 
752 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 MIDOB. ADVANCES THROUGH CENTRAL NEW YORK AND IN CANADA. 
 
 grain were abandoned. Less interest was consequently taken in 
 this subject, and for a few of the following years we notice but 
 little on record respecting it, except that it continued to advance 
 in our state west up the Mohawk river, and south along the Hud¬ 
 son, occupying Columbia and Dutchess counties. Though I see 
 it occasionally mentioned as occurring on Long Island, I infer 
 from the letter of Hon. J. B. Smith (Transactions of 1858, p. 297) 
 that it has never invaded the eastern part of that island, and 
 that probably at the southern extremity of our state the midge 
 reaches a climate too warm and where the wheat crop comes for¬ 
 ward too early for it to thrive and be destructive as it is farther 
 north. 
 
 Having advanced up the St. Lawrence to Lake Ontario, it in 
 1849—’50 commenced its destructive career in the counties along 
 the north side of that lake, travelling westward it is said at the 
 rate of about nine miles each year. At the same time it was 
 making a similar progress on the opposite side of the lake into 
 the great grain growing district of our own state. Having ex¬ 
 tended itself through central New York, it was quite injurious in 
 Seneca county in 1849, and appeared in Wayne county in the 
 following year. 
 
 We now come to a remarkable period in our experience with 
 this insect, showing how very tantalizing it is, and how unable 
 we are from the indications of one or two years to form any cor¬ 
 rect judgment of what its numbers will be the succeeding year. 
 
 In 1852, although in those districts at the west where it had 
 newly arrived it continued to do formidable injury, over all the 
 territory where it had been longer established it appears to have 
 occasioned but slight losses. And the following year, 1853, we 
 were the most exempt from it that we had been at any time 
 before, since its arrival. Here in my own vicinity, although the 
 yellow larv® were to be found in the wheat bars of some of our 
 fields, they were so very few that it was the current report that 
 no injui-y whatever had been done by this insect. This led to a 
 much more extensive sowing of wheat than had been customary. 
 
 But the j'ear 1854 proved to be one of the most disastrous to 
 the wheat crop over the whole country, that had yet been ex¬ 
 perienced. It was devastated as.it never had been before except 
 when the insect had newly arrived, and in some localities it was 
 even more destructive now than it had been then. When many 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 753 
 
 MIDGE. AMERICAN HISTORY. 1854. VERY DESTRUCTIVE. 
 
 of the wasted fields were still remaining in public view, at the 
 August meeting of the American Institute, Mr. Solon Robinson 
 pronounced this insect to be the most terrible pest ever encoun¬ 
 tered by wheat growers. In my own vicinity many of the fields 
 were not harvested. As illustrating the personal losses sus¬ 
 tained by our agricultural population from this scourge, I may 
 here state that one of my neighbors had sowed fourteen acres to 
 wheat, on lands in excellent condition for this crop. But at 
 harvest time there was nothing to gather therefrom, save the 
 yellow larval, of which a handful, or at least a palmful might be 
 obtained on slightly rubbing any one of the ears; and after toil¬ 
 ing to feed and fatten the vermin he demurred against granting 
 them the additional favor of a shelter within his barn. But for 
 the midge his land would have } r ielded at least fifteen bushels 
 per acre, showing his loss from this pest that year to have been 
 upwards of two hundred dollars, estimating wheat at its usual 
 price. And this is only an ordinary case, every neighborhood 
 through the country abounding in similar instances among our 
 common farmers, whilst on the larger farms where fifty and a 
 hundred acres or more are customarily sowed to this grain the 
 individual losses have been greater in the same ratio. 
 
 And when we attempt to reckon up the amount of damage 
 sustained by the State of New York from this minute and seem¬ 
 ingly powerless and insignificant insect, we almost distrust the 
 evidence of statistics and figures, they present us with sums 
 which appear so fabulous. The wheat crop of the State, not¬ 
 withstanding the diminution it was receiving from the midge, 
 amounted in 1850, according to the census of that year, to over 
 thirteen millions of bushels (13,121,408). Now, if we suppose 
 only one-third of this amount to have been wasted by the midge 
 in 1854, estimating the wheat at $2.15 per bushel, which was its 
 average value in our markets during the autumn and early win¬ 
 ter of that year, it presents us with over nine million four hun¬ 
 dred and three thousand dollars as tho loss sustained. But this 
 amount, enormous as it appears, is but an approach to the real 
 loss, as we perceive when we recur to the facts that tho crop on 
 whiclvthis estimate is based was itself materially diminished by 
 this insect, that a much larger crop was sowed in 1854 than in 
 1849-50, and that far more than a third of the crop w r as probably 
 destroyed, since many fields w r ere totally lost and others scarcely 
 
 [Ag. Trans. J 48 
 
754 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 HIDOB. AMERICAN HISTORY. 1864 . IMMENSE LOSSES FROM IT.’ ’ 
 
 repaid the expense of harvesting, whilst those from which any- 
 thing that could be regarded as a fair crop was obtained were 
 few indeed. Over large sections of the State it was reported 
 that not a third or a fourth of an ordinary yield was received. 
 Robert Howell, Esq., writing me this year from Tioga county, 
 says—“ This insect has done more mischief in this vicinity this 
 year than ever before. A number of fields of wheat were not 
 cut at all. The crop is not one-sixth of an ordinary one.” And 
 the statements from many other places were of the same purport 
 with this. The most authentic information probably that this 
 subject is susceptible of was obtained by the State Agricultural 
 Society, which, in gathering the agricultural statistics of that 
 year, inserted in its circular the query : “ To what extent was 
 the wheat crop in your vicinity injured by the midge ?” The 
 Secretary of the Society informed me, that on getting together 
 all the replies to this inquiry, and placing everything at the 
 lowest figure, so as to be certain the estimate was within the 
 truth, the wheat which this insect had that year destroyed in our 
 State, at its then current market price, exceeded in value fifteen 
 millions of dollars! This amount would be more than a third 
 larger, if estimated at the price to which wheat afterwards arose 
 that winter. Indeed, the more wo examine this subject the more 
 we become impressed with the justness of the remark of Mr. J. 
 Watson of Wayne county, who says, “ the loss or damage to our 
 country caused by this yellow mite it is hard to over-estimate.” 
 
 Through Western Pennsylvania, Ohio and along the eastern 
 side of Indiana, the wheat is reported this year to have been cut 
 off to a great extent by the midge. How it passed by Western 
 New York and Canada West to reach these States and become 
 so widely distributed over them, as it appears to have done, I 
 know not. Its presence there, however, is too well authenti¬ 
 cated to be doubted. Mr. Robert Richardson, who was familiar 
 with thiB insect as it had appeared in my own vicinity, from 
 whence he removed to Marion county in the central part of Ohio, 
 this year (1854), informs me the larva) of the midge had been 
 noticed in the wheat of that vicinity about five years, he was 
 told, their numbers being very few at first, but gradually in¬ 
 creasing, till this year they, made nearly a clean sweep of the 
 crop. Many fields were not harvested and others were scarcely 
 worth harvesting, one man obtaining but a bushel per acre. Mr. 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 755 
 
 MIDGE. AMERICAN HISTORY. 1855-1857. IN GENESEE TALLEY. 
 
 J. PI. Klippart, Secretary of the Ohio Board of Agriculture, re¬ 
 ports the wheat crop of the State this year to have been less 
 than twelve millions of bushels, whilst it was over seventeen 
 millions the preceding and nineteen and a half the following 
 year. From this it will bo perceived that the amount of loss 
 this year in Ohio closely corresponds with what is above stated 
 ol' New York. 
 
 The Canadas also suffered in the same manner. This and the 
 following years the wheat is stated to have been much injured 
 by this insect along the Saguenay river some eighty miles beyond 
 Quebec, this being the most northern point of its extent within 
 our knowledge. About this time we see it is also spoken of in 
 Nova Scotia as being “ the most destructive of all wheat blight." 
 
 In consequence of the disastrous results of the year 1854 much 
 less wheat was sowed in 1855 and ’56, and the crops of those 
 years in the eastern section of our State sustained but little 
 injury. But in Canada the destructiveness continued without 
 abatement, the loss there being estimated to exceed two and a 
 half millions of dollars in 1856 (Hind’s Essay). 
 
 The granary of our State, Monroe and Livingston counties, 
 producing two and a half million bushels of the choicest quality 
 of wheat, was now invaded. Mr. Wadsworth gives a succinct 
 view of its career here, from which we extract as follows : The 
 midge was seen here a little in 1854; it came from the east; 
 more were seen in 1855, doing no material damage in Livingston 
 but considerable in Monroe. But in 1856 the midge took from 
 one-lialf to two-thirds of the crops in Livingston on the uplands 
 and nearly all on the flats. At least two thousand acres, on flats 
 which would have yielded thirty bushels per acre, were not har¬ 
 vested. It was still worse in 1857, taking over two-thirds of the 
 crop. And in 1858, of the white wheats there were very little 
 to harvest. Spring barley also was very much injured this year 
 by midge, in some fields half to two-thirds of the crop being 
 taken. Very little white wheat is now sown in western New 
 York and the midge has reduced the value of all the wheat 
 lands at least forty per cent. Lands which sold here readily for 
 seventy dollars can now be bought for forty dollars per acre. 
 (Transactions 1858, p. 300.) No words of ours can add any¬ 
 thing to this graphic picture of the doings of this tiny insect. 
 
 In Canada the midge had in 1856 extended itself through the 
 
756 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 1IIDGB. AMERICAN HISTORY. 1857 — 1859 . 
 
 counties along the lake shore west of Toronto and those border¬ 
 ing on the Niagara river, committing excessive ravages in the 
 latter. It is also reported as having been seen this year at dif¬ 
 ferent points to the west of this and found common though not 
 destructive along the Detroit river. On the Michigan side of 
 this river it is said to have made its appearance previously, in 
 1853 (Hind’s Essay.) 
 
 In 1851 this insect was again excessively numerous and des¬ 
 tructive. Here in Washington county the wheat was so badly 
 injured that many fields were not harvested. An intelligent far¬ 
 mer of Granville, whose business rendered him well acquainted 
 with that town, informed me that full two-thirds if not three- 
 fourths of the crop there was destroyed ; and other towns were 
 little if any more fortunate. Its ravages in the Genesee district 
 (Monroe and Livingston counties) have already been mentioned. 
 Through the state the loss this year probably exceeded what it 
 was in 1854, the important western section now participating 
 with the rest of the state in this calamity. In Canada it was 
 also terribly destructive, taking one-third of the entire wl*3at 
 crop of the province it is said, or about eight millions of bushels. 
 
 There was no wheat sowed in my neighborhood in 1858, the 
 only time such an event has occurred, within my memory. A 
 field of barley within my observation was as badly infested by 
 the midge as wheat commonly is. Though this insect was pre¬ 
 valent over the country generally, this year, it does not appear 
 to have occasioned important losses except in those western coun¬ 
 ties where it had newly arrived. 
 
 Early in 1859 we had exulting accounts from Seneca county 
 that the midge had almost totally disappeared there, it being 
 conjectured that the heavy frost on the night of June 4 th, occur¬ 
 ring when the insect was about changing to its perfect state, had 
 destroyed it. It is more probable that having had its period 
 of extreme destructiveness after its first arrival, it had now 
 declined and measurably vanished, the same as noticed of it in 
 so many other places. For other parts of the state to which the 
 frost had equally extended had no such exemption. Here at the 
 east the midge was certainly as common as it ordinarily is, and 
 some fields were materially injured by it, although over the state 
 generally the wheat crop of this year was a remarkably fine one. 
 
 One of the most unexpected and remarkable vicissitudes that has 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 75T 
 
 MIDGE. AMERICAN HISTORY. 1880 . IT WHOLLY VANISHES. 
 
 ever been noticed in the history of this insect, took place within 
 my observation in the following year, I860. The flies made their 
 appearance as usual in June. Reading by lamp light near an open 
 window each evening, in order to observe the date of their com¬ 
 ing abroad, it was on the 13th of the month this year that the 
 first midge was seen alighted upon the paper before me. And 
 the weather being oppressively warm and sultry, quite a number 
 were noticed upon the two following evenings, in the same situa¬ 
 tion, arid also smothered by the heat of the lamp’s chimney and 
 lying dead, upon the table around it among a multitude of other 
 midges, gnats and other small insects, this species being readily 
 distinguished among them by its bright yellow color. The suc¬ 
 ceeding evenings were more cool and no more of the flies were 
 seen. Not doubting but that they had all gathered into the 
 wheat fields and that I should find their progeny there a few 
 weeks later, no further notice was given them. 
 
 But, to my surprise, on going to the wheat fields in July, I 
 could find none of tho midge’s larva; there. I was quite solici¬ 
 tous of obtaining some of these larvae, for further observations 
 and experiments, preparatory to writing this account. I had 
 never before experienced any difficulty in finding them. Com¬ 
 mon as I knew them to have been the year before, I felt confi¬ 
 dent that a few of them at least could be found now. But on 
 examining the fields in different directions to a distance of four 
 and five miles, not a single one could I anywhere discover. Now 
 becoming eager to know if other places were similarly exempt, 
 as the wheat was ripening and almost ready for tho harvest, I 
 made an excursion northward into Vermont to a distance of some 
 fifty miles, looking closely at every wheat field along tho road¬ 
 side, and plucking and examining the ears of every variety of 
 aspect that I could select upon the margin of many of the fields. 
 But not one of the yellow larvm could I find, and nowhere could 
 a wheat head be seen that was ragged and torn by the yellow 
 birds to feed on these larvae therein. The ears of wheat were 
 everywhere noticed as being remarkably large, plump and 
 smooth ; and wherever it had chanced to be sowed, through all 
 this district, such a yield of wheat was this year obtained as 
 only persons who were now in the decline of life recollected to 
 have been produced on the same farms in their youth. Our local 
 newspapers contained frequent notices of the large amount of 
 
758 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 MIDOR. AMERICA!* DISTORT. 1881 . IT RETCRE8 AOAIIf. 
 
 wheat to the acre which had been grown by one person and ano¬ 
 ther in their vicinity. Thus there was every indication that this 
 great evil had left us. As one of our leading city papers, the 
 New York Tribune, was suggesting the importance of importing 
 the parasitic destroyers of the midge from Europe, as the most 
 feasible means of subduing this enemy that was occasioning such 
 vast losses in our state and country, that periodical was informed 
 that from the present indications the measure it was proposing 
 would be unnecessary. On maturely considering all the facts, the 
 opinion to Which I arrived at this time, and which I expressed both 
 publicly and in private was, that it must not bo supposed that 
 this insect had wholly left us. Scattered here and there in the 
 wheat heads, so sparsely as to elude detection, it was probable 
 that a few of these larva; had been present, sufficient to continue the 
 species. But if so, its numbers were so extremely limited, that 
 it would bo impossible for it to come abroad the following sum¬ 
 mer in sufficient force to do any appreciable injury to the wheat 
 crop. Therefore this grain might be liberally sowed, in the eas¬ 
 tern section of the state at least ; for, though other casualties 
 might perchance occur to prevent so abundant a yield as had 
 now been obtained, we had every assurance that this most dreaded 
 of all enemies, the midge, could not multiply sufficiently to mo¬ 
 lest this crop to any sensible degree the following year. 
 
 Beyond the sphere of my own observation, it appeared from 
 the statistics returned to the State Agricultural Society, and 
 from information given me by persons assembled from the differ¬ 
 ent sections of the state at the annual meeting of the Society, 
 that a few of the yellow larvae had certainly been present in the 
 wheat this year, in Seneca, Madison and other central counties 
 of the state, whilst farther west, particularly in the Genesee dis¬ 
 trict, they had been quite abundant, though probably, from the 
 season having favored a vigorous growth of this crop, a good 
 yield of wheat had been obtained, notwithstanding their presence. 
 
 It was with the liveliest interest that I awaited the develop¬ 
 ments of this present year, 186L I thought it doubtful whether 
 I should see any flies of the wheat midge this year. But, punc¬ 
 tually as the period for their coming forth returned they made their 
 appearance, two being seen around the lamp, June 11th, and seve¬ 
 ral more the following evening. And June 14th, upon repairing 
 to a field of winter wheat, now little more than knee high and with 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 759 
 
 midge* its local distort. 
 
 the heads just protruded from their sheaths, to my astonishment 
 I found the flies present thereon in abundance, and already busily 
 engaged in depositing their eggs. Of no fact was I ever better 
 assured—there had not been a sufficient number of larva) last 
 summer in all the wheat fields in this neighborhood to produce 
 one-tenth of the number of flies which I there beheld. The con¬ 
 clusion is irresistible, therefore, that these insects had been nur¬ 
 tured in some other situation than in the wheat. And for nearly 
 a month this field continued to be thronged with these flies; their 
 larvae soon appeared in the wheat ears ; the yellow birds somewhat 
 later commenced opening the chaff to feed upon these larvae, and 
 everything took place in its customary round. Though as these 
 pages are closing for the press, the wheat is not ripe for the har¬ 
 vest, enough is revealed to show that the crop in this field will 
 be severely injured, and that other fields in the neighborhood will 
 suffer to a considerable extent. A person in passing my door, 
 calls to make enquiries on this subject, saying that through his 
 town they find the yellow larv® so numerous in the wheat ears 
 they fear the crop will be ruined. Beyond this I have no intel¬ 
 ligence as yet of what the result of this year’s harvest promises 
 to be. 
 
 The first arrival of the wheat midge at any locality is dis¬ 
 covered by a few of the larvae occurring in the heads of 
 the growing wheat after it has flowered and before it is fully 
 ripe. The next year these are found to be much more nume¬ 
 rous. And usually by the third year it becomes so multiplied as 
 to almost totally destroy the crop. And this destruction con¬ 
 tinues, so long as its purveyor, man, will furnish it the amount 
 of food which its legions require. But man soon tires of labor¬ 
 ing exclusively for its benefit, and after two or three years he 
 abandons the cultivation of wheat. The insect now appears to 
 nearly vanish. The few small patches of wheat which continue 
 to be grown are but little molested, and the idea becomes cur¬ 
 rent that the insect is “ starved out.” The growing of wheat is 
 thereupon ventured upon somewhat more extensively, when it 
 soon becomes evident that the enemy is still there in full force. 
 Every few years a season peculiarly favorable to it occurs, when 
 the wheat crop is everywhere devastated by it. In the inter¬ 
 vening periods its depredations vary from light to severe. And 
 no one is able to foresee when it is safe to give his land and 
 
760 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 MIDGE, POPULATION DIMINISHED By IT. 
 
 labor to this crop. Though the insects are very few one year, 
 they may be excessively numerous the following year. And 
 from no circumstance can it be known at the time of sowing 
 wheat whether the crop will bo remunerative or a total failure. 
 
 Wherever the midge arrives it permanently remains, laying 
 the wheat crop largely under contribution for its support, and 
 rendering the cultivation of this grain too uncertain to be 
 hazarded except to a very limited extent. Thus throughout the 
 older settled portions of the Northern States and British Pro¬ 
 vinces, the breadth of land sowed to wheat at present makes no 
 approach to what was customary before this insect invaded us. 
 Every farmer then made it a matter of pride to raise at least all 
 he required for bread for his own family, and every district sent 
 a considerable surplus each year to market. But in consequence 
 of the presence of this insect, over all the New England States 
 and all New York and Canada except their western parts, wheat 
 has wholly ceased to be a staple product, and in its stead wool 
 growing and dairying have become the leading pursuits. These 
 require more land and fewer laborers than grain culture. And 
 thus this insect has done much towards rendering our population 
 stationary and declining, as it has been for a few of the last 
 decades, in the rural districts through all the vast region alluded 
 to. It has been one prominent cause of that extensive emigra¬ 
 tion to the new lands of the west which has been going on during 
 the past thirty years. Men have disdained remaining here, til¬ 
 ling lands which would no longer yield them the bread they 
 required for their own sustenance. And it is with a melancholy 
 interest that we contemplate the changes which this insect has 
 thus in many instances effected. Upon one of the Vermont hills 
 within sight of my residence, from which in former years seven 
 stalwart men regularly made their appearance at the militia 
 musters and other public gatherings of their town, the hearth 
 fires are now all extinguished, the humblo dwellings are demo¬ 
 lished, and only the bleating of sheep greets the ear where the 
 merry prattle of children was then heard—by a command as im¬ 
 perative as that of the angel to Lot in Sodom, these men, one 
 after another, having been impelled to seek elsewhere that bread 
 for their wives and little ones, which they found they could no 
 longer glean upon that hallowed spot, “wedded love’s first 
 home.” 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 761 
 
 1UDQK. THB FLY. APPEARS IN JUNE. 
 
 The Fly and its Habits. 
 
 It is a little before the middle of June, in Eastern New York, 
 that the fly of the wheat midge comes abroad each ,year, to 
 deposit its eggs in the wheat ears. Straggling individuals may 
 sometimes be seen, several days before the time of the general 
 hatching of the brood. Thus, I once met with one of these flies 
 upon the first day of June. I have frequently noticed that about 
 the twelfth day of June, two or three very hot sultry days oc¬ 
 curred, bringing these flies out suddenly in full force. This is 
 the time when our farmers are usually engaged in the first hoe¬ 
 ing of their Indian corn, the leaves of which are but a few inches 
 high. The white flowers on the locust trees are now fading and 
 beginning to drop to the ground. And the same sultry evening 
 air which brings the midge abroad, also brings out the earliest 
 fire-flies. In different years I have observed that it was upon 
 the same evening on which the first solitary sparkling of this 
 insect was seen that the first midge was also noticed alighted 
 around the lamp. These marks will probably serve better than 
 the date at a particular locality, to indicate the time when the 
 flies of the wheat midge are making their appearance, as they 
 doubtless come out somewhat earlier to the south and later to 
 the north of us. And if the weather be equable, with no very 
 warm days towards the middle of June, their hatching will no 
 doubt be more gradual, new individuals continuing to come forth 
 for a week or more. 
 
 I suppose it to be mostly in the night time that the flies are 
 disclosed from their pupas, coming out in those fields where 
 wheat was grown the preceding year ; and they are immediately 
 flying about, everywhere, in search of the fields where wheat is 
 now growing, in which fields they become gathered, mostly 
 within twenty-four hours, it is probable, after they are hatched. 
 The sexes in the meantime having paired, very few males ever 
 accompany the females to the wheat fields. Hence, in addition 
 to their other crimes, these insects have been supposed to be 
 most gross polygamists, as not one male could be found among 
 the wheat where were hundreds of females. But the few flies I 
 have bred from the larvse, have given a much less disproportion 
 in the relative numbers of the sexes than has hitherto been sup¬ 
 posed. I liavo captured male flies among the wheat in only a 
 
762 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 MIDGE. PLY. EFFECT OF HEAT AND COLD ON IT. 
 
 few instances, and these, so far as I can recollect, havo always 
 been where wheat was reared upon the adjoining lands the year 
 before. Collectors will probably supply themselves with the 
 males most readily, by searching for them in the last year’s 
 wheat fields, at the time when the females first begin to appear 
 abroad. 
 
 Each fly probably lives about three weeks, under ordinary cir¬ 
 cumstances. Thus they continue to be seen abroad about a 
 month, their numbers lessening in July till towards the middle 
 of that month, when the last ones disappear. But in years when 
 this fly is very numerous, and especially if the season be a very 
 wet one, they continue much longer. Thus, in the year 1845 a 
 few of them continued to be met with upon the window panes, 
 almost daily, until the sixteenth day of August. 
 
 Many persons have the idea that these insects always come 
 abroad at a particular time in the year, regardless of the state 
 of the atmosphere. Hence, when warm genial weather brings 
 vegetation rapidly forward in May or the early part of June, we 
 frequently hear it remarked, that the wheat will hereby be so 
 much forwarded, probably, that it will escape injury from the 
 midge. But the truth is, the same temperature which advances 
 or retards the progress of vegetation operates similarly and to 
 an equal degree upon the insect tribes. A warm season hastens, 
 a cold season retards insects and vegetation alike. Consequently 
 each particular insect comes forth at the very time when the 
 vegetation on which it preys is so advanced as to be adapted to 
 its wants. Of this, as a general law of nature there is the full¬ 
 est evidence. And that these small delicate insects are no excep¬ 
 tion to this law is quite certain. 
 
 In order to demonstrate the influence of temperature in matur¬ 
 ing and bringing forth this group of insects to which the wheat 
 midge pertains, on the sixteenth of March, when the Willow gall 
 midge (Cecidomyia Salicis, Fitch) was passing from its larva into 
 its pupa state, I gathered a quantity of the galls containing this 
 insect, and inclosed them in three glass bottles, putting ten galls 
 in each bottle. One of these bottles I placed in a room warmed 
 night and day to a temperature of about 70 degrees of Fahren¬ 
 heit’s scale ; the second I placed out doors, in the shade; the third 
 bottle was placed on the surface of ice in an ice house. In ten 
 days six flies had hatched from the galls in the warmed room, the 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 763 
 
 MIDGE. FLY. EFFECT OF MOISTURE AND DRYNESS ON IT. 
 
 other galls in this first bottle giving out parasites afterwards. 
 
 In forty-five days after they were inclosed, (May 1st) five flies 
 came out in the bottlo out doors, their parasites subsequently ap¬ 
 pearing as in the first case. From the bottle in the ice house, 
 four galls were now taken and placed out doors in a separate bot¬ 
 tle. From these two flies hatched fifteen days afterwards. 
 Finally, the bottle in the ice house with the six remaining galls 
 was taken thence and placed out doors on the first of June, and 
 a fly came out therein on the twelfth of June, nothing more com¬ 
 ing from these galls afterwards. 
 
 Thus it will be seen that the Willow gall midge, which natu¬ 
 rally comes abroad about the first of May, can by cold be 
 delayed in its appearance till some six weeks after that time, or 
 by warmth it can be brought out six weeks before its time. 
 Indeed, it may be brought out at any time during the winter, by 
 placing the galls in a warm room, as I have repeatedly done. 
 
 It is also worthy of notice, that these insects had made no ad¬ 
 vance during the ten weeks they were lying in the ice house, as 
 the galls were twelve days in giving out their insects in June, 
 when the temperature out doors was near what it was within 
 doors in March, where they had hatched in ten days time. It 
 thus appears that when they are in a temperature which is down 
 nearly to the freezing point, these midges and probably most 
 other insects remain stationary. 
 
 The most important characteristic of this fly of the wheat 
 midge is its extreme sensitiveness to the hygrometric condition 
 of the atmosphere. Moisture is its life ; dryness smothers and 
 suffocates it. It is •active and perfectly at home in a humid 
 atmosphere; a dry atmosphere it cannot breathe, it cannot en¬ 
 dure. This statement is confirmed by numerous observations, 
 and this simple fact serves to explain most of the other things 
 which have been noticed and recorded in the economy and habits 
 of these insects. 
 
 In consequence of this sensitiveness the fly is unable to remain 
 about the wheat heads during the day time in ordinary weather. 
 The warmth of the sun renders the atmosphere so dry there that 
 it cannot abide it. It therefore drops itself down to the lower 
 part of the stalks of the grain, in which shaded situation the 
 humidity arising from the ground renders the atmosphere conge¬ 
 nial to it. It there remains at rest during the heat of the day, 
 
764 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 MIDGE. PLY. A PIT JOBS PAYORS IT. 
 
 standing upon the grain stalks with its head upward. As the 
 sun declines and the dews of evening are beginning to fall, it 
 leaves its retreat and returns to its operations upon the wheat 
 heads. Whilst the sun is yet shining, numbers of them may be 
 seen returned to their work upon the wheat heads, indicating that 
 it is not the light of tho sun’s rays as has heretofore been sup¬ 
 posed that they avoid, so much as the drying heat of those rays. 
 Upon damp cloudy days, also, the insect remains at its work upon 
 the heads as active as during the night. Or if a tree bo stand¬ 
 ing in the field, or a forest borders it upon one side, within the 
 shade thus produced it continues its operations more or less dur¬ 
 ing the day. And hence, as has often been noticed, those spots 
 which are shaded by trees have been severely devastated or oven 
 destroyed when all the rest of the field was but little injured. 
 
 Hence also, wheat fields upon low lands, in the valleys and 
 upon the flats along rivers, are always more injured by the midge 
 than those upon the more dry uplands and hills. This has been 
 noticed everywhere. And where a field has low marshy spots 
 within or adjoining it, the grain adjacent to such spots is very 
 perceptibly injured worse than it is elsewhere. 
 
 As it is from the middle to the end of June that this fly is 
 abroad and actively engaged ■ in depositing its eggs, if the wea¬ 
 ther at that time is extremely, dry the wheat crop that year 
 escapes injury; whilst, on the other hand, if the last half of June 
 is unusually wet, cloudy and showery, this grain will be severely 
 devastated. From the close observation I have been giving to 
 this subject the past and present years, the one having a dry the 
 other a wet June, as fully narrated on a preceding page, I do not 
 doubt but that I am safe in stating the above as a general rule, 
 although I have not at hand such meteorological records as 
 enable me to be fully assured that such has been the stato of the 
 weather in June, in every instance when this insect has been very 
 numerous on the one hand or very sparse on the other. The few 
 notes, however, touching upon this matter, which I am able to 
 meet with among my memoranda, are probably of sufficient value 
 to be here presented. I find it noticed in 1852, that it was re¬ 
 markably dry and our streams of water were all unusually low the 
 last of June; and in 1853, that the weather was very dry in June 
 but not afterwards. Upon referring to the foregoing history I 
 have prepared of this insect, I find I have stated that in these two 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 765 
 
 midge, flt. how recognized. 
 
 years the midge had so nearly vanished that our farmers thought 
 they might sow wheat without fears of its injury by this enemy. 
 And then came the disastrous year of 1854. I find I have made 
 a note of this year as having been one of the driest ever known 
 through the Northern States. But did this drouth commence 
 before July? Records which I have not at hand will show. 
 With the views I have confidently formed, the last of June this 
 year could not have been dry. (P. S. I find in the Cultivator of 
 October 1854 (p. 307) a record of S. B. Buckley, showing that at 
 Dryden, N. Y. this year April was a wet month, seven inches and 
 80.tOOths of rain falling; in May 2.82; June 3.58 ; July about 
 one inch; on the second of August half an inch, and none after¬ 
 wards that season. This corroborates the opinion I had formed.) 
 
 I next come to consider the marks by which we recognizo an 
 insect to be the wheat midge. What are the characters by which 
 we can distinguish this fly from all others ? To answer this 
 question would embarrass Linnaeus himself. In the present state 
 of our knowledge we are quite unable to erect such landmarks 
 and draw such lines as will clearly include all the flies ot this 
 species and exclude all others. We doubt whether it will ever 
 be possible to do this. 
 
 I may say in general terms, that, as I now no more meet with 
 individuals having spotted wings, I regard all the bright yellow 
 midges which occur in our wheat fields during the latter half of 
 June as being this species. And this is the most simple and clear 
 definition of the wheat midge I am able to give. But in the 
 swarms of this insect which occur upon wheat, particular indivi¬ 
 duals will be found varying so far from the others, that, were they 
 captured anywhere else, we could scarcely deem them to be this 
 species. Thus dwarfs are met with, not more than half the 
 usual size. Their color varies, many being paler, of a lemon 
 rather than an orange yellow, or as pale even as cream color. 
 The wings, generally perfectly clear and glassy, are in some indi¬ 
 viduals perceptibly smoky. And when we come to minutely ex¬ 
 amine particular organs and members, the antennas tor instance, 
 or the veins of the wings, we so frequently meet with portions of 
 them which are abortive or atrophied and so abnormal, that we 
 despair of finding in parts subject to such defects, any characters 
 which can serve to rigidly distinguish this from other species. 
 How much then is our embarrassment increased when we take in 
 
766 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 MIDGE. PLT. HEAD DESCRIBED. 
 
 hand specimens which we gather in other situations than on 
 wheat, those which we sweep from grass and weeds, or capture 
 from the window panes in our dwellings, where this species occurs 
 imperfectly developed perhaps, from having been nurtured in the 
 grasses on aliment less nutricious and palatable to it than that of 
 the wheat, and where we find it in company with other midges 
 similar to it in their color and size. Every one will be sensible, 
 from these remarks, that when found in other situations than on 
 the wheat it will often be impossible to determine whether a spe¬ 
 cimen we have in hand is this or some kindred species. We can 
 only recognize it then, as being the wheat midge, when it clearly 
 shows certain characters, which we regard as the essential marks 
 of this species, all of which marks no other species except this 
 can possess. And the marks whereby I pronounce a specimen 
 found elsewhere than on wheat to be this species, are 
 
 The body nearly one-tenth of an inch long, bright orange or lemon yellow, and tarnished 
 or slightly smoky on the back forward of the wings; the wings clear and glassy and having 
 a small cross-vein near their base; the antennte about as long as the body and composed of 
 twelve oblong joints which are narrower in their middles and separated by short pedicels. 
 
 We are assured a midge-fly is this species when it possesses all 
 these characters. But many flies also pertain to this species 
 which do not fully possess them, some departing from the stand¬ 
 ard in one, others in another particular, whereby it happens that 
 no one of these characters is constant and found in all the mem¬ 
 bers of this species. 
 
 We proceed next to describe the different parts of this insect, 
 as they appear in the female (Plate ii, fig. 1,) this alone being the 
 sex which we meet with in the wheat fields. 
 
 Its length is usually about 0.08, but dwarfs arc common, as small as 0.05, and I have 
 even met with individuals which alive measured but 0.03. 
 
 The head is of a spheroidal or flattened globular form and is hold in a vertical position. 
 The eyes are very large, occupying two-thirds of the surface of the head. They arc of a 
 coal black color and arc separated from each other above, merely by a slight slender cleft, so 
 that when viewed in front they appear like a continuous broad black band surrounding the 
 head and interrupted only below at the mouth. The face is pale yellow. The antennro aro 
 of a deep brown or black color, less intense than the eyes. They aro about equal to the 
 body in length, and are composed of twelve regular joints, in addition to tho spherical pale 
 yellow eminences on which they are inserted, and which should perhaps bo regarded as form¬ 
 ing an additional joint, although so dissimilar in shape and color. Each joint (sco Plato ii 
 fig. 7,) is oblong, with a very obvious contraction in its middle, and is surrounded by a 
 whirl or row of hairs near its base and another near its apex. Tho joints are about thrioe a g 
 long as they aro broad, their thickness being a littlo less than that of the legs. They ar 0 
 connected together by slender threads or pedicels intervening between each joint, which 
 pedicels are about a fourth as long as the joints. The palpi aro pale yellow and clothed with 
 shortish hairs. 
 
 The thorax or forobody is egg-shaped and broadest immediately back of tho wing-sookets. 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 1 6? 
 
 MIDGE. FLY. BODY DESCRIBED. 
 
 It is pale yellow on the breast and on the back ochro or tawny yellow, darker anteriorly and 
 often smoky, this color sometimes appearing as threo short stripes or longitudinal spots for¬ 
 ward of the middle. The poisers are large, with oval honey-yellow heads. 
 
 The abdomen or hind body vnries greatly in its size and form as it is more or less dis¬ 
 tended with eggs and aliment. Its normal forms appears to be oval, as represented in fig. 3 
 of plate ii, wliea it is often bat little longer than the thorax, and closely resembles the larva 
 (fig. 11) in its shape and sutures, having also the same granular surface. It is seven- 
 jointed, the joints of a square form, much more broad than long, except the last joint which 
 often appears round like a ball, as represented in fig. 2, or if this joint is a little more pro¬ 
 truded it becomes obovate. But when the abdomen is distended with eggs and the fly is 
 engaged in depositing them, its hind part becomes prolonged and narrowed, ns represented in 
 fig. 1, this being the shape it usually has as we see it in the wheat fields, two small additional 
 joints now protruding more or less from the round joint above mentioned. These two addi¬ 
 tional joints will bo noticed more particularly hereafter when wo come to describe the manner 
 in which the eggs aro deposited. The ends of two minute appendages aro also commonly 
 seen protruded more cr less from the tip of the abdomen. In color, the abdomen is usually of 
 a uniform bright orange, more inclining to red than to yellow; and when the insect is crushed 
 on white cloth or paper it imparts this orange stain to it, which however fades and wholly 
 disappears after a time. 
 
 The LEGS are very long and slender, the thighs, shanks and second joint of the feet being 
 about equal to each other in their length, whilst the third, fourth and fifth joints of the feet 
 are successively shorter and the first joint shortest of all, being little longer than thick. 
 The legs are of a dull opake clay yellow color, sometimes with the ends of the feet or bands 
 on some of tho legs of a rose red. The legs and body are clothed with minute, slender, 
 longish lmirs. 
 
 The WINGS aro a little moro than twico as long as wide, and aro hyaline and colorless, 
 resembling thin plates of glass or mica, and reflecting the colors of the rainbow, particularly 
 the violet, when tho light falls on them in certain directions. Their margins are densely 
 fringed with longish hairs and their surface is covered with very minute puboscence. Four 
 veins may be distinguished, running lengthwise of tho wing, the same as in all tho 
 other species of Cecidomyia, though in some spocies they are much more distinct and fully 
 developed than in others. I shall carefully describe these veins here, so that when^I speak 
 of them in other places I may be definitely understood. The four veins (see the enlarged 
 wing, fig. 5, plate ii) are an outer, an inner, and two middle ones. Tho outer, or submargi¬ 
 nal vein as it is usually termed by entomologists, is but slightly separated from tho outer 
 edge or side of tho wing, with which it becomes united before it reaches half the length of 
 this side. The next or middle vein, which is tho principal one, being more ooarso and distinct 
 than tho others, and corresponding with what I have usually termed the midvein in other 
 insects, and in the leaves of plants, is named the postcostal by most entomologists, but by 
 some tho mediastinal and by others the externo-mcdial. This runs straight or with a scarcely 
 perceptible curve, to tho end of the wing, where it frequently causes a small notch in tho 
 margin. Towards its base it is slightly bent at one point, and hero it sends ofT a small vein- 
 let or cross-vein, which runs obliquely outward and slightly forward, connecting this middle 
 vein with tho outor vein near its middle. The noxt or inner ono of these two middle veins, 
 and which may therefore ho termed the inner middle vein, is technically named tho interno- 
 medial or by some simply tho medial. This is tho most faint of all tho veins, being only 
 perceptible when tho wing is held for the light to fall upon it in a particular direction. It is 
 then soon to bo straight, coming off from the midvein near its base and running to the inner 
 margin of the wing at a point three-fourths the distance from the base to the tip. The first 
 half of its longth is less distinot and can seldom be traced to the point whoro it originates. 
 The inner or anal vein is but slightly distant from the preceding, and is quite slender, but 
 perfectly distinct. It slightly diverges from tho middle vein as it oxtends backward in a 
 straight course about half tho length of tho wing, when it abruptly forks, ono branch run¬ 
 ning straight in a nearly transverse direction to the inner margin, and the other branoh, which 
 is moro faint and obsoure, curving outward and backward till it approaches quite near the 
 inner middle vein, parallel with wbioh it then extends onward to tho margin, although here 
 
768 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 MIDGK. FLY. WINaa DESCRIBED. THE BALE, 
 only ono of these veins is seen in the same incidence of the light, for as the wing is gradually 
 turned to bring the other vein into view it causes the first to vanish. 
 
 The bale (Plate ii, fig. 4), has so successfully eluded the search of collectors that it has 
 only been discovered in a few instances. Mr. Kirby was unable to find this sex, and Mr. 
 Curtis states he has never seen it. The first season of my observations, ns an occasional 
 individual of this sex which I discovered among the hosts of females in a wheat field oorres- 
 sponded with one bred in a vial from larva; disinterred from among the stubble in an old 
 wheat field in March, I was assured that these were the true males of this species, notwith¬ 
 standing they differed so greatly from the females in their antenna; and the form of their 
 bodies. The antenna; in this sex are remarkably long, slender and delicate. They are 
 double the length of the body, aod are oomposod of twenty-four joints of a very oxact globu¬ 
 lar form (Plate ii, fig. 6), resembling a row of beads parted from each other on a string, each 
 joint being separated widely from its fellows, the pedicel or thread between being about twice 
 the length of the joint itself. A single row of hairs surrounds each joint, in a whirl. The 
 abdomen, instead of being oval or egg-shaped and narrowed at its base as it is in the female, 
 's hero broadest at the base, and thence tapers gradually, though slightly, towards the apex. 
 Its last joint, however, is broader than the one or two preceding it, and is kidney-shaped or 
 convex in front and concave behind. The male is also smaller in size than the femalo. In 
 all other respects, such as color, the veins of its wings, Ac., it corresponds with that sex. 
 
 Now that I have come to speak of the wings of the wheat midge 
 and their veins, or nerves as they are often but I think less cor¬ 
 rectly termed, it is necessary that I should recur to a topic of 
 considerable interest which has arisen from some of the repre¬ 
 sentations of these parts which were made in my first essay on 
 this insect. 
 
 When that essay was prepared, this new and terrible enemy of 
 our wheat crops had been prominent in public notice some 
 twenty-five years. Much diversity of opinion existed with res¬ 
 pect to it; and what was its real name and nature, whether it 
 was an animalcule, a worm, or the larva of an insect, was a sub¬ 
 ject of much discussion and earnest enquiry, no one in the whole 
 country feeling himself competent to investigate and decide this 
 mooted topic. I, locally known as a collector of insects, was re¬ 
 peatedly applied to for an opinion, which, being only acquainted 
 with insects in their perfect form, I was unable to give. It was 
 first suggested that it was the English Cecidomyia Tritici by the 
 late Judge Buel, who, in a report on this enemy, presented to the 
 State Agricultural Convention at Albany, February 1st, 1838, 
 stated it as his belief that it was that insect, and cited the short 
 notices contained in Kirby and Spence’s Entomology and Low’s 
 Elements of Practical Agriculture as the ground of his belief 
 (Cultivator, vol. v, p. 27). And three years afterwards, Dr. Har¬ 
 ris, in the first edition of his Treatise, p. 439, gave our insect as 
 “resembling in its destructive habits” the C. Tritici. 
 
 This is briefly the posture in which this matter 6tood, when, as 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 769 
 
 MIDGE. ELY. WHY DECIDED TO BB THIS SPECIES. 
 
 already stated, I was desired to contribute entomological articles 
 to a scientific journal. J selected this as a subject which of all 
 others would most interest the public and stood in the most need 
 of any elucidation I Height be able to give it. 
 
 Upon considering the facts, that in this country from the time 
 of its first settlement wheat had been the leading staple crop and 
 was in universal cultivation with no malady like this ever known 
 to molest it until this creature suddenly appeared at a particular 
 point aiid from thence gradually spread itself in all directions, I 
 could not doubt that it had been newly introduced here from 
 some foreign country. And Britain as being the country with 
 which we had the largest commercial intercourse was evidently 
 the source from whence it would be most apt to be brought. 
 Therefore, if there was any depredator on the wheat similar to 
 this in Great Britain, there would obviously be a strong proba¬ 
 bility that this was the same thing. And thereupon instituting 
 a most careful comparison of our insect and its habits with all 
 the particulars given in Mr. Kirby’s original papers on the C. 
 Tritici , and what I could glean in addition thereto from other 
 sources, I became sufficiently assured that it was the same species. 
 And further, when I came to know that it was common for the 
 larvm of this insect to lie quiescent in the ears of ripened wheat 
 for several months without losing their vitality, and that an ear 
 of wheat therefore could not be brought from England to this 
 country without being liable to bring a dozen of these larvm 
 lurking in it, I saw that its arrival here was inevitable; and my 
 only surprise was that it had not reached this country long before 
 it did. Finally, my drawings of this insect had been completed 
 and sent to the engraver and my descriptions had been written, 
 whereby all the minute particulars of the structure of its differ¬ 
 ent parts were perfectly fresh and distinct in my mind, when Mr. 
 Curtis’s article and the invaluable illustrations accompanying it 
 came into my hands. The peculiar form of the joints of the an- 
 tenrne and several other details not stated in Mr. Kirby’s descrip¬ 
 tion but which I had carefully noticed in our insect, were so ex¬ 
 actly represented by Mr. Curtis that assurance now became 
 doubly sure. Everything thus concurred to convince and render 
 me positive that our insect was identical with the Cecidoinyia 
 lritici of England. And it is seldom that a decision'h^s been 
 
 [Ag. Tuans.] 49 
 
770 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 RIDfl*. TLT. BXAUINBD tH FBABCB BY M. AllYOT. 
 
 pronounced on a subject of this kind upon grounds more clear 
 and strong than I think I possessed in this case. 
 
 This same subject was at that time in much the same posture 
 in France that it was in this country. M. Herpin in his interest¬ 
 ing Memoir on divers noxious insects, published in the Memoirs 
 of the Royal and Central Society of Agriculture for the year 
 1842, gave a short account (page 366) of some little yellow larvae 
 which he found near Paris in the ears of wheat at the time of 
 their flowering, and which appeared to him to be closely analo¬ 
 gous to those of Mr. Kirby’s C. Tritici. It thus became known 
 that an insect similar to the wheat midge existed in the wheat of 
 France, but whether it actually was that species remained in 
 doubt, until one of the Paris entomologists, with whose published 
 works I have for many years been familiarly acquainted, and have 
 thereby come to esteem him as one of the most eminent of my 
 cotemporaries in this science, M. C. J. B. Amyot, sought to deter¬ 
 mine what insect this was. In 1850, going to the locality men¬ 
 tioned by M. Herpin, he discovered the same larvae in the wheat 
 ears, and says of them, their perfect resemblance to that which 
 M. Asa Fitch has figured (alluding to fig. 11 on plate ii) does not 
 permit me to doubt their being the same species which has caused 
 so great damages in America and England, or at least a species 
 very near it and having the same destructive habits. The follow¬ 
 ing year M. Amyot received from M. Herpin upwards of twenty 
 specimens of the perfect insect, which had been gathered five 
 years before and preserved in a vial of alcohol. Now, on most 
 carefully scrutinizing these specimens and comparing them with 
 Mr. Curtis’s figure of the British and mine of the American 
 insect, he noticed in my figures a short transverse veinlet repre¬ 
 sented as connecting the middle vein of the wings with the outer 
 vein. This veinlet is not represented in Mr. Curtis’s figure, nor 
 could M. Amyot detect it as occurring, in any of the specimens 
 before him. He hence came to the conclusion that the French 
 insect was identical with the English and was the true Cecido- 
 myia Tritici of Mr. Kirby, and that I was in error in pronouncing 
 Our American insect to be the same species. A full statement of 
 this examination and its results he communicated to the Entomo¬ 
 logical Society of France, accompanied with an extended sum¬ 
 mary of the contents of my Essay, which was published in the 
 Bulletins of the Society for the year 1851, pages lvi-lxii. 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 771 
 
 MIDGE. FBY• HATE THE W1HGS A CR0S8-VEIHLET T 
 
 That this subject might be more conclusively determined, M. 
 Amyot wrote to me, requesting me to send him specimens of our 
 insect. But his letters failed to reach me, and I remained wholly 
 ignorant of the matter above stated, till the year 1855, when tid¬ 
 ings of them and of M. Amyot’s desire of specimens from this 
 country came to me through my valued friend and correspondent, 
 Dr. Signoret. Not knowing the ground bn which M. Amyot had 
 distrusted the correctness of my determination and inferring it 
 most probably to be on the general principle that the insects of 
 the two continents are different, and that it was not to be sup¬ 
 posed that such a small delicate fly as this could make its way 
 across the Atlantic, I aimed to send from my almost exhausted 
 supply, specimens which would most readily show the facies or 
 general aspect of this insect. I accordingly forwarded to Dr. 
 Signoret for him two of my best displayed examples, glued upon 
 small pieces of card; though I am now aware it would have been 
 better had I sent him specimens on pins, that he might examine 
 their wings by transmitted instead of reflected light. 
 
 The result of M. Amyot’s examination of these specimens he 
 communicated to the Entomological Society at its meeting 
 November 14th, 1855 (Bulletins page civ,) from which I make 
 the following extract: 
 
 “ I have submitted these specimens to a most scrupulous ex¬ 
 amination ; I have compared them with those which I gave four 
 years ago to the Paris Museum of Natural History and which M. 
 H. Lucas has had the care to preserve perfectly in alcohol. They 
 have been placed side by side under the microscope. M. Lucas 
 and I have noticed them with the closest possible attention, and 
 all our doubts have hereupon vanished as to the real identity of 
 the American species with ours. M. Asa Fitch therefore wag 
 not mistaken. This terrible plague of the crops in America hag 
 really come from Europe; it is a gift which the old world has 
 unfortunately made to the new, with civilization. 
 
 “ The difficulties which I saw in recognizing the identity in 
 question arose from the figure of the wings given by M. Fitch, 
 particularly from the transverse nervure, which in that figure 
 unites what I have called the post-costal nervure to the side. It 
 is in this manner that this difficulty disappears — this transverse 
 nervure does not exist in nature. M. Fitch must have been mis¬ 
 led, we think, by a mere indication; there is a slight elbow to the 
 
772 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 MIDGE. FLY. THE TEIWLET DESCRIBED. 
 
 post-costal nervure at the point where he thinks he has seen that 
 transverse nervure. This, we think, has been the cause of his 
 error. This kind of elbow appears also in our European speci¬ 
 mens, but it is plain that the transverse nervure supposed by M. 
 Fitch to occur here, does not exist. M. Curtis, moreover, has not 
 figured it, as we have already said in our communication relative 
 to this subject. Will M. Fitch vouch, after a new examination, 
 that it does really exist ? In that case, he will also state, we 
 doubt not, why neither M. Curtis, M. Lucas, nor I, have seen it.” 
 
 As the all-important, point, the identity of our insect with 
 that of Europe, was so fully settled by this communication! and 
 as my attention was at that period wholly occupied with the 
 insects on fruit and forest trees, from which I expected in one or 
 two seasons to pass again to those on grain crops, I deferred the 
 examination to which I was invited by M. Amyot’s closing re¬ 
 marks, until I should reach this subject, and have fresh speci¬ 
 mens in my hands, like those from which my figures'were origi¬ 
 nally taken. Hereby the proposed examination has come to be 
 deferred much longer than I anticipated ; but fortunately, by 
 this delay, additional materials have come into my hands, where¬ 
 by I have now been able to render it more complete and satis¬ 
 factory than I could have done at any previous period. 
 
 That the common reader may distinctly understand the sub¬ 
 ject under consideration, let him turn to the enlarged figures of 
 wings on plate ii, figs. 5 and 18. You here see a vein repre¬ 
 sented as running straight to the end of the wing. This is what 
 I have termed the middle or post-costal vein. At one point 
 towards its base you notice it is slightly bent, like your elbow 
 when your arm is held almost straight, and hereby this middle 
 vein, as it runs backward from its commencement, slightly 
 approaches the side of the wing till it comes to this bond or 
 elbow, after which it gradually recedes from the side. And 
 from this elbow you see a small veinlet or cross-vein is repre¬ 
 sented as running to the side of the wing, or rather to the outer 
 vein, which so closely approximates the side that it appears 
 merely as a split in the vein or rib which forms the outer edge 
 of the wing. This cross-vein is tho same in these figures now as 
 it was originally, except that I have directed the engraver to 
 make it more small and slender, and I have not yet seen the 
 revised proofs of the plate thus amended. 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 773 
 
 MIDCE. ELY. YAItlATlOKS OP THE VEINLKT. 
 
 Now, the question at issue is, does this small veinlet, cross¬ 
 vein, or transverse nervure, exist in the wing of the wheat 
 midge ? In my figure of the willow gall-midge, published a few 
 months before this, as an introductory to my essay on this insect, 
 no such veinlet was represented, nor in my figures of the Hessian 
 fly, published the year after. But, as just stated, it was repre¬ 
 sented in these figures of the wheat midge, and in the text of 
 my essay, in describing the outer vein or nerve, I said, “ From 
 its middle it sends a small connecting nerve backward to the 
 post-costal.” Mr. Curtis, however, does not represent any such 
 veinlet, nor could M. Amyot or M. Lucas detect it on a most 
 careful scrutiny, either in several French specimens preserved in 
 alcohol, or in two specimens sent from me gummed upon card. 
 In the insects of both countries M. Amyot perceives the slight 
 elbow to the middle vein, which my enlarged figures show, and 
 is led to think I may have supposed from this circumstance that 
 a veinlet was given off at this point. 
 
 I, on the other hand, may well ask, how an elbow comes to be 
 formed here, if no veinlet is given off at this point ? For, so far 
 as I have observed, in all those species of Cecidomyia in which 
 there is no veinlet the middle vein is perfectly straight; whilst 
 in those having a veinlet, this vein is always perceptibly 
 elbowed. I may add that the bend or elbow in the middle vein 
 appears to be slightest where the veinlet is placed transversely, 
 greater where it is oblique, and greatest where it is longitudinal, 
 the angle formed at this elbow being about 135 degrees in one 
 species known to me, in which the veinlet forms a perfectly 
 straight line with that portion of the middle vein which is back 
 of it.* 
 
 * The species alluded to probably should be described in this place; and it may well be 
 named in honor of one who has brought this cross-veinlet so prominently to notice, as furnish¬ 
 ing an important distinctive mark of the species in this largo and difficult genus. 
 
 Cecidomyia Amyotii. —Female, 0.08 long; wax yellow; thorax anteriorly dusky or 
 with three dusky stripes; antennm one-third the length of the body, black, of eighteen (?) 
 joints, not separated by pedioels, the joints globular, those towards the base becoming 
 longer and turbinate; legs blackish, inside yellowish gray; wings smoky, with a veinlet, 
 which is longitudinal and rectilinear with the middle vein back of it. Three individuals 
 taken June 13th, in the evening, around a lamp. 
 
 In this species the outer vein is bent like a bow, whereby the cubital cell is elliptio and 
 pointed at its base the same as at its apex. The middle vein forward of the elbow is flexuous, 
 running from the elbow first inward and forward to its junction with the inner middle vein, 
 ln tt straight line with which it then extends forward and slightly outward till near its base it 
 again curves inward. Hereby the basal cell is broader towards each end than in its middle. 
 The inner middlo vein is straight, and very distinct where it is given off from tho middle 
 
774 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 MIDGE. FLY* THE VEINLET IN THIS SPECIES. 
 
 But to carefully reexamine the subject in question, when these 
 insects first made their appearance this year, I gathered numerous 
 individuals from the wheat ears, inclosing them in small vials, 
 closely stopped with corks. . Next day, they being dead, I sub¬ 
 mitted them to a particular examination, entering in my manu¬ 
 scripts a figure and description of the exact appearances of this 
 portion of the wing under the microscope in one individual after 
 another, until I became fully satisfied upon this subject. And I 
 will now state the result. 
 
 In a dwarf individual of a pale color the middle vein in both 
 wings was defective or atrophied for a short distance here at the 
 elbow, without any indications of a cross veinlet. In other small 
 sized individuals the middle vein was perfect and upon its outer 
 side at the elbow was found sometimes an acute pointed tooth, at 
 other times a blunt stump-like projection, its length equalling or 
 exceeding the diameter of the middle vein. But in individuals 
 of the ordinary size, in every instance examined, I found the 
 veinlet in question, extending from the elbow of the middle vein 
 across to the outer vein. It is usually slender, its diameter only 
 about a third the diameter of the middle vein, and frequently its 
 junction with the outer vein appears to be somewhat imperfect. 
 Instances occur, however, in which this veinlet is thicker, some¬ 
 times even equaling the middle vein in its diameter. Moreover, 
 this veinlet, however slender it may be, I perceive, perfectly dis¬ 
 tinctly with a common magnifying glass, on holding the wing 
 between my eye and the light. 
 
 After examining a number of these recently gathered speci¬ 
 mens, I opened the vial of dried French specimens, gathered by 
 M. Bazin, and sent to me by him, very probably on M. Amyot’s 
 suggestion. I select one having a wing unbroken, and on holding 
 it between my eye and the light, I with the magnifier see this 
 veinlet quite as plainly as it had appeared in the.fresh specimens. 
 Under the microscope it is equally distinct, having a third of the 
 diameter of the middle vein. I next open to some specimens from 
 England, sent me by Mr. Westwood many years ago. These are 
 glued upon card, but in a good light, with a magnifier I see this 
 
 vein; but gradually becomes more faint, and wholly vanishes before it attains the margin. 
 The inner vein is also quite distinct, except the transverse portion at its apex, which is 
 exceedingly slender and scaroely perceptible. The antenna were so dried and entangled 
 before examination that I could not definitely ascertain the number of their joints. In one 
 instance there seemed to be only twelve. 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 116 ' 
 
 HIDOB. n.Y. THE VEINLET VANISHES IF WET. 
 
 same veinlet in them. Finally, on examining two male specimens 
 in ray cabinet, the magnifier shows this vpinlet in them also. 
 
 Several months have now passed since the above examinations 
 were made, and to M. Amyot’s question, why have not I seen this 
 veinlet if it really exists,? I have supposed I could only reply, 
 Look, and you certainly can see it. But yesterday, taking up the 
 first specimen that came to hand, the magnifier showed this vein- 
 let in the wings fully as distinct as the longitudinal veins, and 
 apparently of the same thickness with them. I thereupon im¬ 
 mersed this specimen in alcohol, and looking at it now as it lies 
 in the alcohol in a white saucer, I am wholly unable to see this 
 veinlet, although the longitudinal veins are perfectly plain. On 
 a most careful inspection, I should say decidedly, there is no such 
 veinlet there. I now drain off the alcohol and dry the specimen, 
 and still as it lies undisturbed on the white surface of the saucer, 
 the space between the longitudinal veins appears perfectly 
 hyaline with not the slightest indications of a veinlet crossing it, 
 that I am able to discern ; and now I really begin to fear my yes¬ 
 terday’s inspection was not made with sufficient care. Finally, 
 on carefully separating the wing from the surface of the saucer 
 and holding it up between my eye and the light, lo, there is this 
 same veinlet again, exactly as I remember it looked before, as 
 thick as the longitudinal veins and of the same dark color and 
 opacity, although but a half ininute ago the space it occupies 
 appeared perfectly hyaline and colorless. 
 
 Now I cease to wonder why M. Amyot did not see this veinlet. 
 Looking at the same specimens which he did, as they were lying 
 in alcohol, I know I would have said as decidedly as he did, that 
 there was no cross veinlet in their wings, and therefore they could 
 not be the species which I had figured. But I am very sure M. 
 Amyot cannot examine a half dozen specimens of this insect, pre¬ 
 served as we usually have tl*em in our collections, without becom¬ 
 ing perfectly assured that this veinlet does exist in their wings. 
 
 Before leaving this subject it will probably be expected that I 
 say a few words upon two other points alluded to by M. Amyot 
 as having strepgthened him in the opinion that our American 
 insect was different from the European. These points ai;e the 
 width and roundness of the ends of the wings, and the thickness 
 of the body in my figure of the female, as compared with the 
 figure of it given by Mr. Curtis. As I refer so frequently to Mr. 
 
776 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 MIDGE. FLY. WIDTH OF ITS WINGS AND BODY. 
 
 Curtis in my Essay, M. Amyot evidently supposes I had Mr. Cur¬ 
 tis’s figure before me when my drawings were made, and that I 
 therefore varied therefrom to represent our American insect more 
 exactly than Mr. Curtis’s figure represented it. I may therefore 
 state that my acquaintance with Mr. Curtis’s paper was limited 
 to a perusal and notes taken from it in the city of Albany where 
 it had been newly received when I was writing out my Essay for 
 the press. My drawings were made when the flies were abroad 
 among the wheat in June 1845, at which time the half volume 
 containing Mr. Curtis’s article had not issued from the press in 
 London, as appears from a notice in the Appendix, page ix. I 
 had no pattern to aid me in this work except the rude figure ac¬ 
 companying Mr. Kirby’s articles. It was probably to represent 
 their voins distinctly that I somewhat exaggerated the width of 
 the wings. Their true dimensions appear to be intermediate be¬ 
 tween Mr. Curtis’s figure and mine. As nearly as I can ascertain, 
 a wing placed between slips of glass to remove the wrinkles it 
 acquires on drying, and laid upon a scale, measures .080 by .035. 
 My figure reduced to the size of nature would indicate it as .080 
 by .040 ; Mr. Curtis’s .080 b) r .030. And as to the shape of the 
 wings, whilst I notice that their inner margin is more curved and 
 rounded in the figure than it appears in nature, 1 do not so clearly 
 perceive that the ends are so. 
 
 Upon the other point mentioned, the thickness given to the 
 body in this figure, I may remark that we all know how greatly 
 the abdomen varies as it is more or less distended with eggs and 
 aliment in the insects of this Order. In the text it was stated 
 of this part that it scarcely equals the thorax in its diameter. 
 As wo meet with this fly upon the wheat depositing its eggs, it is 
 not rare to see irtdividuals with the abdomen as it is here repre¬ 
 sented. It was my particular endeavor to picture this fly as it 
 appears when abroad upon the wheat, so that others would be 
 able to recognize it on seeing it there. I therefore aimed to give 
 it its plump living aspect, and avoid the shrunken dead appear¬ 
 ance which it presents as preserved in our cabinets. I am grati¬ 
 fied to know the figure has served the purpose for which it was 
 designed. In instances not a few, strangers on being introduced 
 to me have adverted to their having known mo since they first 
 discovered this fly by means of the figure 1 had given, they had 
 so much admired the exactness with which it was represented. 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 m 
 
 MIDGE. FLY• KIItBY’s ACCOVHT OF TBE OYlrOSITOR. 
 
 And on coming to re-issue it now, I have not deemed it so faulty 
 in the points stated as to desire it to be changed. 
 
 We come next to consider the manner and place in which the 
 midge deposits its eggs and the apparatus by which this opera¬ 
 tion is performed. 
 
 Mr. Kirby gives an interesting recital of this subject in the 
 following words, (Linnaean Transactions, vol. v., p. 90.) 
 
 “ It is very entertaining to observe the method to which these 
 insects have recourse in order to deposit their eggs in a situation 
 where the larvas may soon arrive at their food : when engaged in 
 this employment they arc not soon disturbed ; which circumstance 
 affords the observer an excellent opportunity of examination. As 
 I hinted before, a number may be seen at the same time upon one 
 ear: they place themselves in such a position that their anus 
 stands nearly at right, angles with the margin of the glume of 
 that floret which they mean to pierce. But how are they to 
 introduce their eggs within the floret, for they deposit them be¬ 
 tween the exterior and interior valvules of the corolla? To look 
 at them when they are not engaged in this employment, their 
 anus appears to be furnished with no instrument adapted to so 
 nice an operation ; but upon pressure it exserts a long retractile 
 tube or vagina , which unsheaths an aculeus (if I may so term it) 
 as fine as a hair and very long. This aculeus it introduces into 
 the floret, and there deposits its eggs, which it usually places upon 
 the interior valvule of the corolla, just above the stigmata. 
 After she has done laying her eggs, the insect withdraws her acu¬ 
 leus with great caution and deliberation : yet it sometimes hap¬ 
 pens that she is unable to effect this ; in which case she is 
 detained a prisoner until some enemy devour her. In this situa¬ 
 tion I have found them more than once in my morning walks. I 
 was very desirous of seeing the eggs pass through the vagina, 
 but my first attempts were unsuccessful: at length 1 was gratified 
 with this pleasing spectacle. I gathered an ear upon which some 
 of the TipulcR were busy, and held it so as to let a sunbeam fall 
 upon one of them, examining its operations under the three 
 glasses of a pocket microscope : I could then very distinctly per¬ 
 ceive the eggs passing one after another, like minute air-bubbles, 
 through the vagina, the aculeus being wholly inserted into the 
 floret. I examined this process for full teh minutes before the 
 patient little animal disengaged itself, and at last it was through 
 
778 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 litpaK. FLY• DAS IT A HAIB-LIKE STIES t 
 
 my violence that she discontinued her employment, and flew 
 away.” 
 
 Mr. Shirriff, in an “Account of the Wheat*fly ” published in 
 Loudon’s Magazine of Natural History, vol. ii, pp. 448-451, also 
 describes the ovipositor or tube through which the eggs are 
 passed, as being “ of considerable length, perhaps four times that 
 of the body, and so minute, that it appears doubtful whether the 
 eggs pass along the interior or exterior surface. It can be ex¬ 
 tended or withdrawn at pleasure, and is seldom visible unless the 
 fly is depositing its eggs.” 
 
 These statements gave mo a very erroneous idea of the ovi¬ 
 positor of this midge, as being a long fine bristle, like that of an 
 Ichueumon fly, and employed in the same manner, to “pierce” as 
 Mr. Kirby terms it, the chaff of the wheat, in order to introduce 
 the eggs into the interior of the flower. Accordingly, when in 
 the evening, by the light of a lantern, I saw these flies standing 
 upon the back or outer surface of the chaff, with the tip of the 
 abdomen fastened to the surface, and eggs evidently passing 
 through it, I had no thought but that a hair-like sting was 
 pierced through the chaff, conducting these eggs into the interior 
 of the flower. I accordingly represented it to be thus. I also 
 noticed then, as at many times since, small discolored points on 
 the chaff of the green wheat, which I inferred to bo wounds re¬ 
 maining where the sting of the midge had been inserted. And 
 when I came to see the figure of Mr. Curtis, from which our fig. 
 15 plate ii was copied, the existence of this hair-like sting ap¬ 
 peared to be placed beyond all doubt. 
 
 I had often thought of it however, as being a remarkable 
 anomaly, that in two insects so closely related as tho wheat 
 midge and Hessian fly, one should take such particular and toil¬ 
 some care to place its eggs in tho very situation where its young 
 are to feed, whilst the other merely drops them on the leaves, 
 necessitating its young to crawl quite a distance thence to reach 
 the place where it is to nourish itself. 
 
 But that the views which were universally entertainod on this 
 subject were correct, I entertained not a particle of double, until 
 recently. On a cloudy day, happening to observe a midge 
 depositing its eggs in a wheat ear, I was not a little astonished 
 to observe that by the place and position in which it stood, its 
 eggs could not pass into the interior of the flower. And glanc- 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 779 
 
 MIDGE. KI.Y. ITS OVIPOSITOR DESCRIBED. 
 
 ing thence to another individual, I noticed it to thrust the tip of 
 its abdomen into a crevice of the chaffs and extrude an egg and 
 withdraw the end of its body again so quickly, that I was certain 
 no long hair-like ovipositor could be exserted from and again re¬ 
 tracted into the body in so short a time without my seeing at least 
 a portion of it. Now, on coming to reflect that in all the multi¬ 
 tudes of these midges I had seen, not one had ever occurred with 
 any part of this hair-like sting visibly extruded, I began to be skep¬ 
 tical respecting its real existence. And I thereupon determined 
 to examine the insect and ascertain what the structure of its 
 ovipositor was. That examination resulted as I will now relate. 
 
 When the abdomen is in its perfectly normal state, as it is when 
 the fly first hatches from the pupa, it has the oval form represented 
 in fig. 3 of plate ii, and is composed of seven joints. Upon 
 gently pressing upon it, there first protrudes from its tip the ends 
 of two minute processes, which are shaped much like two fingers. 
 It is seldom that we meet with the midge in nature, that it does 
 not show these two points, projecting more or less, although they 
 have not been noticed by any previous writer. On increasing the 
 pressure upon the abdomen, after these finger-like processes are 
 fully extruded, the rounded end of a small joint to which they 
 •are joined begins to appear, and soon after the square end of 
 another joint is protruded also. The hind part of the abdomen 
 now has the appearance represented in fig. 1 of plate ii, this being 
 its usual appearance after the insect has begun to lay eggs. Thus 
 we may tell on seeing one of these flies whether it lias commenced 
 dropping its eggs or not, by noticing whether the end of its body 
 is blunt as in fig. 3 or drawn out to a long point as in fig. 1. 
 
 On grasping the pointed tip of the abdomen with forceps and 
 drawing these two small joints fully out, they present the appear¬ 
 ance shown in tig. 16 of plate ii. (I regret that the engraver 
 overlooked my directions to reduce this figure to half the size of 
 the drawing, in transferring it to the plate.) We here see at a 
 the two small finger-like processes first mentioned, and b and c, 
 the two small joints, here seen to bo long slender tubes, which 
 shut one into the other like the joints of a telescope, and are then 
 withdrawn in the same manner into the abdomen, the last two 
 joints of which are shown at d. The first or basal one of these 
 joints of the ovipositor, c, is but a third as thick as the last joint 
 ot the abdomen, and is of a cylindrical form with a smooth sur- 
 
780 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 UIIKHt. PLY. OVIPOSITOR VERY EXTENSILE. 
 
 face. The other or apical joint, b, is long and slender, thickened 
 towards its tip, and its whole surface is evenly but thinly bearded 
 with fine short erect bristles. The two small finger-like processes 
 at its end, a, are cylindrical and four times as long as thick, and 
 are also bearded on all sides with erect fine short bristles. 
 
 At the end of the joint, b between the bases of the two pro¬ 
 cesses a I have several times observed a short fine hair, which I 
 had always supposed to be the protruded end of the sting or long 
 bristle mentioned by Kirby and figured l>y Ourtis. I now sought 
 to grasp this hair with the point of the forceps, to ascertain if it 
 could be drawn out, but I found it and its surroundings so ex¬ 
 ceedingly minute that to manipulate it in the proposed manner 
 was impossible, or at least required implements more delicate and 
 a hand more steady than mine, or than I think Mr. Kirby could 
 have possessed when he examined these parts. And I conclude 
 the hair I had so particularly noticed was merely one of those 
 with which the surface of this joint is everywhere thinty bearded. 
 
 Next, on grasping the finger-like processes with the forceps and 
 gently drawing upon them, I found these two telescopic joints of 
 the ovipositor to be remarkably extensile, stretching and elonga¬ 
 ting as though they were formed of India rubber (caoutchouc). 
 In a young and pliant-skinned fly they may thus be drawn out t<3 
 thrice or four times the length of the bod)’', and when thus ex¬ 
 tended and attenuated, their exposure to the air immediately 
 renders them dry and rigid, whereby they remain in this form, 
 resembling a slender hair. And thus, should the ovipositor be 
 confined in its middle and extension happen to be made only 
 on its last joint, this joint would be elongated to resemble a fine 
 hair. But I cannot think Mr. Kirby could be thus deceived, sup¬ 
 posing he was drawing a fine long hair more and more out of the 
 body when he was merely elongating this joint; though from the 
 minuteness of these parts there is some liability to such a mistake. 
 
 Again, in an aged fly in which the skin is less supple and ex¬ 
 tensile, on grasping the end of the ovipositor and drawing upon 
 it, it sometimes tears asunder, whereupon a smooth slender tube 
 maybe drawn out from the body to twice or three times its 
 length. But this tube is plainly the intestine. Nor do I detect 
 any slender hair accompanying it, either externally or internally. 
 
 I am therefore convinced that nothing answering to Mr. Kir¬ 
 by’s term and description, “ an aculeus as fine as a hair and very 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 181 
 
 MIDOE. FLY. CABBE OF MB. KiBBY’S KBBOB. 
 
 long,” forms a part of the ovipositor of this insect. And I am 
 obliged to think the words mentioned have misled Mr. Curtis in 
 the same manner they misled me; in consequence of which, 
 although he had never seen this hair-like sting, he was induced 
 to figure it as being an important part of the insect, not doubt¬ 
 ing from Mr. Kirby's statement but that it belonged there. 
 
 In justice to Mr. Kirby, however, I must add, that, since 
 making my examination of this ovipositor, I have referred to 
 the volume containing the illustrations with which his paper on 
 this subject was originally accompanied, whereby I find his 
 representation to be less erroneous than it appeared when I had 
 only the words of his description before me. His figure of the 
 ovipositor with the eggs passing through it, is not unlike the 
 joints b and c of my fig. 16, except that the joint b is not repre¬ 
 sented as being enlarged at its lower end, and the finger-like pro¬ 
 cesses a are omitted. And by the aid of this figure we learn 
 that what he terms the aculeus, is not a slender hair projecting 
 from the end of the joint 6, as I had supposed from Mr. Curtis’s 
 representation (fig. 15), but the joint b is itself the aculeus and 
 the joint, c the vagina of Mr. Kirby’s description. But how could 
 a careful observer like Mr. Kirby, and the peer.of any of us in 
 scholarship and erudition, apply the term aculeus (*. e., a sting) 
 to such a soft, flexile, bearded and blunt-pointed part as we find 
 this to be, and say that it was as fine as a hair and very long! 
 I think 1 see how this error has come. Mr. Kirby might well 
 suppose the structure of this implement would be best shown 
 when it was fully extruded and in operation, with the eggs pass¬ 
 ing through it. He accordingly selected a fly which was in the 
 act of depositing its eggs, and taking hold of it he carefully 
 pulled it off from the wheat ear. But this terminal joint of the 
 body, hid from view by being inserted in the crevice between 
 two scales of the chaff, and adhering thereto by its bearded and 
 prickly surface, only yielded to this force and was drawn out 
 from the crevice as it became stretched, sleuder and elongated. 
 Mr. Kirby, without a suspicion but that this was its natural 
 form, described it accordingly. It was thus, I doubt not, that 
 this error originated, whereby it has been universally supposed 
 from that day till this, that the ovipositor of this insect was a 
 long, fine, hair-like sting. 
 
 Now that we know the instrument with which this fly deposits 
 
782 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 MID6K. RLY. TBS WSSAT BAR AND ITS CHARTS. 
 
 its eggs we proceed next to show where it places them. And to 
 distinctly understand the situations in which these eggs are 
 found, as well as numerous other particulars in the operations 
 and economy of this and other insects which infest the ears of 
 wheat, it is essential that the structure of the ears should be 
 clearly understood. A few words on this subject are therefore 
 necessary. 
 
 On looking at a head or ear of wheat (the spike as it is termed 
 by botanists) we see it is formed of a number of headlets or little 
 heads (spikelets) which are placed alternately one above the other 
 along the opposite sides of the central stalk or stem, in two flat¬ 
 tened rows, rendering the head somewhat four-sided in its shape. 
 Each of these little heads is made up of five florets or little flowers, 
 crowded together side by side. Each of the two outer flowers 
 on each side of the headlet usually perfects a kernel of grain, 
 while the inner or upper flower is always false or abortive. But 
 in a poor soil, where the heads are not well filled, the flowers on 
 one or on both sides of this central one will be false also. Thus, 
 as the grain ripens, each of these little heads usually comes to 
 be formed of four kernels and their chaff's, placed compactly toge¬ 
 ther side by side. Let us now part these chaffs from each other 
 and from the kernels, to see how many scales or valves there are 
 enveloping each kernel, and how we may designate them when 
 we wish to speak of a particular one. Beginning as you always 
 will, on the side of one of the headlets, we firrit separate the 
 chaff a (see fig. 10, plate ii,) which is always blunt at its end, 
 much as though its point had been cut off. Next we come to 
 the chaff b, which is the largest one, and from 'the end of which 
 grows the awn or beard. Then we reach the kernel, d, which is 
 always placed with its grooved side facing the next chaff c. 
 Passing then to the next kernel, we find it has only two chaff's, 
 one having the beard at its end, corresponding with l, the other 
 like c. And next we reach the little false flower in the middle of 
 the headlet, in which no kernel is ever developed. We thus see 
 that each of the kernels is enclosed in two chaff's or scales, b and 
 c, and that the two outer kernels of each headlet have in addi¬ 
 tion to these a third scale a. Botanists heretofore and in Mr. 
 Kirby’s day distinguished the two scales b and c as forming 
 the corol and a as being the calyx of the flowers, whilst the 
 term glume was applied to all these scales, like our word chaff. 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 783 
 
 UIDGH. FLY. ITS APPBARAHC* AND MOYBMBNT8. 
 
 But now the name glume is given to the outer scale only, whilst 
 the other two are termed the palea. It will probably be best 
 understood by most of my readers if I designate a the outermost 
 chaff, b the bearded and c the inner chaff. 
 
 In the paragraph quoted from Mr. Kirby a few pages back, he 
 tells us that the eggs are placed inside of the valves of the corol, 
 usually upon the inner face of the inner valve, above the end of 
 the kernel. This is the truth, but it is by no means the whole 
 truth, as will sufficiently appear by a few extracts from my me¬ 
 moranda, which will also give some view of the appearance and 
 movements of the flies as we see them upon the wheat. 
 
 June 14th. Towards the close of a cloudy afternoon I visit 
 A’s winter wheat, now about two and a half feet high, with the 
 heads just protruded from the sheath at the top of the stalks, 
 many of them being still inclosed in the sheath except upon one 
 side. On first glancing at it I noticed nothing and thought it 
 was too young yet for the midge to collect upon it. But swing¬ 
 ing the net two or three times to and fro against the heads I 
 found some dozens of the flies were gathered into it. And now, 
 on looking sharply, I see they are plenty enough, flying lazily 
 about among the wheat heads and a greater number alighted on 
 the heads. I see none down on the lower part of the stalks, the 
 cloudy weather having brought them all up to the heads. They 
 stand with their heads upward, most of them moving about a 
 little, now and then, upon the wheat heads. Some seem to be 
 very leisurely placing their eggs within the edges of the chaffs 
 at or near their tips, for their ovipositors are partly protruded 
 and I see them applying their tips to the upper part of the 
 chaffs, but cannot get a good view of what takes place, for on 
 approaching the magnifying glass to them, they become shy and 
 walk around to the other side of the ear. If alarmed, they hold 
 the ovipositor out from the ear, to be read)' to take wing; but 
 unalarmed they press it against the chaffs as they walk over 
 them, and coming to the top of a headlet, they make a stand and 
 work the ovipositor around, probing the crevices with it as if to 
 discover a suitable spot for placing their eggs. One I saw with 
 the end of its body sunk in between the ends of two chaffs for 
 several moments. I pluck this ear, and examine it after my 
 return, as follows: 
 
 With the magnifier I can see no eggs externally on any part of 
 
784 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT ON NEW YORK 
 
 U1DQS. FI.Y. ITS BOOS, W11BRB PLACIID. 
 
 the wheat head. Iu oue spot, at one side of the outermost chaff 
 near its apex, 1 perceive, through the slight transparency of the 
 chali, a discoloration, caused by a substance beneath, of a wax 
 yellow color. On parting this chaff from the back of the bearded 
 chaff to come at this substance, I only discern with the magnifier 
 that it is a glossy speck or little scale of yellow matter. But 
 placed under the microscope, it is seen to be five eggs of the 
 midge glued together side by side, but quite irregularly, whereby 
 their ends are as uneven as those of the fingers and thumb of the 
 hand when held together. And a smaller }'ellow speck just be¬ 
 side this one, proves to be two more eggs; they lie loose in the 
 interstice between the two chaffs, not at all glued to them, 
 although adhering to each other. 
 
 In two other florets I detect similar clusters of eggs in the 
 same situation, near the upper corner of the outermost chaff', not 
 more than the length of the eggs inside of the lateral edge of the 
 chaff, and about three times as far below its upper edge. Now, 
 how were they placed here ? The lateral edge of the chaff appears 
 to be too closely pressed to the back of the bearded chaff to allow 
 the eggs to bo crowded directly in under its edge, and if crowded 
 in thus, their position would be crosswise of the chaff instead of 
 lengthwise, as we find it to be. We notice that the elevated 
 ridge or keel along the middle of the back of the chaff forms a 
 corresponding groove or plait opposite on the inner side; and 
 the upper end of the chaff being cut square off instead of pro¬ 
 longed to a point, a tittle orifice is formed there by this groove. 
 It is into this orifice that the ovipositor is evidently inserted and 
 crowded out laterally as far as possible, to place the eggs in the 
 situation above mentioned. 
 
 In another instance I find a cluster of eggs on the back of the 
 bearded chaff, slightly to one side of its keel, perhaps from the 
 interstice between the chaff's not being sufficiently roomy iu this 
 case to allow the ovipositor to be crowded any further out tow¬ 
 ards the side. Ihijally, two eggs were also discovered, placed 
 inside of the edge of the bearded chaff', where this edge was 
 pressed to the back of the adjoining floret and outside of the 
 inner chaff, they being thus in the, interstice, between the two 
 florets, in which situation I also find them in other headlots. 
 
 It appears from the examination now related, that the only aim 
 of the fly is to place its eggs in some crevice of the headlet where 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 785 
 
 MIDGE. PLY. EGGS AND LARVA FOUND ON THE ANTHERS. 
 
 no spiders or other enemies will be apt to find them to destroy 
 them, and where they will bo sheltered from the sun arid air 
 which would dry and shrivel them before they have time to hatch. 
 Looking at the shape of the ovipositor, fig. 16, and knowing its 
 substance to be soft and flaccid, it is evident it can only enter 
 some open crevice; it has not firmness and solidity whereby it 
 can be crowded between the edges of the chaffs where these 
 edges are closed and pressed together. And therefore when the 
 midge first comes abroad, which is some few days before the fall 
 sowed wheat begins to bloom, the flowers are so closed that it 
 cannot insert its eggs into their interior. But finding the little 
 orifice above mentioned, at the summit of the outermost chaff, it 
 crowds its ovipositor into it and there places its eggs. And it 
 continues to place them here, as long as it has eggs to deposit. 
 It also places them between the florets, and in short, in any nar¬ 
 row crevice upon the headlets which it is able to discover. And 
 thus, when the flowers swell preparatory to putting out their 
 thread-like stamens, the bearded and inner chaffs become parted 
 asunder at their summit, whereupon the midge commences insert¬ 
 ing its eggs between them also. But this is probably the most 
 insecure situation of any in which it places its eggs. For as the 
 anthers grow and push themselves out from between these two 
 chaff's they frequently displace and carry out those eggs with 
 them. It is thus that I account for the occurrence of the eggs 
 upon the anthers, the little yellow knobs which hang by slender 
 threads from the wheat ears when they are in bloom. I have 
 sometimes noticed eggs adhering to the anthers, and Mr. Kirby 
 met with newly hatched larvae upon them, from whence he con¬ 
 cluded that the pollen or fine dust which is scattered from the 
 anthers was the food on which these larvae subsist. But in our 
 view their presence in this situation is merely accidental, and 
 occasioned in the manner stated. And the eggs thus exposed to 
 the air probably become dried and shrink up as they do when 
 they are dropped on the sides of vials in which the flies are im¬ 
 prisoned ; or if they are ready to hatch when they become thus 
 exposed, it is very doubtful whether the young larvae from them, 
 swinging about as the anthers do with every breath of the wind, 
 are able to find their way back into the interior of the flowers. 
 
 J lie last joint of the ovipositor is wholly inserted into the 
 crevice where the eggs are placed, and is thus hid from the view, 
 
 [Ag. Trans.] 30 
 
786 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 MIDGE. M.T. ITS EGOS DESCRIBED. 
 
 the first joint remaining outside. The bearded surface of this 
 last joint being thus in contact with the rough surface of the 
 chaffs, no doubt fixes it securely in one position whilst the eggs 
 are passing through it; whilst the much smaller size of the 
 finger-like processes at its end allows them sulficient motion to 
 guide each succeeding egg slightly aside from its predecessor, 
 whereby a number of eggs can be placed without blocking up 
 the point of their exit. Sometimes a single egg is found, but 
 they are usually in small clusters of from two to ten, this being 
 the number which the fly has in readiness to deposit at one time, 
 and which it extrudes with one introduction of its ovipositor. 
 In damp cloudy weather, when it can remain at this work all 
 day, it is more slow and leisurely in its motions. But in dry 
 sunshiny weather, when it is obliged to leave the wheat heads 
 and rest during the day, it becomes overburthoned with its eggs 
 and is then very active and busy in disposing of them when the 
 humid air of evening arrives, enabling it to return to its work. 
 Thus it continues industriously at this employment day after 
 day; this disposing of its eggs being the main business of its 
 life. 
 
 When it has for the time exhausted its supply of eggs, it is a 
 laborious operation for the fly to disengage and withdraw its 
 roughly bearded ovipositor from the crevice in which it is inserted, 
 and Mr. Kirby observes, she is sometimes unable to accomplish 
 this, and is held a prisoner till she dies or till some enemy de¬ 
 vours her. It is common to meet with the midge, dead and sus¬ 
 pended in this manner by its ovipositor. But it is only when 
 the fly has completed its operations and is feeble with age and 
 ready to perish, that it becomes thus fastened. 1 have particu¬ 
 larly observed the fact, that we never see any flies thus suspended 
 in the month of June ; it is not till into July when their labors 
 are drawing to a close that this phenomenon occurs and then 
 becomes common. 
 
 The eggs, (Plate ii, fig. 8) scarcely exceed the hundredth part 
 of an inch in length. They are about six times as long as thick, 
 and are of a long oval form, very near cylindrical with rounded 
 ends. Their surface is smooth and shining, and they are almost 
 colorless-watery with a faint tingo of pale red. When several 
 are together in a mass they appear of a deeper reddish yellow 
 color. On being highly magnified they have the appearance 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 787 
 
 MIDGE. LARVA. THE YOUNG LARVA. 
 
 represented in our figure* looking as if they were filled with little 
 hubbies of air of a reddish tint, with a small portion of each 
 end clear and colorless. 
 
 The Larva. 
 
 In their natural situation in the wheat ears, it is scarcely prac¬ 
 ticable to observe the eggs so closely as to ascertain precisely 
 the time which elapses after they are laid, till they hatch. We 
 only know in relation to this point, that when the midge first 
 appears and its eggs begin to become common in the wheat ears, 
 we begin to find the young larvae there a week later. We there¬ 
 fore conclude this to be about the length of time the insect con¬ 
 tinues in the egg state. 
 
 When they first come from the egg, the larvae are exceedingly 
 small, less than the hundredth of an inch in length. I see in 
 different places in my manuscripts, I have on measuring them set 
 down their length as being 0.0075. They are very soft, feebly 
 hyaline and of a dull watery white color, without any tinge of 
 yellow. They in fact appear closely like the eggs from which 
 they come, being of much the same shape, size and color ; but 
 fine transverse lines are perceptible upon their bodies dividing 
 them into joints or segments, whereby we are able with certainty 
 to distinguish a larva from an egg. 
 
 As the eggs from which they hatch are scattered about in dif¬ 
 ferent crevices of the chaffs around as well as within the florets, 
 it is evident the infantile worm must crawl from these several 
 situations to the germ or young kernel from which it is to suck 
 its nourishment. Even where the eggs are inserted within the 
 floret, it is always near the upper ends of the chaffs and at a 
 small distance above the germ that they are dropped, for the 
 length of the ovipositor does not enable the fly to reach so far 
 into the floret as to place them upon the germ. Hence all the 
 worms when they hatch must make at least a short journey from 
 the egg to reach their feeding place. 
 
 There is thus au evident correspondence in the habits of the 
 newly born larva of the wheat midge and that of the Hessian 
 fly. The Hessian fly larva hatching on the surface of the leaf 
 travels down it to its base, where it enters the crevice between 
 the central stalk and the sheath surrounding it, down which 
 crevice it crowds itself till it reaches its base. The midge ltjrva 
 
788 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 f MIDGE. LARVA. ITS FOOD. 
 
 from the summit of the floret passes down till it comes to the 
 germ or young kernel, which "is closely enveloped by the chaffs, 
 whereupon entering this crevice between the chaffs and the ker¬ 
 nel, it crowds onward as nearly to the very base of the kernel as 
 it is able to push itself. 
 
 Thus, on parting the chaffs, we find these larvae on the surface 
 of the young kernels (Plate ii, fig. 10, d). The minute newly 
 hatched larvae aredirst seen, from one to a dozen or more, crowded 
 far down, usually to the very base of the kernels, which are then 
 small, soft, and milky within. They lie with their heads or 
 pointed ends downward and seem to be in a state of repose, sel¬ 
 dom one of them moving a little as we are inspecting them. 
 
 Mr. Kirby, as I have already noticed, conjectured it was the 
 pollen of the anthers on which these larvae feed, in part at least, 
 and that it was by consuming this fertilizing dust that they ren¬ 
 dered the germs so shrunken and abortive. This view was 
 plausible with the facts which Mr. Kirby had before him, but 
 more extended observations sufficiently indicate it to be erro¬ 
 neous. We have already stated how the eggs and young larvae 
 happen to be sometimes found upon the anthers. Tho fly, how¬ 
 ever, appears to avoid placing her eggs on these organs, as we 
 should not expect her to if they contained the food of her young. 
 I have repeatedly noticed that where some of the anthers hap¬ 
 pened to be inclosed in vials with the flies, the latter invariably 
 drop their eggs on the sides or the cork stopper of the vials and 
 not on the anthers. Moreover, the flies continue to deposit their 
 eggs in the wheat ears after all the anthers have withered and 
 fallen from them, whereby we know the larvce from these late 
 eggs can find no pollen on which to feed. Everything, in short, 
 concurs to show that these larvae derive their sustenance exclu¬ 
 sively from the young kernels, on the juioes of which they appear 
 to be nourishing themselves from the time the flowers first begin 
 to put forth until the ripening of the crop renders them dry and 
 hard. 
 
 As to the manner in which these larva} nourish themselves, I 
 may remark that in this as in all the other larvae of Cecidofnyia, 
 on the under side near the fore end a very short black line of 
 minute size may be seen with the magnifying glass, having the 
 appearance of a sliver under the skin. This line is perceived to 
 be split at its anterior end, commonly, whereby it resembles a 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 789 
 
 UIDGE. LARVA. THE QUIESCENT LARVA. 
 
 letter Y, and sometimes it is parted its whole length, like the 
 letter V. This is the two jaws of the larva as they are more or 
 less opened apart. They are movable, backward and forward, 
 and I have sometimes seen them when they were advanced to the 
 very point of the fore end, where there is a small round orifice 
 or mouth. And seeing this structure and its motions, leads me 
 to think this mouth is applied to the surface of the soft young 
 kernel, and these minute jaws then move forward and puncture 
 or scratch the surface, whereupon the mouth sucks in the milky 
 juice which, flows from the wound. But the wounds thus made 
 are so extremely slight that nothing like a gnawing or erosion of 
 the surface of the kernel is ever perceptible. 
 
 When the young larvas are grown to double their original size, 
 and measure about 0.02 in length, a yellow cloudiness begins to 
 be perceptible in the centre of their watery whitish bodies. This 
 yellowness gradually becomes more bright and distinct, often 
 appearing as a band across the middle. And when the worm is 
 about a third grown it has changed to be wholly of a bright yel¬ 
 low color, and is now usually withdrawn farther up upon the 
 kernel, as its larger size requires more room. It now has the 
 color and form which it afterwards retains. 
 
 On taking one of the largest larvae which we find in the wheat 
 ears and laying it upon paper for examination, it is usually 
 quiescent and motionless, and appears as represented, plate ii, 
 fig. 11, its natural size being indicated at a. 
 
 Tho quiescent larva, as thus seen, is about throe times as long as broad, measuring 
 0.08 by 0.03, and is oval, thickest in the middle and slightly tapering in each direction, the 
 ends being rounded or but faintly angular-pointed. It is slightly depressed and on the under 
 side very perceptibly flattened, but with no indications of feet. Its surface is minutely gra¬ 
 nular, like that of the conjmon earth worm of our gardens, and also appears to be slightly 
 coated over with a glutinous secretion, whereby it adheres to a needle which touches it, and 
 often when two or more worms are placed in contact they in drying become glued to eneh 
 other. Its joints arc indicated by very tine impressed transverse lines, whereby it is divided 
 into ten or twelve segments of equal length, except at the ends where it is difficult to defi¬ 
 nitely distinguish them. It is of a rich yellow color, varying in different individuals from 
 lemon to orange yello^v; and usually a small greenish or blackish cloud is scon placed length¬ 
 wise in the middle of the body on its under side, which is ovidontly caused by internal 
 alimentary matter. 
 
 Dropped into alcohol it sinks at onco to the bottom, elongates itself and tries to crawl. It 
 then appears hyaline whitish, with a broad yellow stripo along the middle. 
 
 It the quiescent larva above described be placed iu a small 
 drop of water upon glass or any other smooth surface, it im¬ 
 mediately awakes from its seeming sleep, and protruding its 
 head and horns, it commences crawling, by alternately contract- 
 
790 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 HIB8B. LABTA. THE UOV1BQ LARVA. 
 
 ing and elongating itself. When thus wet and in motion several 
 parts of its structure which were not perceptible before become 
 plainly visible, and it now presents the appearance shown by 
 fig. 12 of the same plate. 
 
 The moving larva is of a more elongated and elliptic form, topering to an acuto point at 
 its fore end and much more blunt behind* Thirteen segments are now plainly to be seen. 
 Of these the three first and tho last have a smooth surface and are whitish and semi-trans¬ 
 parent, only the nine intervening ones being yellow and with their surface granulated. Each 
 segment is fringed at its end with a row of small hairs like eyelashes. We only perceive these 
 hairs at the corners of the segments in the view wo have in fig. 12. But when the head is 
 retracted, bringing the anterior edge of the next segment into view as in fig. 13, wo find 
 these hairs are continued along tho whole length of the edge. The headris conical, moro 
 long than broad, tapering to an acute point in front, and has a depression on each side near 
 the middle, where is inserted a short thread-like process, forming with its fellow a pair of 
 horns, which arc articulated at their bases. The last segment is cut off transversely in a 
 straight line; but as the worm crawls, when it draws the hind part of its body forward with 
 each step it takes, this hind end becomes strongly concavo. When the worm is dry and 
 endeavoring to crawl on a dry surface, this end of its body becomes wholly different, appear¬ 
 ing as seen in fig. 14. It is here strongly concave, its angles acute and tooth-like, with two 
 similar teeth between them, which may be of the same siae or retracted and showing their 
 points only. And on each side of this last segments rounded tubercle is sometimes protruded 
 out from beneath, bearing a conical point and resembling a pro-leg. Under the same circum¬ 
 stances the anterior end also becomes as represented in fig. 13, the head being wholly retracted 
 and leaving only tho ends of its horns visible. 
 
 When the larva is coated over with a pellicle of water it 
 moves with perfect facility by alternately contracting and elon¬ 
 gating itself. Stretching itself forward it attaches the fore part 
 of its body to the surface and then draws up the hind part and 
 attaches this by the last segment, at the same time raising the 
 middle of its body slightly upward from the surface. With each 
 step it takes the dusky spot in the centre of its body moves 
 backward and forward a distance equal to its usual length. If 
 it is a slanting surface on which it is moving it always takes the 
 downward direction, evidently aware that is the direction in 
 which the earth it is to enter will soonest he reached, and if a 
 different inclination is given to the surface it immediately per¬ 
 ceives it and changes its course accordingly. 
 
 When the pellicle of water in which it is enveloped evaporates, 
 its locomotive powers are gone. It still essays to advance that 
 it may get to the ground, but does this in a most awkward, bun¬ 
 gling manner, making but little progress with much labor. It 
 now protrudes the sharp teeth from tho tip of its body, repre¬ 
 sented in fig. 14, and curving this end of the body under, it 
 presses these teeth to the surface, and then by straightening 
 pushes itself along. Its head at the same time is drawn back 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 791 
 
 MIDflE. LARVA. ITS MOTIONS. CRAWLING. SKIPPING. 
 
 into its neck, leaving only the ends of its horns projecting, as 
 shown in fig. 13. It bends its neck down and presses these 
 points of its horns to the surface to hold its body from being 
 drawn backward whilst it again curves the hind end under and 
 fixes the teeth there as before, when, letting go in front, it gives 
 itself another shove. The worm shows in its every feature that 
 this is most fatiguing work, taxing its energies to their utmost 
 and yet making but little progress. Becoming wearied, it 
 changes its operations. Now pressing its anterior end to the 
 surface it curves this end under its breast as if making a very 
 humble bow, hereby drawing its body forward; and then using 
 the teeth at its tip merely to prevent its sliding back again 
 while it reaches forward and again fastens its fore end to make 
 another bow. Thus by pulling and by pushing it persistently 
 endeavors to move forward, but with very indifferent success. 
 Yet, notwithstanding the embarrassment of this worm in thus 
 crawling on a dry surface, if a watch crystal is placed over it, it 
 is able to cling to and move about on the under side of the glass 
 with its back downward, never losing its foothold and falling 
 unless it is disturbed. 
 
 But on being thus exposed 1 to the atmosphere the worm is 
 gradually losing its suppleness and becoming more dried and 
 stiff. Getting impatient perhaps at the little it accomplishes 
 with so much exertion, it resorts to another curious expedient. 
 It doubles itself together, bringing the tip of its body in contact 
 with its throat, and fastening it here by some mechanism which 
 1 have not been able to perceive. Then it puts forth its strength 
 to straighten its body; the fastening suddenly gives way, and 
 like a bent spring straightening itself, the body striking the sur¬ 
 face violently, bounds away, to a distance it may be of some 
 inches. Binding it does not yet drop upon the ground, this 
 operation of skipping is slowly repeated, again and again. At 
 length its skin becomes so dried and still - it ceases its efforts, 
 draws in each end of its body and again becomes a quiescent 
 larva such as we first saw it. 
 
 We now place it, say in a saucer, and set it aside. Observing 
 it a day or two afterwards, we find it has become so dried, so 
 still and hard, it is wholly unable to bend or move. And con¬ 
 tinuing in this dry situation its .body shrinks and shortens, 
 whereby after a few days it ceases to fill its outer skin. It has 
 
ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 792' 
 
 MIDGE. LARVA. THE CASED LARVA. 
 
 now 'become what is termed a cased larva. It is analogous to a 
 pillow enclosed in a pillow-case. Its outer skin forms a thin and 
 nearly transparent case, a bladder-like pod or bag, within which 
 the worm lies. And the yellow worm it is plainly to be seen 
 does not fill this case. A whitish transparent space is seen 
 sometimes at one, sometimes at both ends, extending beyond the 
 ends of the yellow worm inside. This transparent portion in¬ 
 creases in length as the worm within becomes more dried and 
 shortened, whereby it sometimes forms a fourth or a third of the 
 total length. And thus the worm will remain dry, stiff and 
 quiescent in this case, for several months, without any further 
 change and without losing its vitality. But on placing it upon 
 a wet cloth it revives. It absorbs the moisture and hereby 
 swells out to its former size and becomes soft and flexible. The 
 following note of an examination of one of these cased larvse 
 when it was revived by moisture and beginning to move again, I 
 here present. “With the magnifier I see it swells itself out to 
 almost till the case, and then contracts, leaving a large vacancy 
 at one end of the case, and then expands itself again. I now 
 place it in a drop of water on glass, and examine it under the 
 microscope. The inclosed worm has the same appearance and 
 parts as in the figure of the moving larva (fig. 12), and the tip 
 at times shows the four sharp teeth and the round concavity the 
 same as figured (fig. 14). I see the transparent case is frac¬ 
 tured, whereby it has an irregular opening on one side near its 
 fore end, and the inclosed worm protrudes its head and horns 
 from this opening, and feels around, slowly and cautiously, as if 
 fearful the same violence which caused this rent might still be 
 lurking there to do it further injury; and on the slightest dis¬ 
 turbance it draws back into the case again. Next I notice it 
 with the point of its head feeling all about the head end of the 
 case forward of the opening, as if to ascertain if there was any 
 other injury there. Then again it protrudes its head from the 
 opening, examining around on the outside as before. It repeats 
 these movements several times, till I beooine weary of noticing 
 them.” The worm eventually crawls out of this case or outer 
 skin and disappears. 
 
 Now that we have seen this larva under its three different 
 forms of a quiescent, a moving and a cased larva, and have 
 observed how readily it crawls when wet or placed on a surface 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 793 
 
 MIDQK. LARVA. DOES IT CAST OFF ITS 8kIE? 
 
 bedewed with moisture, and how difficult it is for it to move on a 
 dry surface, we shall more readily understand its somewhat diver¬ 
 sified proceedings from the time it is done feeding in the wheat 
 oars until it enters the ground. 
 
 The wheat is for the most part nearly ripe and the ears and 
 straw nearly juiceless and dry about the same time that the chief 
 portion of the larvas it has nurtured have become mature and 
 
 ready to descend to the earth. But until a rain occurs to wet 
 
 the straw and thus enable them to crawl down it to the ground, 
 they are obliged to remain in their retreats within the ears. 
 
 Thus multitudes of them ere they have the opportunity to 
 
 make the descent, dry and shrink and become cased larvae. 
 When a rain at length comes on, saturating the wheat ears with 
 moisture, these larvae become active, and breaking out from their 
 cases, descend to the ground, leaving these transparent whitish 
 cases or cast skins within the florets from which they respectively 
 came. 
 
 I have heretofore thought that like the larvm of the Willow 
 gall fly, these larvae of the wheat midge did not moult or cast 
 their skins; and I still ain confident it is only under certain cir¬ 
 cumstances that they do this. In repeated instances, on placing 
 what appeared to be cased larvae between the folds of wet cloth, 
 I have observed them to swell out and fill their cases, which also 
 became pliant and supple from the moisture, and then crawl away 
 without leaving any traces of these^cast skins behind them. To 
 be more fully assured of this fact, I a few days since took 
 from a wheat head which has been lying dry within doors upwards 
 of three months, six larvae, all showing a transparent space at 
 one or both ends of their bodies. I placed them in a row side by 
 6ide on a wet cloth, whereby I was sure as one after another 
 moved off I Could detect any relics of a cast skin the)' might leave 
 behind. In one larva I perceived the end of its case was broken. 
 This was the first one to crawl away, leaving its case plainly to 
 be seen in the spot where it had laid. Another has gone, leaving 
 no vestiges of its case to be found. The remaining four fill 
 their skins so perfectly that I think they too will retain them 
 when they come to move off. Furthermore, the number of cast 
 skins which we find in the wheat heads bears no proportion to 
 the number of larvce which have been nurtured in the same heads. 
 Some years we may search many heads where the dwarfed kernels 
 
794 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 HIDQB. LARVA. THEIR SBRPRUIKQ VITALITT. 
 
 attest that numerous larvae have been nourished therein, yet 
 without finding one of these cast skins therein. We usually meet 
 with but one, sometimes two, rarely so many as three or four of 
 these cast skins in a single floret, although the diminutive kernel 
 indicates that four times as many larvaa as this have nestled there. 
 Again, when a larva first reaches maturity, with its skin still soft 
 and pliant,,if a fall of rain occurs whereby it may at once descend 
 to the ground, will it not do so, without tarrying an uncertain 
 length of time for its skin to dry and separate ? I think it will, 
 and that when it once reaches the moist ground its skin will not 
 afterwards dry and harden to be cast off. Finally, when the 
 grain ripens there are often multitudes of larvae in it which are 
 not yet grown. But the kernels having become dry and hard, 
 they can obtain no more sustenance from them and therefore can 
 grow no larger. And these immature larvae never became cased 
 on drying, as I have noticed in numerous instances. They dry 
 without the ends of their bodies becoming in the least transparent. 
 They shrink up and become shapeless and hard, and you think 
 they are all dead ; but place them in a wet cloth, you are 
 astonished to find what vitality these little creatures possess, 
 and how they revive and crawl away, only a few of the minutest 
 ones remaining and after a long time becoming mouldy, whereby 
 you are assured they are really dead. You thus see that neither 
 starvation nor drouth is able to kill any of these larvai except 
 the mere infants and pigmies of their race. And upon observing 
 the larvae which are crawling down the wet straw from the 
 ripened grain, you notice numbers among them which are dwarfs, 
 some of them but half the usual size. Have these ever been 
 cased larvae ? Have they changed their skins ? I trow they have 
 not. Yet they enter the earth, and the next Juno we see them 
 again, as I think, in the numerous dwarf midges we meet with on 
 the wheat ears, some of them being less than half the normal 
 size of their species. 
 
 To the question then, do these larvm of the midge moult, do 
 they cast their skins ? I reply, they do and they do not. The 
 subject reminds me of Shakespeare’s description of wine. It's 
 an equivocator. And I have not been able to investigate it suffi¬ 
 ciently to determine the exact circumstances under which this 
 moulting does apd does not occur. Where the skin of a cased 
 larva becomes fractured or torn, admitting the external air 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 795 
 
 MIDOR. LARVA. 0RAWL9 ABOUT OK THE WHEAT EARS. 
 
 inside, thus toughening the inner skin of the worm, there the 
 outer skin is always cast off. Whether it is cast off under any 
 other circumstances I am yet in doubt. 
 
 Before they become matured some of the larvae it is probable 
 leave the florets in which they are nestled and crawl about upon 
 the wheat heads and enter other florets. Thus I think it comes 
 to pass that we sometimes meet with one or two large larvae in the 
 same floret with a company of minute ones. It no doubt some¬ 
 times happens that a floret becomes overstocked with more larvae 
 than the kernel can sustain, whereupon part of them forsake it 
 on discovering they must starve if they remain there. Coming 
 out probably when the grain is wet with rains or heavy night 
 dews, they wander over the heads till they find and enter other 
 florets in which'they can be better accommodated. Where there 
 are but few larvro in a head they are found upon the two outer 
 kernels of the headlets, rarely on either of the two inner ones. 
 But where the larvae are numerous all the kernels share alike in 
 supporting them. 
 
 After the grain ripens and they have done feeding upon it, on 
 the coming on of a rain moistening the heads of the wheat and 
 rendering the bodies of the larvae within them soft and pliant, 
 they leave the florets, one after another coming out and wander¬ 
 ing over the outer surface of the chaffs and out upon their 
 beards, as though bf this exercise to become more limber and 
 expert in crawling before they attempt to descend the straw. 
 And if the rain passes over and the heads begin to become dry, 
 they hasten back into their lurking-places between the chaffs. 
 And if wheat heads be placed in a glass or earthen jar and ex¬ 
 posed to the rain, whereby the larvae descend from them, when 
 the water collected in the jar is poured off or evaporates, the 
 larvai wandering about and discovering there is no earth there 
 lor them to enter will all crawl back again, ascending the 
 straws and re-entering the heads. Thus, by leaving but one ear 
 in the jar, all the larvae from a number of ears may be herded 
 together in this one; or by substituting a perfect ear in its 
 stead we may produce the paradoxical phenomenon of a wheat 
 ear thronged with these larvm and yet not one of the kernels in 
 it shrunken. 
 
 A powerful rain which is unattended with wind, especially if 
 it occurs in the night time, brings the larvm out of the ears of 
 
796 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 \ MIDGE. LARVA. ITS DESCENT TO THE BARTH. 
 
 the ripe grain in the greatest abundance. Very few will leave 
 their retreats when the wheat ears are agitated by the wind. 
 And it is only a portion of the larvae contained in the ears that 
 come forth at one time, a large reserve corps always remaining 
 to descend at subsequent periods. A wheat field therefore which 
 is so injured that it is not harvested will have hosts of these 
 larvae descending from the ears with every rain which occurs 
 during the autumn. The following experiment will more plainly 
 illustrate this fact: 
 
 Twenty wheat heads were gathered soon after the middle of 
 July and tied in two bundles of ten in each, and were placed in 
 separate jars for the purpose of exposing them to each rain that 
 occurred, so long as any larvas continued to descend from them. 
 Jar No. 1 was placed out for the first time on the tenth of August, 
 jar No. 2 two months later, on the eighth of October. No. 1 was 
 not exposed on this last date, my aim being to ascertain if as 
 many larvae would not then come at once from No. 2 as had pre¬ 
 viously come at different times from No. 1. The number of larvae 
 found in each jar after each rain was as follows : 
 
 No. 1 No. 2 
 
 Aug. 10 
 23 
 
 Sept. 12 
 Oct. 8 
 13 
 20 
 23 
 
 34 
 
 4 
 
 46 
 
 .. 88 
 27 45 
 31 15 
 
 74 32 
 
 216 180 
 
 It merits to be stated that the individuals which descended on 
 the last dates were mostly small sized and dwarfs ; thus showing 
 that those larvae which are not full grown when the wheat ripens 
 are prone to linger in tho ears till the very last, as though they 
 were loolcing for the kernels to become' soft again whereby they 
 might feed further upon them, and only abandoning this hope 
 when the rains become so cold as to apprise them they must 
 make no longer delay in secreting themselves in the earth and 
 wrapping their blanket around them to protect them from the 
 vicissitudes of the coming winter. 
 
 Many persons entertain the opinion that it is only the larval 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 797 
 
 H1DOE. LARVA. ITS MODES OF DK8CySDISO. 
 
 which go into the ground before harvest that live and produce 
 the flies of the following year; and that those larvse which 
 remain in the wheat ears and are carried into the barn become 
 dried and dead if the grain is not threshed until winter. This 
 opinion is probably derived from the dried, shrunken, hard and 
 motionless appearance of the larvae which they see upon the 
 threshing floor. It was one leading object of the experiment 
 above reported, to obtain some evidence upon this important point. 
 And it will be noticed that those wheat heads which had been 
 kept perfectly dry for nearly three months gave out about the 
 same number of live larvrn as those which had been occasionally 
 wetted; indicating that none had perished from being dried 
 three months, and that few if any therefore would be dead, 
 probably, at the end of six months. 
 
 Upon the soft young kernels the larvae grow to their full size 
 in about three weeks. When the kernels are becoming dry and 
 hard they will bo longer in feeding upon them. I have seen these 
 larvae matured and descending to the ground as early as the 
 eleventh of July, some of the parent flies being still at work depo¬ 
 siting their eggs in the ears from which these larvae were coming. 
 
 There are three different modes by which it passes from the 
 wheat ears to the ground, viz., 1st, by jumping down ; 2d, by 
 crawling, and 3d, by riding down. 
 
 1st. By jumping. Some of them crawl out upon the beards 
 and with a skip throw themselves thence to the earth. I have 
 not seen it descending thus, sufficiently often to speak with con¬ 
 fidence as to the circumstances which induce it to resort to this 
 mode. It appears to bo when the heads are overcrowded and no 
 rain occurring to enable them to crawl down the straw, that, if a 
 moderate sprinkling rain or a mist comes on, it suffices to enable 
 a portion of them to crawl out upon the beards and skip from 
 thence in the manner stated. 
 
 2d. By crawling down. When a rain drenches the straw with 
 moisture, causing its surface to be covered with small particles 
 like a heavy dew resting thereon, whereby the worm as it crawls 
 downward is kept wet and enveloped in a pellicle of water, it 
 readily adhores to the straw, as it cannot do when the straw i 3 
 dry ; and by alternately contracting and elongating itself as has 
 heretofore been described, it moves down the surface of the 
 straw with the utmost facility. And this is the mode in which 
 we usually see it making its descent. 
 
*798 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 MIDGE, LARVA. RIDING DOWN THE STRAW. 
 
 Natura maxime miranda in minimis. In the works of nature 
 we find the most to admire in their minutest particulars. Why, 
 after it has finished feeding in the wheat ears, does this little 
 yellow maggot of the midge, to reach its resting place in the 
 earth prefer moving down the wetted straw in a globule of 
 water, to the much shorter journey of crawling out on the beards 
 of the wheat ear and with a skip throwing itself from thence to 
 the ground ? I can conceive of but one reason for this. It is 
 because in the globule of water it is shielded from being stung 
 by its mortal foe, the Platygaster Tipula. The antennae of this 
 parasite, which guide it in selecting suitable worms for it to 
 puncture, lose their extreme sensitiveness no doubt when they 
 are wet, and therefore it can only approach and sting worms 
 which are dry and moving on a surface not bedewed with mois¬ 
 ture. Thus, although here in America the midge has not been’ 
 molested by a parasite for forty generations, it still remembers 
 its old foe upon the other side of the ocean. It still dreads to 
 take the short walk from its supper table to its lodging room 
 unless it can put on its cloak, so fearful is it that if it ventures 
 out doors without this disguise, its mortal enemy will meet it on 
 the way and deal it its death wound. 
 
 3d. By riding. The mode of passing to the ground which this 
 larva evidently prefers to all others, is the third one I have 
 named, that of riding down the straw. If the material therefor 
 be in its way it puts it together, forming a kind of locomotive 
 carriage, into which it enters, and then joggling it to give it a 
 start* the vehicle runs down the side of the straw, carrying this 
 little creature to the ground with such speed that it can now 
 defy all its enemies to pursue and overtake it. In other words, 
 if it finds the surface of the straw sulliciently bedewed with 
 moisture, the worm instead of crawling directly downwards 
 travels around diagonally and in a serpentine track, hereby 
 increasing the globule of water in which it is moving until it 
 becomes so large it is upon the point of running down the straw, 
 its gravitation so nearly overbalances its adhesion. The worm 
 now lets go its hold upon the straw and sinks to the lower side 
 
 of this drop. Then by slightly wriggling its body it causes the 
 
 • 
 
 drop to move a little further whereby a few more particles are 
 added to it, so increasing its weight that it now starts and runs 
 down the straw, carrying the worm in it. In this way these 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 799 
 
 UIDUB. LARVA. IT IS AMPHIBIOUS. 
 
 larvae may always be seen to descend, when the surface of the 
 straw is so heavily coated with dew-like particles as to enable 
 them to'gather the moisture into a large drop. And it is its 
 fondness for this mode of passing to the ground that appears to 
 cause it to leave the ears in the greatest numbers in a heavy rain, 
 when the wet gathered in the heads of the ■jvheat is every moment 
 dripping down the straw in little rivulets, whereby all the worms 
 which place themselves in the way are speedily carried to the 
 earth. 
 
 The astonishing vitality of this insect has already been adver¬ 
 ted to. When a larva is but half grown, we have seen that 
 though deprived of food it does not die, and though kept from 
 moisture for many months it does not .dry up so as to perish. 
 Thus no extremity of hunger or of thirst seems to have power 
 to kill it. And we now come to show that water does not drown 
 it. Heretofore it had occurred to me that where wheat was 
 growing on stiff clay lands and a retentive soil, the same rains 
 which bring the larvae out from the wheat ears would also form 
 pools of water on the surface, into which many of the larvse 
 would descend and would consequently be drowned. And among 
 the possible remedies for this insect, I had thought of this : that 
 if a wheat field after harvest could be flowed with water, like 
 those in which rice is cultivated, the larvse in the ground might 
 all be destroyed thereby. I am now aware this measure, were it 
 practicable, would be both in its nature and its results a parallel 
 to that whereby the sages of Gotham are reported to have essayed 
 the destruction of an eel. For I find these larvae are perfectly 
 amphibious and live as readily in water as out of it. My atten¬ 
 tion was turned to this subject from noticing that a larva, crawl¬ 
 ing about in a globule of water was so enveloped therein that it 
 appeared impossible for it to be breathing the external air. I 
 thereupon placed a large drop of water in its way, on coining to 
 which, it was floated into its centre and there laid perfectly 
 quiescent and without making any effort to crawl out. An hour 
 later, 1 took it out and placed it on dry paper, whereupon it 
 began to writhe and crawl away. I thereupon dropped it and 
 also a cased larva into a vial of Water. Next day I could not 
 distinguish the one from the other. Laying one of them upon 
 paper I found it was alive, whereupon it was replaced in the 
 ■vial. Examining them in this same way occasionally, I found 
 
800 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 MIDGE. COCOONS. NAKED LARYjE FOUND IN SPRING. 
 
 that although sunk thus in water they were alive at the end of 
 fifty days. Satisfied with the experiment the vial was set aside, 
 and four months afterwards, happening to look at it, both worms 
 were then found to be dead and semiputrid. 
 
 The Cocoons and Pupa. 
 
 Wo next come to trace the history of these insects onward, so 
 far as our present knowledge enables us to do this, after they 
 enter the ground. 
 
 It is now sixteen years since I took my first step in investiga¬ 
 ting the wheat midge. That step was as follows: Early in 
 March, 1845, soon after the snows of winter had melted away, I 
 examined the earth in a field where wheat had been grown the 
 summer before, which had been considerably infested by the 
 midge ; and I found slightly under the surface and under frag¬ 
 ments of dead straws and leaves lying on the surface, a few 
 bright yellow larvm, identical in their appearance with those 
 which are seen in the heads of wheat. I hence inferred with 
 confidence that the larvse laid naked, dormant and inactive, 
 slightly within the ground, during the autumn and winter, 
 changing probably to pupae only a few weeks before they give 
 out the flies in June. 
 
 The larvae which I found were placed in moist earth in a vial, 
 and other engagements drawing off my attention, ere I was aware 
 of it this earth had become so dried that I doubted not the 
 worms therein were dead, and no further attention therefore was 
 given to them. The following June, however, when I discovered 
 the flies of the midge in our wheat fields, on looking at this vial 
 I found there were in it two or three dead flies of the same kind. 
 The pupae cases from which these flies had come were also there; 
 but on a most careful examination of the dry earth in the vial I 
 could detect no vestiges of larva skins. I therefore concluded 
 that the larva which I placed in the vial must have taken on the 
 pupa form without casting off their skins, the same that the 
 Willow gall midge has the strongest indications of doing also. 
 And this opinion acquiring additional strength from further 
 observations, I fully expressed in an article on the wheat midge, 
 published January 26th, 1856, In the Rural New Yorker, vol. vii, 
 p. 29. From galls containing the larva of the Willow midge 
 which I transmitted to the late Dr. T. W. Harris, he also became 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 801 
 
 MIDOE. COCOOKS. MOW FIKST DISOOTERKD. 
 
 assured that my views upon this subject were correct, as he has 
 stated in the second edition of his Treatise on Injurious Insects, 
 page 451. 
 
 But, as I was aware it was contrary to all previous observa¬ 
 tions for the larva skin of an insect to become its pupa skin, I 
 have been most anxious to disinter these larvae of the wheat 
 midge again, early in the spring, that I might closely inspect 
 them from that time onwards till they became flies, and thus cor¬ 
 rect my views if I was in error, or confirm them if correct. I 
 accordingly have sought for these doruiant larva} in the earth of 
 old wheat fields, faithfully and perseveringly. In repeated in¬ 
 stances I have noticed the places where, at and beforo harvest, 
 immense numbers of them descended to the ground, and have 
 repaired to the same spots the following spring and with a pen¬ 
 knife blade carefully scraped and searched the surface of the 
 ground, assured that there must be multitudes of these yellow 
 worms lurking somewhere there, yet not one of them could I find. 
 And for many years past it has been a mystery to me how I came 
 to discover these larvae in the ground the first time I ever 
 searched for them, and yet could never meet with them in the 
 same situation again. 
 
 Being thus unsuccessful, I have latterly been endeavoring to 
 follow these larvae from the time they enter the ground, and thus 
 ascertain what became of them that I could not find them in the 
 spring. But my experiments hitherto have failed, for want as I 
 have supposed of suitable care in conducting them when my 
 attention was principally required in other directions. Larvae 
 buried in the dirt in flower pots and in vials I have been unable 
 to find afterwards. Finally, that I might have them in a space 
 so narrow that they could not elude detection, the eighty-four 
 first larvae already mentioned as having come from ten wheat 
 heads in August and September, were placed in a small vial, 
 having moist earth in its bottom to the depth of half an inch, in 
 which they all soon disappeared. Four weeks afterwards, on the 
 eighth of October, upon examining portions of the earth taken from 
 this vial, I could find none of* these yellow larvaj in it. So totally 
 had all traces of them vanished that the conclusion became 
 strongly impressed on my mind, that the largo number .which I 
 had placed in this small lump of earth had all perished and 
 [Ag. Trans.] «51 
 
802 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 MIDGE. COCOONS. HOW LMIVJE WERE FOUND IN SPRING. 
 
 decayed, probably from being overcrowded and smothered like 
 the prisoners in the Black Hole of Calcutta. With a magnifying 
 glass I then sought for some of their slimy remains, and soon 
 detected what I felt'assured was one of these dead worms, faded 
 and contracted to a little globule scarcely the size of a mustard 
 Beed. I was now called off from this examination and on return¬ 
 ing to it again a few days later I found the little globule had 
 become dry and hard. Pressing upon it with the point of a 
 needle it cracked asunder, showing inside the bright yellow larva 
 of the wheat midge doubled and pressed compactly together into 
 a little ball. The truth of the matter was now evident, and the 
 interesting discovery was thus made, that these larvm inclose 
 themselves in cocoons, they do not remain naked in the ground 
 as 1 have all along supposed them to. Others of these minute 
 cocoons were now found with the aid of the magnifying glass, on 
 examining another fragment of earth taken from the vial. 
 
 But if these larvae, soon after they descend from the wheat 
 into the ground, inclose themselves in cocoons in which to repose 
 through the winter and till they are ready to become flies the 
 following June, how did I come to find larvae naked in the earth 
 when the snows melted away in March ? We might suspect such 
 larvm had been stung by parasites and thus rendered too weak 
 and diseased to form cocoons; but as flies hatched from the major 
 part of them we know this was not the case. Another casualty 
 might retard them from forming cocoons. If on leaving the 
 wheat they chanced to fall into a pool of water, we know*they 
 would lie passive and quiescent therein, without perishing, for 
 months or till the water dried away from them. They might 
 thus remain in water from harvest time till cold weather arrived 
 and further suspended their operations till the return of spring. 
 But the soil of the spot where I found the larvae in question is 
 so porous and sandy that I am quite sure no depressions in its 
 surface could retain water but a brief time. And the most 
 plausible conjecture I can form, whereby to account for the fact 
 stated, is the following: Upon going to the spot where I met 
 with these larvae, I discover it is but eight rods distant from the 
 barn in which the midge infested wheat which grew on this 
 ground was, housed and threshed. The screenings of the fanning 
 mill weie doubtless made up in part of larvae which remained in 
 the wheat ears at the time of harvest, and if these screenings 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 803 
 
 IfIDGE. COCOONS. DESCRIBED. 
 
 chanced to be emptied out the door upon a blustering winter’s 
 day or at a time when the surface of the fields were crusted with 
 ice from falling rain and sleet, a portion of them might readily 
 be driven by the winds or carried in drifting snows to this dis¬ 
 tance from the barn. I therefore suspect the larvae which I found 
 were not larvae which had come before harvest from out the 
 wheat growing there, but that they had been conveyed into the 
 barn, from whence they were casually returned to this spot after 
 cold weather had suspended their operations for the season. 
 And this well illustrates how facts themselves may be false and 
 may thus lead us unsuspectingly into errors. 
 
 The cocoons resemble little round grains smaller than a mus¬ 
 tard or a turnip seed. They are usually a very little longer than 
 broad and measure about 0.05 in length, though sometimes no 
 more than 0.03. When their surface is clean of dirt they are of 
 a dull pale yellow color when moist, and gray when dry. They 
 are so dense and opake that the bright yellow worm within can¬ 
 not be discerned through their walls. When dried they are 
 brittle, breaking like the shell of an egg in small irregular frag¬ 
 ments. Yet they are evidently formed of exceedingly fine threads 
 which the worm spins; for when two cocoons are found lying 
 close together it is common for them to be united,by loose fibres 
 on the surface of the one woven into the surface of the other. 
 Most of them also have particles of dirt so woven into their sur¬ 
 face that it is difficult to wash them clean. This tenacious coat¬ 
 ing of dirt and their exceedingly small size will render it almost 
 impossible to discover these cocoons, even with the aid of a mag¬ 
 nifying glass, where they lie in their natural situation in the 
 ground of old wheat fields. Even when numerous!) 7 crowded 
 into a small quantity of earth in a vial, it is only by washing 
 this earth in a saucer of water with a camel’s hair pencil that I 
 readily detect them. 
 
 Several of these cocoons thus obtained happened to be inclosed 
 in a vial over night. Next morning one of the larvae was found 
 to have forsaken its cocoon and was slowly crawling around in 
 the vial, differing in no respect then, that I perceived, from the 
 larvae as they appear when they are entering the ground. To 
 come out, it had crowded off one end of the cocoon in the form 
 of a little hemispherical cup or lid, with its edge smoothly cut, 
 a number of fibres on one side being unsevered and serving as a 
 
804 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF • NEW YORK 
 
 MIDGE. THE PUPA. 
 
 hinge to hold this lid to the cocoon, tho same as we see in th 
 cocoons of multitudes of other insects. 
 
 From the analogy furnished by other species of Cecidoinyh 
 we infer that the larva of tho wheat midge will remain in iti 
 cocoon through the winter and till the following May, when i 
 will assume its pupa form. And in June, when ready to becom< 
 a fly, this pupa will crowd open the. little lid above mentioned 
 from the end of the cocoon, and work itself up nearly out of tin 
 ground, when its skin will part asunder on the anterior end o 
 its back and the fly will withdraw itself from it. 
 
 Kept in vials in a warm room, I doubt not my cocoons wil] 
 give out the flies much earlier than June, probably before the 
 close of winter. And though the flies naturally come abroad 
 only in June and July, with the knowledge I have now obtained, 
 I am perfectly confident I can with the utmost facility so manage 
 the larvm and cocoons as to produce the flies in every month oi 
 the year. 
 
 I must not leave this subject without describing the manner 
 in which the insects of this genus Cecidomyia effect the change 
 from their larva to their pupa form, as this is a point which has 
 occupied much of my attention since I first began to investigate 
 these insects, and on which important light has recently been 
 obtained. 
 
 As has already been mentioned, some larv® of the wheat 
 midge found in March were placed in a vial of earth and in June 
 the flics therefrom were found in this vial, and also the pup® 
 skins from which these flies had hatched, but on a most careful 
 search no traces of the cast skins of the larv® could be dis¬ 
 covered; wherefore it appeared that the larv® must have 
 changed to pup® without throwing off their skins. And this 
 view that these insects do not cast olf a skin in becoming pup® 
 was strongly corroborated by the Willow gall midge, to which 
 allusion has already been repeatedly made. This is a large ro¬ 
 bust species, double the size of the wheat midge and therefore 
 of much easier examination. It forms a gall the size of a bird’s 
 egg on or near the ends of willow twigs, through the middle of 
 which gall is a cylindrical cell as large as the cavity in a rye 
 stiaw, in which cell the larva resides, and when done feeding 
 it weaves a thin partition across its cell whereby it incloses 
 itself in its lower end and there takes on its pupa form. It 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 805 
 
 UIDQE. PUPA. EMBRYO “PUP A STATE. 
 
 would seem that a species so large and hardy as this is, if it 
 moulted, must throw off a skin of such a coarse texture that 
 some traces of it at least would be found in its cell. But I have 
 carefully opened these galls in instances without number, coming 
 to the pupa without being able to detect any refuse matter in its 
 cell to indicate that a skin had been thrown off. And some of 
 these galls forwarded to the late Dr. Harris, as stated a few 
 pages back, convinced him also that these larvie changed to 
 pupa; without moulting. Still, that an insect could do this was 
 so contrary to all previous observations, that I determined I 
 would see this larva when it was in the very act of undergoing 
 this change to a pupa, and thus know how this change was 
 effected. And for ten years I have been endeavoring to find one 
 of these insects when it was thus changing, opening numbers of 
 the galls every year. As I have thus become perfectly familiar 
 with the appearance of this insect at this period of its life, I 
 would observe that a state occurs which is distinct from its 
 larva and its pupa state, as has indeed been noticed by authors 
 in other instances, at which time it may appropriately be termed 
 
 an EMBRYO-PUPA. 
 
 This Willow gall midge is usually found in this state between 
 the 8th and 16t,h of March, and remains under this form a week 
 or more. It at this time appears very much as though the ante¬ 
 rior end of the larva had been bruised and had swollen into a 
 watery blister from the injury. This vescicle is translucent and 
 of a pale blood red color, becoming darker and more opake as it 
 becomes older. The skin covering it is smooth and slightly 
 glossy, the transverse sutures being marked upon its surface 
 faintly by slender impressed lines instead of the broad deep fur¬ 
 rows which previously existed here. It extends farther down on 
 the front or under side than on the back, here occupying a fourth 
 of the length of the worm and leaving only seven segments unin¬ 
 volved in it while on the back there are nine. The apex or 
 former mouth is now a short broad tubercle and in front a little 
 below this the jaws still appear as two minute black lines meet¬ 
 ing in form of a letter V. The remainder of the worm not occu¬ 
 pied by this vescicle is not changed in any respect from what it 
 previously was in the larva. 
 
 In this embryo-pupa I had in two or three instances discerned 
 the wing sheaths of the pupa in their incipient state, faintly 
 
806 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 MIDGE. PUPA. CHANGE FROM AN EMBRYO TO A PERFECT PUPA. 
 
 traced, apparently in and not under the skin of this vescicle; 
 whence it seemed that this skin gradually grew to form these 
 sheaths. But in these and other instances this embryo-pupa 
 would become altered to its perfect pupa form in the night time, 
 whereby all my efforts to find one passing through this change in 
 the light of day so that I could closely observe it, were unsuc¬ 
 cessful, and I at length became aware I should never see it in the 
 act of undergoing this change, unless I could master the insect 
 and make it change into a pupa when I wanted it to and not 
 when it wanted to. Accordingly, in March last, I opened several 
 galls to expose this embryo-pupa lying in its cell. I placed these 
 galls by day in a warm room and removed them by night into a 
 cold room where their tenants would be so chilled as to remain 
 stationary, until they were brought back again-next morning into 
 the warm room. I thus at last succeeded in observing what for 
 so many years I had been striving to see—one of these embryo- 
 pupae passing into its perfect pupa form. 
 
 Without reciting the various minute details which I noted 
 down during the two and a half hours this change was progres¬ 
 sing, I will endeavor in a more brief and general manner to state 
 the leading facts which were observed. The reader by referring 
 to Plate III, fig. 1 will see a pupa represented in its perfectly 
 developed form, the lines running lengthwise upon the middle of 
 the figure being the leg sheaths, which come out from under and 
 from between the wing sheaths, and along the inner edge of these 
 wing sheaths he will perceive, if his eyesight is good, a beaded 
 line, which is the antennae sheaths. In this embryo-pupa I first 
 noticed that the wing sheaths were faintly perceptible, the thin 
 skin over them appearing to form their exterior surface, with a 
 remarkable depression of the breast between them, where no 
 depression had previously existed. This anterior part of the 
 worm now began to gently writhe and bend, without any inter¬ 
 vals of repose; perhaps by this exercise, as I first thought, to 
 force the circulating fluids more briskly and copiously into the 
 appropriate channels to develop and expand the several sheaths ; 
 the surface hereby being raised in slight waves or wrinkles, 
 which would again subside. The wing sheaths were now noticed 
 to become more obscure and scarcely perceptible; while at the 
 anterior end the bases of the antennae sheaths began to appear, be¬ 
 coming longer, as it seemed, as the fluids were forced farther in to 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 807 
 
 MIDGE. PUPA. TIIE METAMORPHOSIS DESCRIBED. 
 
 fill and expand them; the fore part of the wing sheaths also were 
 next noticed to become more plump and distinct than they had pre¬ 
 viously been. And now, another phenomenon served to show me 
 the real nature of the change which was occurring, but for which 
 I should probably have failed of detecting what was actually 
 passing directly under my eye. The space between the black Y 
 mark of the jaws and the anterior end had been observed to 
 gradually expand and become more considerable, till at length, 
 this black-mark had moved down to be in a line with the ends of 
 the wing sheaths. It was evident these jaws could only be 
 moved as they had been in but one manner. A membrane or 
 film so exceedingly thin, delicate and transparent that I had 
 wholly failed to perceive it, had been gradually crowded back¬ 
 ward, these jaws being attached to it and carried along with it, 
 till the anterior part of the body was now wholly released from 
 it. On carefully looking I could now perceive the wrinkled folds 
 of this membrane beyond the ends of the wing sheaths, produ¬ 
 cing a very slight constriction of the body at that point. It was 
 moved no further, but on becoming dry was in the course of the 
 day broken into shreds and flakes which the motions of the pupa 
 caused to separate and drop off; whilst over all the remaining 
 front part of the body an extremely fine scurf was discerned to 
 separate and scale off, like dandruff, but on the back I was unable 
 tp detect any exfoliation whatever. 
 
 Thus, from these observations we obtain a pretty full and dis¬ 
 tinct view of the processes whereby the insects of this genus 
 Cecidomyia become changed from larvae to pupae, by this trans¬ 
 formation losing the mouth and jaws of the worm and acquiring 
 the rudimentary wings and legs of the fly. As the first step of 
 this change, at the anterior end of the larva the cutis or opake 
 inner skin becomes wholly broken up and dissolved into a watery 
 fluid, whereby the thin transparent outer skin or cuticle is ele¬ 
 vated like a vescicle or blister, which occupies about a fourth of 
 the length of the worm on its under side but is much shorter on 
 its back. • The insect is now in its embryo-pupa state, having 
 lost its larva form and having not yet assumed its pupa form. 
 In the fluid contained in this vescicle the wings, legs and antennae 
 of the future fly now begin to bo developed, whereby the sheaths 
 of the wings at length come to be discerned immediately under 
 the skin. This skin is exceedingly thin, delicate and transparent, 
 
808 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 MIDGE. PARASITES. GENERAL YIEW OF THEM. 
 
 like the tunica arachnoides of the human brain, a mere film aa 
 thin as a spider’s web. Eventually, the insect by gently writhing 
 ruptures this film at its anterior end and gradually crowds it off 
 downward to the lower end of the vescicle, carrying the minute 
 black jaws of the larva with it. It there remains, becoming dry 
 and torn into shreds which flake and fall off by the continued 
 motions of the insect. At the same time, from the remainder of 
 the surface not occupied by this vescicle, a still more slight and 
 delicate film, appearing as though the worm had been wet in milk 
 which had dried upon it, forming an exceedingly thin pellicle or 
 scurf, becomes separated by the same motions of the insect and 
 diops ofl in minute scales scarcely to be perceived with a magni- 
 fying glass. And now the insect has acquired its perfect pupa 
 form, the moulting which occurs in this change being, not a 
 throwing off of an entire skin like that which the larva often 
 parts with when it is done feeding, and that which the pupa 
 always leaves when it changes to a fly, but only a slight scurf-like 
 exfoliation from the surface —so slight that in a small delicate 
 species like the wheat midge it is doubtful whether any indica- 
 tions of it can be perceived. 
 
 Its Parasites and other natural destroyers. 
 
 In its native haunts on the eastern continent the wheat midge 
 appears to be preyed upon by several other insects. Earwigs 
 devour the larvae, and the ravenous two-winged flies of the genus 
 Empis seize and carry them away to suck out their juices. But 
 by far the most important and serviceable of these destroyers are 
 its parasitic foes. These are small four-winged flies having some 
 resemblance to little winged ants, and are at a glance distin¬ 
 guished from the yellow flies of the midge by their black color. 
 Their young subsist within and destroy the larvae and eggs of the 
 midge. And these insects increase or diminish in numbers in the 
 same ratio with the supply of food which they are able to find 
 for their young. Hence, when the midge chances to become 
 numerous these parasites also rapidly multiply and thus immedi¬ 
 ately quell and subdue it, reducing it back within the'sphere it 
 was designed to occupy in the domain of nature; the same as the 
 Hessian fly, once so frightfully destructive to our wheat crops 
 here in America, has become subdued by its parasites, whereby 
 it is seldom noticed now, or known to be present in our country, 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 809 
 
 MIDOE. PARASITES. THE LARVA PARASITE. 
 
 although it can be found almost every year in our wheat fields, 
 showing it is still with us, everywhere ready to again increase 
 and become destructive, were it not constantly repressed and 
 kept down by its parasitic foes. And as illustrating the efficiency 
 of these parasites on the wheat midge, it has been stated that 
 persons who have been desirous of seeing and obtaining speci¬ 
 mens of the midge, on repairing to places where it had been 
 plenty have been unable to find it, nothing but swarms of these 
 parasitic destroyers coming out in the wheat fields in its stead. Mr. 
 Curtis remarks, these parasites so effectually execute their mis¬ 
 sion, that it has often happened, a year or two after the midges 
 were in excess, not a specimen could be found. And being usu¬ 
 ally present upon the wheat in so much greater abundance than 
 the midge fly, it is often overlooked, and these black flies it is 
 hence supposed must be the parents of the yellow maggots which 
 occur in the ears. Thus Mr. Kirby remarks, it is singular, but 
 most people who are acquainted with the larva of the midge mis¬ 
 take these friendly parasites for its parent, and thus impute all 
 the mischief to the very creature which is appointed to prevent 
 it. Even in our own times this same mistake continues to occur, 
 as we are made aware by a writer in Loudon’s Magazine of Nat¬ 
 ural History (vol. ii, p. 292), who, after describing the appear¬ 
 ance of the yellow larvae in the wheat ears, goes on to state that 
 they become transformed into small black flies which appear in 
 myriads on the outside of the ears and are not half the size of 
 the yellow fly figured by Mr. Kirby; though in a subsequent 
 communication (p. 323) he corrects his error, on coming to find 
 that the yellow flies which he had not seen before also occurred 
 on the wheat. / 
 
 In England Mr. Kirby found three of these parasitic insects 
 which he was sufficiently assured were destroyers of the wheat 
 midge. That which he first noticed as being the most abundant, 
 and which is regarded as the most important and useful, is the 
 midge larva parasite, named Ichneumon Tipulce , by Mr. Kirby. 
 It now pertains to the genus Platygaster in the family Proctotru- 
 pidee and order Hymenoptera. It is black and shining ; its anten¬ 
 nas (see plate i, fig. 4, &,) are pale dull yellow and nearly as long 
 as the body, becoming thicker towards their tips, composed of 
 ten joints, of which the fifth and sixth are minute ; its scutel is 
 prolonged into a conspicuous conical spine of a rusty yellow 
 
810 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 HIDOE. PARASITES. THE LARVA PARASITE’S OPERATIONS. 
 
 color ; its abdomen is scarcely larger than the thorax, somewhat 
 flattened and obovate; its -legs are pale dull yellow with the 
 shanks very much thickened towards their tips. Its length is 
 0.05, or to the ends of its wings, 0.07. 
 
 . Mr> Kirb y S ives the following interesting account of the opera- 
 tmns of this insect when depositing its eggs. “ To see our little 
 Ichneumon deposit its egg in the caterpillar of the wheat fly is a 
 very entertaining sight. In order to enjoy this pleasure I placed 
 a number of the latter upon a sheet of white paper, at no great 
 distance from each other, and then set an Ichneumon down in the 
 midst of them. She began immediately to march about, vibrat¬ 
 ing her autemue very briskly ; a larva was soon discovered, upon 
 which she fixed herself, the vibratory motion of her antennal 
 increasing to an intense degree ; then bending her body obliquely 
 under her breast, she applied her anus to the larva, and during 
 the insertion of her aculeus and the depositing of the egg her 
 antennas became perfectly still and motionless. Whilst this ope¬ 
 ration was performing, the larva appeared to feel a momentary 
 sensation of pain, for it gave a violent wriggle. When all was 
 finished, the little Ichneumon marched off to seek for a second, 
 which was obliged to undergo the same operation, and so on to 
 as many as it could find in which no egg had been before depo¬ 
 sited, for it commits only a single egg to each larva. I have 
 seen it frequently mount one which had been pricked before, but 
 it soon discovered its mistake and left it. The size of it is so 
 near that of the wheat-fly, that I imagine the larva of the latter 
 could not support more than one of the former, and therefore, 
 instinct directs it to deposit only a single egg in each; besides, 
 
 by this means one Ichneumon will destroy an infinite number of 
 larvm.” 
 
 Mr. ShirrefT reports that he saw one of these parasites sting a 
 larva a second time. The maggot writhed in seeming agony and 
 straggled from the wheat ear on to his thumb nail, where it was 
 again stung, three times by the same fly, and in another encoun¬ 
 ter both fell to the ground. But I cannot think an egg was 
 inserted only in the puncture first made. The other stings were 
 very likely made to drive the larva to wriggle and fall to the 
 ground, Jest if it remained, exposed as it then was, some other 
 enemy should happen along and devour it and the offspring of 
 the parasite with it. It is much to be regretted that this deeply 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 811 
 
 MIDGE. PARASITES. THE EGG PAnASITE. 
 
 interesting subject, these parasites of the wheat midge, has never 
 been more fully investigated, all we'yet know of them being the 
 little furnished us by Mr. Kirby. 
 
 The second or egg parasite, named Inostemma inserens, pertains 
 to the samo family and is of the same size and color with the pre¬ 
 ceding, from which it is most readily distinguished by the color 
 of its legs, which are black with only the feet and the ends of the 
 fore shanks rusty yellowish. Its antennas are elbowed, having 
 the first joint long, stout and club shaped, the second joint larger 
 than the following ones and oval, the four next joints minute and 
 globular, and the four remaining ones compacted together into a 
 large egg shaped club. Its abdomen is shaped like the head of 
 a spear and ends in a sharp point, and is furnished with a very 
 long ovipositor resembling a fine hair. 
 
 This makes its appearance on the wheat ears quite as soon as 
 the midge does, and before there are any larvae for it to puncture. 
 Mr. Kirby saw it inserting its long sting between the chaffs, at the 
 top of the florets. Its eggs are quite unlike those of the midge, 
 being extremely minute and globular. They are supposed to be 
 inserted into those of the midge, and Mr. Kirby remarks it must 
 require more than one egg of the midge for the growth of its 
 larvae, such is the size of this insect. But it is more probable 
 that it is analogous to the egg parasite of the Hessian fly, which, 
 as Mr. Herrick has discovered, does not prevent the egg from 
 hatching nor its larva from growing so far as to elaborate the 
 amount of nourishment which the parasitic larva requires for its 
 own growth. Again we cannot but regret that so little is posi¬ 
 tively known and so much is left to conjecture with regard to the 
 economy of this parasite. 
 
 The third pasasite pertains to the family Chalcididce, and is the 
 species on which Mr. Westwood has founded the genus Macro- 
 glenes. Hereby this species comes to be designated the Macro- 
 gleties penetrans. It is slightly larger than the other two and 
 may be distinguished from them by being of a dark blue instead 
 of a black color. Its antennae are shorter than the thorax, 
 elbowed, club shaped, ten-jointed, the three last joints being com¬ 
 pacted into an egg shaped or conical knob. Its abdomen is com¬ 
 pressed, and in the female is cut off in a straight line at its end, 
 where are two projecting valves with a short sting visible between 
 them. 
 
812 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 UIDOE. PARASITES. THOSE OP PRANCE EXAMINED. 
 
 Of this species our knowledge is still more meager than in the 
 case of the other two. Mr. Kirby states that it made its appear, 
 ance on the wheat on the same day with the larva parasite, and 
 he saw it piercing the outermost chaff with its sting. Though 
 he was not able to ascertain the fact positively, he presumes it 
 lays its eggs in the larva ot the midge. But as many of its kin¬ 
 dred are now known to be parasitic destroyers of other parasitic 
 larvae, we are not without suspicions it may prove to be a des- 
 troyer of one or the other of the two foregoing species, and thus 
 be in reality a friend of the wheat midge intead of an enemy. 
 
 Now that we thus know the parasites which attend the wheat 
 midge on the island of Great Britain, let us next inquire what 
 insects of this kind are found accompanying it on the continent 
 of Europe. For an examination of this subject, the remittance 
 of M. Bazin, heretofore mentioned, has placed in my hands mate¬ 
 rials which are most important and precious. 
 
 Upon opening the vial containing insects as they were promis¬ 
 cuously gathered by the net from the wheat at the time it was in 
 bloom in the department of the Yonne in France, in the year 1860, 
 and emptying a portion of its contents upon a sheet of white 
 papei, what first arrests our notice is the excessive numbers of 
 a minute black fly which we everywhere see in the mass, fully 
 corroborating M. Bazin’s statement that this fly exists in myriads 
 on the wheat in all the fields he examined. Dr. Sichel has ascer¬ 
 tained that this fly is the species named Inostemma punctiger by 
 Nees d’Esenbeck, one of the first authorities of our day upon the 
 minute insects of the Ichneumon tribe. And Dr. Sichel further 
 states that according to the figure of Mr. Curtis it is also the 
 same species with the /. inserens of the British entomologists. I 
 see but one circumstance of so much importance as to excite a 
 doubt as to this fly being the inserens. Mounted specimens sent 
 me by M. Bazin have the sting or ovipositor of the female beau¬ 
 tifully displayed, showing it when thus drawn out, to resemble 
 a veiy fine slender hair more than twice as long as the body of 
 the insect, and enlarged at its end into a conspicuous flattened 
 spear-shaped head, which is black, the hair being rusty yellowish. 
 Mr. Kirby, whose figures and description are copied by Mr. Cur¬ 
 tis, does not represent the end of the sting as being thus enlarged 
 in his species. And other examples from M. Bazin have the sting 
 shorter and without this enlargement at its end, these correspond- 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 813 
 
 MIDGE. PARASITES. TUB SAME IN FRANCE AS IN ENOLAND. 
 
 ing perfectly with Mr. Kirby’s figure. It therefore appears that 
 it is only when special care is takeh to fully extend the sting 
 that this spear head becomes expanded and visible at its end; 
 and thus it might readily escape Mr. Kirby’s notice. In all other 
 respects, his description so fully coincides with these insects upon 
 the French wheat that I am obliged to think they are the same, 
 and that the Inostemma punctig.er of Nees is therefore only a 
 synonym of the I. inserens of Kirby. 
 
 The next species which we observe among these specimens is 
 that which Dr. Sichel has determined to be the Platygaster scu- 
 tellaris of Nees, a name evidently imposed from the circumstance 
 of its having the scutel prolonged into a thorn-like point. In 
 this character and also in the shape and colors of its body and 
 legs, it is so strikingly like the Platygaster Tipulce of Mr. Kirby 
 that I am persuaded it is nothing else than the same species. 
 
 On looking over these specimens still further, I detect among 
 them another species which the magnifying glass readily distin¬ 
 guishes fr^m the two preceding by its blue black instead of pure 
 coal black color. Its abdomen is also noticed to be strongly 
 compressed and sharp edged along the top of the back instead of 
 having the broad egg shaped and oval form of the others. The 
 antennae are also shorter, the feet are dull white, and the wings 
 show a thick rib vein which is united with the outer edge along 
 the middle, from whence it sends off a short branch almost in a 
 transverse direction, this branch ending in a round head in the 
 female while in the larger sized male this head is oval or thick 
 lunate. This species it is very clear is the Macroglenes penetrans 
 of Kirby and Curtis. 
 
 Thus, as the result of this examination, we learn that the same 
 three parasites which Mr. Kirby found associated with the wheat 
 midge in England upwards of sixty years ago, are common with 
 it in the wheat fields of France at the present time. 
 
 Another most interesting enquiry presents itself in this connec¬ 
 tion. What is the relative number of these parasitic destroyers 
 to the midge on which they prey, and what proportion does the 
 midge itself bear to the other injurious insects upon the French 
 wheat ? Upon emptying one small parcel after another from this 
 vial upon paper and then separating the specimens, placing each 
 kind by itself and counting their number, until some hundreds 
 have been enumerated, we obtain the following result: 
 
814 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 X1DGE. PARASITES. WHEAT INSECTS OP PRANCE. 
 
 Insects on'the wheat in France at the time it was in bloom in the 
 
 year 1860. 
 
 Wheat midge, .. 7 per cent. 
 
 Another Cecidomyia of a black color,.. __ 2 “ 
 
 Egg parasite, I. inserens, . 66 
 
 Larva parasite, P. Tipula .. 11 
 
 Macroglenes penetrans .. 8 
 
 Total of parasites,. 85 “ 
 
 Other small flies, Thrips, &c.,. 6 “ 
 
 It thus appears that the midge was the most numerous of any 
 injurious insect upon this wheat; but its parasites were vastly 
 in excess of it, having been present in such numbers as would 
 seem sufficient to immediately overwhelm and exterminate it. 
 
 On seeing the above results we at once are desirous of knowing 
 how the insects in the wheat fields of our own country compare with 
 them. In what proportion is the midge to the other imsects on 
 our American wheat, and what part of our insects are parasites ? 
 I may remark that I have many times swept the net against the 
 heads of wheat when it gathered no insects whatever but the 
 midge; and often on seeing such a heap of these little rascals 
 there, I have grasped the bottom of the net in my hand to crush 
 and destroy them, whereby the net has acquired a yellow stain 
 from their juices. To obtain the fairest comparison the case 
 admits of, I aimed to sweep the wheat when it was at that stage 
 of its bloom that the net would collect the anthers of the flowers 
 and the insects in about the same proportions to each other that 
 I found them in the vial from M. Bazin. It should however be 
 observed that the present year has been a peculiar one, in that 
 our wheat has been thronged with the grain aphis, whereby it 
 has been impossible to sweep the wheat heads anywhere without 
 gathering numbers of this insect which we have never had on our 
 grain before. Although this insect had not become so multiplied 
 as to attract notice the latter part of June, it was sufficiently 
 common then to make the gatherings of the net different from 
 what they would have been in any previous year. I would also 
 state that I found the most common parasite upon our wheat to 
 bo so exceedingly active that it escaped from the vials if 
 they were not instantly closed on receiving it or were opened 
 afterwards; and thus it was only by giving particular care to 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 815 
 
 MIDGE. PARASITES. WHEAT INSECTS OP NEW TORE. 
 
 secure it regardless of everything else that accompanied it in the 
 net that I was able to obtain a fair proportion of these insects. 
 By collecting in this way nearly a thousand insects from the 
 wheat heads, and counting the numbers of each kind, I found the 
 result to be as follows : 
 
 Insects on the wheat in New York at the time it was in bloom 
 
 in the year 1861. 
 
 Wheat midge..59 per cent. 
 
 Small gnats, (Chironomus, etc.)__ 12 “ 
 
 Grain aphis. 1 “ 
 
 Thrips . 4 “ 
 
 Bugs, (Hemiptera and Homoptera,)_ 3 “ 
 
 Chlorops and kindred flies. 3 “ 
 
 Mites and Podurae. 2 “ 
 
 Mistaken parasite. 9 “ 
 
 Other parasites.. 1 “ 
 
 Of these insects the gnats and Podurte probably do no injury 
 to the wheat; all the others are pernicious except the parasites, 
 which are beneficial. 
 
 Let us now enquire what insects and other destroyers of the 
 wheat midge we have here in America. 
 
 It is a subject on which I have often pondered : How does it 
 happen that the midge in this country is so vastly more destruc¬ 
 tive than it is in its native haunts? There it has never been 
 known to devastate the wheat crop to any extent approximating 
 to its ravages here. Mr. Kirby after a patient gathering of the 
 data, estimated that it destroyed about two kernels to each ear, 
 or one twentieth of the crop. When it was so destructive in 
 Scotland in 1828, Mr. Gorrie estimates it to have caused a loss 
 of about a third in the late-sown wheats. Moreover when it 
 chances to become so multiplied and injurious as to attract 
 notice, it is but a transitory evil which subsides in a few years, 
 after which it is scarcely known or heard of again till another 
 generation has come upon the world’s stage. Here, on the other 
 hand, it persistently continues; seldom a year passes but that 
 the wheat crop suffers greatly from it, and every few years a sea¬ 
 son comes when its ravages are enormous. We have now had 
 thirty years experience with it, and know it continues to be as 
 formidable and destructive at the present time as it has been at 
 
816 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 HIDQK. PARASITES. HAVE WE ANY IN AMERICA ? 
 
 any previous period. Why is it so severe and unremitting a pest 
 in our country when it is so slight and transitory in its native 
 land ? There must be a cause for this remarkable difference. 
 What can that cause be? I can impute it to only one thing. 
 We here are destitute of nature’s appointed means for repressing 
 and subduing this insect. Those other insects which have been 
 created tor the purpose of quelling this species and keeping it 
 restrained within its appropriate sphere have never yet reached 
 our shores. We have received the evil without the remedy. 
 And thus the midge is able to multiply and flourish, to revel and 
 riot, year after year, without let or hindrance. This certainly 
 would seem to be the principal if not the sole cause why the 
 career of this insect here is so very different from what it is in 
 the old world. If we have any insect in this country which 
 lives upon and destroys the midge, with the abundance of food 
 which has been furnished it, why has not that insect increased 
 and produced some mitigation of this evil ? 
 
 But it has repeatedly been reported that we have insects in 
 this country which are parasitic destroyers of the wheat midge. 
 1 have myself heretofore supposed that we had such insects; and 
 it was only when 1 perceived how utterly they failed to fulfil 
 their mission that I began to distrust the correctness of this 
 opinion. 
 
 In the early part of my researches I noticed an insect under 
 such circumstances as led me to confidently regard it as a 
 destroyer of the midge. I saw it was a member of the Chalci- 
 dian family, and supposing I should have no difficulty in always 
 finding the same insect in the same situation, I neglected to pre¬ 
 serve specimens of it, and thus am unable now to ascertain with 
 certainty the species which I then observed. A few years after¬ 
 wards, when the midge larvaj were crawling down upon the 
 straw, I again noticed a parasitic insect examining these larvae 
 with its antennae, and the larva with a skip throwing itself from 
 the straw to escape from it. I captured and saved two speci¬ 
 mens of this jjarasite, feeling confident I should meet with it 
 multiplied and much more numerous the following year, whereby 
 I could then investigate it to better advantage. But the next 
 year I was unable to meet with it; and within the past few years 
 I have strenuously endeavored to find this insect at the same 
 operation again, but without success. And now, on hunting out 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 811 
 
 MIDGE. PARASITES. MISTAKEN PARASITE. 
 
 the old specimens of it in my collection, to see if I could from 
 them draw up a suitable description of the species, I find on ex¬ 
 amining them they are the Hessian fly’s parasite, which is repre¬ 
 sented on Plate III, fig. 1. And I suspect it was this same 
 species which I saw the first year of my observations on the 
 midge. The Hessian fly and this parasite were somewhat com¬ 
 mon in this vicinity for a few years at that period ; and it is 
 quite probable that the parasite, unable to find a sufficient supply 
 of Hessian fly larvae on which to bestow its eggs, was examining 
 these larvae of the wheat midge, to ascertain if it might not be 
 able to rear its young in them also. 
 
 An insect which resembles the European parasites of the midge 
 the most closely of anything which we meet with upon the wheat 
 of this country is a species of Platygaster, so very like the 
 P. Tipulce of Mr. Kirby that no one but an experienced 
 observer of these minute insects will be apt to recognize it as 
 really differing from that species. In the*volume of the State 
 Natural History on Insects, page 180, a species is inserted under 
 this name, Platygaster Tipulce. I know of no species but the one 
 to which I now refer that can be alluded to in the remarks there 
 made. But if this is the species intended, it is evident the 
 description there given has been compiled from Curtis or Kirby; 
 it could not have been drawn from our insect. And I suppose it 
 to be this same species which has in other instances originated 
 the reports which have repeatedly run through the newspapers, 
 that a parasitic destroyer of the midge had been discovered, 
 whereby it was probable our wheat crops would soon be released 
 from this enemy. The last of these reports came to us from 
 Canada West, a year since. See Journal State Agric. Soc., 
 vol. ix, p. 30. 
 
 As this insect is seen in company with the midge on the wheat 
 ears, and is very numerous some years, I will here describe it, and 
 present what observations I have thus far made with respect to its 
 habits. A magnified view of it is given, Plate i, fig. 4, the crosslines 
 below on the left side indicating its natural size, and on the right 
 side at a is one of its antennae greatly magnified, whilst b is the 
 antenna of Platygaster Tipulce, copied from Mr. Curtis’s figures. 
 It will be noticed that these antennae differ very manifestly in 
 their structure, b having the two middle joints very minute and 
 globular, and the four last joints plainly thicker than the basal 
 
 |Ag. Trans.] 33 
 
818 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 MIBOE. PARASITE. MISTAKEN PARASITE DESCRIBED. 
 
 ones. Moreover in P. Tipula the scutel is prolonged into a con¬ 
 ical thorn-like point, whilst in our insect there is no projection of 
 the scutel. The legs too, in our insect, are black instead of yel¬ 
 low. Having been such a fruitful source of error I name it 
 accordingly. 
 
 Tho Mistaken parasite Platygastcr error, new species. (Hymenoptqra. Proctotrupidoe.) 
 
 Plate i, fig. 4. 
 
 Black, shining. Head nearly globular, slightly broader than long. Antennae inserted 
 near the mouth, longer than the head and thorax, thread-like, clothed with a fine inclinod 
 beard, elbowed, ten-jointed; basal joint long and stout, nearly half as long as all the remain¬ 
 ing joints, thicker towards its tip; second joint oval or somewhat obovate, twice as long as 
 thick ; third joint shortest, obconic, a little longer than thick, scarcely as thick as the fourth 
 joint, to which it is compactly joined; fourth joint short cylindric, twice ns long as the third 
 joint and they together as long as the second; fifth to ninth joints short cylindric, about twice 
 as long as thick, cut off transversely at their ends, their bases abruptly rounded, separated 
 by very short pedicels; last joint twice as long as thick, cylindric, with its apex tapering to 
 a rounded point. Thorax egg-shaped, smooth. Abdomen ilattcncd, oval, twice as long 
 as wide, as long as the thorax but scarcely as wide, its second segment forming more than 
 half of the whole length. Legs pitchy black, thighs and shanks thicker towards their tips, 
 feet five-jointed. Wings wholly destitute of veins, cloar and glassy, irised red and green, 
 the surface minutely bearded and the margin having coarse short inclined cilise. Length 0.05. 
 
 Although its hind legs are not thickened this insect often 
 moves with a skip, particularly when it first starts to walk. 
 
 The observations which I have made upon the habits of this 
 parasite will probably be best communicated to the reader by 
 copying them directly from my memoranda. 
 
 “June 22. Meeting in a wheat ear with two young larvae of 
 the midge, I placed them in a vial and introduced a Mistaken 
 parasite into the vial; but it walks hurriedly about, frequently 
 passing them without noticing them in the least. As this may 
 be owing to its alarm on finding it is in a strange situation, I find 
 two other larvae and breaking off the young kernel on which they 
 are lying I introduce it into Another vial in which a parasite has 
 been imprisoned since yesterday. It comes to tho soft kernel and 
 appears to nibble or sip the juice of its broken end. It then 
 walks around a few moments and comes back and nibbles the 
 end of the kernel again, but pays not the slightest attention to 
 the larvae. 
 
 “ June 29. Finding some eggs of the midge I introduced the 
 chaffs to which they are adhering into a vial in which is one of 
 these parasites; but it walks over the chaffs and the eggs with¬ 
 out noticing them in the least. Thus it indicates no attachment 
 to either the eggs or larvae of the midge. 
 
 “ July 3. I watched the motions of the Mistaken parasite in a 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 819 
 
 MIDGE. PARASITES. MISTAKEN PARASITE’S nABIT8. 
 
 wheat field to-day, in which the midge flies are less numerous 
 than they have been and the aphis is increasing. One, and some¬ 
 times two or three of these parasites were present, on many of 
 the ears, particularly those ears on which colonies of the aphis 
 had established themselves. They walked about upon the ears 
 and down between the chaffs. They are very tame and familiar, 
 not at all shy like the midge fly. On taking hold of a wheat ear 
 the midge fly will walk away from the spot, whilst this fly will 
 walk out upon the hand without an}'- sjmiptom of fear or alarm. 
 In two instances I saw it pushing the tip of its body into tho 
 small orifice at the apex of the outermost scale of the chaff’s. 
 One of these I watched until she had crowded the end of her 
 body into this orifice three times, holding it there a few moments 
 each time as if feeling around or dropping an egg there. I then 
 secured her in a vial, and carefully dissected this floret. With 
 the single lens of my pocket magnifier I could not discover any 
 eggs on either of the chaffs near this orifice, nor were there any 
 eggs or larva) of the midge there or elsewhere upon any of the 
 chaff's or the kernel of this floret.. After my return, in a vial into 
 which I had emptied some sweepings of the net, I noticed one of 
 these parasites clinging upon the back of a plump wingless aphis 
 which is three times as largo as the parasite. The aphis walks 
 impatiently about, crawling under the rubbish in the vial to 
 crowd the intruder off, and mounting up the sides of the vial, 
 and tumbling down and rolling over, but still the parasite clings 
 to it with an air of non chalance. It occasionally touches the tip 
 of its body to the body of the aphis, here and there, but does not 
 appear to insert any egg, and if it stings, the aphis is such a 
 stolid and phlegmatic creature that it shows no manifestation of 
 feeling the puncture. I watch this rider upon his horse more than 
 ten minutes. He at length dismounts and walks away. Perhaps 
 it was only to tease and annoy the aphis that he thus clung to it. 
 
 “ July 9. Visited M’s spring wheat. This field is surrounded 
 by woods except on one side, and the midge does not appear to 
 have found it, for I discover no flies upon nor larvae in the ears. 
 Both the aphis and the Mistaken parasite are more numerous 
 here than I have seen them in any other field. This looks as 
 though these insects belonged together. Chlorops flies are also 
 plenty on this wheat.” 
 
 Prom these observations it appears quite doubtful whether this 
 
820 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 MIDGE. PARASITES. IT IS I'ODND TO BE THE EGG PARASITE OP A BUG. 
 
 parasite pertains to the midge. There are more -indications of 
 its belonging to the aphis, though it may be the Chlorops or some 
 other common insect of our wheat which attracts it into the fields 
 of this grain. It is scarcely worth while to speculate upon this 
 subject when the exact truth can be ascertained by careful inves¬ 
 tigation. Of one fact, however, we are sulliciently assured, if 
 this insect is parasitic upon the midge it has not power to sub¬ 
 due it, or to make any sensible impressidn upon it, else the midge 
 would not have been pursuing its career all along, so unchecked 
 as it evidently has been. 
 
 [When on the point of dispatching these pages to the printer, 
 I happen to notice some figures which were sent for my inspec¬ 
 tion in August, 1859, from J. M. Klippart, Secretary of the Ohio 
 Board of Agriculture. Mr. Klippart found adhering upon a chaff 
 of wheat several small black globules. On magnifying them they 
 were seen to be flattened or sunk in at their summits, with a row 
 of about fifteen little thread-like spines radiating from the edge 
 of this flattened portion. On opening one of these globules he 
 found it hollow and containing a little sac within, in which were 
 wings and legs which in his view were “ certainly portions of 
 Platygaster punctiger," accompanid by “ genuine antennas of 
 Cecidomyia Tritici.” I assured Mr. Klippart the figure of the 
 antennas showed they were not what he supposed, but were 
 unmistakably parts of the same insect to which the wings and 
 legs belonged. And on noticing this antennas figure now, I see 
 it corresponds with my fig. 4 a of Plate i, in such particulars as 
 assures me it pertains to the same insect. And this insect Mr. 
 Klippart found in the little black globules. I now perceive what 
 the facts are in this case. I think I informed Mr. Klippart that 
 these globules looked to me like the eggs of a Hemipterous insect. 
 Now that my mind is refreshed upon the different insects which 
 occur on our wheat, I can state with a considerable degree of 
 confidence that these globules, according to the figures given of 
 them, are the eggs of the JYabis fera of Linnaeus, a long narrow 
 ash-gray bug slightly over a quarter of an inch in length, which 
 is common on wheat and very common on grass, both in this 
 country and in Europe. I hope to have the dissimilar habits of 
 this and the other bugs which occur on our wheat sufficiently 
 investigated, to present an account of them in my next Report. 
 This Mistaken parasite, thus found in those eggs, sufficiently sot- 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 821 
 
 MIDGE. OTHER DBSTROTERS. THE YELLOW*BIRD. 
 
 ties the question -which is now before us. It is the egg parasite 
 of that bug. The parasite punctures and inserts an egg in each 
 egg of tho bug it can find. Its egg hatching, the minute larva 
 therefrom feeds on the contents of the bug’s egg till it gets its 
 growth ; it then changes to a pupa and finally to a perfect insect, 
 when it gnaws an opening through the egg shell and makes its 
 escape therefrom. Portions of one of these insects which had 
 died before it made its way out of the shell, were found by Mr. 
 Klippart. My acknowledgments are due him for enabling me to 
 show so conclusive^ that this insect, which he is “ certain” is 
 the Platygaster (Inostemma) punctiger, has no connection whatever 
 with the wheat midge.] 
 
 Several other parasitic insects may be met with upon the 
 wheat. Some of these we know prey upon the aphis. These 
 will be described in connection with that insect in a subsequent 
 part of this report. The others occur in such very limited num¬ 
 bers that it is evident they pertain to species which are much 
 less abundant in this grain than the midge is. For several years 
 I have been searching to ascertain if we had any parasitic des¬ 
 troyers of the midge. The present year I have looked with par¬ 
 ticular care ; and I now am more confident than I have ever 
 before been that we have no insects, of this kind in our 
 country. 
 
 A few spiders and other predaceous insects may be noticed on 
 the wheat, capturing and devouring all flies and other insects 
 which they are able to master. But the onty natural destroyer 
 of the midge known to us here in America, which is worthy to 
 be mentioned, is our common yellow-bird, the Carduelis Ameri¬ 
 cana, as it was first named by Catesby (Nat. Hist, of Carolina, 
 vol. i, p. 43.) Linnaeus subsequently changed its specific name 
 to tristis, the black portions of its plumage probably suggesting 
 to him the idea of mourning weeds ; but a more unfortunate name 
 could scarcely be imposed upon this lovely bird, its bright col¬ 
 ors, its sprightly motions and the lively song it sings rendering 
 it impossible to associate with it any thoughts of sadness and 
 melancholy. 
 
 1 his bird causes that rough and ragged appearance of the 
 wheat heads which is the most conspicuous indication we have 
 that the grain is infested by this insect. The bird alighting 
 grasps tho wheat stalk just below the ear, clinging fearlessly to 
 
822 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 MIDGE. DESTROYERS. YELLOW-BIRD’S OPERATIONS. 
 
 it even when it is swayed to and fro by the wind, and with its 
 bill it parts the chaff from the kernel as represented, plate ii, fig. 
 9 at * and *f, piiking off and devouring the larvae to which it 
 thus gains access. When the larvae are yet small, before the end 
 of June, it begins to feed upon them ; and if the wheat is badly 
 infested, in a short time afterwards, a large flock of these birds, 
 both male and female, become collected upon it and return to it 
 day after day. And after feasting upon these larvae till their 
 wants are satisfied, if the farmer be so slovenly as to have allowed 
 a patch of thistles to grow in the vicinity, the birds fly from the 
 wheat to them and end their repast each day by picking those seeds 
 therefrom which are ripened and ready to be scattered abroad by 
 the winds. Thus industriously does this little creature appear 
 to exert itself in different ways for man’s benefit. 
 
 Formerly our farmers from seeing such numbers of these yellow- 
 birds upon the wheat, picking the heads, supposed it was the 
 grain which they were devouring ; and I have known boys to be 
 stationed as sentries around the wheat fields to stone and drive 
 these birds away. I believe it was first announced to the public 
 in my previous Essay that it was the larvae of the midge and not 
 the wheat that these birds were in pursuit of. In more than one 
 instance I have since seen the same fact set forth in some of our 
 agricultural periodicals as a new and important discovery; some¬ 
 times with the further statement that there were two different 
 birds which feed thus on the midge larvae. The female of the 
 yellow-bird being of a greyish brown color, so very unlike the gay 
 yellow and black plumage of the male, has, in such instances, 
 been mistaken for a distinct species. 
 
 This bird never attempts to obtain all the larvae from the wheat 
 heads; it only opens those florets in which the larvae are the most 
 numerous, namely, the outer florets of the headlets, seldom, if 
 ever, disturbing the inner florets. It parts the bearded chaff from 
 the kernel of these outer florets and devours the larvae which are 
 thus exposed, leaving the kernel in its place, sometimes with one 
 or two larvae remaining hid between the kernel and the inner 
 chaff. Its operations seem to be of a most, purely benevolent charac- 
 er, doing for man the best service in its power. Its aim appears 
 to be to thin out and diminish these larvae from the wheat heads 
 to such an extent that part of the kernels — those which it leaves 
 wholly untouched — will be able to fill and'become good wheat. 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 823 
 
 midoe. destroyers, chances op the parasites’ reaching ds. 
 
 To obtain all the larvae it would be obliged to part the chaffs 
 from all the kernels, whereby no wheat whatever would be pro¬ 
 duced. Thus we are indebted to this bird that the grain which 
 we do gather is not dwarfed and shrunken to a much greater 
 degree than it is. And were the natural .parasites of the midge 
 introduced into this country, it is very evident that the addi¬ 
 tional aid which this bird would give to their work would subdue 
 this insect here much more effectually and completely than it is 
 subdued in Europe. 
 
 Before leaving this branch of our subject, the reader will be 
 anxious to know why these parasites of the midge have not fol¬ 
 lowed it to this country, and how much longer we must probably 
 wait for them to arrive here. Let us look then, at the chances 
 which exist for these insects to be brought across the Atlantic. 
 In what manner do insects become transported to such great dis¬ 
 tances ? We see how this may be done in the case of the Hessian 
 fly. Its larvae remaining dormant in the straw of the wheat for 
 a number of weeks will be liable to be carried anywhere that the 
 straw is taken. We see its parasites also cradled within these 
 larvte in the straw, and thus know that they too will be equally 
 as liable as the Hessian fly itself to be conveyed wherever it is 
 conveyed. How is it with respect to the midge and its parasites ? 
 We see the larvae of the midge lying dormant in the dry wheat 
 heads for months, whereby they may be carried wherever any 
 unthreshed wheat happens to be carried. And how is it as to 
 its parasites ? The egg parasite, I. inserens, has never been in¬ 
 vestigated, and thus we are unable to judge of this matter with 
 respect to it. But of the larva parasite, P. Tipula, which the 
 British writers regard as the most important and useful one of 
 these parasites, we are sufficiently informed. Mr. Kirby tells us 
 that when several of the larvae of the midge are scattered about 
 upon a sheet of paper, and one of these parasites is set down 
 among them, it immediately passes around from one to another, 
 stinging and inserting an egg in each one of them. Thus we 
 know it is when the midge larvm are openly exposed, crawling 
 about upon the wheat heads and going down the straw to the 
 ground, that this parasite is on the alert to deposit its eggs in 
 them. And Prof. Henslow’s researches, several years ago, im¬ 
 pressed him with the idea that it w f as only those larvae which 
 were stung or ichneuiuonized which descended into the ground, 
 
 t 
 
824 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 MIDGE. DESTROYERS. EFFORTS TO OBTAIN THE PARASITES. 
 
 and that those which were unstring all remained in the wheat 
 ears. This view is undoubtedly in a measure correct. It is from 
 those larvae which descend to the ground before harvest, and not 
 from those which are remaining in the wheat heads, that these 
 parasites are liable tq come. And we thus see how very slight 
 the chances are for this parasite to reach this country. Centu¬ 
 ries may elapse before any of the earth from old wheat fields will 
 happen to be brought to our shores, in which larvae of the midge 
 which are infested with this parasite will be lurking. 
 
 It was after the disastrous results of the harvest of 1854, that, 
 on giving this subject my most attentive consideration, and weigh¬ 
 ing all the facts bearing upon it, I became persuaded that wo had 
 not any parasites, or at least any genuine and efficient parasites 
 of the midge in this country, and that our only effectual remedy 
 for this insect was to import these, its natural destroyers, from 
 Europe. I thereupon felt that the position I occupy, might be 
 regarded as making it my duty to endeavor to obtain these in¬ 
 sects. Accordingly, having previously had some correspondence 
 with Mr. Curtis, I addressed a letter to him in May, 1855, chiefly 
 on this subject, informing him of the immense amount of damage 
 wo were sustaining from the midge here in America, and that 
 with us no parasites appeared to accompany this insect to give it 
 any check in its destructive career. J suggested the manner in 
 which I thought in any place where the midge was present, 
 ichneumonized larvae of it might be obtained, and the mode in 
 which they could probably be transmitted alive to this country, 
 and requested if he knew any person so situated that he could 
 conveniently procure and toward to me such larvae, he would do 
 me the favor of communicating to him my wishes to obtain them. 
 When this letter reached him, Mr. Curtis was occupied in arrang¬ 
 ing for a tour upon the continent, with the hope of hereby recov- 
 ering those faculties which had become impaired by protracted 
 over-exertion. Being President of the London Entomological 
 Society, he laid this letter before the Society at its next meeting. 
 I have not seen the published proceedings of that meeting, but 
 was informed that the subject led to an interesting discussion, 
 and the adoption of a resolution to the effect that if any member 
 of the Society met with the parasite of the midge, under cir¬ 
 cumstances which would enable him to forward it to me, he would 
 endeavor to do so. But 1 can readily conceive that this parasite 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 825 
 
 MIDGE. REMEDIES. FOR DESTROYING THE FLIES. 
 
 may not bo obtainable except upon particular exertions. If spe¬ 
 cimens of the living larvee of the Hessian fly, or of its parasite, 
 were requested of me, though I could have procured them with 
 ease some years since, at present I should be wholly unable to 
 obtain them anywhere in my own vicinity. And the case is pro¬ 
 bably similar in Britain with the midge and its parasites. 
 It is only in places where these insects happen to be present in 
 considerable numbers that larvae which are ichneumonized can 
 probably be secured. 
 
 Remedies. 
 
 Those remedies for the midge which are of sufficient impor¬ 
 tance to entitle them to a particular notice are of two kinds; 
 those which have it for their object to destroy the insect, and 
 those which aim so to cultivate the crop as to ward off and elude 
 its attacks. 
 
 It has been proposed to destroy the insect when it is in its fly 
 and also when in its larva state. 
 
 1st. Destroying the flies. When the flies make their appear¬ 
 ance upon the wheat in such abundance as we usually see them, 
 there appears to be but one mode by which it is then possible to 
 save the crop from their ravages, namely, by destroying the flies, 
 or expelling them from the field, before they have had time to 
 deposit any considerable number of eggs. Yarious methods have 
 been proposed for accomplishing this; placing lighted lamps in 
 the field by night into the flame of which the flies may be 
 attracted, setting stumps on fire with the same intention and that 
 their smoke also may smother the flies, placing such fetid odors 
 in the field as will drive the enemy away, &c. But none of these 
 measures appear to possess sufficient efficacy to accomplish the 
 end for which they are designed. 
 
 In the early part of my researches, upon noticing what a throng 
 of these yellow flies were gathered by the common entomological 
 net on giving it a few sweeps among the wheat, it occurred to me 
 that with a net of mere capacity it would be easy to sweep a 
 whole field, and by doing this in the evening or on a cloudy day 
 when all the flies are hovering closely around and alighted upon 
 the heads, nearly the whole of them could be collected in the net 
 and destroyed. No suggestion of this kind had ever been made 
 before. It struck the French reviewers of my Essay as being the 
 
82C 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 MIDGE. REMEDIES. FOR DESTROYING THE FLIES. 
 
 most, practicable and efficacious mode by which it was possible 
 to combat this enemy and save the crop, and they accordingly 
 noticed it with particular favor. I see a recent writer of our 
 country, of a rather pretentious character, int roduces this measure 
 to the notice of his readers as “a mode recommended in France.” 
 I have therefore been more explicit in stating the above facts, 
 lest this writer should suspect me of petty charlatanry in not 
 informing my readers of the true source to which this measure is 
 to be credited. 
 
 I have repeatedly determined that I would submit the efficacy 
 of this measure to a decisive test, by resorting to it upon the very 
 first appearance of the flies upon the wheat and before they had 
 deposited any important amount of eggs. But after the close 
 observations made in several years. I become satisfied it is impos¬ 
 sible to do this. This insect comes upon a wheatfield very much 
 as the malignant cholera comes upon a city: at the first intima¬ 
 tion of its presence it is found to be scattered everywhere. The 
 flies appear to arrive in the wheat so suddenly and so overbur- 
 thened with eggs when they come, that in a single night the 
 whole field becomes stocked with the eggs to such an extent that 
 it seems as though to destroy the flies then will be of little avail, 
 the mischief being already so far under way. Thus I have been 
 discouraged from resorting to this remedy, always thinking that 
 by looking sharper another year I could discover the flies before 
 they had deposited such numbers of eggs. And yet, on observing 
 that their forces continue to augment for several days, and that 
 they remain some weeks at their operations in the same field, we 
 in the end become sensible that if they had been swept off when 
 they were first discovered, the wheat would receive but a small 
 fraction of the number of eggs with which it eventually becomes 
 burthened. 1 therefore still think this measure may be highly 
 efficacious. Every fly deposits a sufficient number of eggs, I 
 suppose, to destroy three or four kernels. And as we know that 
 millions of these flies can be captured by sweeping the wheat 
 with a net, there is a strong inducement to resort to this measure, 
 on the first appearance of the flies, and to repeat it in any parts 
 of the field where they may afterwards be gathered in numbers. 
 And if valuable parasites are at the same time upon the grain 
 and are captured by the net, these insects as a general rule are 
 so very much more active than the midge that by opening the 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 827 
 
 MIDGE. REMEDIES. for DESTROYING THE LARV.E. 
 
 net a moment, they (as I think) will mostly escape before any of 
 the midge flies will be ready to do so; whereby, with a little 
 skill acquired by practice, we shall probably be able to let the 
 useful insects go free and retain for destruction those only which 
 
 are noxious. , 
 
 2d. Destroying the larvae. Prof. Henslow deeming it was only 
 those larvae which remained in the wheat ears and were carried 
 into the barn from which the flies were hatched, ascertained that 
 when the grain was threshed, with a suitable sieve, he was able 
 to separate all the larvae from the grain and chaff. He accord¬ 
 ingly recommended that such a “ midge sieve ” should be attached 
 to the winnowing machine or fanning mill, in ordhr that these 
 larvae might be thus separated and committted to the flames. 
 And Mr. Curtis, in letters, directs my attention particularly to 
 this measure. 1 notice it in this manner, that our English friends 
 may be aware we have not overlooked this important remedy. 
 
 I notice it to say that this very thing which Prof. Henslow recom¬ 
 mends to have attached to the winnowing machines of England — 
 this midge sieve, placed in an inclined position, like the root ot 
 a house—has formed a part of every winnowing machine in this 
 country, ever since my recollection. By this sieve any dust or 
 small seeds of weeds or grass which happen to be among the 
 grain, become separated and fall into a box underneath, and con¬ 
 stitute what we term “ the screenings ” of the machine. And 
 when the midge came into our wheat, its larvae were always sep¬ 
 arated from the grain, forming a principal part ot these screen¬ 
 ings. It was the common custom to empty these screenings out 
 at the barn door, until in my Essay sixteen years ago 1 directed 
 attention pointedly to this subject; whereby our farmers, on 
 coming to know that these screenings thus thrown into the yard 
 produced a swarm of flies to invade their wheat the following 
 June, have quite generally, I believe, come into the practice ot 
 effectually destroying them, either by burning them or feeding 
 them to the poultry or swine. This should never be omitted 
 when the yellow larvae of the midge are observed to form a poi- 
 tion of these screenings. 
 
 As the larvae which are brought into the barn can thus readily 
 be destroyed, it is evident if that portion of them which descends 
 to the ground before harvest and remains in the wheat field can 
 in any way be destroyed also, ive have it in our power to cut oil 
 
828 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 MIDGE. REMEDIES. HARDT SEED. LATE SOWING. 
 
 the whole generation of these culprits, unless a part of them 
 chance to be nurtured elsewhere than in the wheat. Impressed 
 with this view of the subject, Hon. S. Cheever, A. B. Dicldnson, 
 and other intelligent practical agriculturists of our State, have 
 given to it their best t thoughts. On coming to learn from my 
 previous Essay, that these larvae laid slightly under the surface, 
 they have thought that by deep plowing they would be buried to 
 such a depth that they would be unable to make their way up to 
 the surface again. They accordingly have practiced this meas¬ 
 ure, and are confident they have in this manner destroyed millions 
 of these larvae, and have hereby materially diminished the de¬ 
 structiveness of this insect on their lands. Now that we know 
 these larvae do not lie naked in the ground, as wo have heretofore 
 supposed them to, but wrap themselves in cocoons in which they 
 remain closely bound up and fettered until they are on the point 
 of changing to flies, it becomes still more probable that this mea¬ 
 sure will be effectual, and that the pupa, on breaking out from 
 the cocoon, being so illy adapted for locomotion as the insect is 
 in this stage of its existence, will become exhausted and perish 
 in its efforts to push itself upward such an unexpected distance 
 to the surface. I am, therefore, more confident of the efficacy of 
 this measure now than I have been heretofore. 
 
 Of the other class of remedies, those which aim so to cultivate 
 the crop as to resist or elude the attacks of this insect, it belongs 
 to the practical agriculturist rather than to me to speak. This 
 branch of the subject, moreover, has been so much canvassed 
 among our farmers, and is so well understood by them, that no 
 new information can scarcely be given them with respect to it. 
 They all know how much their success in attempting to cultivate 
 this grain, depends upon a selection of the hardiest varieties of 
 seed, such as the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, and sowing 
 spring wheat so late that the most active period of this insect’s 
 operations will be past before the crop comes into bloom. 
 
 Brief summary of the foregoing account. 
 
 J he Wheat midge (Cecidomyia Tritici, Kirby,) has been known 
 in Great Britain for more than a century, and has occasionally 
 been quite injurious to the wheat crops of that country. Within a 
 few years past it has also been detected in the north part of Franco 
 from the damage it was occasioning in the wheat crops there. 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 829 
 
 MIDGE. SUMMARY VIEW OF IT. 
 
 Iii these its native haunts it is everywhere accompanied by vast 
 numbers of minute black flies resembling small ants, which are 
 its parasitic destroyers. One of these deposits its eggs in the 
 larva, another in the eggs of the midge, causing them to perish, 
 and hereby this insect is restrained from multiplying, and is 
 speedily quelled whenever it chances to become numerous. 
 
 It was introduced upon this continent, probably in unthreshed 
 wheat brought to the port of Quebec, and began to attract pub¬ 
 lic notice from its destructiveness to the wheat crop in the 
 northwestern part of Vermont in the year 1828. Prom thence 
 it has spread itself over all the free States and Canada, as far 
 west as into Michigan and Indiana, everywhere laying the wheat 
 crop under contribution for its support, and rendering the culti¬ 
 vation of this grain so uncertain that in all the older parts of the 
 country wheat has long since ceased to be a staple product. 
 
 This insect is a very small fly about a third the size of a mus- 
 keto, which it resembles in its appearance. It is of a bright 
 orange yellow color with clear glassy wings. These flies come 
 abroad each year a little before the middle of June, and continue 
 more than a month, laying their eggs between the chaffs of the 
 wheat ears. They are most active in a moist atmosphere and 
 cannot endure a dry one. Hence they are only seen on the wheat 
 ears in the night time and on cloudy days. And if the last half 
 of Juno be wet and showery this insect is most numerous and 
 destructive; but if it be remarkably dry the wheat that year 
 escapes from injury, the insect withdrawing from it, probably to 
 the grass of lowland meadows and the margins of streams, in 
 which to rear its young to return as they do into the wheat the 
 next year. 
 
 The eggs hatch minute footless worms or maggots which soon 
 acquire a bright orange yellow color. These place themselves 
 upon the soft young kernels of the grain and abstract the milky 
 juiqe therefrom, whereby the kernels become shrunken and dwarf¬ 
 ish. The worms get their growth in three to four weeks, when 
 they are slightly less than a tenth of an inch long. When the 
 straws are wet with rain, whereby they are able to adhere to 
 them, they crawl down them and enter the ground, where they 
 enclose themselves in minute cocoons scarcely the size of mustard 
 seeds, in which they remain through the autumn and winter, and 
 till ready to give out the flies the following June. 
 
830 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 UNFRIENDLY MIDGE, ANOTHER SPECIES IN WHEAT. 
 
 In America we have now had thirty years experience with this 
 insect. We have become well acquainted with its history, its 
 transformations and habits. The best remedies for it which we 
 are able to devise and practise are but partially efficacious. It 
 continues to be as numerous and destructive now as it has been 
 at any previous period. By diminishing the yield of its wheat 
 crops it is occasioning a loss to the State of New York of some 
 millions of dollars annually. And this loss will continue until 
 by accident, or by the hand of man, the parasitic destroyers 
 of this insect become introduced into this country, when it will 
 disappear, in the same manner that its predecessor and compeer 
 in destructiveness, the Hessian fly, has disappeared, and has 
 almost ceased to be felt as an evil. 
 
 2. Unfriendly midge, Cccidomyia inimica, new species. (Dipfcera Tipuliclro.) 
 
 In wheat heads, often in company with the yellow larvm of the wheat midgo, a similar 
 larva of a white color and having a dark roddish internal stripe; Bccreting itself between the 
 chaffs or descending to the ground to pass its pupa stato; at the close of summer changing to 
 a dusky or black midge with a lurid yellowish abdomen and smoky iridescent wings, its body 
 0.08 long. 
 
 In the attentive inspection which I have been giving to the 
 insects on grain the present year ( 1861 ), I have detected another 
 insect on wheat, closely related to the wheat midge, but which, 
 instead of remaining in its larva state through the winter, changes 
 to a fly the latter part of August. As it thus completes its trans¬ 
 formations in so short a time after the larva has finished feeding, 
 it scarcely requires to travel down the straw to the ground to 
 secrete itself during its dormant state; and we accordingly find 
 that it sometimes remains in the ears of the wheat until it be¬ 
 comes a fly. Upon what it then deposits its eggs, and where it 
 lurks through the winter and till the wheat heads again appear 
 the following June, are interesting points in its history which are 
 still remaining to be discovered. 
 
 It was on the eleventh of August that my attention was first 
 directed to the larvai of this species as being different from those 
 of the wheat midge. Ten wheat heads which had been gathered 
 some three weeks previously, were placed the day before in a 
 glass jar and set out doors in a sprinkling rain, for the larvm of 
 the midge to descend from them. Of forty larvao which were 
 thus obtained, six were noticed to differ from the others in being 
 white or reddish white without any tinge of yellow, and in these 
 the dark internal streak was very much larger, reaching two- 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 831 
 
 UNFRIENDLY JUDGE DESCRIBED. 
 
 thirds the length of the body. This streak is of a dark purplish 
 red color, frequently black towards its- anterior end, and in one 
 instance it was noticed to be black its entire length. All the 
 body of the worm outside of this central streak is sometimes 
 hyaline, colorless and watery; but more commonly opake white 
 clouds are blended with the hyaline, giving the worm a curdled 
 or frosted appearance, similar to that of many of the Syrphus 
 larvae; or it is wholly of an opake white color. Moreover the 
 white coloring sometimes takes on a tinge of red or even becomes 
 pale rose colored instead of white. These colors are variable 
 and evanescent, the same worm sometimes changing more or less 
 from hyaline to white in a short time. One worm was noticed as 
 being hyaline and colorless, with the dark purple streak along 
 the centre of its body, and on its under side two rows of opake 
 white granules, eleven in each row, the three anterior ones in the 
 three thoracic segments being smaller. These granules had a 
 similar appearance to legs and prolegs inside of the transparent 
 skin, and they also strikingly imitated those members in their 
 motions as the worm was crawling on wet glass. It merits to bo 
 noticed also, that the larva of this species moves in the same 
 manner and has the same form as the larva of the wheat midge, 
 represented in Plate 2, figure 12, its tip also being four-toothed, 
 as shown in figure 14. 
 
 From these larvae a fly was obtained, which I found to be of 
 the same species with one which a short time before had come 
 directly from a wheat head, in which the pupa had nestled 
 between the chaffs of two of the florets, crowding itself upward 
 to their summits to give out the fly. The pupa case from which 
 this fly had come was 0.08 long, white, subhyaline and glossy 
 except on the abdomen, with a pale brown discolored spot on the 
 back of the thorax. The leg sheaths were parallel and soldered 
 together side by side, the inner pair being but little shorter than 
 the outer, whereby only a semicircular notch was formed at their 
 tips. Two robust brown bristles projected horizontally outwards, 
 one on each side of the back of the thorax, the same as in some 
 other species of this genus. 
 
 In tho female, tho head is nearly globular, broader than long, and broadest back of tho 
 middle. The antenmn aro black, about half tho length of the body, composed of about twelve 
 oints, which aro oblong, contracted in their middles, and separated by short pedicels. Tho 
 thorax is blaok above and polished, orango-yellow on tho sidos and beneath, with tho neck 
 also yellow, and tho poisors whitish. The abdomen is dusky, with tho sutures yellow, and is 
 clothed on tho sides with silvery white hairs. Two oxsertilo points protrude from its tip, 
 
832 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 GRAIN MIDGE. ITS SPOTTED WINGS. 
 
 indieating its ovipositor to bo similar to that of tho wheat midge. The logs are blackish, 
 paler yellowish brown on their insides and at base. Tho wings are smoky, iridescent-blue, 
 with blackish veins, tho inner vein abruptly bent, with the end straight and nearly transverse; 
 no transverse veinlet. 
 
 3. Grain midge, Cecidomyia graminis , olim cerealis , Fitch. (Diptcra, Tipulidm.) 
 
 Plate ii, fig. 2. 
 
 Associated with the wheat midge and supposed to have the same habits with it; a fly of 
 the same size and color, but having six smoky spots on each of its wings, and tho joints of 
 the male antonnro alternately longer. 
 
 The flies of this spotted winged midge I met with sixteen years 
 ago quite common in our wheat fields, in company with the flies 
 of the wheat midge. I continued to find them the following year, 
 after which they wholly disappeared, and I have not seen an indi¬ 
 vidual of this kind since. 
 
 An insect in Germany, the larva of which nestles in the 
 straw of barley in the same situation which the Hessian fly 
 larva occupies, and which was very injurious to the barley crop 
 in the grand duchy of Baden in the years 1813 and 1816, was in 
 1817 described by Dr. J. N. Sauter, in an octavo pamphlet of 47 
 pages, as we learn from a brief notice of it and its contents in 
 Germar’s Magazine, vol. iii, page 366. Dr. Sauter names this 
 barley midge the Tipula cerealis , but, as Mr. Curtis observes in 
 his notice of it (Jour. Royal Agric. Soc. vi. 151), there is every 
 reason to believe it is a species of Cecidomyia. In that case 
 another name for this spotted winged "wheat fly of ours will be 
 required, and as the present appears to be the most suitable 
 opportunity to effect a change, whereby future confusion may be 
 avoided, I deem myself justified in withdrawing the name which 
 I had heretofore proposed. 
 
 This grain midge was met with quite common from the middle 
 of June till the end of August, in tho wheat fields and also among 
 the grass in yards and on the windows of dwellings. There also 
 occurred on grass and on windows, in the last half of July and 
 through August, what I regarded as another species, extremely 
 like this, but having the body of a deeper red color, and the 
 wings with seven spots, there being three spots instead of 
 two along the inner side of the wing. The difference between 
 the two species in this respect is very distinctly shown in the 
 magnified wings, figs. 3 and 18 of plate ii, the wing of the grain 
 midge, fig. 3, having no spot on the apex of the inner vein, where 
 one is situated in this species. I named this species Cecidomyia 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 833 
 
 GRAIN APHIS. ITS EXTENSIVE APPEARANCE IN 1861. 
 
 caliptera , or the Spotted-winged midge. I continued to meet 
 with this species also, the following year, since which it too has 
 wholly vanished from my vicinity. 
 
 4 . Grain aphis, Aphis Avcncz , Fabricius. (Homoptera, Aphides.) 
 
 Plate 1, fig^ 5 and 6. 
 
 Clusters of reddish-yellow plant-lice on the heads of wheat, oats, barley and rye, some¬ 
 times in immense numbers, stationed around the butt ends of the florets, sucking the juices 
 away from the kernels and causing them to be more or less shrunken and light of weight. 
 
 The excessive numbers in which the grain aphis, the plant- 
 louse upon the heads of wheat and oats, has this year (1861) 
 made its appearance in the Northern States, is truly remarkable. 
 Although it is a common habit of plant lice, at times, to become 
 extremely numerous on the vegetation they infest, we meet with 
 no recorded instance in which one of these insects has been 
 known to be thus suddenly and excessively multiplied over such 
 a wide extent of territory. Hitherto this grain aphis has been 
 so rare and scattered so sparsely in our grain fields that no one 
 had noticed it or was aware that we had such an insect in our 
 country. This year, over all the New England States, over all 
 the State of New York, except its western section, through the 
 northeast portion of Pennsylvania, and in several parts of Canada, 
 every grain field has been invaded, and most of these fields have 
 literally been thronged by it. 
 
 Having forced itself so prominently into notice and excited so 
 much alarm, I have already communicated notices of this insect 
 to several of our agricultural periodicals, whereby a portion of 
 what I here present has already met the public eye, particularly 
 in articles which appeared in the Country Gentleman of August 
 15th, and the New York Observer of October 17th. The insect 
 will here be found more fully described than heretofore, and an 
 account of the parasitic and other enemies by which it is des¬ 
 troyed, is also here presented. Thousands of porsons have 
 closely inspected these insects the past summer. What I shall 
 state will recall to their minds several things which they observed, 
 and will explain to many of them some of the phenomena which 
 they noticed but did not understand at that time. 
 
 Previous to the present year, in searching for injurious insects 
 upon wheat, I have repeatedly seen this aphis. But as only a few 
 ol them appeared to bo scattered about, singly, here and there 
 
 [Ag. Trans.] 53 
 
834 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 APHIS. LONG KNOWN IN EUROPE. 
 
 upon the leaves and stalks of the grain, I regarded it as a thing of 
 no importance, and therefore gave no attention to it. Last year a 
 letter, which I regret I have mislaid, from a gentleman, I think, 
 in Columbia county, informed me of a reddish fly in excessive 
 urib3rs on the oats in his vicinity, but I could find no such 
 insect then on the oats in my own neighborhood. W. Freeman, 
 Jr., of South Adams, Mass., visiting me soon after, mentioned a 
 field of oats in that State in which ho had noticed a reddish aphis 
 in surprising numbers. These facts show that this insect had 
 begun to multiply excessively in some places last year. 
 
 Early in May last, my attention was particularly directed to 
 this insect for the first time. Rj^e and wheat sowed last autumn 
 were then but a few inches high, and were just beginning their 
 onward growth with the genial warmth of spring, when I noticed 
 this aphis to be more common than any other insect, in every 
 part of every grain field in my vicinity. Towards the close of 
 May individuals having wings began to occur; and on thus hav¬ 
 ing the insect in its most developed form, I ascertained it was a 
 species which has from time immemorial existed upon the oats, 
 wheat, barley and rye in Europe, and which was first scientifically 
 named Aphis Avena, by Fabricius, a name literally meaning the 
 aphis or plant-louse of oats. Kirby and Curtis describe it under 
 the name of Aphis pranaria, both having overlooked the descrip¬ 
 tion which Fabricius has given of it in his Entomologia System¬ 
 atica, vol. iv, p. 214. Some of the German naturalists name it 
 Ayhis cerealis, and one of them, probably from supposing the 
 insect on barley different from that on oats, has entered it under 
 the name Aphis Hordei. As it infests all other kinds of grain as 
 well as oats, the “grain aphis,” rather than “ oat aphis,” will be 
 the most correct and definite name by which to designate it in 
 English. 
 
 These insects, in growing to maturity, cast off their skins three 
 or four times at least; and numbers of these empty skins, of a 
 whitish color, were everywhere noticed among clusters of the 
 lice. The insects themselves occurred in three very distinct 
 forms upon the grain through the season: 1st, winged females; 
 2d, wingless females, (these being much more numerous than the 
 winged ones;) and 3d, young lice or larvae. Persons who looked 
 at them very closely might have noticed a few individuals of a 
 fourth form, namely, the pupae, which were to become winged 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 835 
 
 aphis, its Astonishing fecundity. 
 
 females,—these having the wings in a rudimentary state, and 
 appearing like small scales appressed to the sides of the body. 
 
 I have never yet seen a male of this species. The males will be 
 readily distinguished from the females. Both the winged and 
 wingless females have a short, tail-like process at the end of the 
 body, which is the ovipositor or tube through which the young 
 are passed. The males will b6 destitute of this tail-like appendage. 
 
 This insect has a slender, sharp-pointed bill or trunk, which it 
 holds under its breast when it is not in use. With this it punc¬ 
 tures the leaves and stalks of the grain and sucks their juices- 
 It therefore has no occasion to leave the particular plant on 
 which it is born, as, till the grain is becoming ripe and juiceless, 
 it always has an ample store of nourishment directly at its feet. 
 Hence it has no use for wings to carry it, like other insects, from 
 place to place in search of food. It needs wings only to enable 
 it to emigrate to fields of grain which are unoccupied, in order 
 to found its colonies in them. Only a small portion of these in¬ 
 sects, therefore, acquire wings. These fly away from the winter 
 grain to plant their race upon the spring-sowed wheat and oats. 
 Those which have no wings and remain where they are born, are 
 much more prolific than those which have wings and wander 
 abroad. By enclosing them separately in vials, I found the 
 winged females quite uniformly gave birth to two young lice in 
 a single night, whilst the wingless ones produced four in the same 
 time. We frequently see young lice produced in the day time, 
 but fewer appear to be born then than during the night. The 
 winged ones are also much slower in coming to maturity. I 
 placed several young lice the morning after they were born upon 
 some grain growing in a flower-pot, and on the third morning 
 afterwards, I found four little ones around each of them, showing 
 that the wingless ones come to maturity in three days. It will 
 thus be seen with what prodigious rapidity these creatures mul¬ 
 tiply. A single one producing four young daily, and these be¬ 
 coming equally prolific when they are three days old, her descen' 
 dants in twenty days will number upwards of two millions, and 
 will be increasing at the rate of a million daily. This will serve 
 to explain to us how these insects became so surprisingly numer¬ 
 ous as they were in July and August. 
 
 The latter part of June, when the grain has advanced so that 
 the heads or Cars put forth, two most remarkable changes occur 
 
836 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT. OF NEW YORK 
 
 APHIS. BECOMES GREGARIOUS AND YELLOW COLORED IN SUMMER. 
 
 in this insect, whereby it appears to be another creature, a differ¬ 
 ent species in summer from that which is seen in the spring. 
 Before the heads appear it lives singly, scattered about upon the 
 leaves and stalks of the grain, and the young lice as fast as they 
 are born leave their parents and wander away. But no sooner 
 are the heads protruded from their sheaths, preparatory to bloom¬ 
 ing and growing the kernels of the’grain, than this aphis wholly 
 forsakes the other parts of the plant, and becomes congregated 
 here upon the heads, evidently because the juices which the plant 
 elaborates for the growth of its flowers and seeds are much more 
 nutritious, dainty and palatable to these insects than those which 
 circulate in the leaves and stalks. They here fix themselvos on 
 the base of the chaffs which envelope the kernels, standing with 
 their heads downwards, and inserting their bills, they suck out 
 the juices which should go at first to grow the flowers, and after 
 that to fill and perfect the kernels. And now the young lice, 
 instead of scattering themselves and traveling away, settle down 
 closely around their parent, crowding as compactly together as 
 they can stow themselves. Thus it came to pass that in most 
 of our grain fields last summer, scarcely an ear could be found 
 that had not a cluster of these lice around the base of almost 
 every kernel, all with their tiny bills inserted therein, pumping 
 out the juices which should go to swell and perfect the seed. 
 Thus, from being a solitary insect, wandering about singly on 
 the leaves and stalks, it became a gregarious insect, clustered 
 together and stationary upon the lower or butt ends of the 
 kernels. 
 
 At the same time an equally remarkable change took place in 
 the color of these insects. So long as they nourished themselves 
 on the coarse juices of the leaves and stalks, they were all of a 
 grass green color. When they came to feed on the more delicate 
 juices of the flowers, they began to change to an orange color. 
 One of the grass-green insects having stationed herself at the 
 base of a kernel, next day, in the group of little ones around her, 
 a yellow one would occur, all the others being green liko their 
 parent. A day or two later, as the nourishment she had derived 
 from the leaves became more dissipated from her body and repla¬ 
 ced by that now obtained from the kernels, half the young she 
 produced would be of this yellow color. And still later all the 
 young would be yellow, no green ones being afterwards born. 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 837 
 
 Arms. WINGED FEMALE DESCRIBED. 
 
 And the older ones after a time dieing and disappearing, before 
 these inseots began to attract public notice they had all been 
 changed to this orange color, their hue inclining more to red in 
 some and to yellow in others. It is truly curious that this green 
 insect, thus, on coming to feed on the juices which grow the flow¬ 
 ers, begins to produce young of a gay yellow color similar to that 
 of the flowers. 
 
 We distinguish this plant-louse from other species by its oc¬ 
 curring oh grain, and having the body of a bright grass green 
 color when it is found on the leaves, and reddish yellow or orange 
 when on the heads, the outer ends of its thighs being black and 
 also its feet, the ends of its shanks, its antennas and honey-tubes. 
 The young larvas of some of our plant bugs belonging to the 
 genus Phytocoris, are met with on grain and are of the same size 
 and the same bright green color as this aphis, but they are dis¬ 
 tinguished from it most readily by their motions, the young bugs 
 always walking about with a brisk animated pace, whilst the 
 aphis is sloggish and lazy in its movements. 
 
 The winged female (Plate i, fig. 5) is 0.10 long, or to the tip of the closed wings 0.20. 
 Head transverse, convex in front, rectilinear at base, dull pulo yellow. Eyes jutting out 
 from each side of the head, globular, usually of a rusty reddish color. Eyelets or ocelli three, 
 appealing like minute glassy dots pluced at the angles of an imaginary triangle, far apart, 
 one near the upper edge of each eye and the third one forming a slight projection upon the 
 middle of the forehead. Beak appressed to the breast, arising between the base of the fore¬ 
 legs and reaching half-way to the middle legs, pale green, its tip black. Antennas long and 
 slender, abo^t equalling the body in length, tapering, black, their bases obscure yellowish, 
 seven-jointed; basal joint thrice as thick as the third joint, short oylindric, little longer than 
 thick, abruptly narrowed at its end; second joint nearly globular and twico as thick as the 
 •third joint, which is very long; fourth and fifth joints long; sixth but a third the length of 
 the fifth; seventh moro slender, tapering, about as long as the third; articulations of the 
 joints except the first two inconspicuous and indicated only by the end of each joint being 
 slightly thickened and bluntly rounded; joints clothed with distant inclined hairs which are 
 quite short and coarse. Thorax nearly globular; collar much narrower, narrowing forward, 
 a little longer than the head, grass green; remainder of the thorax dull pale yellow and 
 shining, abovo with a large egg-shaped black or brown spot on each side and between the 
 forward ends of these spots a smaller oval one which reaches forward to the collar, these 
 three spots being elevated, convex and polished; sides beneath the wing sockets with an 
 oval brown spot, paler than those on the back and placed obliquely. Breast dull black 
 between the four anterior legs and often dusted with a glaucous powder. Scutel dull pole 
 yellow, appearing as an elevated smooth transverse ridge of a semicircular form above tho 
 base of the abdomen. Abdomen broad oval, rounded at tip, grass green, with a row of about 
 three blackish dots on each side forward of tho base of tho honey tubes. Honey'tubes black, 
 as long as to tho tip of the abdomen, slightly thieker towards their bases. Tail very pale 
 greenish yellow, straight along its upper and convex on its under side. Legs long and slen¬ 
 der, hind pair longest; thighs very palo greenish, towards their middle becoming yellowish 
 and beyond this hlack; shanks bearded with fine short hairs, palo dull yellow, their tips 
 lack. Feet short and slender, but half as thick as the shanks, obscuroly two-jointed and 
 with two small claws at their end. Wings hold together in a steep roof over tho body 
 transparent, with slender brown veins, the rib-vein thick and sulphur yellow, as is the stigma 
 
838 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 AmiS. ITS GENERATION ANOMALOUS. 
 
 spot also, the veins bounding its two sides being brown; inner edge with the oustoroary blackish 
 streak extending forward for a short distance from the tip of the first vein. First aDd second 
 veins more than twioe as far apart at their tips as at their bnses. Third vein as far from tho 
 second at its origin as this is from the first, nearly parallel with the second vein, very slightly 
 farther from it at its tip than at its base, its fork given off forward of its middle, and thia 
 fork sending off the second one beyond its middle. Tip of the first fork twice as far from the 
 tip of the third vein as from the tip of tho second fork. Fourth vein strongly curved through 
 two-thirds of its length and then straight and parallel with tho second fork, its tip nearer the 
 tip of the second fork than this is to that of tho first fork, and almost twice as far from the 
 tip of the rib vein as from the second fork. 
 
 The above description was drawn lip from a comparison of 
 different individuals taken upon the leaves. Numerous varia¬ 
 tions occur however in the colors, in the veins of the wings, &c. 
 The wingless female, plate i, fig. 6, is so like the winged one that 
 a separate description of it is unnecessary. 
 
 In the generation of these plant-lice, we are presented with one 
 of the most remarkable anomalies which we anywhere meet with 
 in the works of nature. All the insects we see on the grain 
 during the spring and summer are females. These do not pro¬ 
 duce eggs, but living young, which mature in a few days, and are 
 fertile without any intercourse of the sexes. It is only when 
 cold wet ther is coming on, at the end of the season, that males 
 are produced. The insects then pair, and the females thereupon 
 lay eggs, placing them, no doubt, upon the fall-sowed wheat and 
 rye, which is then up in our fields. These eggs remain through 
 the winter, to be hatched by the warmth of the following spring. 
 The young from them grow up, and commence 'bearing living 
 young, no males and no eggs being produced, except as the clos¬ 
 ing act of their operations in autumn. Such, at least, is the case 
 with other species of plant-lice, whence I infer it will be the same 
 with this. 
 
 Rye grows so rapidly and ripens so early, that it outstrips this 
 insect in its increase, and thus sustains no material injury from 
 it. Winter wheat, ripening more slowly, suffers more from it. 
 But the crops which ripen latest and when this aphis has become 
 multiplied to its greatest extent, namely, spring wheat and oats, 
 have been the most thronged and havo sustained tho greatest 
 injury. At our recent State Pair, persons from different parts 
 of the State informed me that the spring wheat in their respective 
 localities had been severely injured by this insect, several 
 instances being told me in which the yield has been diminished 
 fully one-half by it. 
 
 We come next to notice the destroyers of this insect, which at 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 839 
 
 APHIS. ITS PARASITES AND THEIR HABITS. 
 
 harvest time had become gathered in the grain fields in such 
 swarms as appeared sufficient to overwhelm and totally suppress 
 it. Seeing them in such multitudes impressed me with the opin¬ 
 ion that this insect would be'so reduced that perhaps it would 
 not be noticed in the grain fields another year. Though since 
 the fall sowed wheat and rye has come up, now in autumn, I find 
 this aphis is quite as common upon the young grain as it was last 
 spring, whilst scarcely any of these destroyers have yet found 
 their way to it in these new situations. Hence it is to be feared 
 it may become multiplied to be as numerous next year again as 
 it has been the present year. 
 
 Among the most efficient and interesting of these destroyers 
 of the aphis are its parasitic foes. We see on many of the 
 infested wheat heads from one to a half dozen or more of these 
 lice which are very large, plump and swollen, of the color of 
 brown paper, standing in a posture so perfectly natural you sup¬ 
 pose they are alive. Touch them with the point of a pin, you 
 find they are dead. Pick off a part of their brittle skin; you 
 see there is inside a white maggot doubled together like a ball. 
 Put one or two of these wheat heads in a vial, closing its mouth 
 with a wad of cotton. In a week’s time or less you find running 
 actively about in the vial some little black flies like small ants. 
 These you see have come out from the dead lice through a circu¬ 
 lar opening which has been cut in their backs. Drive one or two 
 of these flies into another vial, and introduce to them a wheat 
 head having some fresh lice. You will soon see the fly running 
 about among them, examining them with its antennas. Having 
 found one adapted to its wants, it dextrously curves its body for¬ 
 ward under its breast, bringing the tip before its face, as if to 
 take accurate aim with its sting. The aphis gives a shrug, 
 indicating to us that the fly has pricked it with its sting and 
 that by this operation an egg has been lodged under its skin, 
 from which will grow a maggot like that first seen inside of 
 the dead, swollen aphis. And thus the little fly runs busily 
 around among the lice on the wheat heads, stinging one after 
 another, till it exhausts its stock of eggs, a hundred probably 
 or more, thus insuring the death of that number of these 
 lice. And of its progeny, fifty we may suppose will be females, 
 ky which five thousand moro will be destroyed. Wo thus 
 see what efl’ecient agents these parasites are in subduing the 
 insects on which they prey. 
 
840 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 Arms, its Aruinius parasites described. 
 
 From the dead ichueumonized lice I have bred two different 
 parasites, and have met with the same species also upon the 
 grain. They pertain to the Aphidius group of the family Bra- 
 conidw and the order Hymenoptera, of which some account was 
 given and a few species were described in my First Report. 
 One of these parasites has the veins of its wings identical with 
 those of the Ephedras Jlvence , one of the three parasites which 
 Mr. Curtis describes and figures as belonging to this grain aphis 
 in England. But as its antennce are longer and their joints more 
 numerous, it will pertain to a different genus, named Toxares 
 by Mr. Westwood, whilst the other species falls within Mr. Hali- 
 day’s genus Praon. I now proceed to name and describe these 
 insects. 
 
 Wheat-louse Aphidius, Toxares Trilicaphis, new species. (Hymenoptera. Braconidie.) 
 
 Black, shining,antenna; thrend-like, longer than the body,twonty-five jointed. Length 0.08. 
 
 Head transverse, convex iu front, concave at base; face clothed with fine short hairs; eyos 
 lateral, rather small; eyelets (ocelli) three, placed in a triangle upon the crown; feelers dull 
 white, bearded, five-jointed, the joints nearly cylindric, separated by intervening pedicols, 
 the last one elliptic and shortest. Antennso 0.10 long, filiform, bearded with short inclined 
 bristles, composed of twenty-fivo cylindrical joints; basal joint thickest, top-shaped, a third 
 longer than thick, receiving into its apex the second joint, with which it is compactly joined, 
 and which is thicker than the following ones, a third longer than thick, and slightly narrow¬ 
 ing towards its apex; third joint longest and rather more slender than the following joints, 
 faintly thickened or swollen near its base and also nt its apex, and showing when greatly 
 magnified a minute transverse joint interposed between it and the second ; fourth joint a third 
 shorter, more than four times as long as thick; remaining joints successively diminishing in 
 length, the last one more than twice as long os thick and of an oval form. Thorax egg- 
 shaped and rather broader than the head. Abdomen flattened, a little longer than the thorax 
 but soarcely ns broad, long oval, more narrowed anteriorly and bluntly rounded nt tip, highly 
 polished, its hind part olothed with short hairs which arc more dense at the tip. Legs 
 black, brownish at base and on tho knees. Wings transparent, slightly smoky, strongly 
 iridescent red and purple, fringed on their hind edge, more conspicuously so on tho hind 
 pair; stigma dull pale brown; veins brownish black. 
 
 Oat-louse Aphidius, Praon Aucnaphis, new species. (Hymenoptera. Braconidie.) 
 Black, legs honey-yellow and also the base of the abdomen nnd a sub-basal band; antenna) 
 as long ns the body, thread-like, twenty-jointed. Length 0.10. 
 
 Head black and shining, square when viewed from above and twioe as broad as long; eyes 
 oval, slightly projecting, occupying the fore part of each side; eyelets on tho crown, appear¬ 
 ing as three elevated shining dots forming tho corners of a triangle; mouth and feelers very 
 palo yellow, the latter appearing as very slender threads jutting from the month nnd as long 
 as the head. Antenna) about as long as tho body, filiform, rather thick and robust, black, 
 the basal joint often pale on its under side, joints nineteen or twenty, clothed with a short 
 inclined beard; two first joints shortest and compactly joined together, tho basal one obovato 
 and thickest; remaining joints cylindric, about thrico as long us thick, narrowed at their 
 bases and cut off transversely nt their tips, separated by short pedicels; last joint ionger 
 usually than its predecessor, egg-shaped. Thorax broader thun tho head, more deep thnn 
 wide, egg-shaped, black and shining. Abdomen as long as the thorax but narrower, oval, 
 viewed laterally broadest at the tip, highly polished, brownish blaok; first segment narrower 
 and forming a oylindrioal podicel, bright honey-yellow; a dull yellow or olivo band or spot 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 841 
 
 APHIS. ITS ALI.OTRIA PARASITES DESCRIBED. 
 on the suture between tbc seoontl and third segments. Legs honey-yellow; feet black except 
 at their bases, sometimes wholly black with the shanks dusky. Wings transparent, slightly 
 smoky; veins of the anterior pair coarse, black or dark brown, becoming abruptly more 
 slender, colorless and almost imperceptible on the hind part of the wing; stigma long-tri¬ 
 angular, salt-white; a single largo irregular cell occupying the middle portion of the wing 
 and bordering the stigma on its inner side, a short coarse transverso vcinlct bounding this 
 cell at its bind end, tho two longitudinal veins between which this veinlet is placed becoming 
 slender and abortive a short distance back of it, the outer vein remaining coarse twice the 
 length that the inner one does after passing the veinlet. 
 
 Variety a, obscura. Legs blackish, honey-yellow only nt base and on the knees; sub- 
 basal band of the abdomen less distinct. 
 
 This was the most common of these parasites in July and was 
 met with again on young grain late in autumn. The larger size 
 of this parasite causes the body of the aphis containing it to be 
 perceptibly more swollen than it is with the other species, being 
 distended almost to a globular form. It was in one instance bred 
 from an aphis which was adhering to one of the anthers hanging 
 out of the chaffs, the under side of her abdomen being tied, as 
 usual in such cases, to the surface on which she was standing. 
 Her body was faded to drab gray, the antennm, honey tubes, feet 
 and ends of the thighs retaining their natural black color. 
 
 1 have also met with two other species in the grain fields, 
 which could only have been there for the purpose of depositing 
 their eggs in these insects, it being the well ascertained habit of 
 the genus to which they pertain to rear their young in the dif¬ 
 ferent species of plant-lice. 
 
 Wheat Allotria, Allotria Tritici , new species. (Hyracnoptcra, Cynipbidre.) 
 
 Black; bead and legs pale yellow; antennas 13-jointed, basal joints more slender and pale 
 yellow. Length 0.05. 
 
 Head transvcisc, twice us brond as long, oonvex in front, concave behind; faco and mouth 
 pale yellow, crown piceous-yellow; eyes protuberant, rathor small, black; eyelets three, at 
 the corners of a triangle, on tho crown. Antcnnco inserted on tho middlo of the front, 
 clothed with a very short inclined beard, more slender towards their bases, nearly as 
 long ns the body, black, the four first joints palo yellow; basal joint thrice as long as 
 thick, obovate, transversely cut off at its end; second joint rather moro slender, twice as 
 long ns thick, oval; third and fourth joints each as long as both the preceding and but hnlf 
 their thickness, oylindric; fifth joint more thick, and the following ones gently increasing 
 till they come to equal the basal in thickness, tho last ones thrice as long as thick, oylin¬ 
 dric, the terminal one oval. Thorax broad oval, broader than the head, black, shining. 
 Abdomen smaller than tho thornx, nearly globular, moderately compressed, its end blunt or 
 vertically sub-truncated with a thick teat-like projection from its middle. Legs honey- 
 yellow; foot, five-jointed, filiform; anterior pair with tho basal joint more than twice the 
 length of the following ono, second to fourth joints successively shorter, last joint more than 
 twice tho length of the fourth, ending in an egg-shaped toe of the same thickness and appear¬ 
 ing like a sixth joint; hind feet with the basal joint ns long ns tho threo following ones, 
 which aro successively shorter, the lust joint twieo tho length of tho fourth, and furnished 
 nith a pair of hooks at its tip. Ikings hyaline, slightly smoky, with a row of short inclined 
 bristles along their outer edge but no fringe on tho inner margin or tips; fore wings with 
 
842 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 Arms. ITS LADY-BUG DESTROYERS. 1* IN E-MARK ED COCCINELLA. 
 coarse brown veins bounding a nearly triangular cell placed on the middle of the outer mar¬ 
 gin, from the inner angle of which a vein extends inward and backward which is gradually 
 more slender and the last half of its length abortive and scarcely perceptible; a very coarse 
 vein orossing the middle part of tho wing ohliqucly, forward of the triangular cell. 
 
 Oat Allotria, Allolria Avence, new species. 
 
 Black, polished; feet brownish; antennae longer than tho body, 15-jointed. Length 0.06. 
 
 Head nearly globular when viewed from above, egg-shaped when viewed laterally, with 
 the smaller end downward; small short bristles scattered sparsely on the face but dense on 
 the throat. Antennae longer than the body, equalling tho tips of the wings, thinly bearded 
 with short stiff inclined hairs and a row of longer ones surrounding the apex of each joint; 
 basal joint no thicker than tho others, long egg-shaped with the smaller end downwards and 
 tapering into a slightly curved podicol; second joint globular; third and following joints 
 cylindrical, about thrice as long as thick, cut ofT transversely at their tips, and at their bases 
 suddenly tapering into a short pedicel which is a third of the thickness of tho joints and less 
 long than thick; last joints soarcoly diminished in thickness and not at all in length, the end 
 joint long egg-shaped. Wings smoky-hyaline, with a row of short inclined bristles along 
 the outer edge and fringed with longer ones at their ends and along tho inner margin of the 
 hind pair; their veins the same as in A. Tritici , and various other details which it is unne¬ 
 cessary to repeat. 
 
 Nine-marked Coccinella, C. 9-notata, Ilerbst. (Coleoptcra, Coccinellidaa.) 
 
 In addition to the internal parasites above spoken of, we have 
 several other insects which are efficient destroyers of tho grain 
 aphis, slaughtering it to feed upon it. One of these which will 
 be most apt to attract notice, is a pretty beetle, a species of lady 
 bug or lady bird, named the Nine-marked Coccinella ( C. d-notata, 
 Ilerbst) and pertaining to the family Coccinellidce in the order 
 Coleoptera. It is one of the most common species of lady bug in 
 our State, and feeds upon several kinds of plant lice, but appears 
 to prefer this on grain to any other. Hence It is met with in 
 our grain fields in greater plenty, according to my observations, 
 than in any other situation. It is readily recognized, being about 
 the form and size of a half pea, of a bright red, sometimes a yel¬ 
 low color, with nine small black spots on its wing covers. 
 
 Its larva is more voracious than the perfect insect in feeding 
 upon these plant lice. It is often noticed, walking actively about 
 upon the straw at the time the grain is harvested, and has such 
 a scorpion-like look that it is on this account sometimes destroyed 
 by persons who are ignorant of its friendly character. It is 
 three-eighths of an inch long when fully grown, and resembles a 
 very flexible worm with three pairs of long stout legs on its 
 breast. It is blue-black, and appearing as though coated over 
 with a glaucous bluish grey bloom, and on each side, near tho 
 middle, are two bright red or orange spots, occupying the outer 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 843 
 
 APHIS. NINE-MARKED COCCINELLA. ITS LARVA. 
 
 ends of the fifth and eighth segments. The neck or second seg¬ 
 ment, which is large, flattened and roundish, is black in the mid¬ 
 dle and has a broad border of the same red or yellow color, 
 though sometimes of a paler shade, and usually in this border is 
 an oval black spot on each side. Occasionally the whole neck is 
 red or yellow, with four oval black spots placed side by side, the 
 two middle ones being larger. The face and breast are dull pale 
 yellow. Each ring"of the body has elevated black dots, six on 
 the upper and six smaller ones on the under side, all of which 
 are crowned with short slender prickles. These black prickly dots 
 form rows lengthwise of the body, of which the two upper ones 
 upon the back are the most conspicuous, and the two rings next 
 to the neck have an oval black spot on each side of the middle, 
 in which spots are included the upper prickly dot and the one 
 next to it. 
 
 It is wonderful how this larva succeeds in finding the particu¬ 
 lar stalks of grain whose heads are infested with plant lice. Early 
 in July, passing along the edge of an oat field, I noticed one of 
 the heads which was thronged with lice, other heads here and 
 there showing only two or three of them on some one of the pedi¬ 
 cels. Two days afterwards, wanting to ascertain some point 
 respecting these grain lice, I recollected this infected stalk which 
 I had seen in the oat field, and went to pluck it and bring it into 
 my study. But on reaching it, to my surprise, it was perfectly 
 cleansed of these vermin, and had nothing on it now except one 
 of these lady bird larvae, which was clinging to the stalk, in 
 contented repose after the feast it had had. I was surprised that 
 this little creature had the sagacity to discover and climb up this 
 the only badly infested stalk along the edge of the field. 
 
 I should suspect the honey dew, which plant lice eject so copi¬ 
 ously that where they are very numerous it is falling in a tiny 
 shower to the earth underneath them, might indicate to this 
 larva as it is running about on the ground, where a colony of 
 them existed. But this grain aphis does not appear to give out 
 any honey dew; nor do ants attend it to feed thereon as they 
 customarily do with other species. And it is probable that the 
 only manner whereby this larva is able to discover where these 
 plant lice occur, is to climb up one stalk of the grain after ano¬ 
 ther, until it chances’to find one that is infested. This its move¬ 
 ments indicate. The motions of the larva are the same with 
 
844 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 Arms. COOCINELLA LARVA! STARVING EAT THEIR OWN SPECIES. 
 
 those of the parent insect and with those of the species of this 
 famity generally. Many persons I doubt not have noticed the 
 peculiar manner in which these lady bugs travel about upon 
 plants, without being at all aware of the object of their jour- 
 neyings. They move with more or less agility as they are more 
 or less pressed with hunger, some species being always more 
 active and sprightly in their motions than others. 
 
 Searching for plant lice, one of these insects will be seen to 
 walk briskly up a plant to its very summit. You expect it will 
 now take wing or will pause a moment to consider what to do 
 next. But no; finding nothing, it abruptly turns about and 
 walks back with the same pace that it ascended, till coming to a 
 branch or a leaf it goes out upon this, travelling along its under 
 side to its end and then immediately turning back without any 
 pause and out upon another. Thus it industriously walks over 
 the whole plant, scarcely an}^ part of a leaf or a stem where plant 
 lice will be liable to occur escaping its examination. Its forag- . 
 ing being unsuccessful here, it descends to the ground and coming 
 to another plant mounts and examines it in the same manner. 
 
 These larvae of all sizes were quite numerous in the stubble of 
 the grain fields after harvest. They speedily consumed the few 
 grain lice which had been scattered off upon the straws and weeds 
 remaining in the fields, and then becoming pressed with hunger 
 they were seen running wildly about, everywhere, in search of food. 
 When reduced to such straits they became cannibals, devouring 
 the helpless of their own species. If one of them chances to meet 
 another which has suspended itself preparatory to changing to a 
 pupa and is thus become incapable of resistance, it does not hesi¬ 
 tate to devour its defenceless fellow. The suspended larva when 
 thus attacked passively submits to its doom, without any strug¬ 
 gling or writhing, to impede its murderer in his work, as if con¬ 
 scious it was wholly unable to avert its fate. Its assailant eats 
 a hole in one side and then consumes all the soft inward parts, 
 leaving nothing but the skin of the two ends slightly connected 
 by what remains of the middle. But the fully formed puprn are 
 never attacked, their substance being so changed, no doubt, that 
 it has ceased to be nourishing food for the larva. 
 
 But though these larvae thus eat one another they will not eat 
 the larvae of other insects, nor any plant lice except those of par¬ 
 ticular plants. I introduced the larva of a wheat midge to a 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 845 
 
 APHIS. COCCINELLA LARVAi WILL MOT APPROACH ANTS. 
 
 hungry larva of the Coccinella, hut it did not notice it in the 
 least." I then introduced to it an aphis from the stem of a poplar 
 leaf. It brought its mouth to this for an instant only, and then 
 turned away from it, and the aphis happening to crawl upon its 
 body annoyed it .extremely, causing it to writhe and roll itself 
 over to crowd the intruder off. I then let it walk out of its 
 prison upon a poplar leaf having a colony of these lice upon its 
 stem, over which it would be obliged to pass to go elsewhere. 
 In approaching them it encountered a very small ant, the same 
 species, I think, which I described in my First Report under the 
 name Myrmica Cerasi , which was attending these lice, and there¬ 
 upon it precipitately dropped itself from the leal. I replaced it 
 on the leaf and had the same result a second time. I he ant did 
 not appear to attack it, but its mere proximity seemed to be 
 intolerably repulsive to this larva. And I doubt not it was the 
 pungent odor which I have heretofore spoken ot as being gi\en 
 out by this ant, and which odor it imparts to particular colonies 
 of plant lice, thereby so marking them as its own property that 
 other insects thenceforth avoid them, that made this ant and the 
 lice it was attending, so annoying to this larva. I next intro¬ 
 duced to it a cabbage louse. This it immediately clasped and 
 commenced eating with evident satisfaction. And as these lice 
 were becoming common on the cabbages in my garden, I now 
 turned this larva out among them to forage tor itseli, bringing 
 others from the fields also to accompany it, whereby I am assured 
 my cabbages will soon be rid of thfl vermin upon them. 
 
 When this larva of the lady bird is fully grown and ready to 
 change to a pupa, it seeks a situation where it will be least liable 
 to be disturbed by the aphis or any other insect or worm crawl¬ 
 ing about or upon it while it remains reposing in this state. It 
 sometimes selects the under side of a leaf of the grain, but more 
 frequently it wanders off to some weed growing among the grain. 
 Thus it often resorts to that vilest of all weeds, the toad-flax or 
 “butter and eggs,” (Lin aria vulgaris ), if this chances to be scat¬ 
 tered among the grain; as though the intelligent little creature 
 had observed the same fact which I have publicly stated, that in 
 this country no insect or worm occurs upon this weed. Some ot 
 my neighbors being aware that I had thus stated, have brought 
 this weed to me with this pupa attached to it, that I might see 
 whether it were not an insect that belonged upon it. 
 
846 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 Arms. coeciNELLA larva cuanoikg into a pupa. 
 
 It chooses a spot towards the summit of the weed from whence 
 it can hang freely downwards and be fully exposed to the air 
 and light. It here affixes itself by the tip of its body, which 
 emits a small quantity of a varnish-like fluid whereby it is se¬ 
 curely glued to the surface. It thus hangs with its head down¬ 
 wards for several hours, slightly bending and writhing itself at 
 times, whereby the pupa inside becomes more and more separated 
 from the larva skin in which it is inclosed. It also becomes per¬ 
 ceptibly thicker, thus distending the larva skin laterally, till at 
 last with this distention and the bending of the pupa within it, 
 the skin cracks open in a straight smooth fissure at the anterior 
 end of the back. The continued motions of the pupa now rap¬ 
 idly open this rent longer and wider, and the pupa pressing 
 firmly against it begins to protrude from it, of a bright yellow 
 color. Its whole back soon emerges from the skin, and by a few 
 more writhings this old skin is then gradually slipped off and 
 crowded upward to the end of the body, around which it after¬ 
 wards remains in a wrinkled black mass studded with prickly 
 points and forming an intrenchment as it were around the tip of 
 the body, which no enemy will care to climb over. 
 
 The pupa is at first egg-shaped, but contracting in its length 
 as it dries, and thickening at its tip it soon becomes oval and 
 very convex on its back, with its under side flattened and curved, 
 whereby it has nearly the shape of a crescent when viewed lat¬ 
 erally. 
 
 It is interesting to observe the manner in which the pupa acquires 
 the different spots with which it is so prettily ornamented. When 
 it first throws off the larva skin it is of a uniform bright citron yel¬ 
 low color throughout, perhaps with the breathing pores appear¬ 
 ing as a row of dusky dots along each side. But a deeper yel¬ 
 low or orange colored spot immediately begins to bo perceived 
 on each side of the back forward of the middle and another back 
 of the middle, these spots occupying the outer ends of the first 
 and of the fourth segments of the abdomen, and others on the 
 ends of the sixth segment are sometimes to be seen, though 
 smaller and less bright. Next, along each side of the middle of 
 the back a faint smoky streak or row of spots may be dis¬ 
 cerned, each spot first commencing as a short, dusky, transverse 
 line on the elevated hind edge of each segment except the two 
 first. The knees are next perceived to become dusky, in which 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 847 
 
 Arms. COCCINELLA PUTA CHANGING TO THE PERFECT INSECT. 
 
 color the whole of the under side soon participates. Two dusky 
 spot8 next begin to come out on the hind edge of the thorax, and 
 two smaller ones appear on the second segment of the abdomen, 
 followed by a few other spots elsewhere, which it is scarcely ne¬ 
 cessary to particularize. These smoky colors continue to deepen, 
 becoming almost black where they were first perceived, when, 
 last of all, in about two hours after the larva skin is thrown off, 
 the sheaths of the wing covers are seen to acquire a dusky dot 
 near their centre, which becomes more obvious as the same hue 
 begins to be seen on the tips and along the margin of these mem¬ 
 bers. On longer exposure to the air and light, all these spots 
 change to pure black, the rich yellow ground color in the mean 
 time fading to obscure pale yellow, somewhat brighter upon the 
 wing covers. 
 
 I notice some larvm are suspended which are not grown to their 
 full size, and which do not cast off their skins to assume their 
 pupa form. These, I suspect, are infested with internal parasites. 
 
 The insect remains suspended and at rest in its pupa state ten 
 days, in the instances I have observed. Its dry outer skin, or 
 shell, then again cracks asunder at the anterior end ot its back, 
 and the perfect insect withdraws itself therefrom. It is at first 
 a soft, turgid, unwieldly mass, overloaded with fluids. For these 
 fluids to evaporate, it remains stationary for several hours, cling¬ 
 ing to the outside of its pupa skin, or to the leaf or stalk where 
 this skin is fastened. It stands with its wings projected out from 
 under the ends of its wing covers, resembling flattened tail-like 
 appendages almost as long as the body, light yellow and opake, 
 or but feebly translucent. The wing covers are at first of a rich 
 citron-yellow color, and wholly destitute of any discoloration to 
 indicate the black spots which belong to them, although the tho¬ 
 rax has .its black color and white margin well developed. T.he. 
 spots of the wing covers are gradually brought out as in the pupa, 
 by exposure to the air and light, those of the hind part being fii st 
 to appear by a slight discoloration or smokiness, and the common 
 spot at the scutel being the last one that is completed, this re¬ 
 maining divided by pale lines upon the suture after its outei pait 
 has become dark colored and quite distinct. As soon as its 
 several parts have acquired a sufficienl degree ot firmness and 
 consistency by the evaporation of their superabundant juices, 
 
848 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 APHIS. NINE-MAIIKKD COCCINELLA OESCnilIKD. 
 
 the insect walks slowly away; though it continues to become 
 still more hard and solid for two or three days. 
 
 It places its eggs among, or in the vicinity of the plant lice on 
 which its young are to feed. These eggs may frequently be 
 noticed on the chafl' of the wheat ears, and adhering to the slen- 
 der, hair-like pedicels of oats, in little irregular masses of a bright 
 
 yellow color. From them hatch the larva;, which have been de¬ 
 scribed above. 
 
 .... ^‘no-marked Coccnclla measures from 0.20 to 0.25 ic length and 0.15 to 0.20 in 
 Width the smaller sued individuals being males. Its body is nearly hemispherical, with the 
 surface smooth, shining and minutely punctured. The head is white, changing after death 
 
 cros^d 8 h t tl ^ T hit ° P,lrtS ° n th ° UppCr Sid0 of tbi3 inseet - P“>« yellow. It is 
 erased by two black bands, one placed slightly above the anterior edge, the other occupying 
 
 the base and be.ng often thicker in its middle than at the ends, its anterior edge two-toothed 
 
 aaentlv b ; S, k Sm °d Th ° Hp is te9tl “’'° us " yellowish, its base fre- 
 
 qnently black or dusky. The mandibles are black, their outer side white. The palpi are 
 
 flora; is M I T "! *** black and the tips blackish. The 
 
 larZer than tl W , 0CC “ Pyin » 1,9 antcrior mar S in > which band is about a third 
 
 middle of n ; a W in -Hm has an angular tooth on the 
 
 m ddlo of Its hind edge, jutting back into the black portion. This band end, on each side in 
 
 a large and somewhat square white spot which occupies the anterior angles and is more broad 
 . n ong, and extends back on the outer margin more than tivo-thirds of its length, its hind 
 
 The COnCaVO ""k ,nn<,r hiDd a ” g,e aC " te - The SCUtcl is sma11 - Wwg«I»r and black. 
 « »»g covers are bright orange red or frequently firey red, but change after death to ycl- 
 
 ow, less pale than that to which the white parts change. Their anterior edge adjacent to 
 the scutcl is whi o, this color being gradually shaded into the orange ground. On the suture 
 is a slender black lino running its whole length. At the anterior end of tl.o suture is a 
 black spot, common to both wing covers and embracing the scutcl in it, anterior end. This 
 spot ,s quite variable in its form, being sometimes broadest across it, middle and dinmond- 
 s aped oi with its posterior half rounded, sometimes broadest posteriorly and then spear- 
 shaped or broadly egg-shaped, sometimes yet more developed and broadest at its hind end, 
 forming then a triangular spot as wide as it is long. On each wing cover are four other black 
 roundish spots, an anterior, an outer, an inner and a posterior one, the two first smaller and 
 o othei two larger than the common spot. The anterior spot is placed at a distance equal 
 to its width from the anterior edge and more than twice ns far from the outer edge, and it is 
 more round ,n its form than either of the other spots. The outer spot is usually of the same 
 size w, h the anterior one and is more or less triangular in its form. It is placed at a third 
 of the d,stance from the base to the tip of the wing covers, and less than its width from the 
 outer edge. The inner spot is situated farther back than the outer one, but is forward of the 
 middle, and less than its width from the suture. It is round, or short oval and transverse. 
 
 T 10 hind spot IS similar in sizo to the one last mentioned, and is twioe ns far from the suture 
 as from the outer edge. It is transverse and in form of a very short band. The wings are 
 smoky hyaline, becoming clear towards their bases and having the veins here red. The back 
 underneath the wing covers is black with red bands on the sutures, each side being also 
 broadly red with a longitudinal row of black dots. The under side and legs are black, with 
 a small white spot upon each of the corners of the hind breast. 
 
 Il)i8 species is remarkably constant and uniform in the spots 
 of its wing - covers, and lias hence ha<^ the rare fortune to escape 
 being burthened with those synonyms with which carelessness 
 and ignorance have so overloaded many of its kindred; the name 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 849 
 
 APHIS. FIVE-MARKED COCCIKELLA. 
 
 Coccinella novem-notata, given it by Herbst over sixty years since, 
 being the only one it has received. The number of its spots is 
 always the same, and only the following variations in their size 
 and connections have occured to my observation, which appear 
 sufficiently remarkable to be worthy of notice: 
 
 Variety a, inccqualis. The outer spot of the wing covers smaller than the anterior one, 
 sometimes merely a round dot. Common. 
 by parvamaculata. The three anterior spots on each wing cover small round dots of 
 nearly equal size, with the hind spot also smaller than usual. 
 c, conjunct a. The two anterior spots connected by a slender black line running 
 from the outer side of the forward ono to the inner side of the outer one. Not 
 rare. 
 
 dy confluent a . The inner and hind spots broadly united, the anterior spot nearly 
 as large ns the inner one and slenderly united to it and also to the outer spot, 
 e, divisicollis . A black streak extending backward from the eyes to the disk of the 
 thorax and dividing the white band from the spots at each end of it. 
 
 This Coccinella is common in all parts of the United States, 
 and extends south through Mexico and Central America. 
 
 The Five-marked Coccinella, C. b-notata , Kirby. 
 
 Associated with the Nine-marked coccinella in our grain fields 
 another species makes its appearance in the month of August or 
 earlier, so closely resembling it that it is only by looking par¬ 
 ticularly at them that they will be recognized as different. 
 Viewed from behind their marks appear to the eye to be identi¬ 
 cal, four large black spots occuring in the same situation in 
 both species. But on the fore part of the wing covers, instead of 
 three black dots a black band is here seen. This species, more¬ 
 over, is slightly larger than the preceding one, and it will be 
 perceived to be more slow in its motions. 
 
 I have been unable to distinguish its larva if I have ever seen 
 it, from that of the preceding species. And the only pupa from 
 which I have bred this insect appears from the evacuated shell 
 to have been similar to that already described, but more black, 
 having only yellow colors as follows: a row of spots on the mid¬ 
 dle of the back, the abdomen with a spot on each side at its 
 base and a smaller one near its middle, a broad cloud across the 
 middle of the thorax and a cloud-like spot on the base of the 
 wing-sheaths. 
 
 The insect which came from this pupa walked slowly about on 
 the small leaf to which it was attached, returning to its pupa 
 shell and applying its mouth to the inside of the fissure therein, 
 [Ac. Trans.] 54 
 
850 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 Amis. FIVE-MARKED GOCCIXELLA DESCRIBED. 
 
 apparently to sip some of the moisture there. It did not become 
 stationary and hang out its wings to dry till nearly a half hour 
 after it came out of its pupa shell. Its wing covers were very 
 glossy and of a rich citron or lemon color, and it wa§ almost an 
 hour after its birth before any smokiness to indicate the coming 
 out of spots thereon could be perceived, although the head 
 and thorax had their colors and spots perfect when it came from 
 the pupa shell. The places of all the spots began to be dimly 
 discolored at the same time. At nightfall, four hours after its 
 birth, the spots were about half completed, the inner ends of the 
 hind ones being still smoky and pale, and the anterior band 
 being black only on the suture, with its outer ends yet faint and 
 indefinite. The next morning it was standing in the same place 
 its spots being now perfect. 
 
 This species was named the Five-marked Coccinella or Coccinella 
 5-notata by Mr. Kirby. It had previously been ticketed the 
 Transverse-spotted Coccinella (C. transverso-guttata ) by Mr. Say, 
 and this name had been published by Dr. Harris in his Catalogue 
 of the Insects of Massachusetts, but no description accompanied 
 it to render it valid until the species was described by M. Fal- 
 dcrman in the Memoirs of the St. Petersburg Academy. 
 
 The Five-marked Coccinella measures 0.20 to 0.28 in length by 0.16 to 0.20 in width, its 
 body being nearly hemispheric, smooth and shining, with minute punctures. Its head is 
 black with a narrow white band on the lower edge and on the front two white spots (becoming 
 yellow in the dead specimen as does all the other white parts excopt those on the under side) 
 each occupying a third of the space between the eyes, these spots being angulated on their 
 inner sides. There is also a small white dot at the lower corner of the eyes. The lip is 
 black and also the palpi and mandibles, the outer side of the latter being whito. Theantenmo 
 are dark brown, their basal joint black and their tips blackish. The thorax is black with a 
 squareish white spot occupying each of its anterior angles, the inner side of this spot being 
 shortest and its outer side reaching more than half the length of the thorax, the slonder outer 
 edge of which is black at least a part of the distance along the outer side of this spot. The 
 soutel is triangular and black. • The wing covers are orange red or orange yellow, with a 
 white spot on their front edge on each side of the scntel, and near their base is a black band 
 common to both wing covers und extending from the suture more than two-thirds of the dis¬ 
 tance to the outer margin, this band jutting forward in its middle and embracing the scutel, 
 and sometimes having its hind side prolonged in a corresponding manner along the suture. 
 Near the middle of each wiug cover is a transvorso black spot resembling a short band, its 
 inner end being twice as near the suture as its outer end is to the outer margin. Half way 
 from this to the tip is a second similar spot, but slightly larger and ocqupying half tho width 
 of the wing cover at this point, with its inner end twico as far from tho suturo as its oute r 
 end is from the outer margin, this spot being frequently thicker on its inner than its outer 
 part. The wings are smoky with their basal part clear and having pale orange oolored veins. 
 The back underneath the wing covers is black with a pale red stripe on each side near the 
 outer edge and two or three bands of the same color across tho fore part. All tho under side 
 is black with a white spot on the fore angles of tho hind breast and usually a less clear one 
 on the hind angles. In the males is a milk whito dot on the haunches of the fore legs. 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 851 
 
 APHIS. PARENTHESIS COCCINELLA. 
 
 There are but two varieties of this species which appear 
 sufficiently remarkable to be worthy of notice. 
 
 Variety a, interrupt a. The band on the wing covers with its ends nearly or quite broken off 
 from the middle portion. I have never seen a specimen with the ends of the 
 bands perfectly separated. Those in which they are partially broken off are not 
 rare. 
 
 by transverso-guttata, Faldcrman. A small black dot on the wing-covers nc?r 
 their outer margin, placed at a third of the distance from the base to the tip. 
 Common. Mulsant regards this as the normal state of this species. Of twenty 
 specimens at present under my eye only six have this dot, and a seventh one 
 * shows it on the left wing cover only. 
 
 This species occurs in New York and other Northern States, in 
 Canada, Greenland, and Russian America, and has also been dis¬ 
 covered in Irkutsk and other provinces of Siberia. 
 
 The Parenthesis Coccinella. Adonia parenthesis, Say. 
 
 A smaller and more oblong species than the two foregoing ones, 
 and running with much more briskness, began to appear in the 
 grain fields as the crops were ripening, and rapidly increased, so 
 that at harvest time it had become much more numerous than 
 the Nine-marked Coccinella, at least in fields of oats. This is 
 another of our common species, which begins to be seen abroad 
 on the first warm days in April, having come out from its winter 
 retreats under stones and sticks lying on the ground. It is met 
 with through the whole summer, on rushes and grass in wet 
 places, and in other situations, indicating it to have an appetite 
 for a greater variety of plant-lice than the Nine-marked Cocci¬ 
 nella has. 
 
 Its eggs are 0.035 long, oval, soft, shining, pale orange, and 
 are placed irregularly together in little masses of three or more, 
 slightly adhering to each other and to the heads and stems of the 
 grain on which they are scattered. 
 
 Its larvae are so similar to those of the Nine-spotted Coccinella 
 that I have overlooked them, supposing them from their smaller 
 size to be the same species in its younger state. 
 
 To change to a pupa it usually places itself upon some small 
 weed where it will be nearer the ground than the situations which 
 the Nine-marked Coccinella seems to prefer. The dead stalks of 
 sorrel are much resorted to by it, on which it suspends itself to 
 the slender thread-like branches, from among the dry brown seeds 
 which are attached thereto. Its black larva-skin beset with 
 
852 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 APHIS. PARENTHESIS COCCINELLA DESCRIBED. 
 
 slender hair-like prickles forms a wrinkled mass around the tip 
 of the pupa, similar to that of the Nine-marked Coccinella already 
 described. 
 
 The pupa is colored and spotted very similarly to that of the 
 Nine-marked Coccinella. It is dull citron yellow with an orange 
 red spot on the outer end of the first and fourth segments of the 
 back, and a row of black spots each side of the middle of the back, 
 which are often confluent with each other forming two stripes. 
 The flattened first segment of the thorax has four black spots on 
 its anterior edge which are somewhat confluent with each other, 
 and four others on its hind edge which are more distinctly sepa¬ 
 rated, the outer ones being in contact with a similar black spot 
 on the sheaths of the wing covers, which sheaths also have the 
 margin and tips more or less black and a large black spot in their 
 centre, which is often confluent with the black margin. 
 
 But this pupa is quite variable in its colors, sometimes having 
 the whole of the first segment of the thorax black, except a cloud 
 across its middle, and the abdomen black, with a pale stripe along 
 the middle, and a more slender one on each side of it, and the 
 outer ends of fourth and fifth segments pale, thus approaching in 
 color the pupa from which a Five-marked Coccinella was obtained. 
 Yet these dark colored pupae yield as bright colored and perfect 
 insects as the lighter ones. Pupae very probably occur, from 
 which it will be impossible to decide whether this species or one 
 of the others will come, although they are so readily distinguish¬ 
 ed when they arrive to their perfect state. 
 
 The Parenthesis Coccinella is oval and more than a third longer than wide, measuring 0.16 
 to 0.20 by 0.11 to 0.13. Its surface is shining and is closely and minutely punctured. The 
 head is black with three white spots on the front, the middle one diamond-shaped and usually 
 prolonged upward in a short line, the lateral ones triangular and placed at the inner sido of 
 the eyes, their inner angles being sometimes confluent with the lateral angles of tko middle 
 spot, the three spots when thus united forming a figure resembling the head of a trident, 
 from which circumstance Mr. Kirby named this species tho Trident Coccinella. These spots 
 on the other hand are sometimes much smaller, tho middle one merely a short white lino or 
 even entirely wanting, and tho lateral ones a small lunulc or a moro dot cn tho margin of the 
 eyes. The lower edge of tho head and the lip aro livid yellow or testaceous. Tho mandibles 
 are white and the pulpi testaceous with blackish tips. The antennse are testaoeous, their 
 basal joint black on the upper side and their tips blackish. The thorax is black, margined 
 with white on the front and sides, this margin being usually wide but sometimes narrow, 
 widened on tho hind angles, where its end is obliquely or concavely cut off, tho inner side of 
 its end being often prolonged into an aoute angle which points towards a similar angle jutting 
 baokward frouj the front margin, thus tending to cut off a large round dot from eaoh sido of 
 the black portion of the thorax. The front margin in the middle of its hind side is also 
 always prolonged backwards into a short white stripe which narrows baokwards and usually 
 reaches halfway to a whito spot which is placed on tho bind margin, this white spot being 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 853 
 
 APHIS. PARENTHESIS COCCINELLA VARIETIES, 
 sometimes square but oftener more wide than long and narrowing forward, and frequently 
 having a notch in the middle of its fore aide. The scutel is triangular and black. The wing 
 covers are red in the live insect, rarely yellow or red with the disk yellow; but in the dead 
 insect they fade to a lurid yellow color. Their front edge is often white or whitish. They 
 are ornamented with four black spots on each, namely, a common one on the forward end of 
 the suture, an anterior, a middle and a posterior one, the two last being very often united at 
 their outer ends. The common spot is oblong and extends upon the suture a fourth of its 
 length. It is narrowest at its anterior end and gradually widens backward to its middle or 
 beyond, where it becomes abruptly broader, this hind part being often in the form of a large 
 round or diamond-shaped spot. The anterior spot is in the form of a large round dot placed 
 upon the shoulder and nearer to the front than to the lateral edge. The middle spot is broad 
 oval and equally as thick as the anterior one. It is placed obliquely, with its outer end more 
 forward and occupying the oentre of the wing cover, being thus much more distant from the 
 outer margin than the inner end is from the suture. The posterior one is more oblique and 
 longer, but of the same thickness with the middle one, and is placed halfway between it and 
 the hind margin. It is slightly curved, whereby its outer side is nearly parallel with the 
 margin, receding from it very slightly towards its hind end and frequently having a notch or 
 a concavity in this outer side forward of the middle, its inner end being nearer to the suture 
 than is the inner end of the middle spot. Its outer end is very frequently prolonged inward 
 upon its inner side, thus uniting this spot more or less perfectly with the hind sido of the 
 outer end of the middle spot, the two spots when thus united forming a letter C, and these 
 united spots facing each other on the two wing covers, come to have some resemblance to a 
 parenthesis mark, ( ), which suggested to the older Mr. Melsheiiner the namo for this insect, 
 which Mr. Say afterwards adopted when he came to describe it. These spots are frequently 
 edged with yellowish white in the living insect, thus rendering them more distinct and con¬ 
 spicuous on the red ground. The wings are colorless and hyaline, but without a glassy trans¬ 
 parency, and they have a smoky spot on their outer margin and smoky streaks on the veins. 
 Tho back underneath the wings is black, with a bright red stripe upon each side. The under 
 side is black, with a white spot on each of the corners of the hind breast and a row of small 
 white spots along the outer edge of the abdomen. Tho shanks and feet of the fore legs and 
 sometimes of the middle one also are testaceous or livid yellow. 
 
 In this species we meet with numerous vaiiieties, of which the 
 • following merit to be noticed: 
 
 Variety a, trident ifrons. The three white spots on the front confluent, forming a mark re¬ 
 sembling the head of a trident. Common. 
 
 b , pcnnacrifrons. Tho white spots on the front reduced in size to a short streak on 
 
 the edge of each eye and a slight line in the middle. Not rare. 
 
 c, triangularis. The white spot on the base of the thorax triangular instead of 
 
 square. 
 
 d, lituricollis. The thorax white, including the whole of its basal edge, with blaok 
 
 marks on the disk resombling a full faced letter H widened backwards, and 
 having a largo black dot on each sido confluent with it by a neck only half as 
 thick as tho dot. Of this I have seen two examples. 
 
 e, albomaculata. A white triangular spot on each side of tho scutel, margining the 
 
 common spot to its dilated part, its outer edge indefinite. 
 
 /, linearis. The common spot on the wing covers linear and not dilated posteriorly. 
 
 g, approximata. Tho anterior spot large, its foro side reaching tho anterior edge 
 
 of the wing cover. 
 
 h, disco-punctala. Tho middle spot thick and round instead of oblong. 
 
 i, tridens , Kirby. The middle and bind spots not united with each other to form a 
 
 parenthesis mark. This is probably to be regarded as tho normal state of the 
 speoies, a very small majority of the examples as they occur in nature having 
 these spots separated. 
 
 k, conjiuenta. The middle and hind spots largo and broadly confluent, with only a 
 lineur or narrow oval cleft dividing their inner ends little more than half their 
 length. 
 
854 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 , APHIS. OTHER INSECTS DESTROYING IT. 
 
 Variety l, connata. The middle and hind spots united in one, resembling on imago of the 
 human head and shoulders, with the neck nearly or quite as broad as the hoad. 
 
 m, insulata. Like connata , but with a sranll dot tho color of the ground, in the 
 
 Deck of tho spot, towards its inner side. 
 
 n, nimia. A very small oval spot or minute dot of black on tho wing covers, near 
 
 the outer hind side of the anterior spot. Of forty specimens now before me only 
 three are of this variety. 
 
 In addition to these Mulsant mentions a variety which I have never met with, in which 
 tho hind spot of the wing covers is wanting. 
 
 This species inhabits California as well as the other United 
 States and Canada. • 
 
 In addition to the insects which have now been described vari¬ 
 ous others to which I can at present make only a passing allu¬ 
 sion were on the grain with them, aiding them in their useful 
 work. The O-marked Golden-eye and other species of Chrysopa 
 described in my First Report were frequently noticed in the 
 grain fields, as were also their white eggs elevated on the summit 
 of slender threads. The white and yellow larvae of different 
 Syrphus flies, small worms shaped like leeches, were also common 
 on the wheat heads, reaching around like the elephant with his 
 trunk, to find and seize hold of an aphis to devour it. Another 
 efficient destroyer was a common species of bug, the JVabis /era, 
 which has already been mentioned on a previous page, in the 
 note appended to our account of the Mistaken parasite. This 
 bug was frequently seen with its sharp needle-like beak inserted 
 into the body of an aphis, the -winged as well as the wingless 
 ones, sucking out the contents, whereby the abdomen becomes 
 collapsed and so wholly disappears that the honey tubes at its 
 end often appear as appendages belonging upon the base of the 
 thorax. This bug, therefore, by thus destroying these and other 
 insects and their larvae on grain and grass, renders us a valuable 
 service; and the Mistaken parasite instead of being the impor¬ 
 tant enemy of the wheat midge which it has with so much assu¬ 
 rance been proclaimed to be, now turns out is the egg parasite 
 of this useful bug, and is thus a pernicious instead of a benefi¬ 
 cial species. I propose, as already stated, to fully describe this 
 in connection with the other bugs which occur on grain, in my 
 next Report. 
 
 I have supposed that dusting the grain with tho dry powder 
 of chloride of lime might smother and destroy these lice. 
 Should they reappear another season I hope to ascertain whether 
 this remedy is practicable and efficacious. 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 855 
 
 AIIMY WORM. WHY TIIUS CALLED. 
 
 Army worm, LeuCania unip.uncta, Haworth. (Lepidoptcra, Noctuidas.) 
 stripping the leaves and severing the heads from wheat stalks, or wholly consuming the 
 plants when young; worms growing to 1.50 in length, variously striped with black, yellow 
 and greenish, which suddenly appear in immense numbers and keep together in a compact 
 bodv. advancing in a particular direction and devastating the fields of grain and grass through 
 which they pass, and then totally disappearing; producing drab colored moths 1.76wide with- 
 a white dot on the middle of their fore wings and an oblique dusky streak at the tip. 
 
 As the army worm has appeared so extensively, and excited so 
 much inquiry and alarm in our country the present year, I doubt 
 not an account of it will be looked for in the present report. A 
 popular history and description of this insect and its habits was 
 given in an address which I delivered at the annual fair of the 
 State Agricultural Society, the publication of which was requested 
 by a vote of the audience. As this address contains all the 
 important facts known to us in relation to this insect, I present 
 it in this place with but little alteration. 
 
 This present year may be regarded as the most remarkable in 
 the insects it has developed of any that has occurred in our day, 
 probably the most remarkable that has ever occurred since the 
 country was settled. That an insect should show itself, of such 
 a threatning aspect as to arrest public notice, in the midst of the 
 intense excitement of a civil war, is an event seldom il ever 
 known before in history. Yet we have this year had two insects 
 of this character very extensively in our land, the one but 
 vaguely and the other not at all known in this country before. 
 
 I allude to the army worm, of which the newspapers have recently 
 given such frequent notices, and the aphis, which has been 
 seen everywhere in our fields of grain. And I here propose to 
 give a short account of the information we have now obtained 
 respecting the first of these insects, the army worm. I shall aim 
 to speak of it in such plain, familiar language as will serve to give 
 every one a distinct and definite view of its history and habits. 
 
 This name, “ army worm,” is given to a kind of worm which 
 makes its appearance at irregular intervals, now in one place, 
 then in another, coming out suddenly in immense numbers, keep¬ 
 ing themselves huddled closely together like an army of soldiers, 
 traveling usually in a particular direction, and devastating the 
 fields of grain and grass through which they pass, and after a' 
 timo suddenly disappearing. 
 
 Wc have long been aware that this was a common insect in the 
 Southern States, appearing there in one place or another almost 
 every year. The public prints have repeatedly noticed the fact 
 
856 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 ARMY WORM. COMMON SOUTH. HARK WITH US. 
 
 of trains upon the railroads being stopped and detained by en¬ 
 countering a dense host of worms, covering the track sometimes 
 for a distance of two or three miles, and causing the wheels of 
 the locomotive to slip upon the rails as though they were oiled. 
 I have always supposed it was this army worm to which these 
 notices referred, there being no other worm known in our country 
 or in the world, that comes abroad, covering the ground in this 
 manner. 
 
 The Western States also have been visited by it, though more 
 rarely. In the northern part of Illinois, it appeared at numerous 
 points in 1842, again in 1845, and again three years ago. 
 
 Here at the north, in New York and- New England, a worm 
 having the same habits had been known to occur, though at very 
 long intervals, and from the little that was stated respecting it, 
 it seemed quite probable that the insect which we had here was 
 a different species from the army worm of the Southern and 
 Western States. So rarely has it made its appearance here that 
 we have been able to find its occurrence recorded in but four in¬ 
 stances since the country has been settled. 
 
 As the short accounts which we have of its appearance on 
 these different occasions, will be as interesting and instructive as 
 anything I can present on this subject, I may here repeat them. 
 
 The first instance in which we find its occurrence clearly indi¬ 
 cated, is in the year 1743, when it is merely stated, that “in 
 Massachusetts this year, there were millions of devouring worms 
 in armies, threatening to cut oft' every green thing.” (Flint’s 2d 
 Report, Agric. of Mass., p. 36). 
 
 Twenty-seven years afterwards, in 1770, was the most remark¬ 
 able period of its occurrence which we have ever had, previous 
 to the present year. In Noah Webster’s work on Pestilential 
 Diseases, (vol. i, p. 259), we find the following notice of it: 
 
 In 1770, a black worm about an inch and a half long, devoured 
 the grass and corn. Never was a more singular phenomenon. 
 These animals were generated suddenly in the Northern States 
 of America, and almost covered two or three hundred miles of 
 country. They all moved nearly in one direction, and when 
 they were intercepted by furrows in ploughed land, they fell into 
 them in such numbers as to form heaps. They sought shelter in 
 the grass, a hot sun being fatal to them. They disappeared sud¬ 
 denly about the close of June and beginning of July. 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 857 
 
 ARMY WORM. ITS ATPEARANCK IS 1770. 
 
 Bat the most full and interesting account which we have of its 
 appearance at this time, is that of the Rev. Grant Powers, in his 
 Historical Sketches of the Cods Country, the Northern part of 
 New Hampshire. He says : In the summer of 1770 an army of 
 worms extended from Lancaster, N. H., the shire town of Cods 
 Co., to Northfield, Mass., almost the whole length of the Granite 
 State. They began to appear the latter part of July, and con¬ 
 tinued their ravages until September. They were then called the 
 “ Northern Army,” as they seemed to advance from the North or 
 Northwest, to the South. It was not known that they passed 
 the highlands between the rivers Connecticut and Merrimack. 
 Dr. Burton, of Thetford, Vt., informed the author that he had 
 seen the pastures so covered with them, that he could not put 
 down his finger without touching a worm, remarking, that “ he 
 had seen more than ten bushels in a heap.” They were unlike 
 any thing that generation had ever seen. There was a stripe upon 
 the back like black velvet, and on each side a stripe of yellow 
 from end to end, and the rest of the body was brown. They 
 were seen not larger than a pin, but in maturity were as long as 
 a man’s linger and of proportionate thickness. They appeared 
 to be in great haste, except when they halted to feed. They 
 entered the houses of the people and came up into the kneading- 
 troughs, as did the frogs in Egypt. They went up the sides of 
 houses and over th*em in such compact columns that nothing of 
 the boards or shingles could be seen. Pumpkin-vines, peas, pota¬ 
 toes and flax escaped their ravages. But wheat and corn disap¬ 
 peared belbre them as by magic. Fields of corn in the Haverhill 
 and Newbury meadows, so thick that a man could hardly be seen 
 a rod distant, were in ten days entirely defoliated by the “ North¬ 
 ern Army.” Trenches were dug round fields a foot deep, as a 
 defence, but they were soon filled and the millions in the rear 
 passed on, and took possession of the interdicted feed. Another 
 expedient was resorted to : Trenches were cut, and then sticks 
 six inches in diameter were sharpened and used to make holes in 
 the bottom of the trenches within two or three feet of one ano¬ 
 ther to the depth of two or three feet in the bottom lands, and 
 when these holes were filled with worms, the stick was plunged 
 into the holes, thus destroving the vermin. In this way some 
 corn was saved. About the first of September the worms sud¬ 
 denly disappeared. Where or how they terminated their career 
 
858 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 ARMY WORM* ITS APPBARANCK IN 1790 AND 1817. 
 
 is unknown, for not the carcass of a worm was seen. Had it 
 not been for pumpkins, which were exceedingly abundant, and 
 potatoes, the people would have greatly suffered for food. As it 
 was, great privation was felt, on account of the loss of grass 
 and grain. 
 
 He adds, that in 1781, eleven years afterwards, the same kind 
 of worm appeared again, and the fears of the people were greatly 
 excited, but they were few in number. 
 
 Twenty years after this most noted time of its appearance, it 
 occurred again through the southern part of New England, as we 
 learn from Webster, who says : In 1790, millions of the black 
 worm noticed in 1770, reappeared in Connecticut, appearing at 
 Hartford and Norwich, and disappearing in these places at the 
 same time. They were very destructive to the grass and corn, 
 but their existence was short, all dying in a few weeks. (Web¬ 
 ster on Pestilence, i, 272.) 
 
 Again after an interval of twenty-seven years, it re-appeared 
 in 1817, as I find from an old file of the Albany Argus, which 
 gives the following item from Massachusetts : 
 
 1817. Worcester, May 22d. We learn that the black worm is 
 making great ravages on some farms in this totvn, and in many 
 other places in this part of the country. Their march is “ a dis¬ 
 played column,” and their progress is as distinctly marked as the 
 course of a fire which has overrun the herbage in a dry pasture. 
 Not a blade of grass is left standing in their rear. From the 
 appearance of the worm, it is supposed to be the same which 
 usually infests gardens and is commonly called the cut worm. 
 We are informed that about forty years ago the same kind of 
 worm made great destruction in ploughed land, among spring 
 grain, but particularly in fields of flax. (Albany Argus adds 
 to the above as follows :) This black worm is also destroying the 
 vegetation in the northern towns of Rensselaer and eastern sec¬ 
 tion of Saratoga. Many meadows and pastures have been ren¬ 
 dered by their depredations as barren as a heath. It appears to 
 be the same species of worm that has created so much alarm in 
 Worcester county, but we suspect it is different from the cut 
 worm, whose ravages appear to be confined to corn. 
 
 Since 1817, we have had no return of these worms, here at the 
 North, until this present year, an interval of forty-four years. 
 
 Its career this year, so far as it has been mado public, is briefly 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 859 
 
 ARMY WORM. ITS APPEARANCE II* 1801. 
 
 as follows: In April last, as wo were informed by the newspapers, 
 this worm began to appear in alarming numbers in Tennessee 
 and Kentucky, and towards the close of that month in the south¬ 
 ern parts of Illinois. And from that time onward till autumn, it 
 was occurring at one place and another in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, 
 Pennsylvania, and on the sea-coast and its vicinity, the whole 
 length of New England. Specimens of this worm and the moths 
 bred from it, have been sent me from Mr. S. L. Goodale, Secretary 
 of the State'Board of Agriculture of Maine, which were taken away 
 '! down east,” between the St. Croix and Penobscot rivers. A letter 
 from President Dawson, of McGill College, Montreal, also informs 
 me of its occurrence in the vicinity of that city. In the south¬ 
 eastern part of Massachusetts, the damage it has done, is report¬ 
 ed to exceed a half million of dollars. Here in our own State, 
 this worm has appeared in the vicinity of Buffalo, and at 
 several other points towards the western and southern line of the 
 State ; and also on numerous places on Long Island. The State 
 Agricultural Society has received through Col. E. C. Frost of 
 the Highland Nurseries, specimens of the worms from the town 
 of Dix near tho head of Seneca Lake, where they were discovered 
 August 12th, and of corn stalks and grass as ate by them. 
 
 The colonies or armies of these worms are usually discovered 
 when the worms are a third grown and about half an inch long. 
 A particular spot in a field of grass or grain is found to be 
 thronged by them, almost every stalk having one or more of 
 them on it, and those which aro notjeeding, are crawling rapidly 
 about, with- an impatient aspect, as though they were “in a great 
 hurry to get somewhere.” 
 
 They resemble the caterpillars which we see on our apple trees, 
 except that they are destitute of hairs. When particularly noticed 
 it is seen that they differ very much from each other in their 
 colors and stripes; but those which are recognized as being most 
 perfect are of a black color with a pale yellow stripo along each 
 side. Others are greenish or olive, with more numerous stripes 
 and lines. And the worms occur of all sizes, mixed together, as 
 they have hatched from the eggs eanlier or later, those which 
 are full grown being an inch and a half in length. 
 
 They avoid the rays of tho sun; hence during the day they 
 crawl under stones and sticks, as closely as they can crowd them¬ 
 selves together, and under swaths of grass or grain, or even into 
 
860 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 ARMY WORM. EATS GRASS AND GRAIN ONLY. ITS MARCH. 
 
 the ground, like the cut worm. They rest in such places during 
 the heat of the day, and come out towards sunset, to feed and 
 continue forward in their mighty march. If they come to a field 
 of grass or grain that is young and tender they devour the whole 
 of it, down to the very roots ; but if it is grown up to stalks, they 
 eat the leaves only, and then usually crawl to the top of the stalk 
 and cut oft' the head and drop it to the ground. In corn, too, they 
 eat off all the leaves except the coarse keel or mid vein. One 
 writer noticed a worm to eat a square inch of corn leaf in thirty 
 minutes. It is leaves which are green and.juicy that they eat; 
 the dry leaves of ripened grain they do not feed upon. 
 
 They appear to be excellent botanists, knowing perfectly well 
 what plants belong to the natural orders Graminia and Cyperacea , 
 including the different kinds of grain and grass; these they eat, 
 passing by everything else. When they are pressed with hunger, 
 however, and do not readily find any grass or grain, they some¬ 
 times eat other vegetation slightly, but evidently do not relish 
 it. Thus, they do not attack the vines of pumpkins, potatoes, 
 peas, beans, flax, clover, nor the leaves of apple trees or any 
 other trees or shrubs. 
 
 They all keep together like an army of soldiers, and usually 
 advance in a particular direction, in a straight line, not swerving 
 from their course to avoid hills, hollows, buildings or any other 
 obstacle. A stream of running water, even, does not cause them 
 to deflect from the line of their march. We learn from Solon 
 Robinson that, on coming to a brook they crowd into it, although 
 very few of them chance to be carried by its current to the oppo¬ 
 site side. Millions of them are drowned, their dead bodies clog¬ 
 ging and damming up the stream in places below, producing by 
 their decay a stench in the atmosphere of the whole vicinity 
 which is most noisome and intolerable. 
 
 In their march they travel faster at some times than others, 
 advancing at the rate of from two to six rods in an hour. Thus 
 instances have occurred in which an army of these worms, two 
 or three miles wide, have advanced six or seven miles, leaving the 
 track behind them as desolate as though fire had swept over it. 
 
 These worms continue to feed and travel for about three weeks 
 from the time they are first discovered, when they all disappear, 
 their work being finished. It was a perfect mystery to our grand¬ 
 fathers what became of them, as none of their dead carcases 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 861 
 
 ARMY WORM. ITS CHANGE TO A PUPA AND A MILLER. ITS NAME. 
 
 could be found anywhere about the spots where there had been 
 millions of them only a few days before. But now that more 
 knowledge with respect to insects and their habits has become 
 diffused in our country, we have had numerous persons this year 
 who have ferreted out their retreats, whereby it is at last well 
 ascertained what becomes of them. 
 
 When they have got their growth and finished feeding, the 
 worms crawl into the ground to the depth of about two inches, 
 and in two or three days change to pupae or chrysalides—that 
 is, their skin breaks open and out of it there comes a much harder 
 body, shaped somewhat like an egg, of a shining chestnut red 
 color. This lies dormant in the ground nearly three weeks, when 
 the outer shell-like covering cracks apart and a miller or moth 
 crawls out of it and comes up out of the ground, which is the 
 insect in its perfect state—the creature which lays the eggs to 
 produce another crop of these worms. 
 
 It probably, like other moths which are related to it, places 
 its eggs at the roots of grass. 
 
 Heretofore it had never been ascertained what insect this army 
 worm was. It had merely been conjectured in Massachusetts in 
 1817 that it was the common cut-worm of our gardens, and from 
 all the information we had respecting it, this seemed to be the 
 most plausible opinion that could be formed respecting it. Spe¬ 
 cimens of the moth were sent to me, from distant parts of the 
 country, first from different persons in Illinois, and soon after 
 from Massachusetts, very much as though I was referred to by 
 common consent to decide what this insect was. I ascertained 
 it to be a species which had been scientifically described in Eng¬ 
 land, fifty years ago, from a specimen which had been obtained 
 in this country, its technical name being Leucania unipuncta. It 
 therefore was not one of the cut-worm moths, as we had conjec¬ 
 tured it to be, but a grass moth. Of the genus Leucania to which 
 it belongs, we have over a dozen species in the State of New York, 
 several of them being quite common. They are those tarnished 
 white and cream colored millers which are so common in our 
 meadows and pastures, and which we frequently may see flitting 
 aside in great numbers when the scythe of the mower sweeps 
 away from them the grass in which they hide themselves. 
 
 This army worm 1 also find, is one and the same insect all over 
 our country. I have seen specimens of the moths bred from it 
 
862 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 army worm. supposed to reside in swamps. 
 
 last, year in Maryland, and this year in Illinois, in Pennsylvania, 
 in Massachusetts, and the eastern part of Maine. Thus, from 
 nearly one extremity of the free States to the other, we know 
 this army worm to be everywhere the same insect. 
 
 Such is the substance of what has been actually observed and 
 ascertained of this insect. And as it now stands before us, this 
 army worm is one of the most remarkable insects known, in this, 
 that it makes its appearance suddenly, in countless millions, where 
 no worms like it have been seen before; and after eating all the 
 grass and grain in its path for a few weeks, it totally disappears, 
 no worms of its kind being seen in the same place afterwards. 
 Thus it appears to come without any predecessors, or parents, 
 and to depart without leaving any descendants. It is thus the 
 compeer of that most dreaded of all insects, the migratory locust 
 of eastern countries, a swarm of which alights upon a particular 
 spot, eats up everything there, and then flies away and is seen no 
 more. But the locust has wings ; everybody sees how it is that 
 that appears and disappears as it does. But these army worms 
 can only walk. They all appear to be infantry, all foot soldiers. 
 How can it come to us, therefore, and again vanish, in the way it 
 does ? 
 
 This insect, I have no doubt, is a constant resident with us 
 here in the Northern States. Its natural abode, its ordinary 
 lurking place, I am confident, is in the wild grass of wet spots, 
 in swamps, and on the border of marshes, waste places which we 
 seldom visit in summer, and when there we notice nothing but 
 the swarms of musketos which assail and torment us, forcing us 
 to retreat from thence as speedily as possible. Hence it is, I, think, 
 that this army worm is never seen and is not known to be in our 
 land. And thus I am able to account for the fact that I have 
 never met with this insect. There being no marshes of any ex- 
 tent in the vicinity where I reside, I do not suppose it exists any¬ 
 where about me. 
 
 It probably occurs only in limited patches, in one place and 
 another, but will be very numerous in the spots where it exists. 
 It must be that our sportsmen, our hunters (as we complaisantly 
 term them—“ bird-murderers” they might better be called,) and 
 other persons whose pursuits lead them to the swamps and 
 marshes, have sometimes noticed spots there where the grass had 
 all been consumed by these army worms. 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 863 
 
 ARMY WORM. MOW MULTIPLIED AND SCATTERED ABROAD. 
 
 Now, what multiplies this insect, and occasionally sends it out 
 over the country, away from its accustomed haunts? 
 
 I think the weather of last year and this, being in such striking 
 contrast as the two seasons have been, gives us the clue by which 
 to solve this mystery. 
 
 Last year, the spring and summer till the middle of July, was 
 the driest in my own vicinity, that I ever knew. The famine 
 caused in . Kansas by the extreme and protracted drouth there, 
 is fresh in the recollection of every one; and throughout the 
 Southwestern States the crops were stated to be a third short 
 of their usual average, from the same cause. 1 suppose over the 
 country generally the season partook of this character. Hereby, 
 the swamps being made dry and the marshes unusually low, this 
 insect had an unlimited extent of feeding range, and thus became 
 greatly multiplied. 
 
 The spring and early summer of this year was exactly the 
 reverse of last year — unusually wet, and the water high in all 
 our streams. Hereby the swamps have all been overflowed, and 
 this insect has been drowned out of them. The moths or millers 
 on coming out of their chrysalides, found it was impossible for 
 them to get to the roots of the grass there, to deposit their eggs. 
 They were obliged to forsake their usual haunts and scatter 
 themselves out over the country, the incessant rains making it 
 sufficiently wet everywhere to suit their semi-aquatic habits. 
 Thus going forth in companies, they alighted in particular spots, 
 and there dropped their eggs; and the result is sufficiently well 
 known. 
 
 More briefly expressed my view is this — a dry season and dry 
 swamps multiplies this insect. And when it is thus multiplied, a 
 wet season and overflowed swamps drives it out from its lurking 
 place, in flocks, alighting here and there over the country. But 
 on being thus rusticated, it finds our arable lands too dry for it; 
 and immediately on maturing and getting its wings again, it flies 
 back to the swamps, 'whereby it happens that we see no more of it. 
 
 Such is the most plausible opinion I am able to form, after the 
 little thought I have had time to give to this subject. Very pro- 
 bably, hereafter, when the facts becomo more fully observed, 
 some modifications of what I have now stated, may be required ; 
 but that the view 1 have expressed will be found to be substan¬ 
 tially correct, I am well persuaded. 
 
864 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 Altur WORM. RECLAIMING 8WAMPT LANDS EXI>BI.S IT. 
 
 This enables us to account for a remarkable fact, namely, the 
 difference in the localities where this army worm has appeared 
 this year, as compared with its appearance so extensively in 
 1770. Then it attracted more notice along the valley of the 
 Connecticut river than anywhere else in New England. This year 
 we have seen no notice of its occurrence anywhere along the 
 Connecticut river, whilst in the vicinity of the sea coast it has 
 made its appearance from one extremity of New England to the 
 other. Why has it not come out along the Connecticut river this 
 year the same that it did ninety years ago? I doubt not it is 
 because the swamps which originally occupied so much of the low 
 lands adjacent to this river have now been so thoroughly ditched 
 and drained and converted into dry meadow lands, that the 
 former lurking places of this insect there are now all broken up. 
 And thus the chief places of resort now remaining to it in New 
 England, are the extensive marshes along the sea-coast which it 
 is nearly or quite impossible to reclaim. 
 
 1 have now finished all I supposed I should have to say on this 
 subject. But at the moment of leaving it another thought occurs 
 to me, so strongly confirming the view I have taken, that I can 
 not but present it. 
 
 Our last previous visit of this army worm was in 1817, the 
 year following the remarkably cold and dry summer of 1816. 
 Thus the swamps were dry then, just as they were last year, for 
 this insect to multiply. Whether the fore part of 1817 was wet 
 and rainy I know not, though very probably memoranda are in 
 existence, stating the fact, if it was so. 
 
 On the theory I have stated, also, the summers of 1769 and- 
 1789 should have been very dry, and the forepart of the follow¬ 
 ing years wet, to occasion the previous visits we have had of this 
 army worm. Were these years of this character? The only 
 work in my library, which I think of, that will be apt to give any 
 information on this subject is, that to which reference has already 
 been made, Webster on Pestilential Diseases. On referring to it, 
 
 I find it stated that the summer of 1769 was very hot. The heat 
 and drouth of this year cut short the rice crops in India, causing 
 a famine there. And then we are told, the two next years were 
 distinguished by the most terrible storms,- rains and inundations, 
 accounts of which fill the newspapers of those years. Then again, 
 of the next period when this worm appeared, we are informed 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 865 
 
 ARMY WORM. HOW TO PREVENT ITS VISITS. 
 
 that in the spring of 1789, the Northern States experienced a 
 dearth approaching to famine. Vegetation was tardy, beyond 
 what could be recollected by the oldest persons living. Part of 
 the succeeding summer was excessively hot. And finally, we are 
 told that the spring and summer of 1790 were “mostly rainy.” 
 Really, when I opened the book from which I hav.e been quoting, 
 
 I little expected to find in it evidence so strongly sustaining my 
 hastily formed views. 
 
 Now that I become more confident that I have correctly pene¬ 
 trated the circumstances which bring the.army worm upon us, I 
 feer that I may venture further and indicate the manner in which 
 I think we are to subdue this insect, and avert the terrible calam¬ 
 ity of a visit from it in our cultivated fields. It seems as though 
 nature had ordained that this most destructive creature should 
 keep huddled together in flocks, purposely to enable man to des¬ 
 troy it, as he could not do if it lived singly and more widely 
 scattered about. 
 
 Whenever an unusually dry summer occurs, we should not 
 allow an extensive swampy tract in our vicinity to go unexam¬ 
 ined. If a colony of these army worms is found there, it may be 
 the merest trifle to smother and destroy them by setting fire to 
 the dry moss and turf under them. But if danger.to fences, to 
 trees, or aught else of value, renders this measure inexpedient, 
 ascertain where the worms bury themselves after they have done 
 feeding, and surround the spot with a temporary fence, and 
 inclose swine therein. If the chrysalids lie as thickly in the 
 ground as I suppose them to, an acre of them will be of more 
 value to the lucky finder, as food for his swine, than an acre of 
 potatoes. Thus nature would appear to have offered a bounty to 
 us, to induce us to search out and break up the colonies of these 
 insects in their accustomed haunts, and thus prevent them from 
 becoming so multiplied as t'o take flight and alight upon our grain 
 fields, if a wet season should happen to follow the dry one. 
 
 As I stated when first announcing the name of this insect in 
 the Country Gentleman of July 25th (vol. xviii, p. 66,) a short 
 sketch of the history of this species, as it appears in our works 
 of science, will interest the reader. Long ago a preserved speci¬ 
 men of the moth of ofir army worm found its way into the then 
 celebrated collection of Mr. Francillon in London. Upon the 
 
 [A®. Trans.] SS 
 
866 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 ARMY WORM. ITS BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 breaking up and sale of that collection, this specimen passed into 
 the possession of Mr. Haworth, who, not doubting but that it 
 had been captured in England, described it very briefly, in the 
 year 1810, in his Lepidoptera Brittanica, page 174, naming it 
 Noctua unipuncta or the White Speck, by which name it has ever 
 since been referred to by English authors and collectors, save 
 that a new generic name, Leucania, replaces that of Noctua. It 
 appears to have been through inadvertency that Mr. Stephens 
 changed this name to impuncta , when he came to describe the 
 species in 1829, in his British Entomology, Hauatellata, vol. iii, 
 p. 80. Later, in 1850, he refers to it under its original name, in 
 the List of Lepidoptera in the British Museum, p. 289, it having 
 now been ascertained that it was a North American and not a 
 British insect. 
 
 Guen£e appears to have overlooked this species of the English 
 authors. In his valuable work on the Lepidoptera (vol. v, p. 77— 
 Paris, 1852,) he regards it as a new species, naming it Leucania 
 extranea. From him we learn that there are specimens of it in 
 several of the Paris collections, whereby they know it to he a 
 common insect in North America, Columbia and Brazil. He also 
 states that a variety of it which is destitute of the white dot on 
 the fore-wings, occurs in the East Indies, Java and Australia. I 
 cannot but tliink, however, that this East India insect should be 
 ranked as a distinct species from ours, as it differs in such a 
 prominent character, and is so widely separated from it geogra¬ 
 phically. 
 
 An acknowledgment is due to the persons who furnished me 
 with such materials as enabled me to ascertain the name of this 
 species. Specimens of the moths bred from the army worm, were 
 sent me last year from Hr. E. Jenkins, of Easton, Talbot Co., Mary¬ 
 land, and the present year first from Dr. J. Bartlett of Pesotum, 
 Champaign Co., Illinois; but in both instances, they came to hand 
 in such a broken and soiled state that I could not confide in them 
 as showing the true colors and markings of this moth. From 
 these imperfect examples, however, I was able to obtain such 
 characters as served to identify them with other very perfect 
 specimens which had been received a few years since from Prof. 
 D. S. Sheldon of Iowa College, and which had been already 
 named in my collection. From them the following description of 
 . the moth was also drawn. 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 867 
 
 ARMY WORM. THE MOTH DESCRIBED. 
 
 It is very plain and unadorned in its appearance. The eye, on first glancing at it, only 
 recognizes it as an ordinary looking moth of a tarnished, yellowish drab color, inclining to 
 russet, with a small white dot near the centre of its fore wings, and a dusky oblique streak 
 at their tips. On coming to look at it more particularly, we find it to be rather less than an 
 inch long to the end of its closed wings, or if these are extended, it is about an inch and three- 
 quarters in width, different specimens varying somewhat in their size. Its fore wings are 
 sprinkled with blackish atoms, and a short distance forward of their hind edge they are crossed 
 by a row of black dots, one on each of the veins. Outside of the middle of the wing this row 
 of dots suddenly ourves forward, and from this curve a dusky streak*runs to the tip of the 
 wing, the ground color being more pale and clearer yellow along the outer side of this streak. 
 Though the moths of some other genera usually have a similar streak, this is the only species 
 of this genus in which this mark ocours, and hence M. Guen£e names this species extranea> i. 
 o., extraneous, foreign, different, as though it did not belong here. And Mr. Stephens 
 doubts whether it correctly pertains to this genus. But a character that will appear to com¬ 
 mon persons as more conspicuous and important, is that from which Mr. Haworth names this 
 species. Nearly in the centre of the wing is a milk-white dot, placed upon the mid-vein* 
 This dot is surrounded more or less by a dusky cloud, and this duskiness is frequently extend¬ 
 ed forward upon the mid-vein to its base, forming a faint darker streak along the middle of 
 the wiDg. Contiguous to this dot on its outer side, may be discerned a roundish spot of a 
 slightly paler yellow color than the ground, and a very short distance forward of this is a 
 similar spot, but smaller, both these spots often showing a more tarnished centre. On th© 
 hind part of the wing the veins are marked by slender whitish lines, and betVeen their tips 
 on the hind edge of the wing is a row of minute black dots. 
 
 The hind wings are smoky brown, with a purplish gloss, and are nearly transparent, with 
 the veins blackish. The fringe of both pairs of wings is pale yellowish, with a dusky band on 
 the middle. 
 
 On tho under side the wings are much more glossy and paler, opalescent whitish inwardly, 
 and smoky gray towards their outer and hind sides, where they are also freckled with blackish 
 atoms. The smoky color on tho hind wings has, on its anterior edge, a row of short, blackish 
 lines, one placed on each of the veins, and in line with them on the fore wings is a faint dusky 
 band, becoming more distinct towards its outer end, or somotimes only represented by a dusky 
 dot on the outer margin forward of the tip. The veins aro whitish, and also the hind edge, 
 on which is a row of black dots placed between the tips of tho veins. The hind wings have 
 also a blackish crescent-shaped spot a little forward of their centre. 
 
 The abdomen or hind body is smoky gray above, and on its under side ash grey, freckled 
 with black scales, and usually showing a row of black dots along each side. 
 
 Though* these moths are subject to some variety, whoever has 
 one of them in his hands will find it to coincide so exactly with 
 most of the particulars stated in the above description, that he 
 will be fully assured it is this insect. 
 
 In concluding the present account of this insect I have only to 
 add further, that one of the parasite destroyers of the army 
 worm was obtained from chrysalids received from Sanford How¬ 
 ard, Esq., of the Boston Cultivator , in which periodical a notice 
 of it was given, August 31st, (vol. xxiii, p. 2*16.) This parasite 
 resembles a small wasp, nearly half an inch long, of a bright 
 rust-red color, its wings smoky, its breast black, and also the 
 middle of its back, where is a small bright sulphur-yellow spot, 
 which is the scutel. The antennas or horns have a milk-white 
 band on their middle, below which band they are rust-red and 
 
868 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK STATE SOCIETY. 
 
 ARMY WORM. ITS PARASITES. 
 
 above it black. There are two narrow bands also on the back of 
 the abdomen or hind body, placed on the sutures or joints, and 
 the slender stalk or petiocle of the abdomen is likewise black. 
 
 This insect may very probably be a mere variety of a common 
 and quite variable species, the Ichneumon suturalis or Black- 
 jointed ichneumon-fly, described by Mr. Say in the Boston Journal 
 of Natural History, vol. i. p. 226. It however has a bright sul¬ 
 phur-yellow dot on each of the hind corners of the first segment 
 of the abdomen, which dots do not occur in any of the several 
 specimens which I at present have of the suturalis and of a spe¬ 
 cies allied to and perhaps not distinct from it, the Ichneumon fer- 
 rugator (or rust-colored ichneumon-fly) of Swederus. For the 
 present, therefore, I am inclined to rank this as a distinct species, 
 and accordingly ticket it in my collection, Ichneumon Leucanice, 
 or the Army worm’s parasite, distinguishing the three insects 
 which I have now alluded to as follows:— 
 
 I. ferrugator, rust-colored throughout, with only the ends of 
 the antennas black. 
 
 I. suturalis, the body (thorax) rust-color, marked with black 
 on its sutures. 
 
 I. leucani.*:, the body black with only the base and apex on 
 the upper side dark rust-color; and other characters as above 
 stated. 
 
 [Note. —In consequence of the delay which has attended the 
 procuring of the illustrations of the foregoing Report, and the 
 consequent issue of the volume in which it appears, much impor¬ 
 tant matter has been added to it from recent observations; to 
 make room for which it has been found necessary to withdraw 
 some of the topics originally prepared for it, including an account 
 of the Virginia joint worm, the fly of which is represented, plate 
 i, fig. 1, the Angoumois moth, figs. 2 and 3 of the same plate, and 
 the Hessian fly, for illustrating which plate iii has been prepared. 
 These insects being of less interest at the present moment than 
 those which here replace them, will be embraced in the next 
 Report in the succeeding volume.] 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 

 
 ' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 » 
 
 
 
 .. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
SEVENTH REPORT 
 
 ON THE 
 
 NOXIOUS AND OTHER INSECTS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 STATE OF NEW YORK. 
 
 By ASA FITCH, M. D., 
 
 ENTOMOLOGIST OF THE NEW YORK STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 INSECTS INFESTING GRAIN CROPS 
 
 (continued.) 
 
 C. Angoumois moth, Butalis cercalella, Olivier. (Lepidoptera. Tineidai.) 
 
 Plate 1, fig. 2. 
 
 In the bins of granaries and storehouses, in particular kernels of the grain, a smooth white 
 worm whioh consumes all the flour inside of the kernel without injuring the external shell; 
 passing its pupa state in the kernel, and coming abroad in May and again in November; a 
 tawny dull yellowish gray moth having its fore wings oommonly sprinkled with a few black 
 dots, its width half an inoh across its spread wings. 
 
 This insect, one of the most destructive to wheat, barley, oats 
 and Indian corn, in France, was long ago introduced into the 
 southern United States, where it has become fully naturalized. 
 From thence it is frequently brought into New York in cargoes 
 of grain, but our climate appears to be too cold for it here to 
 thrive and establish itself. 
 
 In the museum of the State Agricultural Society, this moth 
 made its appearance ten years ago, in the specimens of wheat 
 preserved in glass bottles, multiplying itself in every bottle in 
 which it occurred, until the contents were ruined. As these 
 bottles were usually well stopped with cork and some of them 
 also sealed with wax, it was a mystery how this insect gained 
 an entrance to one after another of them, as it appeared to. 
 
 The description of this moth in its different states which I 
 here present, was drawn up from the examinations made at that 
 Dme. The account which I give of its habits and economy and 
 
814 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 ANGOUMOIS MOTH. INTRODUCED HERE PROM EUROPE. ITS HABITS. 
 
 the measures for destroying it, is compiled from Reaumur, Curtis, 
 and other writers. 
 
 The female moth lays 20 or 30 eggs in a cluster upon a single 
 kernel of grain, and this operation is performed in the field be¬ 
 fore the grain is fully ripened, as well as in the bins of the 
 granary. The eggs are of a bright orange red color, and are 
 placed in a line or in little oblong masses in the longitudinal 
 channel upon one side of the kernel. The worms hatch in a 
 week after the eggs are laid, or sometimes, if the weather be 
 moist and warm, in four days. When they come from the eggs 
 they are very minute, being scarcely as thick as a hair. The 
 first worm which hatches penetrates into the kernel on which the 
 cluster is placed, entering it in a little spot between the beard 
 and the appendage of the sheath, this being the point where the 
 kernel is most tender. The hole it bores is so minute as to be 
 imperceptible to the eye. This first born worm having taken 
 possession of this kernel, its younger brothers and sisters, as 
 they come out of the shell, are obliged to wander off' to seek 
 other grains; and when they find them unoccupied, they pierce 
 and enter them in the same way, so that each kernel of the grain 
 contains but one occupant; and this kernel is sufficient to sup¬ 
 port the larva until it arrives at maturity, when it changes to a 
 pupa within the grain, having entirely consumed the farina, 
 although to the eye the grain appears sound and uninjured. If, 
 however, it be taken between the fingers and gently pressed, it 
 is found to be soft; and from the feeling, an experienced person 
 can discover whether the kernel contains a young larva, in the 
 early part of its operations, or a pupa, that has consumed the 
 whole of the flour inside of the grain. By washing the grain, 
 also, that which is injured is readily detected, by its floating on 
 the surface of the water. 
 
 A grain of wheat or of barley contains the exact quantity of 
 food that is necessary to nourish and support this worm from its 
 birth until its transformation to a pupa. If a grain containing 
 a worm bo opened when the insect is near its change, one sees 
 there is nothing more than the skin remaining, all the farinaceous 
 substance within having been eaten. The cavity contains, in 
 addition to the larva, some little brown or yellow grains, which 
 are its excrement. And as these grains are found to be fewer in 
 number and less in bulk with the old than with the young worms, 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 815 
 
 ANGOUMOIS MOTH. LARVA DESCRIBED. 
 
 it is supposed they eat these castings ouce or twice, as there is 
 no aperture by which they can be thrust out of the cavity. 
 
 Having consumed all the flour in the grain, and completed its 
 growth, the larva spins a white silken cocoon, which lines one 
 end ol the cavity within the grain, the other end being occupied 
 with the castings of the worm, a partition dividing the cavity 
 into two apartments. The moth makes its escape through a 
 little round hole in the side of the grain, which the worm cuts 
 with its jaws before it spins its cocoon, without, however, disT 
 placing the stopper of this orifice. 
 
 There are two generations of this insect annually, the moth 
 coming abroad in the spring and again in the autumn. Olivier 
 says: “ One thing worthy of remark is that the moths which 
 hatch in the month of May from the grains shut up in the grana¬ 
 ries, hasten to get out by the windows and to gain the fields, 
 instead of which, those that come forth immediately after the 
 harvest make no attempt to escape. It seems that their instinct 
 informs them that they will then find no more provision in the 
 fields for the support of their posterity.” 
 
 As doubts are entertained by some writers, on the identity of 
 our American moth with that of Europe, I here present such a 
 detailed and carefully drawn description of our insect in its 
 larva and its perfect state, as will enable foreign observers, I 
 trust, to definitely settle this point. This description, it will be 
 understood, is taken from specimens which made their appear¬ 
 ance in the Agricultural Rooms at Albany, as already stated, 
 this being the only instance in which this insect has fallen under 
 my observation. 
 
 I he larva, to the naked eye, appears to be a little oblong 
 maggot, with a wrinkled skin, and of a white color throughout, 
 except its mouth, which is blackish. It makes no effort to move 
 or to crawl away, but lies commonly upon its side with its body 
 bent into the shape of a crescent. When examined with the aid 
 of a magnifying glass, it is found to be a soft, fleshy grub, cylim 
 drical or rather broader anteriorly, and composed of thirteen 
 segments. These are opako and without lustre, except the first 
 segment or head, which is smooth and slightly polished. A few 
 fine hairs are scattered over the surface. Beneath, three pairs 
 ol legs are detected, occupying the three segments next succeed- 
 
816 
 
 ANNUAL REPOET OF NEW YORK 
 
 ANGOUMOIS MOTH. HOW IT EXTRACTS ITSELF FROM THE GRAIN. 
 
 ing the head. They are minute projecting processes, shaped like 
 the point of a pin. When highly magnified, they are found to 
 be smooth, pellucid, composed of three joints, and terminated 
 by a pair of exceedingly minute hooks. Following these are 
 four pairs of prolegs, placed on the seventh and the three suc¬ 
 ceeding segments, and a fifth pair on the apical segment. Ihese 
 prolegs are so little developed that they can scarcely be detected. 
 When viewed laterally, the segments bearing them are seen to 
 be more gibbous, or swelled out, where these legs are situated, 
 than are the other segments. Upon the back there is a more or 
 less obvious darker colored line along the middle, at least on the 
 posterior segments, caused by the dorsal vessel showing itself 
 through the semitransparent skin. On each side of the second 
 segment is a round impressed point. It is thrice as long as 
 broad, and measures 0.15 in length. 
 
 The following observations on the manner in which the moth 
 extricates itself from the grain, (see plate 1, fig. 3,) and its ap¬ 
 pearance and motions when it is abroad in its perfect state, are 
 of sufficient interest to be here inserted. 
 
 Two bottles containing infested wheat gave out a number of 
 the moths, the one on the 5th of March, the other a month later. 
 In both instances it was observed that the hatching occurred 
 the day before the access of stormy weather, indicating that, 
 though inclosed in bottles in a stove-warmed room, these insects 
 felt the change that was taking place in the atmosphere out 
 doors. 
 
 The smoot h round hole which the larva cuts through the shell 
 of the grain, is barely of sufficient size to enable the moth to 
 crowd itself out of it with much labor. The head and fore body 
 is first protruded, followed by the fore legs. Then the hind body, 
 being soft and flexible, is extricated by a series of writhing mo¬ 
 tions, the fore legs serving to assist very much in this part of 
 the operation, by bracing and crowding the body over, first to 
 one side and then to the other, and finally drawing it forward 
 sufficiently to enable the tip to become extricated. The antennae 
 are next withdrawn, and the insect now remains attached by its 
 wings and hind legs, which are still inclosed within the orifice. 
 It is only after a protracted and laborious series of efforts and 
 writhings that these members are extracted, little by little, the 
 fore logs and the hind body serving as props by which to elevate , 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 817 
 
 ANGOUMOIS MOTH. APPEARANCE OF THE MOTH IN MOTION AND IN REPOSE. 
 
 and put them on the stretch, repeatedly, till they at length are 
 wholly free. Intervals of repose and periods of exertion alter¬ 
 nately occur during the whole of this process. And by its strug¬ 
 gles many of the scales with which it is clothed are rubbed off 
 and remain adhering to the surrounding kernels of grain. 
 
 The moth is a good pedestrian, walking with vivacity over the 
 surface of the grain. It, however, usually moves with a skip, and 
 commonly spreading its wings as it makes a leap, it flies a short 
 distance, a foot or a yard it may be, alighting in the most shaded 
 nook or corner within its reach. But, if it so desires, it readily 
 makes a continuous flight from one side to the other of a spacious 
 room, alighting upon the middle of the wall. One of my speci¬ 
 mens chanced to alight in a tea cup of fine dry sand, in which I 
 was keeping the larva of a lion-ant. This larva having recently 
 been well fed, had now demolished its funnel-shaped burrow, and, 
 as is its custom at such times, had exercised itself in plowing 
 the surface of the sand into little irregular furrows. The loose 
 sand afforded the moth no foothold sufficiently firm to enable it 
 to make a leap and take wing, nor could it cling to the smooth 
 sides of the cup sufficiently well to crawl up them to make its 
 escape — although when unembarrassed and moving slowly and 
 deliberately it is able to ascend the sides of glass vessels. It 
 therefore walked.hurriedly about, on the surface of the sand, 
 sometimes passing directly over the. partially exposed head of 
 the lion-ant. But though the latter, at such times, instinctively 
 essayed to grasp it in its formidable forceps, the steps of the 
 moth were so agile that it readily glided out of the jaws of its 
 wily neighbor. 
 
 When at rest, the wings are closed over the back, forming a 
 rounded roof, nearly horizontal above and descending upon each 
 side. Towards the apex of the closed wings the fringe of the 
 right fore wing is protruded and overlaps the inner edge of the 
 left wing, the same as in others of these small moths. The op¬ 
 posite sides ol the insect, when its wings are thus closed, are 
 parallel, and abruptly narrowed at the shoulders, with the head 
 jutting out like a narrow protuberance in front. The fore legs, 
 ln re P 08e > are stretched forward from the outer part of each 
 shoulder, parallel with each other and usually in a line with the 
 sides of the body, reaching forward thrice the length of the 
 ead. 1 he antennas are turned backwards, above the fore legs 
 
 [Ac. Trans.] 52 
 
818 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 ANGOUMOIS MOTH. MOTH DESCRIBED. REMEDIES. 
 
 and are laid upon the outer part ol the base of the fore wings, 
 reaching less than half the length of the insect. 
 
 The moth is about 0.30 long, to the tip of its abdomen, nnd 0.40 to tho end of its wings. 
 Its width across the spread wings is 0.60 to 0.70. Tho head is smooth, being covered with 
 short appressed scales, those surrounding the eyes being longer and radiating. The palpi aro 
 long, ourving upward and backward over the head like horns, their tips reaching back to a 
 line’with the neok. The basal joint is clothed on its under side with long bristle-like scales. 
 The spiral tongue when uncoiled is about equal to the palpi in length. The antenme are 
 about two-thirds tho length of the body and arc slightly tapering towards their tips. 
 
 The general color of this moth is a uniform dull yellowish brown or brownish huff, tho huo 
 olosely resembling that of coffee-and-milk; sometimes it is of a darker shade with only the 
 head and body of this pale color. It has a satin-like gloss, which is stronger on tho under 
 side, where tho color is paler than above. Tho palpi are black on their bases, forming a 
 conspicuous spot of this color slightly below tho eye; and near their tips is a black band, 
 which is broader on the inner or undor side. Tho apex of each joint of tho antenme is also 
 black on the upper side, forming a slender transverse line half encircling those organs. Tho 
 fore legs also are black, the exterior side of their thighs and hips being tawny white. The 
 middle pair of feet nre also blackish above. Tho upper wings are freckled with black scales 
 at the tip and along the middle part of the plait which runs from tho base of the wing 
 obliquely to the inner margin, these latter scales often appearing like a short black stripe. 
 Often there are also black scales sprinkled on tho disk and on tho inner margin towards its 
 tip, and a small black streak on tho angle of tho inner margin near the base. Tho fringe of 
 the upper wings is sometimes of a paler gray shade than tho ground, ornamented towards 
 the base with a pale brown band in which some black atoms frequently appear; nt other 
 times the wholo fringe is of the same brown color with- the lower wings. The under side of 
 the upper wings and both surfaces of tho lower ones aro of a blackish gray or leaden color. 
 
 A parasitic fly is mentioned by Reaumur, which sometimes 
 hatches from the grains containing the larva or pupa ot the 
 Angoumois moth. Twenty of these flies have been known to 
 come from a single grain. 
 
 Of the various attempts that have been made to prevent 01 
 diminish the ravages of this moth, in Europe, it appears that 
 the most effective method is to subject the infested grain to the 
 heat of an oven or a very warm room. We do not know that it 
 is ascertained exactly what degree of heat the grain can enduio 
 without losing its germinating powers. It has been proved that 
 it may be heated to about 11)0° of Fahrenheit’s scale without 
 losing those powers. Rut it is not so much the intensity of the 
 heat applied, as the length of its continuance, that kills the 
 larvse and pup® in the grain. Thus, from 45° to 50 u Reaumm » 
 scale, continued 24 or 36 hours, has more effect than 16° to 96° 
 for one hour. 
 
 The chief difficulty is, to maintain an equal temperature 
 throughout the operation, and to meet this, in France, machines 
 called Insect mills have been invented. One of the most simple 
 of these, that of M. Marcellin Cadet de Yaux, is a large iron 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 819 
 
 ANGOUMOIS MOTH. REMEDIES. HESSIAN FLY. ITS HISTORY. 
 
 cylinder, analogous to a common utensil there in use for roasting 
 coffee. Into this the infested grain is put, and the instrument is 
 placed over a fire and revolved, heating the grain to a tempera¬ 
 ture of 57° to G0° Reaumur. Experiments made by a committee 
 of the Agricultural Society of Cher in France, showed that -with 
 this machine all the insects in the grain were killed and dried in 
 50 minutes time, and at an expense of less than a farthing per 
 bushel; and the grain thus dried is never afterwards attacked 
 by these insects, even though it be mixed with other infested 
 grain. 
 
 Dr. Herpin, who has made this insect a special study, thinks 
 that simple friction and agitation of the grain will suffice to kill 
 the worms within it. He remarks, “I think I have made a dis¬ 
 covery of a very easy and very economical process for destroying 
 the Alucita (Butalis cereulellu) in its different states. It is by 
 means of an Agitator or shaking-machine, furnished with little 
 wooden or iron wings, and propelled with very great velocity 
 (making GOO revolutions a minute). The shakings and concus¬ 
 sions which the grain receives in passing in this machine are so 
 quick and so multiplied, that the eggs are broken or detached 
 from the grain, and the insect is mauled and killed even in the 
 interior of the grain where it is enclosed. I had previously 
 observed that some grain containing living larva? of the Alucita, 
 shaken briskly by the hand in a glass bottle for an hour, has pro¬ 
 duced only a small number of moths, compared with those which 
 came out of the same grain which had not been submitted to this 
 agitation.’-’ 
 
 7. Hessian fly, Cecidomyia destructor , Say. (Diptera Tipulidm.) 
 
 Plate 3, fig. 2, the male; fig. 3, the female. 
 
 Small white maggots lying at the crown of the roots of young wheat plants, causing them 
 o turn yellow and die; and also at the lower joints of the straw causing it to break and lop 
 own; these maggots hardening and turning brown and thon resembling flax seeds, from 
 which como black flics or midges 0.15 long with smoky wings. 
 
 dhis is a European insect and has been detected in Germany, 
 I lance and Italy, where it has at times committed severe depre¬ 
 dations upon the wheat crops. Written accounts which appear 
 to refer to it date so far back as the year 1732. It was brought 
 to this country, probably in some straw used in package, by the 
 Hessian soldiers who landed on Staten and the west end of Long 
 Island, August 1776, but did not become so multiplied as to 
 
820 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 HESSIAN FLY. ITS TRANSFORMATIONS. 
 
 attract general notice in that neighborhood, until 1779. Prom 
 thence as a central point, it gradually extended over the country 
 in all directions, advancing at the rate of from ten to twenty 
 miles a year. Most of the wheat fields were wholly destroyed by 
 it within a year or two of its first arrival at a given place, and 
 its depredations commonly continued for several years, when 
 they would nearly or quite cease— its parasitic insect enemies 
 probably increasing to such an extent as to almost exterminate 
 it. It is occasionally reappearing in excessive numbers in one 
 part and another of our country. We hear of it at the present 
 time as verv destructive in Illinois and some of the contiguous 
 States, the crop in many wheat fields being totally ruined by it. 
 
 This insect, as a general rule, passes through two generations 
 annually. The first of these occupies the autumn, winter and 
 fore part of spring, and is reared at the roots of the young grain, 
 slightly under the surface of the ground. The second occupies 
 the remainder of the spring and the summer, and is nurtured in 
 the lower joints of the straw. The time when its several changes 
 occur, however, is not perfectly uniform, being varied by the 
 climate, the state of the weather, and perhaps other contingen¬ 
 cies ; and it is not improbable that individual specimens, placed 
 in circumstances unfavorable to their development, in some 
 instances have their growth so much retarded as to require even 
 a whole year to complete their metamorphoses. 
 
 In the ordinary course of nature, therefore, our crops of win¬ 
 ter wheat are liable to two attacks of the Hessian fly, one gen¬ 
 eration reared at its roots producing another which occupies the 
 lower joints of the stalks. Thus the larvae and pupae are present 
 in it almost continually, from the time the tender young blades 
 appear above the ground in autumn till the grain ripens and is 
 harvested the next summer. Our spring wheat, on the other 
 hand, can rear but one brood of these insects ; they consequently 
 resort to it but little if at all. Nor can the Hessian fly sustain 
 itself, except in districts where winter wheat is cultivated, in 
 which for it to nestle during the autumn and winter. 
 
 The eggs of the first generation, or that which is nurtured in 
 the young wheat, are deposited for the most part early in Sep¬ 
 tember. Dr. Chapman says the deposit is made from the latter 
 end of August till the twentieth of September, and most other 
 writers coincide with this, though some of them extend the time 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 821 
 
 ITESSIAN FLY. EGGS. 
 
 into October. On the 8th of October the fly was seen oviposit¬ 
 ing in Eastern Pennsylvania, and it had wholly disappeared three 
 days afterwards, (American Farmer, ii, 180.) The deposit is 
 doubtless made later, to the south of us, than it is here in New 
 York. 
 
 The description which Mr. Tilghman gives, (Cultivator viii, 
 82,) of his observations of the female when depositing her eggs, 
 is so interesting that it merits to be presented in his own words. 
 He says, ‘‘ By the second week of October, the first sown wheat 
 being well up and having generally put forth its second and third 
 blades, I resorted to my field to endeavor to satisfy myself by 
 ocular demonstration, if I could do so, whether the fly did deposit 
 the egg on the blades of the growing plant. Selecting what I 
 deemed to be a favorable spot to make my observation, I placed 
 myself in position, by reclining in a furrow between two wheat 
 lands. It was a fine, warm, calm forenoon; and I had been on 
 the watch but a minute or two, before I discovered a number of 
 small black flies alighting and settling on the wheat plants around 
 me; and so strong seemed to be their predilection for the wheat, 
 that I did not observe a single fly to settle on any grass, or any¬ 
 thing within my view, but the wheat. I could distinctly see 
 their bodies in motion when settled on the leaves or blades of 
 the wheat, and presently one alighted and settled on the ridged 
 surface of a blade completely within my reach and distinct ob¬ 
 servation. She immediately commenced disburthening her appa¬ 
 rently well stored abdomen, by depositing her eggs in the longi¬ 
 tudinal cavity between the little ridges of the blade. I could 
 distinctly see the eggs ejected from a kind of tube or sting, or 
 by the elongation of the body; the action of the insect in mak¬ 
 ing the deposit being similar to that of the wasp in stinging. 
 After she had deposited, as I supposed, some eight or ton eggs, 
 I easily caught her, upon the blade, between my finger and 
 thumb. * * * * After that, I continued my observations 
 
 on the flies, caught several similarly occupied, and could see the 
 eggs uniformly placed in the longitudinal cavities of the blades 
 of the wheat; their appearance being that of minute reddish 
 specks.” 
 
 We obtain from Mr. Herrick’s account some valuable addi¬ 
 tional information upon this same subject, with a very exact 
 description of the eggs, as follows. “ The eggs are laid in the 
 
822 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 HESSIAN PLY. LARVA. 
 
 long creases or furrows of the upper surface of the leaves of the 
 young wheat plant. While depositing her eggs, the insect stands 
 with her head towards the point or extremity of the leaf, and at 
 various distances between the point and where the leaf joins and 
 surrounds the stalk. The number found on a single leaf, varies 
 from a single egg up to thirty, or even more. The egg is about 
 a fiftieth of an inch long, cylindrical, rounded at the ends, glossy 
 and translucent, of a pale red color, becoming, in a few hours, 
 irregularly spotted with deeper red. Between its exclusion and 
 its hatching, these red spots are continually changing in number, 
 size, and position ; and sometimes nearly all disappear. A little 
 while before hatching, two lateral rows of opake white spots, 
 about ten in number, can be seen in each egg. In four days, 
 more or less, according to the weather, the egg is hatched.” 
 
 Prom the time this insect leaves the egg, till its growth is 
 completed, no better account can be drawn up than that which 
 is given by Mr. Herrick, which merits to be preserved in his own 
 words, as follows. “ The little wrinkled maggot, or larva, creeps 
 out, of the delicate membranous egg skin, crawls down the leaf, 
 enters the sheath, and proceeds along the stalk, usually as far as 
 the next joint below,” or, in other words, to the base of the 
 sheath, which in the young wheat in autumn is at the crown of 
 the root. “ Here it fastens, lengthwise, and head downwards, to 
 the tender stalk, and lives upon the sap. It does not gnaw the 
 stalk, nor does it enter the central cavity thereof; but, as the 
 larva increases in size, it gradually becomes embedded in the 
 substance of the stalk. After taking its station, the larva moves 
 no more, gradually loses its reddish color and wrinkled appear¬ 
 ance, becomes plump and torpid, is at first semi-translucent, and 
 then more and more clouded with internal white spots; and 
 when near maturity, the middle of the intestinal parts is of a 
 greenish color. In five or six weeks (varying with the season,) 
 the larva begins to turn brown, and soon becomes of a bright 
 chestnut color, bearing some resemblance to a flax-seed,” <fcc. 
 
 When freshly taken from the roots of the wheat the mature 
 worm, (see plate 2, fig. 19,) measures about fifteen hundredths of 
 an inch (0.15) in length, by about 0.0G in width. It shows no 
 signs of life when placed upon paper and turned over with the 
 point of a needle. It is soft, glabrous, shining, white, oval, and 
 apparently composed of but nine segments, although when it is 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 823 
 
 HESSIAN FLY. LARVA. 
 
 younger twelve can usually be perceived, lhese segments aie 
 but slightly indicated, the sutures between them forming faint 
 transverse lines of a greenish brown hue. Its under side is flat¬ 
 tened and shows in the middle an oblong grass green cloud from 
 internal visceral matter. No impressed lines or constrictions 
 are perceptible at the sutures at first, but after the worm has 
 laid exposed to the air an hour or more, the color of the trans¬ 
 verse lines above mentioned, vanishes, and then, perhaps tiom 
 becoming, somewhat dried, faintly impressed and very slender 
 lines may be perceived at the sutures; and faint longitudinal 
 lines or strise are also discernable, as though produced by the 
 pressure of the parallel veins or ribs of the sheath and the cen¬ 
 tral stalk between which the worm had laid. 
 
 The autumnal attack of the Hessian fly is in a double sense a 
 radical one. Each particular shoot at whose root one or more 
 of these larvse nestles, is commonly destroyed, by the time the 
 worm has attained its growth and leaves off feeding. The pres¬ 
 ence of these insects therefore, is readily detected by an exam¬ 
 ination of the young wheat in October or November. Individual 
 shoots will be found here and there in the field, withered and 
 changed to a light yellow color, as represented, plate 3, fig. B,f 
 strongly contrasting with the rich green of the vigorous uninjured 
 plants, as shown in the same figure at *. The frost or some other 
 casualty may cause the ends of some of the other leaves to be ol 
 a pale yellow color, but here the whole plant is of that hue ; and 
 where a field is badly infested, this yellow, sickly aspect may be 
 discerned at a distance. On examining the withered plants, the 
 worm, or flax-seed if it has advanced to that stage, can be leadily 
 found. It is situated a short distance below the surface of the 
 earth, at the crown of the root. One or two radical leaves stait 
 from this point, their bases forming a cylindrical envelope or 
 sheath around the central or main shoot, which as yet is only in 
 its infancy. It is within this sheath, at its base, that the worms 
 repose, one, two, three or more, and by imbibing the nutritious 
 juices of the tender young shoot, cause it to wither and die. 
 The mechanical pressure of the larva;, which writers have so 
 frequently spoken of as impeding the circulation of the fluids of 
 the plant and thereby causing it to perish, J think has had too 
 much importance assigned to it. The young plants are so soft 
 and pliant that they would readily accommodate themselves to 
 
824 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OP NEW YORK 
 
 HESSIAN FLY. FLAX-SEED STATE. PUPA. 
 
 this pressure, and if they received no more important molesta¬ 
 tion than this, would not he apt to perish as they do. 
 
 After the worm or active larva has fully completed its growth 
 a slight diminution in the dimensions of the inner soft parts of 
 its body commences, in which the tougher outer skin does not 
 participate, but retains its full size. The result of this contrac¬ 
 tion is, that the worm gradually cleaves from its outer skin. 
 Examined with a magnifying glass when this change has recently 
 commenced, a slight translucent space is observable at the head 
 end, and a larger and more obvious one at the pointed or tail 
 end, plainly indicating that the enclosed worm does not entirely 
 fill its outer skin. This contraction continues, until the worm 
 becomes entirely separated from its outer skin, and lies within it 
 like the finger within a glove. The outer skin at the same time 
 changes in color. From its original whiteness and transparency, 
 it now becomes opake, brown, and finally of a bay or chestnut 
 color. Though much less flat than a flax seed, its resemblance 
 in color, size and form, to that familiar object, is so striking as 
 at once to be remarked by every one. The figures A, i and j, of 
 plate 3 give dorsal, ventral and lateral views of this flax-seed 
 state of the insect. 
 
 When the warm days of early spring arrive, and the weather 
 becomes sufficiently mild for some of our earliest plants to put 
 forth their blossoms, the larva of the Hessian fly is by the genial 
 warmth rapidly stimulated to maturity. In the year 1846, most 
 of these insects wore found changed from their larva to their pupa 
 state, so early as the 21st of April. But as the season then was 
 more forward than usual at that date, this was probably earlier 
 than the change commonly occurs in the middle and northern 
 parts of New York. A more accurate criterion by which to 
 indicate the time when this change occurs, no doubt, is the pro¬ 
 gress which vegetation has then made. 1 may therefore state 
 that, in all parts of our country, the Hessian fly will be found in 
 its fully formed pupa state, about a week after the liverwort 
 (Hepatica triloba), the trailing arbutus (Epigcea repens), and the 
 red or swamp maple (Acer rubrum) first begin to be seen in 
 bloom in our woods. The insect remains in this stage of its 
 life about ten or twelve days, and then gives out the winged fly. 
 
 When the insect has reached its pupa state, the flax seed shell 
 in which it lies inclosed has become quite brittle, breaking 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 825 
 
 HESSIAN FLY. PUPA. 
 
 asunder transversely if rudely handled, and one of its ends slip¬ 
 ping off from the insect within, like a thimble from the end of 
 the finger. On removing the pupa from its case, (see plate 3, 
 fie. /,) it is found to be 0.13 long by 0.05 broad, of an oval form 
 with rounded ends, the anterior or thoracic portion being slightly 
 narrower than the abdominal. The essential difference between 
 its form now, and what it previously was, is, that the wings, legs 
 and antennas of the future fly are now perceptible in their rudi¬ 
 mentary state, appressed to the surface of the body. The sheaths 
 in which the wings are enveloped do not quite attain the middle 
 of the length of the body. The outer pair of feet come out from 
 under the tips of the wings, and reach to the anterior margin of 
 the penultimate abdominal segment, their tips curving gently 
 inward towards each other. The next pair of feet are somewhat 
 shorter, and thu inner pair are shorter still. They all lie in 
 contact with each other, and extend lengthwise upon the front 
 side of the body, but are not soldered to it. The abdominal seg¬ 
 ments are distinctly marked by strongly impressed transverse 
 lines, and are of a milk-white color, the head and thorax being 
 of a delicate pale pink red, and the feet translucent whitish. 
 
 The time for its last transformation having arrived, the pupa 
 by writhing and bending its body breaks open its puparium or 
 flax seed case, crawls from it, and works its way upward within 
 the sheath of the leaf, until it comes to some cleft in the now 
 dead, brittle and elastic straw. Through this cleft it crowds its 
 body, until all except the tip of the abdomen is protruded into 
 the air, the elasticity of the straw causing it to close together 
 upon the tip of the abdomen, sufficiently to hold the pupa in this 
 situation, secure from falling to the ground. And as if to pre¬ 
 serve the body in a horizontal position, the feet are slightly 
 separated from the abdomen, and directed obliquely downwards, 
 with their tips pressed against the side of the straw, thus curi¬ 
 ously serving, like the brace to a beam or to the arm of a sign 
 post, to support the body from inclining downwards. Thus 
 securely fixed, and now freely exposed to the drying influence of 
 the atmosphere, the outer membrane of the pupa exhales its 
 moisture, and as it becomes dried, cracks apart upon the back or 
 upper side of the thorax. Out of this opening the inclosed fly 
 protrudes its head and thorax, more and more, as it gradually 
 withdraws its several members, the antennas, wings and legs, 
 
826 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OP NEW TORN 
 
 hessian fly. the female fly. the male fly. 
 
 from the sheaths in which they are respectively enveloped _ a 
 
 process analogous to that of withdrawing the hand and its sev¬ 
 eral fingers from a tight glove— until at length entirely freed 
 from its pupa skin, the fly, now perfect in all its parts, usually 
 walks a few steps further up the straw, where it pauses for its 
 body and members to acquire more firmness and strength by the 
 further evaporation of their moisture, after which it is ready to 
 spread its wings and mount into the air. 
 
 In the female fly the head is black and of a flattened spherical form. Tho nntenn® are 
 about half as long as the body, and composed of sixteen joints, which are separated from 
 each other by very short translucent pedicels, which are about a third of the diameter of the 
 joints. The joints are of a cylindric-oval form, their length being about double their thick¬ 
 ness. Each joint is clothed with a number of hairs, of which those towards its base are per¬ 
 ceptibly longer and coarser, about equalling the joint in their length, and placed in a low or 
 whirl around it. Tho terminal joint is a third longer than those which preoede it; whilst tho 
 two basal joints arc thicker than the others, globular, and compacj or not separated by an 
 intervening pedicel. The palpi arc clothed with fine short hairs and are composed of three 
 joints, of which the two last arc nearly equal in size, cylindrical, and about twice ns long an 
 broad, the basal one being more short and thicker. The thorax is black, oval, and broadest 
 immediately back of the wing sockets. The abdomen is elongate-ovate, its broadest part 
 scarcely equalling the thorax in diameter. It is black on the back, with a tawny yellow or 
 red band at each of the sutures, these bands varying in their width as the abdomen is more 
 or less distended. Tho under side is obscure brownish ; but when the fly is newly hatched, it 
 is bright red or yellow, with a blackish stripe along tho middle, in whioh stripe a small red 
 or yellow spot is sometimes present upon the middle of each segment. The abdomen is 
 clothed in plaoes with fine black hairs, and is composed of seven segments. When the sting 
 or ovipositor is protruded, it forms two additional segments, of a pale red or yellow color; 
 the apical one is a little tapering, thrice as long as broad, and is slightly dusky at its tip, tho 
 end being blunt. Tho other is of the same length with the apical but is twice as thiok. Tho 
 wings are slightly dusky and at their bases arc tinged with tawny yellow. They have tho 
 three longitudinal veins whereby the genus Cecidoinyia is characterized, the middle vein 
 towards its apex and the forks of tho inner vein being very slender for a species so large ns 
 this; and the cross vein between the middle and outer longitudinal veins, which is seen in 
 many of the insects of this genus, is wanting in this speoies. The poisers are dusky. The 
 legs are pale brown, the thighs paler at their bases, and tho feet are black. The different 
 pairs of legs equal each other in length, and are about 0.24 long when extended, of which 
 length the feet form one-half. Tho short basal joint of the feet is so indistinct that often it 
 is only after an examination of several specimens that one becomes assured such a joint really 
 exists in this species. 
 
 In tho HALE the antenna: are threo-fourths the length of the body, with the joints short 
 oval and almost globular. Each joint is surrounded with a whirl of longish hairs. Tho ter¬ 
 minal joint does not differ from thoso which precede it. The two basal joints are compacted 
 together as in the female. The antennm diminish very slightly in thiokness towards their 
 tips. The pedicels separating tho joints are smoky, translucent, nearly as long ns tho joints 
 and about a third as thiok. The abdomen is cylindrio or slightly tapering towards its tip, 
 and is formed of seven joints in addition to tho terminal one, which is transversely oval and 
 gives off two robust processes whioh arc armed each with an inourvod hook at its tip. Tho 
 abdomen in the living specimen is black or brownish binok, with bands at the sutures both 
 above and beneath, of a brick rod, tawny yellow, or grayish color, varying in their width as 
 this part of the body is more or Icbs distended. In nil other respects the malo fly corresponds 
 with the femule. 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 827 
 
 HESSIAN FLY. PARASITES. 
 
 The Hessian fly is everywhere followed up and destroyed by 
 parasitic insects. The most common and important one of these 
 was described by Mr. Say in connection with the Hessian fly, 
 (Journal Academy of Natural Sciences, vol. i, p. 47,) under the 
 name Ceraphron destructor. We present a carefully drawn figure 
 of this insect, Plate 3, fig. 1. Entomologists have been much 
 perplexed to determine the true generic place of this species, it 
 being evidently not a member of the genus to which Mr. Say 
 assigned it, or even of the family to which that genus pertains. 
 
 It clearly belongs to the family Chalcididce. Mr. Westwood, 
 from the imperfect figures accompanying Mr. Say’s description, 
 at first supposed it was a member of the group Eulophides (In- 
 tro'dnetion, vol. ii, p. 160) but the number of joints both to its 
 feet and antennae exclude it from that group, and he subse¬ 
 quently, as we are told by Mr. Curtis, (Jour. Royal Agricultural 
 Society, vol. vi, p. 130) thinks it is perhaps a Pteromalus. Dr. 
 Harris at first regarded it as an Eurytoma, but becoming aware 
 this location was erroneous he finally concluded the genus Rhaph- 
 itelus to be its true place. But independent of other discord¬ 
 ances, its antennas indicate it to be a member of the group 
 Pteromalides rather than that of Ormocerides where Dr. Harris’s 
 conclusion would place it. The number of joints to its antennae 
 exclude it from the extensive genus Pteromnlus, and of the seve¬ 
 ral kindred genera in which these organs are twelve-jointed, that 
 of Semiotus, Walker (which name being pre-occupied, Mr. West- 
 wood proposes to modify to Semiotel/us ) seems to be the only 
 one from which it is not decidedly excluded by some one or more 
 characters. With this genus it appears to fully coincide, having 
 the antennae in the male thread-like, in the female perceptibly 
 though but slightly thicker towards their tips, the apical joints 
 being compacted into a linear mass in the one sex, an oval one 
 in the other, the thorax punctured, and other characters which 
 will appear from the full description presented herewith. So 
 far, therefore, as I am able to judge from the characters assigned 
 to this genus without any of the foreign species in my hands for 
 a comparison, I am induced to regard this as its true location. 
 And I may further observe, that a parasitic destroyer of the 
 Apple-tree caterpillar which 1 described in my second Report 
 under the name Cleonymus Clisiocampee, I now see is co-generic 
 with this destroyer of the Hessian fly. I stated its antenme to 
 
828 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 HESSIAN FLY. LARVA-PARASITE. 
 
 be eleven-jointed, the third joint small and scarcely perceptible 
 I now peiceive this small third joint to be in reality two joints 
 Phis Hessian-fly larva-parasite, Scmiotellus destructor , (the 
 female of which is represented, plate 3, fig. 1, and the antennae 
 of the male at the bottom of the same plate at p.,) is one-tenth 
 of an inch long and of a black color, its head and thorax having a 
 brassy green reflection. Its legs and the base of its antennae are 
 dull pale yellow, the middle of the thighs being often stained 
 with brown or blackish. Its abdomen is smooth and polished 
 and is usually tinged with yellow at its base, which tinge, some¬ 
 times at least, becomes a bright lemon yellow spot in the males. 
 
 The HEAD is ns broad ns the thorax and thrioo as broad as long when viewed from above, 
 concave on its hind side and convex in front. Viewed in front it appears nearly globulaf with 
 a depression rather below the centre, in which the antennte are inserted. The eves are of a 
 dull red color and but slightly protuberant, ocoupying the sides of the head. As seen from 
 above they appear egg-shaped, forming an angular point at their hind part. The ocelli or 
 eyelets appear like three red glassy dots on the crown, placed at the angles of a triangle, of 
 which the hind side is longest. The antenna when turned back reach to about the middle of 
 the thorax. They arc elbowed, the bnsal joint occupying a third of their total length. This 
 joint is dull pale yellow the other joints being black and covered with an inclined beard. In 
 the female they are very slightly thicker towards their tips, whilst in the male, (see pinto 3, 
 p.,) they are of uniform thickness through their entire length. Viewed with a common 
 magnifier they appear ten-jointed, though the last joints are usually so compacted that in (ho 
 dried specimen the full number cannot bo distinctly discerned. When highly magnified two 
 small additional transverse joints may usually bo discerned more or less distinctly, betwcon 
 the second and the third joints, of which the first is rather smaller than the second. The 
 joints are slightly longer than thick, and rather narrower towards their bases. The second 
 joint is longer than the others, its length being about double its thickness. Tho last joint is 
 egg-shaped, twico as long as thick in the female and a third longer than this in tho male, its 
 apex appearing to be cutoff transversely, with a minute teat-liko process protruded thcro- 
 from. 
 
 The tuouax is twice as long as broad, broadest forward of the middle and more narrowed 
 behind than before. Its surface, as well ns that of the head, has a rough and shngreened 
 appearance from nuraerons close punctures. Near its anterior end it is crossed by an impressed 
 line, marking the collar, which is short and broad, of a slender crescent form. The meso- 
 thorax or part next back of tho collar shows on each side a shallow groovo running obliquely 
 upward and backward, above the wing sockets, and dividing what are termed the parapsidcs 
 from tho upper or main part of the mesothornx A deep furrow across the middle of tho 
 thorax and forking upon each side, more conspicuously separates these last named parts from 
 the tegulaj—the small oval pieces between the forks and above the wing sockets—and from 
 the scutcl, which Inst is large and rounded. 
 
 The AunoMEN is black, smooth and polished, flattened egg-shape, broaderand shorter than 
 the thorax, pointed at the tip, its sutures marked by fine transverso lines, and its basal seg¬ 
 ment large. In the male it is smaller and more oval, its tip forming an angular point. 
 Towards its base is usually seen a bright lemon y.ellow spot both above and beneath, which 
 in the female is replaced by a dull pale yellowish cloud. 
 
 The wings arc clear and glassy, fringed with fine hairs along their inner margins and tips 
 and also along the middle part of their outer margins. Tho rib-vein of tho fore wings 
 recedes from the outer edge at first and then curving joins the edge at a third of tho distanoo 
 from tho base of the wing to its apex, and continues united with the edge more than two- 
 thirds of the distance to tho npax, whero it terminates. Beyond tho middlo of the outer 
 margin it gives off the stigmal branch, whioh is curved and thickened at its end, with its apex 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 829 
 
 HESSIAN FLY. EGG-PARASITE. 
 
 notched. Three exceedingly slender abortive veins may be perceived in these wings, as 
 follows: One extending from the inner tooth of the apex of the stigmal branch to the hind 
 end; another arising in the base of the wing near the rib-vein, meeting the end of the trans¬ 
 verse veinlet and continuing from thence nearly parallel with the inner margin its whole 
 length till it reaches the edge; a third forking from this latter one near the middle of tho 
 wing and joining the hind edge equidistant between the ends of the other two. 
 
 Legs dull pale yellow, or in tho males whitish, with a brown streak on the thighs. Feet 
 black at tho tips, five-jointed, tho basal joint longest and the following ones successively 
 shorter. 
 
 It is when the Hessian-fly lias completed its growth and 
 assumed its flax-seed form that this parasite attacks it. With 
 its sting it'pierces the straw to where its victim lies, and punc¬ 
 tures its body and inserts an egg therein. The little maggot 
 which comes from this egg consumes the larva and then occupies 
 the flax-seed shell in its stead, till it has passed through its pupa 
 state and become a fly, when it gnaws a small hole through tho 
 shell and straw and makes its escape. Two of the holes thus 
 made in the straw are seen in fig. B, plate 3, at the mark 
 
 In addition to this species, Mr. Herrick discovered two others 
 which destroy the Hessian fly in its flax seed state, and a fourth 
 which attacks the eggs. This last is a species of Platygaster, 
 and is probably closely like that which we have represented in 
 fig. 4 of plate 1. He states that this egg-parasite is abundant 
 irt autumn, and when the Hessian fly deposits its eggs upon the 
 leaves of the young wheat, this insect searches them out, and 
 piercing them with its sting, lays four or five of its own eggs in 
 a single egg of the fly. These eggs it is probable do not hatch 
 immediately, as the contents of the fly’s egg are obviously insuffi¬ 
 cient to feed even one of them to maturity. It is therefore 
 necessary that more nutriment should be elaborated for their 
 sustenance. And accordingly the larva of the fly comes from 
 the egg with these seeds of destruction within it; it grows to 
 maturity and passes into its flax-seed state, by which time its 
 “intestine foes” having also become fully grown, spin their 
 cocoons in a cluster within the flax seed and in due time eat 
 their way out, the worm of the Hessian fly having now perished. 
 
 By these different parasites, according to the observations ot 
 Mr. Herrick, it is probable that nine tenths of every generation 
 of the Hessian fly is destroyed. 
 
 With regard to remedies, it may be observed that, in districts 
 where tho Hessian fly is numerous, it is scarcely possible to 
 obtain a crop of winter wheat except upon a fertile soil. Such 
 a soil enables the plants to elaborate a sufficiency of fluids for 
 
830 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 HESSIAN FLY. REMEDIES. 
 
 their own sustenance in addition to what is abstracted for their 
 nourishment by the insects which invade them. To elude this 
 fly, late sowing is one of the most easy and successful expedients 
 that can be resorted to, and the one most fully sanctioned by 
 universal experience. About the last of September is probably 
 as late as it will be judicious in our climate to defer sowing 
 wheat, and this will usually insure it against injury from this 
 insect; tor though when it appears above ground the season for 
 the fly to deposit its eggs may not in some years be entirely 
 past, it will be rare for a number of these sufficiently large to be 
 perceptibly injurious, to be then laid. Where the soil is of but 
 medium fertility, a resort to some of the hardier varieties of 
 wheat, which are known to be in a measure fly-proof, will be 
 advisable. 
 
 In my essay upon this insect, published in the Transactions of 
 the State Agricultural Society for the year 1846, pp. 316-316 is 
 given a full account of its history, habits and remedies, to which 
 the reader is referred for numerous details, which I have not 
 thought it necessary to repeat in this place. At the time that 
 Essay was written, in the autumn of 1845 and the spring of 
 1846, this insect had suddenly become quite numerous through 
 all the district where I reside. But after harvest, in the stubble 
 of the wheat fields, almost every infested and swollen straw was 
 noticed as being perforated by parasites which had escaped from 
 it, and the depredations of the insect abruptly ceased. But, in 
 sweeping with a net in fields of winter wheat at any time in May 
 or June, I continued to find some of the flies, till within a few 
 years past it appears to have wholly vanished from my vicinity. 
 
 I therefore have had no opportunity to make any recent obser¬ 
 vations upon this insect, and in the foregoing account, what is 
 stated of parasites is about the onl}'' important matter which I 
 have been able to add to what had previously been communicated 
 to the Society. 
 
 8. Joint-worm fly, Eurytoma Tritici , Fitch. (ITymenoptera. Chalcididso.) 
 
 Plato 1, fig 1. 
 
 Hard and wood-liko swellings on the wheat stalks, mostly at tho lower joints, retarding 
 their growth and causing many of them to become angularly bent orelbowod; those swellings 
 having a number of small cavities in the substanoo of tho sheath and sometimes in that of 
 the central stalk, each cavity containing a small yellowish-whito maggot which remains in 
 tho straw through tho winter and becomes ohanged to a four-wingod fly which the fore part 
 of May perforates a small hole through the straw and escapes therefrom; this fly 0.12 long, 
 and jet black with pale dull yellow knees, feet and anterior shanks. 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 831 
 
 JOINT-WORM FLY. ITS DEVASTATIONS IN VIRGINIA. 
 
 The diseased appearance which this insect occasions in the 
 growing wheat is so similar to that produced by the Hessian fly 
 that many persons at first supposed it to be the same insect, it 
 residing in the straw usually immediately above the lower joints, 
 producing an enlargement or tumor in the straw at that point 
 and causing it to become angularly bent and lopping down more 
 or less. But the worm instead of residing in the natural crevice 
 between the sheath and central stalk where the larva of the 
 Hessian fly reposes, occupies a small cell in the substance of the 
 sheath or of the central stalk, and the swelling or gall which it 
 occasions, is of a hard, knotty and wood-like textuie instead of 
 being soft and of a substance similar to that of the straw. 
 
 It is in the central parts of Virginia, in the district around 
 Charlottesville and Gordonsville that this insect has been most 
 destructive. It began to attract public notice about the year 
 1848. The first account of its depredations appeared in the 
 Southern Planter, July 1851, from the pen of the editor, Frank 
 G. Ruffin. He states that “ a new and most destructive enemy 
 to wheat has appeared under the name of the Joint-worm. Many 
 crops in Albemarle are hardly worth cutting in consequence of 
 its attacks, and all that we have seen or heard of, except one, 
 are badly hurt by it. In the area it has traversed, and the com¬ 
 pleteness of its devastation within it, it has no rival amongst 
 insects in this country. The dreaded Hessian fly is nothing to 
 it; and no atmospheric calamity can pretend to a comparison. 
 It sweeps whole districts, and everywhere, we hear, has done 
 great damage, and it is feared will do much more before it is 
 checked or destroyed.” This is followed by a communication 
 from a friend to the editor, giving an account of the habits of 
 the Joint-worm, so far as he had been able to discover them, and 
 an extract from the proceedings of the “Hole and Corner Club, 
 No. 1, of Albemarle,” embodying the experience its members had 
 had with this insect, the situations where it is most destructive, 
 the varieties of wheat which were the least injured, and the 
 effect of guano and other fertilizers in withstanding it. 
 
 The second article which was published on this insect, appeared 
 in the Albany Cultivator, October 1851 (vol. viii, pp. 321-324). 
 Mr. Alex, llives of Albemarle, transmitted to that widely circu¬ 
 lated periodical an account of the habits of the insect, accom¬ 
 panied with samples of the diseased green wheat containing the 
 
832 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 JOINT-WORM FLY. THE DISEASED STRAW. 
 
 worm, and requested the}" should be handed to some naturalist 
 for a more exact description and any additional information 
 respecting it which could be given. These specimens were for- 
 warded to me, and the result of my examination accompanies 
 Mr. Rives’ communication. He states that some of his acquaint¬ 
 ances had in glass jars hatched the perfect insects from these 
 worms, and represent it to be “ a dark-colored gnat, with small 
 wings, some want of activity, and little power of flight.” I 
 described the diseased wheat and the worm therein, as follows: 
 
 The wheat stalk immediately above the lower joint, is obvi¬ 
 ously diseased for a distance exceeding a half inch. It is swol¬ 
 len to a size a third larger than it is above or below; it is 
 changed to a harder and more wood-like texture; the veins are 
 distorted and crowded out of their natural straight and parallel 
 direction; and several long spots of a paler color and slightly 
 elevated, like blisters, appear. On carefully cutting into these 
 blister-like elevations, a hollow cavity is found, which is nearly 
 a quarter of an inch long, and tapering to a point at each end. 
 In each of these cavities lies a footless worm or maggot, which is 
 about ten-hundredths of an inch long (0.10) by four-hundredths 
 broad (0.04); of an oval form, rather more tapering towards ono 
 end, and divided by slight constrictions into thirteen segments. 
 The worm is soft, shining, of a uniform milk-white color, and on 
 its anterior end is a small V-shaped brown line, marking the 
 situation of its mouth. So exactly does this worm in its form 
 and appearance resemble the larva of the Hessian fly and other 
 species of Cecidomyia which have fallen under my notice, that I 
 entertain no doubt it pertains to the same genus of insects. And 
 when we see it infesting the same part of the wheat stalk with 
 the Hessian fly, and producing much the same swollen appearance 
 of the stalk, no person but one well acquainted with the habits 
 of that insect would suspect that this was anything different. 
 Rut the Hessian fly worm occupies a natural cleft or partition in 
 the wheat plant, to wit, between the sheath which is formed by 
 the base of the leaf, and the main or central stalk or culm. 
 
 1 herefore, on drawing the leaf aside so as to part this sheath 
 and separate it from the stalk, when it is stripped off downwards 
 almost to its base, the Hessian fly worm is exposed to view. 
 
 1 his may be done without any cutting or tearing of the plant. 
 
 I he Joint-worm, on the other hand, lives in the parenchyma or 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 833 
 
 JOINT-WORM FLY. FLIES HATCHED FROM THE STRAW. 
 
 substance of the sheath, near its base. On separating the sheath 
 from the culm and drawing it aside, the worm is not exposed to 
 view: it lies in the texture that is thus separated, and can only 
 he seen by cutting into the elevated or blistered spot already 
 spoken of, which spots are equally manifest on the inner as they 
 are upon the outer surface of the sheath. 
 
 Dr. Harris on reading the above description observed that this 
 joint-worm occupied the identical situatipn in the straw with an 
 insect which some years before had infested the barley in Massa¬ 
 chusetts, from which he had obtained what was supposed to be 
 the parasitic destroyer of the real culprit, and which he had 
 described under the name Eurytoma Hordei. A correspondence 
 upon this subject took place between us, and we mutually con¬ 
 cluded the parent of this joint-worm would prove to be a Ceci- 
 domyia of the same species, probably, with that which had 
 infested the barley. 
 
 In March of the following year Mr. Ruffin forwarded to Dr. 
 Harris a quantity of the diseased straw, which he, to be more 
 secure in having specimens of the perfect insect obtained there¬ 
 from, divided into two unequal parcels, the larger one of which 
 he transmitted to me. An examination of these samples showed 
 that this insect was not constantly confined to the substance of 
 the sheath above the joints, where I had previously found it, but 
 was sometime lodged in the joints themselves, whereby their 
 texture becomes swollen and distorted; and in a few instances 
 the cells containing the worms are found to be in the walls of the 
 central stalk or culm, wholly inside of the sheath. 
 
 These straws placed upon moist earth in a glass jar, the most 
 natural situation I could give them, and kept in a stove warmed 
 room, began to give out the flies profusely on the 28tli of April, 
 between which date and the 6th of May when the hatch termi¬ 
 nated, upwards of a hundred specimens were obtained. To my 
 great surprise no Cecidomyia flies were disclosed. They were 
 all alike and on careful inspection all were found to be females, 
 very similar to if not identical with the Eurytoma Hordei from the 
 Massachusetts barley. The parcel which Dr. Harris retained, 
 was placed in a dry jar, and yielded him a few days later, fifteen 
 of the same flies, all females save one. These results, in connec¬ 
 tion with the fact that no other insect but this had been obtained 
 from the Massachusetts barley, could not but excite our strong 
 
 [Ag. Trans.J 53 
 
834 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 JOINT-WORM FLY. PROF. CABELL’S INVESTIGATIONS. 
 
 suspicions that this fly was itself the real depredator upon the 
 wheat and not a parasite which had in such a multitude of 
 instances killed the destroyer to come out thus in its stead. 
 But as all the family of insects to which this species pertains 
 were currently regarded by authors as parasitic, and we were 
 acquainted with American species of this same genus Eurytoma 
 which we had conclusive evidence were parasites, we could not 
 but hesitate in adopting this view. 
 
 Prof. J. L. Cabell, of the University of Virginia, residing in 
 the midst of the region where it was so destructive, was simul¬ 
 taneously directing his attention to this insect. In the spring 
 of this same year, 1852, from different parcels of wheat he bred 
 flies to more than a hundred in number, obtaining the same insect 
 in every instance. In examining the worms in the diseased 
 straw he met with two kinds, one being yellowish, smooth and 
 sluggish; the other white, hairy and very active in its move¬ 
 ments. This last was evidently a parasite. In several instances 
 it was found in the same cell with an individual of the first kind, 
 and feeding upon it, but at all times it was found in an exceed¬ 
 ingly small proportion of cases, not more than one in twenty or 
 thirty. Prof. Cabell embodied the results of his investigations 
 in an article which was published in September, 1852, in the 
 Southern Planter, vol. xii, pp. 271, 272, in which the fly obtained 
 from the joint-worm was announced to be the Eurytoma Hordei, 
 Harris, to which he adds that everything concurred in confirming 
 his first impression that the mischief to the wheat was occasioned 
 exclusively by this insect, and that he was obliged to hold to 
 the opinion, at least until another fly was produced, that ento¬ 
 mologists have made a premature generalization in ascribing 
 exclusively carnivorous habits to the group of insects to which 
 the Eurytoma belongs. 
 
 It will readily be seen that the question whether this Eurytoma 
 was a phytophagous or a carnivorous insect, a vegetable feeder 
 or a flesh eater, whether it was the real parent of the joint-worm 
 or its most inveterate foe, and consequently whether it should 
 be combatted and destroyed or cherished and protected, was no 
 less interesting in a scientific than it was important in a prac¬ 
 tical point of view. IIow could the real fact be ascertained ? 
 
 I felt confident that il 1 was personally present where this joint- 
 worm abounded, I could assuredly observe it so closely and obtain 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 835 
 
 JOINT-WORM FLY. LARVA FROM WHICH IT COMF.S. 
 
 such perfect knowledge of it as would settle the point definitely 
 and conclusively; and for a time I had it in serious contempla¬ 
 tion to visit Virginia on this business. But other avocations 
 came to me, which diverted me from this purpose. 
 
 Was any further light upon this topic attainable ? How was 
 it possible for this Eurytoma to thus come from these joint-worms 
 and the worms in barley in every observed instance, to the 
 amount of some hundreds, if it were not the legitimate descend¬ 
 ant of those worms. It occurred to Dr. Harris that a portion 
 of the joint-worms might perhaps complete their transformations 
 and come from the straw the first summer, leaving only those 
 containing parasites to pass over till the following spring, and 
 lie addressed Mr. Ruffin on this subject, desiring him to have 
 this point examined. Prof. Cabell, the only respondent to this 
 inquiry, states that lie has known a few flies to leave the straw 
 the first year, but in each instance the fly which came forth thus 
 was the same Eurytoma. It, moreover, is quite evident that no 
 considerable number of flies do leave the straw anterior to the 
 hatching of the Eurytoma in May, or we should meet with their 
 evacuated cells, with the openings therein through which the 
 inmate had made its exit. 
 
 Another important inquiry suggested itself to Prof. Cabell. 
 Although the larvae of the gall-flies ( Cecidomyia ) of the order 
 Diptera, and of the gall-bees ( Cynips ) of the order Hymonoptera, 
 may be closely similar to each other, is there not some character 
 by which they can be distinguished, whereby it can be ascertained 
 whether this joint-worm itself is really a Dipterous larva, as I 
 had confidently pronounced it to be, or a Hymenopterous larva 
 as it must be to produce this Eurytoma? Upon comparing the 
 Dipterous larvm of the Hessian fly with the Hymenopterous larvao 
 found in oak-galls, Prof. Cabell noticed that the blackish jaws of 
 the latter were placed upon a straight transverse lino, whilst in 
 the former they have an oblique direction, their ends meeting 
 at an acute angle. Thereupon inspecting the joint-worm he 
 found its jaws plainly indicated it to be a Hymenopterous larva. 
 Specimens were forwarded to Dr. Harris, which were carefully 
 examined by him, and also by Prof. Jeffries Wyman, a skilful ana¬ 
 tomist and experienced microscopical observer. They fully 
 confirmed the correctness of Prof. Cabell. 
 
836 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 JOINT-WORM FLY. A MIDGE LARVA ALSO IN THE WHEAT. 
 
 Upon this subject I would observe that I have in instances 
 without number, with the aid only of the common pocket mag¬ 
 nifier, noticed the jaws in the larvae of various species of Ceci- 
 domyia appearing as two minute black lines meeting at an acute 
 angle, in the form of a letter V or sometimes like a Y, and have 
 mentioned this in my published descriptions of some of these 
 larvae. More recently the larvae of numbers of the gall bees 
 have come under my examination, in the larger ones of which, 
 the jaws are equally distinct, forming a straight transverse line 
 slightly interrupted in its middle. Prof. Cabell is undoubtedly 
 correct in regarding this as a decisive character whereby we may 
 know whether the larvae we meet with in galls pertain to the 
 order Hymenoptera or Diptera. 
 
 But this instead of diminishing our doubts upon the question 
 at issue — whether the Eurytoma is or is not a parasite — greatly 
 increases those doubts. It sufficiently proves that the worm 
 which Prof. Cabell found in the wheat is the real larva of the 
 Eurytoma; and Prof. Cabell and Dr. Harris hence inferred that 
 I was in error in pronouncing the worm which I found in the 
 Virginia wheat from Mr. Rives to be a Cecidomyia. But that 
 by no means follows. On the contrary, the very character stated 
 renders it quite evident that 1 was correct. I was at that time 
 perfectly familiar with the appearance of the mouth in the larvse 
 of the Cecidomyiae, and of the Hessian fly in particular. Had 
 there been any perceptible variation therefrom in the larva 
 examined, I think I could not have failed to observe it and to 
 have noticed it in the careful description which I drew up. In 
 that description I say, “ The worm is soft, shining, of a uniform 
 milk-white color,” not at all yellowish therefore, like the Eury¬ 
 toma larva, and no green central cloud as in the Hessian fly 
 larva; and observe what follows, “and on its anterior end is a 
 a small V-shaped brown line, marking the situation of its mouth.” 
 Now this V-shaped brown line is the jaws, their ends coming 
 together at an acute angle. It is clear, therefore, that the worm 
 sent us from Mr. Rives as being the joint-worm was a different 
 species from that which Prof. Cabell found in the wheat the fol¬ 
 lowing year, and was undoubtedly a Cecidomyia, as I supposed 
 it to be. It was not till some considerable time afterwards that 
 I became aware of this. When I was first informed of the dis¬ 
 tinctive mark which Prof. Cabell had ascertained to exist 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 837 
 
 JOINT-WORM FLY. HOW THE TWO I.ARVyE DIFFER. 
 
 between the Hymenopterous and Dipterous larvae, I supposed 
 this character to be so minute and inconspicuous that it could 
 only be observed upon making a nice dissection of the mouth. 
 
 A few years later, however, on coming to see the larva of a 
 Eurytoma, a glance at its head and mouth assured me I could 
 never have confounded a larva of that kind with a Cecidomyia 
 larva. I have since examined several Eurytoma larvae of differ¬ 
 ent species. I observe in all of them that the head is broad and 
 bluntly rounded, not tapering to a point, and the discolored 
 transverse line formed by the jaws is placed at the very end of 
 the head. In the Cecidomyia larvae on the other hand, the V 
 mark is invariably seen a short distance back from the anterior 
 end, the head being retracted and thus appearing much as though 
 the insect, if it had not, as the common expression is, bit off its 
 own nose, had accomplished an equally marvellous feat, to wit, 
 had swallowed its mouth, whereby the jaws come to be seen 
 partly down its throat. It is only when they are in use that, in 
 the larvae of the Cecidomyia;, these jaws, these minute black 
 lines, are moved forward to the orifice at the anterior end of the 
 head; at all other times they are retracted and are situated a 
 short distance back from the end, being quite visible through the 
 transparent skin which overlies them. 
 
 Thus the highly important fact is, I think, well authenticated — 
 a Cecidomyia larva occurred in this diseased Virginia wheat, as 
 well as a Eurytoma larva — the one being found in the same kind 
 of cavities or cells in which the other occurred. The wheat 
 which I examined was green and succulent. The worm in it was 
 at that time one tenth of an inch long. 1 his is the average 
 length of the mature larva; in the genus Cecidomyia, although 
 there are some species which grow to twice this size. On the 
 other hand, it is from the dry straw that the Eurytoma larva 
 has been taken, so far as appears. It certainly looks, therefore, 
 as though this Cecidomyia larva might leave the wheat and go 
 into the ground before the crop fully ripens and is harvested, 
 whereby it has wholly eluded observation, its evacuated cells 
 perhaps becoming so much altered and effaced that they are not 
 liable to be noticed in the dry straw; whilst the Eurytoma larva 
 by feedingupon and consuming the former, in numerous instances 
 comes to occupy the cells in its stead, remaining in them till the 
 following year, whereby it is this insect only which we obtain 
 
838 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 JOINT-WORM PLY. ITS PARASITE DESCRIBED, 
 
 from the dry straw. Several incidental circumstances occur to 
 my mind, some favoring and others militating against this view. 
 It is scarcely worth while to consider these in detail or specu¬ 
 late further upon this subject, since it is only by actual observa¬ 
 tion that the real facts in the case can be ascertained. I must 
 confess, however, that now, when I come to cast over all the 
 evidence which we have in relation to this subject, I feel less 
 confident than I have boen for a few years past, that this Eury- 
 toma is the real parent of the joint-worm. 
 
 It was in the jrnar 1853 that the concluding portion of the 
 second edition of Dr. Harris’s Treatise on Injurious Insects 
 passed through the press, giving the most full and exact account 
 of the joint-worm that has hitherto appeared. He regards the 
 fly which we obtained from the diseased straw as being a mere 
 variety of the barley fly which he had previously described, this 
 wheat fly differing in no respect from that except in the color of 
 the shanks of the fore legs, these being pale yellow instead of 
 black. And he regards this fly as being in all probability the real 
 cause of the disease in the wheat and barley, and not a parasite 
 as he had supposed it to be in the first edition of his treatise. 
 
 In connection with the Eurytoma Hordei, Dr. Harris gives an 
 account of the insect which appears to be its most common 
 parasitic destroyer, specimens of which we had obtained from 
 the same parcels of wheat from which the Eurytoma came. 
 There is every reason to believe that this parasite descends from 
 the active white worm clothed with a few scattering hairs, which 
 Prof. Cabell occasionally found as already stated, sometimes in 
 the same cell with a dead and partly consumed Eurytoma larva, 
 and sometimes alone in the cell, it being perceptibly larger in the 
 latter case than in the former. Two individuals of this fly which 
 I obtained did not come from the straw until some days after the 
 hatch of the Eurytoma flies had ended. They are 0.10 long, 
 black, with pale yellow legs having the thighs black and the 
 anterior and hind shanks more or less smoky, the claws at the 
 end of the feet being black. The fore wings usually have a 
 smoky cloud or spot in their middle. The basal joint of the 
 antennae is black in the male and pale or whitish in the female. 
 It pertains to the same family Chalcididje to which the Eurytoma 
 belongs, and Dr. Harris refers it to the genus Torymus, but no 
 specific name for it accompanies his description. I therefore 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 839 
 
 JOINT-WORM FI.Y. A DISTINCT SPECIES. 
 
 propose for it the name by which it has been ticketed many years 
 in my cabinet, Torymus Harrisii. 
 
 The joint-worm continued its depredations upon the wheat to 
 such an alarming extent, that in the year 1854, a “Joint-worm 
 Convention ” composed of persons who were sufferers from it, was 
 held at Warrenton, Va., for the purpose of comparing their views 
 and experience and deciding upon the best modes of opposing 
 this enemy. The idea of putting down an obnoxius insect by 
 the same machinery and denunciatory resolutions which they 
 were accustomed to bring into operation against a political 
 adversary, caused at the time some merriment among our news¬ 
 paper editors here at the north. I have been unable to find any 
 report of the proceedings of this convention, but I see it stated 
 that it resulted in recommendations of a better cultivation of 
 the wheat crop, a use of guano or other fertilizers, and all other 
 measures which tend to promote a rapid growth and early ripen¬ 
 ing of the grain, and also after harvest burning the stubble and 
 any other masses of vegetation which may be growing contiguous 
 to the wheat field. 
 
 From the occasional notices of this joint-worm which we meet 
 with in the Southern Planter for a few years subsequent to this, 
 it would appear that it still remained so common as to be a sub¬ 
 ject of public concern. The fact of its thus continuing to be 
 destructive year after year strongly indicates that the Eurytoma 
 was itself the real enemy and not a parasitic destroyer of that 
 enemy, since were it the latter, so numerous as it was in 1852, 
 we should expect this malady in the wheat would speedily have 
 ceased. 
 
 A similar disease began to appear about this time in the barley 
 crop in the central counties of the State of New York. The 
 first samples of the affected straw were received at the Agricul¬ 
 tural Rooms in Albany from L. Lincklaen of Cazenovia. The 
 disease in this straw was identical with that of the Virginia 
 wheat and the Massachusetts barley, and as the worm was found 
 to be the larva of a Eurytoma, I made no doubt it would produce 
 an insect of the same variety that Dr. Harris first observed. 
 But on coming to examine the flies which came from this New 
 York barloy, of which upwards of fifty were obtained, I was sur¬ 
 prised to find the color of their legs so dissimilar as to forbid 
 their being regarded as the same species. Thereupon, on notic- 
 
840 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OP NEW YORK 
 
 JOINT-WORM FLY. ITS NEAREST KINDRED. 
 
 ing in such a number of these barley flics and a still larger num¬ 
 ber of the flies from the joint-worm, how perfectly constant and 
 uniform the insects from these two sources were in the colors of 
 their bodies and limbs, the fact became patent that the fly 
 obtained from the A r irginia joint-worm was a distinct species 
 from the Massachusetts barley-fly, and not a mere variety of it 
 as I had all along supposed it to be. An article upon this sub¬ 
 ject was thereupon inserted in the Journal of the Society, for 
 April 1859, (vol. ix, p. 115,) in which I named and gave the dis¬ 
 tinctive marks of these three species, about as follows: 
 
 1 he Black-legged or Massachusetts harley-fly, Eurytoma 
 Hordei, Harris, is black, its feet and knees pale dull yellow, its 
 anterior shanks of the same dusky or blackish color with the 
 middle and hind ones, its neck with a dull whitish transverse 
 spot on each side. 
 
 The Joint-worm fly, which I name Eurytoma Tritici, is black, 
 its feet and knees and its anterior shanks dull pule yellow , its neck 
 with a dull white spot on each side. 
 
 The Yellow-legged or New York barley-fly, Eurytoma ful- 
 vipes, is black, its legs bright tawny yellow , its feet whitish, its 
 neck with a small dull white dot on each side. 
 
 In this connection it should be added that a fourth fly of this 
 kind has recently commenced infesting the rye in the eastern 
 part of Pennsylvania. I described this species in the American 
 Agriculturist, August 1861, (vol. xx, p. 236) giving it the name 
 of the Rye-fly, Eurytoma Secalis. It is intermediate between 
 the Joint-worm fly and the New York barley fly, its anterior and 
 posterior shanks being du'l pale yelloio, the middle ones only 
 being black. 
 
 These four insects are closely alike in their size, form and 
 • sculpture, the differences in the color of their legs being the 
 most conspicuous and almost the only character whereby they 
 are distinguished from each other. The males are much less 
 numerous than the females and are usually smaller in size, with 
 the abdomen of a different form. It is oval and somewhat 
 depressed or flattened in the females, and when I had before me 
 specimens of this sex only, 1 much doubted whether they right¬ 
 fully pertained to the genus Eurytoma. It is the males only 
 which present the characters assigned to this genus by authors. 
 In these the abdomen is compressed, more strongly so in some 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 841 
 
 JOINT-WORM FLY. HA HITS. REMEDY. BLACK-LEGQED BARLEY FLY. 
 
 species than in others, the Eurytoma Hordei presenting the gen¬ 
 eric characters more perfectly than either of the three other 
 species. 
 
 The joint worm remains in its cell in its larva state through 
 the winter, and changes to a pupa with the first warm days of 
 spring. Its final transformation takes place and the flies come 
 out from the straw during the first half of May. With their 
 stings they pierce the green stalks of the grain and insert their 
 eggs therein, one in a place, usually just above the lower joints, 
 and from these eggs come the worms which are afterwards found 
 there upon dissecting the straw. But if this fly is really a para¬ 
 site, it will be found that a worm is lying in the straw at each 
 point where it inserts its sting, into which worm the egg is thrust. 
 By watching one of these flies therefore, when it is thus occupied, 
 its true character may readily be ascertained. 
 
 As the joint-worm lies in the straw through the autumn and 
 winter, it will be obvious to every person that the most feasible 
 mode of combatting and destroying it is to burn the straw con¬ 
 taining it. 
 
 9. Black-legged barley-fly, Eurytoma Hordei, Harris. (Hymcnoptera, Chalcididae.) 
 
 In barley, particular stalks stunted and backward in their growth and of a yellow, sickly 
 appearance, these stalks having a hard woody swelling at one of tho lower joints, tho surface 
 of which shows little oval glossy elevations like blisters, within which is a cavity in which a 
 soft straw-colored maggot lies, which remains in tho ripened straw till the latter part of the 
 following May, when it gnaws a hole in the straw and comes out, a shining black fly resem¬ 
 bling a small ant 0.12 long and having obscure yellowish knees and feet. 
 
 In connection with the joint-worm fly which has been con¬ 
 sidered in the preceding pages, may most appropriately be given 
 an account of the three other insects which have been mentioned 
 as being most intimately related to it both in their appearance 
 and habits, although they attack other kinds of grain. And the 
 same figure 1 of plate 1 which represents the female ol one of 
 these species serves equally well to illustrate the others, they 
 aro so much alike in every respect except the colors of their legs. 
 We will proceed first to consider the species which has been 
 known the longest time, the Black-legged or Massachusetts bar- 
 ley-fiy. 
 
 It is upwards of thirty years ago that an insect malady pre¬ 
 vailed in the growing barley in the north-eastern section ot Mas¬ 
 sachusetts, whereby only a small crop of this grain could be 
 
842 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OP NEW YORK 
 
 black-legged barley fly. the diseased straw. 
 obtained, some farms producing little more than the seed which 
 was sowed. It formed the subject of several communications in 
 the New England Farmer, in 1829 and the following years, of 
 which the more important portions are extracted in the account 
 contained in Dr. Harris’s Treatise. This disease of the barley 
 had been prevailing for some years previous to these published 
 notices of it, rendering the crop so precarious that in some places 
 the cultivation of this grain had been abandoned. It was con¬ 
 jectured that the insect which occasioned this disease had been 
 imported from Bremen or some other German port, in some seed 
 barley which was sown in the vicinity of Newbury, three or four 
 years before 1829. John M. Gourgas, Esq., of Weston, Mass., 
 ascertained that the worms in the straw were transformed to 
 small flies, “ about the make and size of a small black ant, with 
 wings,” which some persons supposed to be the same as the Hes¬ 
 sian fly. Myriads of these flies were found alive in beds which 
 had been filled with the diseased straw; and an opinion pre¬ 
 vailed, that the troublesome humors with which many persons 
 were at that time afflicted in some of the places where this straw 
 was thus employed, ■were occasioned by the bites or stings of 
 these flies, in consequence of which the straw beds which were 
 found to be infested with these insects, were generally burnt. 
 
 Mr. Gourgas (New England Farmer, viii, 299) gives the follow¬ 
 ing description of the manner in which the growing grain was 
 affected. When the barley is about eight or ten inches high the 
 effects of the disease in it begin to be visible by a sudden check 
 in the growth of the plants, and the yellow color of their lower 
 leaves. If the butts of the straw are now examined, they will 
 be found to be irregularly swollen and discolored between the 
 second and third joints, and, instead of being hollow, are rendered 
 solid, hard and brittle, so that the stem above the diseased part 
 is impoverished, and seldom produces any grain. Suckers, how¬ 
 ever, shoot out below, and afterwards yield a partial crop, seldom 
 exceeding one half the usual quantity of grain. Mr. Gourgas 
 further remarks, that the quality or soundness of the grain which 
 is produced is not at all affected, the disease being seated wholly 
 in the straw, in which, and not in the kernels of the grain, the 
 eggs or seeds which perpetuate this malady from year to year 
 arc lodged. 
 
 Dr. Andrew Nichols, of Danvers, states (New England Farmer, 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 843 
 
 BLACK-LEGGED BARLEY-FLY. THE LARVA. 
 
 viiii 138) that th e worms lying in the swollen part of the barley 
 stalks, are about one-tenth of an inch in length, and of a yellow or 
 straw color; and that, in the month of November, they appeared 
 to have passed from the larva to the chrysalis state. They live 
 through the winter unchanged in the straw, many of them in the 
 stubble of the field, while others are carried away when the grain 
 is harvested. When the barley is threshed, numerous small 
 pieces of the diseased straw, too hard to be broken by the flail, 
 will be found among the grain. Some of these may be separated 
 by the winnowing machine, but many others are too large and 
 heavy to be winnowed out, and remain with the grain, from which 
 they can only be removed by the slow process of picking them 
 out by hand. 
 
 A few pieces of the diseased barley straw were furnished to 
 Dr. Harris, who found in each of them several small whitish 
 maggots, each of these being imbedded in the thickened and solid 
 substance of the stem, in a little longitudinal hollow, of the shape 
 of its own body, its presence being known by an oblong swelling 
 upon the surface. In some pieces of straw the swellings were so 
 numerous as greatly to disfigure the stem, the circulation in 
 which must have been very much checked if not destroyed. Early 
 in the following spring these maggots entered the pupa or chry¬ 
 salis state, and on the fifteenth of June the perfected insects 
 began to make their escape through minute perforations in the 
 straw, which they gnawed for this purpose. The insects con¬ 
 tinued to release themselves from their confiuement till the fifth 
 of July, after which no more were seen. Instead of a midge or 
 two-winged fly similar to the Hessian fly which he confidently 
 looked for these maggots to produce, Dr. Harris says it was 
 “ much to my surprise, they proved to be minute four-winged 
 Ichneumon-flies, which are parasitical, preying in the larva state 
 on the bodies of other insects.” These were described in the 
 New England Farmer for July 23d, 1830 (vol. ix., p. 2) under the 
 name of Eurytoma Hordei. At that time Dr. H. supposed the 
 Semiotellus destructor, (of which we have spoken on a preceding 
 page,) the parasite which destroys the larva of the Hessian fly, 
 to be a species pertaining to this same genus Eurytoma. This 
 error contributed still further to impress him with the view that 
 this barley fly, like that, was a parasite which had destroyed a 
 midge similar to tho Hessian fly, and had thus come out in its 
 
844 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 black-legged barley-fly. the fly described. 
 place. And ten years later, in the first edition of his Treatise 
 (p. 436) he says, “Although the barley-fly has not yet been seen 
 by me, there does not exist the smallest doubt in my mind that 
 it is a two-winged gnat, like the Hessian fly.” Indeed, this was 
 evidently the most intelligent and correct conclusion which he 
 could form from all the evidence which he at that time had 
 before him. 
 
 Di. Hanis represents this insect to be “very much like the 
 parasite of the Hessian fly.” The reader may judge of the simi¬ 
 larity of these two insects by comparing the magnified figure, 
 plate 1, fig. 1, with that of the Hessian fly parasite, plate 3, fig. 1. 
 Although there are many points of resemblance, there are also 
 obvious differences, which, however, become less observable in 
 nature, in consequence of the minute size of these objects. In 
 particular, the abdomen of the female barley fly has the elliptic 
 form represented in the figure, but when viewed laterally, it has 
 the egg-shaped form of the Hessian fly parasite’s abdomen,’ being, 
 however, much more long and slender than in that insect. In 
 the second edition of his Treatise Dr. Harris gives the following 
 description of this barley fly. 
 
 “The body is jet black and slightly hairy. The head and thorax are opake and rough with 
 •dilated punctures. The hind body is smooth and polished. Tho thighs, shanks, and olaw- 
 joints are blnckish; tho knees, and the other joints of tho feet are pale honey-yellow The 
 females are twelve or thirteen-hundredths of an inch long. Tho males are rather smaller, 
 and are distinguished from the females by the following characters. They have no piercer. 
 The joints of their antenna) are longer, and aro surrounded by whorls of little hairs. The 
 hind body is shorter, less pointed behind, and is connected with the thorax by a longer stem 
 or peduncle. These insects are very active, and move by little leaps; but the hindmost 
 thighs are not thickened.” 
 
 To this description it should be added that on each side of tho neck is a dull whitish trans¬ 
 verse spot. 
 
 Although this insect was so numerous in Massachusetts at the 
 period to which reference has been made, Dr. Harris, writing 
 upwards of twenty years afterwards, informs us that since that 
 time he had heard nothing more either of it or of the disease of 
 the barley which it occasions. And in no other part of the 
 country, down to this present time, has it shown itself in suffi¬ 
 cient numbers to attract public notice. The following additional 
 facts with respect to it are therefore important, indicating as 
 they do that this depredator is still lurking in our country, and 
 will no doubt at some future time become again so multiplied in 
 some locality, as to seriously injure the barley crop. 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 845 
 
 YELLOW-LEGGED BARLEY-FLY. IN CENTRAL NEW YORK. 
 
 On examining the several insects which I had collected May 
 23d, 1861, in a rye field at Salem, N. Y., by sweeping over the 
 young grain with a net, one was discovered which I identified as 
 being a female of this Massachusetts barley fly. Thereupon 
 repairing again to the same field four days afterwards, on a 
 careful search several more of the same insects were found ; and 
 returning to the same hunt again, June 5th, three males of this 
 species were obtained. We hereby learn the date when these 
 flies are naturally abroad to deposit their eggs. Those obtained 
 by Dr. Harris, it hence appears, were delayed in coming out, in 
 consequence of the artificial conditions under which they were 
 
 placed. 
 
 This rye field was inspected a few weeks after and again at 
 harvest time, but none of the stalks were discovered bent or 
 swollen at their lower joints. It would hence seem that this 
 insect was present in this grain merely for the purpose of exam¬ 
 ining it, and finding it was unsuited to its wants it forsook it and 
 went elsewhere to deposit its eggs. 
 
 10. Yellow-legged barley-fly, Eurytoma flavipcs, Fitch. (Hymenoptera. Chalcididos.) 
 
 In barley, the stalks diseased in the same manner as by tho preceding insect, and the 
 maggots therein producing similar flies, but having tho legs and also the tip of tho body. 
 bright tawny yellow. 
 
 Central New York, it is generally known, is the great barley¬ 
 growing district of this country. And in this crop the county of 
 Onondaga takes precedence of all others, it producing, according 
 to the census of 1850, nearly a third more than any other county 
 in the State, and surpassing the total amount yielded by Ohio, 
 the state which ranks next to New York in this crop. But all 
 through Central New York there has been a great change, a 
 great diminution of the barley crop within the last ten years. 
 Hon. George Geddcs, President of the State Agricultural Society, 
 in his survey of Onondaga, informs us (transactions, 1859, p. 
 332) “ Formerly we expected forty bushels to the acre; now we 
 cannot rely on more than twenty.” And he goes on to state that 
 “This falling off is principally due to the depredations of an in¬ 
 sect, described by Dr. Fitch in the Journal of our Society of 
 April 1859, and named the Yellow-legged or New York barley- 
 fly. Unless some relief from it is found, we must entirely dis¬ 
 continue raising this crop, and henceforth barley will hardly 
 appear in our census reports.” 
 
846 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 YELLOW-LEGGED BARLEY-FLY. MR. OEDDEs’ ACCOUNT OF IT. 
 
 Mr. Geddes states that “this insect attacks the crop j ust 
 before the heads appear, laying its eggs in the straw; the stalk 
 is either entirely destroyed, or if any grain is matured the leer 
 nels are small and imperfect. When the crop is thrashed, small 
 pieces of straw are seen, having enlarged places in which the 
 cells and larvrn of the insect are found.” 
 
 The first specimens of this diseased barley straw were sent to 
 the Agricultural Rooms, Albany, October 1856, by Ledyard 
 Lincklaen, Esq., of Cazenovia. An examination of this straw 
 e lowed the malady to be identical in every respect with that in 
 the Massachusetts barley as described by Dr. Harris, and the 
 worms therein corresponded fully with Prof. Cabell’s account of 
 ie Lurytoma larvae or joint-worms in the Virginia wheat. I 
 therefore was fully confident it was the Eurytoma Hordei , which 
 occasioned this disease and would be produced from this straw 
 Hoping some parasites might be obtained in company with this 
 insect, the straw was inclosed in a glass jar and set aside. Upon 
 the 23d of the following July a number of flies were noticed run- 
 mug about in this jar, and a much increased number on the 25th, 
 their transformations having been retarded, no doubt, by the 
 dryness of the straw. As there appeared to be no parasites 
 accompanying them and other engagements were pressing upon 
 me at that time, the jar was placed aside and forgotten. On 
 coming to examine it afterwards, some sixty flies were found in 
 it, dead, but otherwise in good condition for study, about a 
 quarter of the number being males. As has already been stated, 
 they led me to much more important results than I had antici¬ 
 pated. J he uniformity and constancy of the colors in their 
 bodies and limbs, as seen in such a number of examples, showed 
 that the insects of this genus are not liable to vary in this 
 respect, and that this fly in the New York barley was a species 
 distinct from that of Massachusetts and also from the joint-worm 
 of the \ lrginia wheat. It was named and described accordingly, 
 in the Journal of the Society, as has been related on a preceding 
 page. 
 
 In addition to this diseased straw from Madison county, sam¬ 
 ples of the same kind have since been'received from Hon. George 
 Geddes of Onondaga, G. C. Bradley of Jefferson, Win. H. Davis 
 of St. Lawrence and Wm. D. Cook of Wayne counties, thus show- 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 847 
 
 yellow-legged barley-fly. the diseased straw, the larva. 
 ing that this insect has extended itself over all that portion of 
 the State where barley is most extensively cultivated. . 
 
 On particularly inspecting the diseased barley straw it will be 
 observed that when there are only two or three worms in it, 
 lying slightly distant from each other, the stalk does not become 
 bent or swollen into a knotty enlargement. On stripping off the 
 outer sheath the point where each worm is lodged in the central 
 or main stalk is indicated by a slightly elevated, smooth, glossy, 
 oval spot, resembling a blister, placed lengthwise ol the stalk. 
 On the surface of this spot the fine elevated lines which form the 
 longitudinal fibres or veins of the straw are almost wholly oblit¬ 
 erated, whilst around the margin of the spot these lines are 
 crowded together and more or less wavy and distorted from their 
 natural straight and parallel position. But where a number of 
 the worms are nestled in the same part of the stalk, as they usu¬ 
 ally are, just above one of the lower joints, the whole stalk 
 becomes thickened and swollen, hard, knotty and of a wood-like 
 texture, and so bent, so distorted and grown out of shape, that 
 its natural structure is almost wholly obliterated. Upon the 
 outer surface of this swelling several of the same elevated, glossy, 
 blister-like spots occur which are noticed above. In cutting into 
 one of these spots an oval cavity or cell is there found, about 
 0.18 long and 0.05 wide, in which a worm resides. These cells 
 are usually situated in the walls of the central stalk, though they 
 sometimes occur also in the sheath which surrounds the stalk. 
 but the straw is so much distorted and its structure is so changed 
 and confused that it is frequently impossible to determine whe¬ 
 ther it is in the outer sheath or the central stalk that these cells 
 are formed ; the hollow in the centre of the straw being nearly or 
 quite obliterated, in consequence of being encroached upon by 
 these cells. The walls of the cells are quite thin, both above or 
 over the worm, and beneath or between it and the central cavity 
 so thin that they are slightly translucent. The surface on the 
 inner side of the cells is smooth, and shows near its lower end a 
 few small, black, shining grains, like scales, adhering to it; 
 which are probably the feces of the worm. 
 
 The worm or larva which lies in this cavity is about 0.14 long 
 and 0.04 or slightly less in thickness. It is shining and of a 
 very pale yellow color, almost white. It is straight, motionless, 
 destitute of feet and of a distinct head, of an oval form, slightly 
 
848 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 YEIXOW-LEGGED BABLEY-FLY. THE FLY DESCRIBED. 
 
 more rounded at its anterior than at its hind end, and its mouth 
 is indicated by a transverse dark brown line formed by its jaws 
 It is divided by fine impressed transverse lines into segments or 
 rings, of nearly equal length, the number of which is usually 
 twelve, though sometimes thirteen are visible. 
 
 I present, in conclusion, a full description of this species, as 
 drawn up on a careful comparison of numerous specimens, in 
 their dried state; and this description will also apply in most 
 of its particulars to the two preceding and also to the following 
 species. ° 
 
 The female of the yellow-legged barley-fly (see plate 1, fig. 1,) is 0.12 or 0.13 in length 
 to tho end of the body. 6 
 
 The HEAD, viewed from above, is nearly twice as wide as long, convex in front, concave at 
 base, and isclosely and irregularly punctured and bearded with short gray hairs. It is black 
 w.th the mouth chestnut red. The antennae are black with their basal joint paio tawny yel¬ 
 low V hen turned backward they reach a third of the length of the thorax. They are 
 bearded w.th small blaok Iristles which incline forwards. Theyare perceptibly thicker towards 
 their tips and arc composed apparently of ten joints, whereof the two or three last ones are 
 usually so compacted together as to appear as a single joint much longer than those which 
 preoede it. The first joint is long, somewhat tapering and less thick than tho following 
 joints, with which it forms an elbow. The second joint is shortest and the third is longer 
 than those which follow it. The fourth and following joints are little longer than wide, 
 s laped like a tea-cup, their bases being rounded and their tips out off transversely. Tho 
 last joint is longer than that which precedes it, and is a little narrowed towards its tip, the 
 end being bluntly rounded. 
 
 The thorax is oval and about three times as long as broad, broader across its middle than 
 the head, its anterior end blunt and abruptly rounded, conforming to the concavity of the 
 base of tho head. Its collar is half as long as wide and is distinctly separated by a smooth, 
 Shining, elevated, transverse lino, which bounds it posteriorly, this lino being bowed and 
 parallel with the rounded anterior end of the thorax'. Viewed Iatorallv the thorax 
 approaches to a crescent in its shape, the back being very convex or arched, wi'th its anterior 
 end obliquely cut off by the head. Its surface is rough punctured and finely bearded, like 
 the head, and of a black color. On each side of its anterior end a pale dull yellow dot, 
 elevated and smooth, is usually perfectly distinct. 
 
 The ABDOMEN is of tho same length with the thorax, but scarcely as broad. Viewed from 
 above it is king oval, with the sting protruded and forming a sharp, attenuated point at its 
 ip. The back is excavated or occupied by a long oval hollow, extending from near tho base 
 to the tip. It is divided by fine transverse lines into five segments of nearly equal length. 
 Viewed laterally it has tho form of a long cone with its base homisphcrically rounded. Its 
 surface is highly polished, smooth and shining, of a black color with tho attenuated point at 
 its tip dull pale yellow. 
 
 The LEOS are shining, pale tawny yellow, nearly the hue of bccs-wax, with tho feet 
 whitish and their tips black. They are of equal thickness, the anterior pair being shortest. 
 The hind shanks are slightly curved. The shanks are armed similarly to kindred species of 
 this g oup; that is to say, near the tip of tho fore shanks on their inner side is a large cylin¬ 
 drical spur which reaches half tho length of the basal joint of the feet and is forked at its 
 tip, the outer fork being twice the length of the inner one, sharp-pointed and incurved j the 
 middle shanks have a single spine at their tips, and the hind ones have a pair. The feet arc 
 five-jointed, the basal and apical joints being about equal in length and tho middlo ones 
 shorter, the fourth one shortest. The four forward feet have at their ends a single too, 
 which is scarcely as thick as the joint to which it is appended, is longer than thick, and is 
 inclined obliquely inward ; and from its apex projects a hoof or nail of a oonicul form, the 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 840 
 
 RYE-FLY. IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 width of its base equalling its length. The hind feet instead of this too and nail have at 
 their ends a pair of hooks. 
 
 The WINGS are transparent, glassy and colorless, except on the disk of the forward pair 
 adjacent to the inner side of the rib-vein, where a large smoky yellowish cloud is faintly per¬ 
 ceptible. The rib-vein is fringed with long hairs, liko oyo-lnshes, along its outer side; it 
 unites with the outer margin in its middle, and continues thus united for a short distance 
 only, before it gives off tho stigmal branch, which branch is short, thickened at its ond, and 
 notched, tho outer tooth being small and slender. 
 
 Tho mai.es are smaller than the females, measuring 0.10 to the end of their wings, which 
 reach a little beyond the end of tho body. Their antennae are also longer, reaching half tho 
 length of the body, and arc thread-liko or of equal thickness through their whole length, 
 and thinly boarded with short robust bristles. They are oomposed apparently of nine joints, 
 which aro of a'cylindrical form, three times as long as thick, the second joint being shortest, 
 but little longer than thick, and the third joint longer than those which follow it. The 
 joints aro separated by a wido notch on their upper side at each articulation. The last 
 joint is rather longor than those which procode it and tapers to an acute point at its tip. 
 The abdomen is shorter than the thorax and of a flattened oval form. Tho thighs arc black 
 at their bases and the hind pair is wholly black, except at their tips. The hind shanks also 
 are dusky at their tips. 
 
 The joints of the antennas in the males of this species are not 
 surrounded with whorls of hairs as they are in Eurytoma Hordei. 
 It perhaps does not rightfully pertain to this genus, therefore, 
 though I see no other one in which it can be included. 
 
 11. Rye-fly, Eurytoma Sccalis, Fitch. (Ilymenoptora. Chalcidida).) 
 
 In rye, particular stalks stunted and bent at one of their lower joints, whore is a hard 
 woody swelling, the surface of which show's little smooth blister-like elevations within which 
 is a cavity in which lies a soft white or straw-colored maggot, which remains in the ripened 
 straw till tho latter part of tho following May, wheu it guaws a hole in the straw and comos 
 out, a shining black fly resembling a small ant 0.10 long, its knees and feet and its fore and 
 hind shanks pale dull yellow, the middle shanks black. 
 
 In August, 1S60, Daniel Steck, Esq., of Lycoming county, 
 Pennsylvania, transmitted to the office of the American Agricul¬ 
 turist, several pieces of rye straw, containing the larva) of an 
 insect which had made its appearance in his vicinity and was 
 attracting notice by the injury it was threatening to do to this 
 grain crop. In May 18G1, additional slips of this diseased straw 
 were sent by him, two of which were forwarded to me for infor¬ 
 mation as to what insect this was, Mr. Stock himself supposing 
 it to bo a Ceoidomyia analogous to the Hessian fly. The straws 
 received were of the previous year’s growth, which had been 
 kept in a cool place, whereby the insect had probably been some¬ 
 what retarded in completing its transformations. They reached 
 me on the first of June, and the flies were then coming out from 
 the straw. In a few days fifteen specimens were obtained, all 
 save one being females. 
 
 Tho disease in the straw was plainly the same as that in bar- 
 
 [Ag. Trans.] 54 
 
850 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 RYE-FLY. ITS DISTINCTIVE MARKS. 
 
 ley, produced by the two insects which have last been considered 
 and with that in wheat caused by the joint-worm. In these sam¬ 
 ples of the straw the cells in which the larvae were contained 
 were situated in the walls of the central stalk, not in the sheath 
 surrounding it. And the flies though closely akin to those of the 
 barley and wheat were not identical with either of those species 
 They were most nearly like those of the joint-worm fly, from 
 which they were observed to differ in every instance, in having 
 the hind pair of shanks dull pale yellow, as well as the forward 
 ones. An article was hereupon communicated and published in 
 the American Agriculturist, August 1861, (vol. xx., p. 235,) in 
 which 1 described this species under the name of Eurytoma Secalis 
 or the Rye-fly. 
 
 As the disease which this insect causes in the rye is in every 
 particular like that in barley and wheat which has been so fully 
 described in the preceding pages, and the insect itself differs so 
 little from the foregoing ones, any extended account of it and its 
 operations is unnecessary. I therefore have only to add that this 
 rye fly is very slightly smaller than the other species, the female 
 in different examples measuring 0.10 and 0.11 in length, and the 
 male is scarcely if at all inferior in size to the other sex. The 
 hind shanks are slightly dusky and less bright than the forward 
 ones, but are manifestly paler than the middle ones. An obscure 
 brown dot or lunule is faintly perceptible on each side of the 
 neck. The male, in the structure of his antennae, the form of his 
 abdomen, &c., corresponds with the description alreadj’' given of 
 the yellow-legged barley-fly. 
 
 Alfei giving these lour Chalcidian insects, which come from 
 larvae lying in closed cells in different kinds of grain, such a par- 
 ticulai review as I have done in preparing this account of them, 
 
 I ought not to dismiss the subject without remarking that I do 
 not in the least doubt that they are the real cause of the disease 
 which we see in the grain. Were they parasites, so very nume¬ 
 rous as they have been in the straw in particular instances, I 
 cannot but think this disease in the straw would have ceased, 
 instead o 1 continuing on as it has done, year after year, with no 
 material abatement. And further, were they parasites, I cannot 
 but think that in some of the many instances in which I have 
 bred these insects, I should have obtained their foster parent, or 
 should at least have noticed some remaining vestiges of it, or 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 851 
 
 RYE-FLY. THESE FLIES ARE NOT PARASITES. 
 
 some other circumstance to indicate its existence. But the only 
 evidence we have that an insect of another kind occurs in the dis¬ 
 eased grain for these Chalcidians to prey upon, is the larva which 
 I saw in the Virginia wheat from Mr. Rives. I cannot doubt but 
 that was a Cecidoinyia larva. I therefore have carefully cast 
 over in my thoughts the circumstances under which this larva 
 was found, and I am led to suspect that there might have been 
 an error attending it. According to the recollection which I 
 have, the description I gave was drawn up from a single speci¬ 
 men, this being the only perfect specimen which I met with in 
 the stalks. All the others were smaller, discolored, and so soft I 
 judged them to be in an incipient state of decay and putridity. 
 I now suspect these smaller, tarnished individuals, were the real 
 joint-worms, and that the worm from which my description was 
 taken was a larva of the Hessian fly, which happened to be pre¬ 
 sent in the same stalk; and that the structure of the stalk was 
 so much confused and obliterated that I did not and perhaps 
 could not ascertain with certainty whether this particular worm 
 was lying in a cell which was perfectly closed, like those in which 
 the other worms were lying, as I took it for granted that the 
 worms were all of one kind and that their cells would conse¬ 
 quently be alike. I hasten to state these circumstances, lest an 
 importance be attached to the occurrence of this Cecidomyian 
 larva in the Virginia wheat, which it may not, after all, be 
 entitled to. 
 
 12. Yellow-bellied Janus, Janus Jlaviventris, new species. (Hymenoptera. 
 
 Tenthredinidso.) 
 
 13. Thhee-stotted Cepiius, Phyllcrcus trimaculatus, Say. (Hymcnoptera. 
 
 Tenthredinidffi.) 
 
 In rye fields towards harvest time, scattering heads of tho grain remaining erect and having 
 a prematurely ripo appoarancc, the straw bored its whole length by a footless worm a half 
 inch long. 
 
 Iii Europe ono of the insects most noticed by writers as inju¬ 
 rious to the rye crop is a saw-fly three tenths of an inch long, of 
 a shining black color, with a bright yellow mouth, legs, and spots 
 on its hind body. It is named Cephus pygmceus, and forms the 
 lype of a small group, named Cep/ndes, in the family Tenthredi- 
 nida. It resembles a small wasp, except that its fore and hind 
 body are closely united together, and not separated by the strong 
 contraction which is observed in the wasp. This fly becomes 
 common in the rye fields towards tho end of May, the female 
 
852 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 YELLOW-BELLIED JANUS. DESCRIPTION OF THE FLY'. 
 
 inserting an egg in the stalk or straw, just below the ear. From 
 this egg hatches a tapering, white footless worm, which feeds 
 upon the soft pithy substance that lines the cavity in the centre 
 of the straw, perforating the partitions at the joints as it works 
 its way downward to the root, which it reaches about harvest 
 time, and there incloses itself in a thin transparent case, in 
 which it remains through the winter. Burning the rye stubble 
 after harvest is regarded as the best measure for destroying this 
 insect. Other saw-flies of the genus Cep/ius are found in Europe, 
 in company with this, and are supposed to have the same habits. 
 
 In our American rye fields we some years see particular heads 
 of the grain affected in the same way as above stated. But 
 during the tYvo past summers 1 have been unable to find any 
 such in my own vicinity, and hence have not had an opportunity 
 to ascertain the kind of worm that in our country occasions this 
 disease. It may be some of those species of Chlorops which were 
 noticed in my second report as producing a similarly prematurely 
 ripened appearance in wheat; or it may prove, in some instances 
 at least, to be some saw-lly of -this country nearly related to 
 the Cephus pygmeeus. A New York insect of this kind, the 
 same in size with the European species, and coming abroad 
 like it the last of May, has the hind body cylindrical instead 
 of being compressed, and consequently' pertains to the genus 
 Janus. It is a pretty little fly of a shining black color, with 
 the hind body lemon yrnllow except at its base, its mouth 
 being straw-colored, and also the hind margin of its collar, 
 the base of its wings, a small spot above their sockets, and the 
 fore and hind margins of the metathorax. The hind body is 
 narrower than the fore body' and more narrow and long than in 
 the typical species of this genus, forming almost two-thirds ol 
 the total length of the insect, its basal segment is black, edged 
 anteriorly with straw yellow, and Yvitli a slender line of this 
 color along its middle, ending in a large triangular spot. The 
 second sogment is also black except at its hind end; and on the 
 sides is a blackish cloud on the sutures of each of the remaining 
 segments. The wings are hyaline and glassy, their stigma sooty 
 brown, which color extends inward, occupying most of the ante¬ 
 rior marginal cell. A faint smoky cloud may also be perceived 
 near the middle of the posterior apical cell, and another along 
 the margin of the anterior one. The hind feet are dusky. 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 853 
 
 THREE-SPOTTED CEPHUS. DESCRIPTION OP TIIE FLY. 
 
 No American representative of the genus Janus has hitherto 
 been described, that I am aware, and the few European species 
 pertaining to it are rarely met with by collectors. As the color 
 of its hind body distinguishes our insect from the other known 
 species of this genus, it may most appropriately be named the 
 Yellow-bellied Janus, J. flaviventris. 
 
 A kindred but larger insect, of which a pair found in Pennsyl¬ 
 vania, were described by Mr. Say under the name Cephus trimacu- 
 latus, occurs in New York also, making its appearance the fore 
 part of June. This insect has the aspect of a very slender Tremex 
 with the abdomen compressed as in Ophion. Its antennae aro 
 27-jointed ; hence it pertains to the genus Phyllcecus of Mr. New¬ 
 man. These organs are thickest in their middle and taper insen¬ 
 sibly towards each end, the sub-basal joints being less than half 
 the diameter ot the middle ones, and cylindric. The third joint 
 is four times as long as thick and is slightly curved, and the 
 fourth joint is a third shorter. 
 
 this insect is black with a small white spot on each side of 
 the middle of the hind body and a larger egg-shaped one on its 
 base, from which spots it has received its name. The orbits or 
 edges of its eye sockets have a white dot above and a white 
 streak below the antennae sockets, and the mandibles aro dull 
 white, except at their tips. Its wings are smoky-violaceous and 
 transparent. In the second cubital cell is a black dot, placed 
 near the anterior end of its inner margin; and the vein, from 
 this dot to the anterior end of this cell, is margined on each sido 
 with a short white line. The anterior inner discoidal cell has a 
 smoky spot on the middle of its hind side. Most of the middle 
 and posterior veinlets have a white band on their inner or on 
 both their ends. The male varies in length from 0.48 to 0.55, 
 and the female is a third larger. 
 
854 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 WHEAT MIDGE. 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTICE OP THE WHEAT MIDGE. 
 
 THE FLIES OBSERVED, HATCHING IN OLD WHEAT FIELDS. 
 
 Although it has heretofore been sufficiently certain that most 
 of the flies of the wheat midge are hatched each year in the fields 
 in which wheat was grown the year before, we have no record 
 that any examination of these old wheat fields has ever been 
 made, to discover whether these flies were really present in them. 
 And in the history of this insect which I gave in my last report, 
 in remarking upon the male flies, which have never been found 
 except in a very few instances, I advanced the opinion that this 
 sex was probably as numerous as the females ; that the sexes 
 pair immediately after they come forth, and the males remain 
 where they are born and do not accompany the females when the 
 latter fly away in search of the new wheat fields; and that I was 
 confident collectors of insects would readily supply themselves 
 with specimens of the male flies by searching for them in the old 
 instead of the new wheat fields. After having thus expressed 
 this opinion, I of course became anxious to ascertain by actual 
 observation whether what I had stated was correct. I accord¬ 
 ingly have now made a special investigation of this subject. This 
 investigation was so accurately conducted, and is of such an inter¬ 
 esting nature, that it merits to be fully reported as an important 
 addition to the history which I have given ot the wheat midge. 
 I therefore present it in the words in which it is written in my 
 diary. 
 
 June 12, 1862. This is the day on which the flies of the wheat 
 midge usually begin to appear. But the season, this year, is 
 remarkably backward, cold and dry. Not a single hot sultry day 
 have we yet had. And different plants, I have noticed, are a week or 
 ten days later than their usual time, in flowering; and every kind 
 of insect is equally tardy in making its first appearance. I there¬ 
 fore do not expect the midge flies yet, for some days. But, to see 
 how many of these flies will come out from a small space of ground, 
 and how long new flies will continue to come forth, I to-day get 
 ready for them. I go to Deacon L.’s field, in which the midge 
 larvae were so plenty in the wheat heads last year, although lie 
 had a tolerably satisfactory crop. The field is now overgrown 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 855 
 
 WHEAT MIDGE. 
 
 with clover and grass. I select a spot a few paces inside of the 
 south-east corner of the field. With shears I cut off the herbage 
 smooth to the surface of the ground. I fasten down to the ground 
 the mouth of a gauze net twelve inches in diameter, confining it 
 by little slanting pegs driven into the ground. I heap a little 
 ridge of dry sand around it, whereby no fly can crawl in or out 
 under the edge of the net. I barricade it around with old frag¬ 
 ments of rails, that no cattle may walk over and trample upon it. 
 I go and inform the proprietor of what I have done, and why I 
 have done it. He promises not to disturb the net, and hopes no 
 mischievous boy will meddle with it. I think some flies .will 
 hatch under this net; still, it may be that no larvae descended 
 last summer in the exact spot which it covers. 
 
 June 14. Going to the net, I see through the thin gauze that 
 no flies have yet come out under it. 
 
 June 16. The idea has been extensively entertained that a frost 
 occurring just as the midge is about to appear, will kill it. Now 
 I shall know if there is any truth in this conjecture. There was 
 a pretty hard frost last night, cutting off beans and all other 
 young tender vegetation. And to-day is so cold, after freezing 
 out of my study this morning, I kindle a fire to make it comfort¬ 
 able sitting there through the day. As nothing will hatch under 
 the net in such weather, I do not visit it. 
 
 June 18. Still cool. Nothing yet appears inside of the net. 
 
 June 20. Last night was rather warm; so I was pretty confi¬ 
 dent the midge would begin to hatch. And going to the net, 
 after tea, I see two yellow flies resting on the gauze inside, which 
 are unmistakably the midge. To-night is cloudy, with slight 
 rain, and I see a single fire-fly sparkling in the dark air, the 
 first I have seen this year. This is the best mark we have, to 
 inform us when the midge flies are first beginning to appear. 
 
 June 21. Cool and rainy. At sunset I find three more yellow 
 flies in the net. I raise the edge of the net sufficiently to get one 
 of them into a vial, and I destroy the others. The captured one 
 I examine carefully, and am thus certain it is the midge which is 
 appearing in the net. I sweep the wet clover with another net, 
 and find it collects numbers of these flies, and the pocket magni¬ 
 fier shows a large portion of them to be males. 
 
 June 23. Mild, pleasant weather, and to-day warm, favorable 
 to the hatching of insects. On going to the net, after tea, 1 find 
 
856 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 WHEAT MIDGE. 
 
 eight flies in it, which I destroy. Then, upon walking around iu 
 the field I find the midge flies are quite numerous everywhere in 
 it, flying about, low down in the vacancies between the herbage, 
 and others alighted and resting upon it. And when the open 
 mouth of a vial is approached towards one of them, to inclose it 
 therein, when it gets within an inch or two of the fly, the latter 
 suddenly opens its wings and “ skedaddles ”—to use a slang term 
 which has recently become current in our country. With three 
 or four sweeps of the net I capture a multitude of them. I 
 inclose ten of them in vials, and on examining these the following 
 morning, I find five of them are males, and these are all dead, 
 whilst the females are all alive; showing that the latter possess 
 much more vitality and are longer-lived than the former. Both 
 sexes are alike in their colors, their bodies being lemon yellow 
 Avith the thorax orange yellow above, and usually slightly smoky 
 on its fore part. The males are 0.06 long. A wing of a female, 
 laid upon a scale, measures 0.09 by 0.045; a wing of a male is 
 scant 0.07 by plump 0.03. 
 
 June 24. A cool rainy night and day, thermometer at 58 0 . 
 Find two midges in the net, a male and female, which I destroy. 
 
 June 26. Yesterday rainy, the thermometer at 58°.. To-day 
 pleasant, but cool. Find three midges in the net, all males, and 
 also a black midge of the same size with the yellow ones. 
 
 June 28. Warm and pleasant, thermometer at 75°. Find but one 
 midge in the net. I suppose the hatch has now probably closed. 
 
 July 1. The weather continues warm and pleasant. On going 
 to the net I find nine midges in it, four of them males; also two 
 small flies, probably of the Chlorops genus. And among the clover 
 in all parts of the field the midge flies continue to be plenty. 
 
 July 3. Warm and pleasant. I find four more midges in 
 the net. 
 
 July 5. Yesterday pleasant, and to-day a hot sun will roast 
 out of the ground any midges which may yet be remaining 
 therein. On going to the net at sunset, I find there is nothing in 
 it; and being satisfied these insects have finished hatching, I 
 take up the net. I have, therefore, as the result of these obser¬ 
 vations, that thirty-two of these midge-flies came out of the 
 ground within a circle a foot in diameter, the hatch commencing 
 on the nineteenth of June and ending on the third of July, thus 
 continuing for a fortnight. 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 857 
 
 explanation of plate one and two. 
 
 EXPLANATION OP THE PLATES WHICH ACCOMPANY 
 THE SIXTH AND SEVENTH REPORTS ON INSECTS. 
 
 Plate 1. 
 
 Fig. 1. Joint-worm fly, magnified, the cross lines on its left indi¬ 
 cating its natural size, as in other instances. 
 
 2. Angoumois moth. 
 
 3. The same, newly hatched and extricating itself from a 
 
 kernel of wheat. 
 
 4. Mistaken parasite. 
 
 a. Its antenna, more highly magnified. 
 
 b. Antenna of the midge larva parasite, (from Curtis.) 
 
 5. Grain aphis, the winged female. 
 
 6. The same, the wingless female. 
 
 Plate 2. 
 
 Fig. 1. Wheat midge, female. 
 a. Its natural size. 
 
 2. Spotted-winged midge, ( Cecidomyia caliptera .) 
 
 3. Dusky-backed midge, C. tergata. 
 
 4. Wheat midge, male. 
 
 5. Wing of the spotted-winged midge. 
 
 6. Antenna of the male wheat midge, greatly magnified. 
 
 1. The same of the female. 
 
 8. Eggs ol the wheat midge, greatly magnified. 
 
 9. A head of wheat,.the chaffs at ** opened by the yellow 
 
 bird to pick the worms from the kernels of the grain, 
 the kernels remaining at ff. 
 
 10. A flower of wheat, opened to show the worms lying upon 
 
 the kernel. 
 
 a. The glume or outermost scale of the chaff. 
 
 b. The outer jialea or the bearded chaff. 
 
 c. The inner palea or inner chaff. 
 
 d. The germ or young kernel. 
 
 11. Larva of the wheat midge, as commonly seen, in repose. 
 
 a. Its natural size. 
 
 12. The same, when crawling on a wet surface, with its 
 
 horns fully extended. 
 a. Its natural size. 
 
858 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 EXPLANATION OF PLATE THREE. 
 
 Pig. 13. Anterior end of the same, when attempting to crawl 
 upon a dry surface, its head being drawn in and 
 only the ends of its horns visible. 
 
 14. Hind end of the same, with sharp teeth protruded to 
 
 aid it in moving. 
 
 15. Ovipositor as figured by Mr. Curtis. 
 
 16. Ovipositor correctly represented, composed of telescopic- 
 
 like tubes. 
 
 a. Two finger-like appendages, to guide the egg to its 
 
 place. 
 
 b. A slender tube, bearded to hold the implement 
 
 securely. 
 
 c. A larger tube into which the preceding one shuts. 
 
 d. The last joints of the body, into which the oviposi¬ 
 
 tor is withdrawn. 
 
 Fig. 11. Wheat midge with wings closed, as when standing or 
 walking. 
 
 18. Wing of the spotted-winged wheat midge, Cecidomyia 
 
 graminis. 
 
 19. Larva of the Hessian fly. 
 
 d. Its natural size. 
 
 Plate 3. 
 
 Pig. 1. Hessian fly parasite, Semiotellus destructor. 
 
 a. Its natural size. 
 
 2. Hessian fly, male. 
 
 3. The same, female. 
 
 b. Its natural size. 
 
 c. Female antenna. 
 
 d. Male antenna. 
 
 e. Tip of the male abdomen, and its hooks. 
 
 f. Profile view of the head. 
 
 g. Larva. 
 
 h. Flax-seed or larva case, its upper side. 
 
 i. The same, under side. 
 
 j. The same, viewed laterally. 
 
 k. Dormant larva, taken out of the flax-seed. 
 
 l. Pupa, taken out of the flax-seed. 
 
 m. Wheat stalk, its sheath broken away, showing the 
 
 young worms on their way downwards to the 
 joint. 
 

HfKKitjit t'hj 
 
 Vt=A / 
 
 l , t n«i 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 859 
 
 EXPLANATION OP PLATE THREE. 
 
 n. and o. Wheat stalks, the sheath broken away, show¬ 
 ing the flax seeds in their ordinary situation. 
 p. Antenna of the male parasite. 
 
 A. Appearance of a healthy (*) and of a diseased (f) 
 
 shoot of wheat in autumn, the worms lying at 
 
 B. Appearance of a healthy (**) and two diseased 
 
 stalks of wheat; (ff) the stalk broken from being 
 weakened by worms; (§§) the lower end of the 
 sheath swollen from worms within, and perforated 
 by parasites coming from two of those worms. 
 
EIGHTH REPORT 
 
 ON THE 
 
 NOXIOUS AND OTHER INSECTS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 STATE OF NEW YORK. 
 
 By ASA FITCH, M. D., 
 
 ENTOMOLOGIST OP THE NEW YORK STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 [Copy-right secured to the Author.] 
 
 Executive Committee N. Y. Stale Agricultural Society : — 
 
 In presenting this my Eighth Report upon the Noxious and other Insects 
 of the State, I have it to observe, that, as the preceding year, 1861, fur 
 nished a profuse amount of material for my examinations—not only bringing 
 out our customary insects in unusual abundance, but superadding to them 
 such important subjects as the Grain Aphis and the Army Worm — so the 
 present year, 1862, has been a most barren one. On no previous occasion 
 since I have been occupied in these researches, have I been at any loss for 
 suitable subjects for study. It was my design to this year continue and 
 complete my examination of the remaining insects which are detrimental 
 to our grain crops. But, with the exception of the Aphis and the Midge 
 in very limited numbers, our fields of grain were singularly clean and free 
 from insect vermin. That profusion of flies, bugs and leaf-hoppers which 
 we are accustomed to meet with in them, particularly in fields of green 
 wheat, failed this year to make their appearance. Our fruit trees had a 
 similar exemption, even the curculio having vanished from them; and as a 
 consequence, such a crop of fruit was harvested as has seldom before been 
 gathered by the present generation. These remarks apply not only to my 
 own vicinity but to the State generally, although I have become informed 
 of particular localities which were exceptions. 
 
 Thus, when the season for berng actively engaged in my investigations 
 arrived, I was not a little disconcerted to discover a total want of any 
 interesting material in the fields, the orchards and the forests around me, 
 on which to bestow my attention. The only subjects for study which I 
 was able to meet with in sufficient plenty to favor their investigation were 
 the excrescences or galls upon the oaks and other trees and shrubs. These 
 I had examined and partially reported upon four years ago. And it was 
 now remarkable to observe what a change had taken place in these galls 
 Ag. Trans. PP 
 
ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 658 
 
 Some of the kinds, of which four and five years ago I could find scarcely any 
 examples, and was' therefore able to give but a meager and imperfect ac¬ 
 count of them, were now growing upon the trees in abundance, and with 
 them others which were wholly new to me; whilst some kinds which were 
 then most common and which I had studied most fully had now become 
 exceedingly rare or had totally disappeared. I accordingly returned to an 
 examination of these excrescences, and devoted the fore part of the season 
 to them, anticipating that they would perhaps be the only subjects which 
 the year would bring to me, from which to prepare this present Report. 
 
 The appearance, however, of the Asparagus Beetle upon Long Island 
 unexpectedly brought to me another subject for investigation, which was 
 of much greater moment and of more immediate consequence than these 
 gall insects of our forest trees; and it seemed to be of paramount impor¬ 
 tance that this new and surpassingly destructive insect should have its 
 habits and transformations ascertained and that full information respecting 
 it should be promptly communicated to the public. To this subject, there¬ 
 fore, my attention became’directed during the latter part of the season. 
 And on coming to make up this Report, as none of our Garden Insects have 
 yet been treated upon in this series of papers, I have thought that some of 
 these which I was prepared to elucidate and on which I had interesting 
 matter to communicate, might most appropriately accompany the Asparagus 
 Beetle—thus making these Garden Insects my leading theme upon this 
 occasion, and deferring tire new matter which has been acquired upon Fruit 
 Insects until additional observations will enable me to work it up in a more 
 finished shape than I shall at present be able to give it; although the omis¬ 
 sion of so considerable a portion of the year’s researches will render this 
 Report more curtailed than its predecessors have usually been. 
 
 Respectfully submitted. 
 
 ASA FITCH. 
 
8TATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 659 
 
 ASPARAGUS BEETLE. A EUROPEAN INSECT, NEWLY INTRODUCED HERE 
 
 INSECTS INFESTING GARDENS. 
 
 1. Asparagus Beetle, Crioceris dsparagi, Linn. (Coleoptera. Crioceridae.) 
 
 Upon asparagus stalks, throughout th« summer, eating irregular roundish spots in the bark; 
 oblong shining blue-black beetles about a quarter of an inch long, with a tawny red fore body and 
 three bright lemon yellow spots on each wing-cover; and with them ou the stalks their larvae, 
 which arc soft bodied, thrice as long as thick, thicker posteriorly, of a dull ash gray or obscure 
 olive color, with black heads and legs, of which there are three pairs all placed upon the breast. 
 
 Much the most important entomological event in our State the present year 
 (1862) has been the appearance upon the asparagus on Long Island of an 
 insect new to us in this country, and doing great injury to this important crop, 
 threatening even its total destruction. This insect has accordingly been the 
 most prominent subject for investigation which has occurred to me since my 
 last Report was prepared. And I accordingly here present the researches 
 which have l;eeu made and the facts obtained respecting it and the vegetation 
 on which it preys—for, as every one will be aware upon a moment’s reflection, 
 to enable us to discover the most effectual modes of combating an insect 
 enemy, it is necessary that we know not only the history, habits and lurking 
 places of the insect itself during each of the several states or stages of its 
 life, but that we be also well acquainted with the vegetation which it attacks, 
 its nature, mode of cultivation and all the circumstances attending its germi¬ 
 nation and growth. 
 
 Our garden asparagus, it merits to be observed, is a native of the southern 
 and central countries of Europe, growing wild there, in sandy soils, mostly 
 adjacent to the salt water. The succulent young heads which shoot up from 
 its roots are so tender and palatable as to have rendered it one of the choicest 
 of culinary vegetables and to have brought it into cultivation in gardens from 
 time immemorial. By the writers of ancient Rome, Pliny, Cato and others, 
 it is spoken of and extolled, the same as by writers of the present day. 
 
 In its native countries we see three and perhaps more insects are recorded 
 as feeding upon and injuring the asparagus. One of these being quite com¬ 
 mon is a great pest to the European gardeners. It is called the Asparagus 
 Beetle and in works of science is named Crioceris Asparagi. It appears to 
 abound everywhere that the asparagus is cultivated upon the eastern continent, 
 and at times becomes so multiplied in particular districts as to greatly injure 
 or even ruin the plants. Kollar, in his Treatise on Insects injurious to Gar¬ 
 deners and Farmers, places this as the second insect under the head of those 
 which injure gardens. 
 
 Plants of the Asparagus kind and forming the group or genus to which the 
 name Asparagus is given by botanists, are easily distinguished from other 
 
 erbaceous plants by their leaves, which are very narrow and thread-like, 
 similar to those of the larch or tamarack tree. Some of these plants are 
 oreeping vines, twining around and running over other shrubbery, or some- 
 
 ‘mes having stiff thorn-like branches whereby they hook to their supports. 
 
6C0 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 ASPARAGUS BEETLE. NO INSECTS ON OUR ASPARAGUS BEFORE. 
 
 About twenty-five species of these plants are known to botanists. They are 
 found growing wild in the temperate and tropical regions of the eastern con¬ 
 tinent, a moiety of them occurring in the neighborhood of the Cape of Good 
 Hope, and the remainder along the shores of the Mediterranean and in the 
 East Indies and Japan. 
 
 Being thus numerous and widely distributed in the old world, it is rather 
 remarkable that we have not any plant of this kind, found wild, upon the 
 American continent. And consequently we have no insects here which feed 
 upon vegetation of this nature. Therefore, when the garden asparagus was 
 introduced here from Europe, it was able to grow without molestation from 
 any insect depredator. 
 
 There is no doubt that this vegetable was brought to this side of the Atlantic 
 about the time of the first settlement of the country by Europeans. Although 
 we are unable to refer to any record definitely informing us of the time when 
 it was introduced, the fact is fully attested in the documents which have come 
 down to us from that period, that the companies of early emigrants to our 
 shores were unremitting in their efforts to introduce here all the moro valu¬ 
 able plants with which they had been acquainted in their native, countries— 
 bringing the seeds and roots with them on their emigration hither, or after¬ 
 wards receiving them from their European friends as opportunities for their 
 transmission presented. We are hereby sufficiently assured that a vegetable 
 so esteemed and so easy of cultivation as is the asparagus, would find its way 
 here immediately upon the first arrival of the settlers. And thus this plant 
 has been growing upon this continent for upwards of two hundred years, 
 wholly free from those insect enemies from which it has all along been suffer¬ 
 ing in its native regions. It is now in universal cultivation with us. Every¬ 
 where through the United States, north and south, there is not a garden of 
 any pretensions, which has not its bed of asparagus, whilst in the vicinity of 
 our largest cities, to supply the demands of their population, whole fields are 
 occupied with it. And yet, although it is growing thus extensively, neither 
 one of those insects which depredate upon it in Europe has ever been found 
 in this country, ncr do any of our American insects attack it. Thus it has 
 been our happy lot to grow this one valuable plant, wholly free from the 
 annoyance of seeing it marred and mutilated by those insect foes which give 
 us so much vexation and trouble with almost every other kind of vegetation 
 which we attempt to cultivate. 
 
 Alas that our condition, which has been so felicitous in this particular, is 
 now about to terminate—that the worst enemy to this culinary herb has at 
 length found its way to our shores, with every probability that it will multiply 
 and extend itself over our country, to remain as another evil entailed upon 
 our land through all coming time 1 
 
 It was in June last that a box came to my hands from the President of the 
 Queens County Agricultural Society, Daniel K. Young, Esq., of Matinneoock, 
 containing an insect and its larva, which in an accompanying letter was stated 
 to have newly appeared there upon the asparagus, greatly injuring and threat¬ 
 ening to totally ruin this valuable Long Island crop. This insect I at once 
 saw was the noted Asparagus Beetle, so long known and so often complained 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 661 
 
 ASPARAGUS BEETLE ASPARAGUS EXTENSIVELY CULTIVATED ON LONG ISLAND. 
 
 of in Europe. An article was thereupon furnished to the Country Gentle¬ 
 man, which appeared in that periodical the following month (vol. xx, p. 32) 
 announcing the presence of this insect in our country, and giving a descrip¬ 
 tion of it in the different stages of its life. From the imperfect information 
 which I then possessed, I supposed that, having newly arrived upon our 
 shores, it was probably limited to a small district as yet, and if so, that it 
 might be possible to crush and exterminate it, whereby our country would be 
 released from it, perhaps for a century to come, as it has been for two centu 
 ries past. 
 
 It was only by inspecting the insect in the field of its operations that such 
 a full acquaintance with it and the conditions favoring its existence could well 
 be obtained as would enable me to judge of the practicability of subduing it, 
 now, before it becomes more widely spread and more securely established. 
 As one of the most important points remaining to be discovered respecting it 
 was the state and situation in which it secretes itself during the winter season, 
 it was in the month of October, when it had mostly retired into its winter 
 quarters, that I visited Long Island on this business. 
 
 In reporting the information which I there obtained I may first allude to 
 the value of this crop upon Long Island, and the amount of loss which this 
 insect is threatening to occasion. 
 
 Some of the largest asparagus plantations are at the western extremity of 
 the island. The name of Mr. Backus was mentioned to me as having one 
 vhundred acres occupied by this plant. But attention in that vicinity is more 
 directed to other market vegetables, whereby this receives less care and is not 
 grown to so great perfection as at some other localities. The best asparagus 
 is brought to the New York market from different places along the Sound in 
 Queens county. Oyster Bay and Glen Cove in particular are noted for the 
 quality and amount of this vegetable which they export. There are steam¬ 
 boat landings, one near the north-east the other near the north-west corners 
 of the town of Oyster Bay, some thirty miles distant from New York. Be¬ 
 tween and five miles equi-distant from these two places is the hamlet and 
 post office of Matinnecock, where this plant appears to be cultivated in 
 the greatest perfection—where the premium's on asparagus of late years 
 
 awarded by the Queens County Agricultural Society have all been taken_ 
 
 and where this insect has the past summer been most destructive. The local¬ 
 ity appears to be peculiarly well adapted by nature for the growth of this 
 plant, it being a nearly level tract at the head of one of the arms of Oyster 
 Bay and but moderately elevated above the ocean level, its soil for the most 
 part a deep sand, the cultivated portions of which are kept in a high state of 
 fertility by stable manure brought by water from the city, of which one hun¬ 
 dred carman’s loads (of fourteen bushels) per acre are customarily applied_this 
 
 being the dressing given each year to the asparagus beds. The largest and 
 bast crops in this place have been grown by Peter Cock, who is now deceased. 
 Full particulars of the crops he has produced may be found in the Transac¬ 
 tions of our Society for 1860 and 1861. He has seven acres planted to 
 asparagus, his sales from which amount to two thousand dollars annually, one- 
 a f of which is clear profit. And it is in his plantation that the Asparagus 
 
662 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 ASPARAGUS BEETLE. FIRST APPEARANCE OF THIS BEETLE. ITS DESTRUCTIVENESS, 
 
 Beetle has been the most destructive. About three acres of his plants were 
 almost ruineds and the loss which he sustained the past summer from this 
 insect was full four hundred dollars. Adjoining Mr. Cock is Daniel Smith, 
 whose crop is also given in our Transactions. He has five acres, and con¬ 
 tiguous to him George It. Underhill has a similar amount. Though their 
 crops were badly injured they suffered less than Mr. Cock. 
 
 About seventy-five acres in and around Matinnecock are occupied with 
 asparagus; and should this insect continue to multiply and increase the 
 coming year as it did the past it will ruin every plantation in the place. 
 
 As is shown by the freight bills of the steamboats, this crop brings to the 
 town of Oyster Bay the sum of 820,000; one-half of which being clear profit, 
 this insect threatens to occasion a loss to this town of ten thousand dollars 
 annually. 
 
 At a conversational meeting of the Queens County Agricultural Society, 
 held in connection with its annual meeting, November 4, 1862, and reported 
 in the pamphlet edition of the Society’s Transactions, pages 6 and 7, this 
 insect was the principal topic of remark. Though the amount of asparagus 
 grown in other towns than Oyster Bay was not definitely reported, it was 
 there supposed that Flushing, Newtown and Jamaica each equaled Oyster 
 Bay, and’that the two remaining towns of the county, North Hempstead and 
 Hempstead, together produced perhaps a similar amount. The annual dead 
 loss which it was thus estimated this insect was threatening to occasion the 
 county was fifty thousand dollars. 
 
 At Matinnecock I had the pleasure of forming the acquaintance of Mr. 
 Young, President of the County Society, and was gratified to find he had 
 bestowed such particular attention upon this insect and its habits that ho was 
 able to give me exact information upon a number of points respecting which 
 I wished to inquire, and to guide me to the most favorable places for making 
 such personal examinations as I desired. The insect was first noticed at that 
 locality the year before, in July, and it was then seen that it fed upon the 
 asparagus ; but there were so very few of them that they excited no appre¬ 
 hensions. This season more were to be seen upon single stalks of the 
 asparagus than were noticed in all the grounds around there the year before. 
 
 At the conversational meeting of the County Society above referred to, Mr. 
 John Quin presented a written statement rendering it tolerably certain that 
 at Astoria this insect was first noticed in the year 1859. And I recently 
 learn that specimens of the beetle were found by the entomologist Henry 
 Ulke, somewhere in or around the city of New York, at least as early as the 
 year 1858 or ’59. Mr. Young has seen this insect at different points along 
 the north side of Long Island, whereby he knows it is at present spread a 
 distance of at least forty miles, from Williamsburgh to Huntington. 
 
 The following facts stated at the conversational meeting above alluded to, k 
 will serve to show the ravages of this insect at different localities in Queens 
 County. 
 
 At Astoria, Mr. F. ’Briell first noticed this insect on his beds in I860. 
 Their depredations wore but slight that year, wore greatly increased in ’Cl, 
 and this past summer one of his beds was entirely destroyed, the roots being 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 663 
 
 asparagus beetle, the asparagus fully naturalized.on long island 
 
 go much Teduced for want of tops to support them that he had it plowed up. 
 Capt. Monson had his beds attacked in 1860, and in 1861 the tops were badly 
 eaten, but for some unknown cause the beetles all left his grounds about the 
 last of August, whereby towards the close of the season a few new shoots 
 sprang up and grew unmolested. The last summer the hark was completely 
 eaten from all his plants and the roots showed such rapid decay that he had 
 them broken up. Mr. Rebone stated that his asparagus beds had been 
 entirely destroyed the past summer. 
 
 At Flushing, Mr. King has had them two years in his beds; has tried lime, 
 gait, and a strong solution of potash, to no purpose, and thinks if this beetle 
 is not soon destroyed the asparagus will be. Thomas Duncan, gardener for 
 E! J. Wooley, Esq., thinks he had less of the insect this year than last and 
 attributes this to his having mulched the beds with sea-weed last winter. 
 Edwin Hoyt has had his beds almost destroyed. A new bed planted a year 
 ago was weaker now than it was the first season. 
 
 From Newtown a gentleman stated,his beds had escaped with the exception 
 of his young seedling plants which were all destroyed. 
 
 From these data it appears that this insect was first noticed in Queens 
 county at Astoria, one of the points nearest to the city of New York, where it 
 began to be slightly destructive in the year 1860 and has rapidly increased 
 each year since and has spread itself over nearly all of the county. It would 
 seem to have advanced at the rate of some twenty miles a year, although our 
 information upon this point is by no means precise. 
 
 Over the State of New Y T ork generally, at least over all its northern 
 section, we are acoustomed to see the asparagus only in gardens, where the 
 roots have been planted by the hand of man. In only a solitary instance 
 many years ago I met with a small stalk of this plant in my own vicinity, 
 abroad in the fields, growing spontaneously from the seed. Where it is thus 
 restricted exclusively to the gardens it would be no formidable task to keep 
 all the shoots from the roots cut down a sufficient length of time to cause any 
 insect which subsisted upon them, to perish for lack of food. But upon Long 
 Island the circumstances I find are wholly different. There the asparagus 
 plant is perfectly naturalized, growing readily from the seeds, which are 
 everywhere scattered, chiefly by the c.ows which feed upon the berries the 
 latter part of winter when their other supplies of food have become exhausted. 
 Hereby slender, ipindling stalks of this plant may be seen growing in all situ¬ 
 ations—by the roadsides, in the fields, and iu the woods. Thus the Asparagus 
 Beetle has such an abundance of food everywhere presented to it, and the 
 insect is already occupying such an extent of territory that there seems to be 
 no mode by which it is now possible for us to effect its extermination. 
 
 One of the points of most importance to complete the history of this 
 insect—a point upon which I was able to find no information in any foreign 
 author in my hands—was to ascertain its hybernation or the situation in which 
 it secretes itself to pass the winter season. Three of the larval which had 
 been sent alive to me in June, forsook the asparagus when they had completed 
 their growth. I hence supposed it was most probable that they entered the 
 earth to repose during their pupa state; and that the last larvm which desoend 
 
664 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 ASPARAGUS BEETLE. WINTER QUARTERS OF THE INSECT. IT COMES OUT IN MAT. 
 
 from the asparagus at the close of the season, remain in the earth during the 
 winter and produce the beetles which come abroad in May. To ferret out the 
 winter quarters of the insect, therefore, my first step was to examine the 
 earth in a place where these insects had been most numerous and destructive. 
 But neither in contact with the underground portion of the stalks nor in the 
 soil surrounding those stalks were any pupae to be found or any traces indi¬ 
 cating that the soil had been mined and penetrated by these insects. Though 
 disappointed and scarcely knowing where to look next, it was certain that the 
 insect either in its larva, its pupa or its perfect state, was concealed some¬ 
 where about these asparagusibeds in such numbers that its lurking place could 
 surely be discovered. Upon inquiring the circumstances under which the 
 insects had vanished, I was informed that the beetles had remained upon the 
 asparagus without any apparent diminution of their numbers, until the first 
 frosty night of autumn, when they suddenly and almost totally disappeared. 
 A very few stragglers only were the latter part of October still remaining out 
 apon the stalks on warm pleasant days; and observing them in this situation, 
 «t occurred to me that if a cold wind were to arise it would so chill and 
 benumb them that they would drop to the ground, where they would crawl 
 ■snder any rubbish, such as fallen leaves and fragments of straw and dead 
 weeds, whifch they could there meet with, and thus concealed, they would 
 ■emain torpid through the winter and revive and come abroad again with the 
 warmth of the following spring. Search was thereupon made under the small 
 masses of haulm which were lying on the surface of the asparagus beds, but 
 •nly occasionally could one of the beetles be met with in this situation, ren¬ 
 ting it evident that this was not the retreat to which their legions had with¬ 
 drawn for the winter. Turning next to examine a contiguous fence to see if 
 *his could furnish any lurking place for them, upon raising a splinter from one 
 «f the rails a view was obtained which it was wonderful to behold. The 
 ‘revjce under this sliver, a foot or more in length, was occupied by a throng 
 of these beetles, crowded and compacted as closely together as it was possible 
 for them to stow themselves. And on looking further, it was found that under 
 the coarse lichens and moss growing upon some of the rails, under the dry 
 bark adhering to others, under the loose scales of bark upon the trunks of 
 trees, under the clapboards of buildings, in short, wherever a crack or crevice, 
 so situated as to shed the rain, occurred around these asparagus plantations, it 
 was filled and thronged with these beetles. They were lying torpid and motion¬ 
 less in these retreats, sunk in their winter’s slumbers, although the weather 
 was still mild and warm, nor did they awaken to activity even when uncovered 
 and exposed to the rays of the sun. 
 
 Early in May, soon after the season for cutting the asparagus for market 
 has begun, these beetles come forth from their winter quarters and commence 
 feeding upon it, gnawing and marring it, and scattering their eggs upon it. 
 The eggs, represented in the annexed cut at b and magnified at c, arc of a 
 blackish brown color and of an oval-oblong shape, like a grain of wheat, 
 though not an eighth as large. They are attached to any part of the young 
 plants, but after these have grown up to stalks the eggs are lor the most 
 part placed upon the leaves and near the end of the slender branches 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 665 
 
 ASPARAGUS BEETLE. THE LARVA. ITS HABITS. 
 
 which are no thicker than a coarse bristle—situations where they will be 
 least liable to be disturbed by the beetles or larvae in feeding. They are 
 
 d so firmly that the end appears as though it were 
 embedded in the leaf. They thus stand erect, 
 in a row, about as far distant from each other 
 as their lengths, each row containing about five 
 eggs, but the number varying in' different in¬ 
 stances from two to six or seven. Mr. Westwood, 
 whose figures of this insect we have copied in 
 the above cut (Modern Classification of Insects, . 
 vol. i, p. 372, fig. 16 and 18) represents two of 
 Asparagus Beetle, its Eggs and these eggs, placed, one elevated upon the top of 
 Larva ' the other. His figuring them thus, is an ample 
 
 assurance of the fact that they do sometimes occur, placed in this manner. 
 But it must be exceedingly rare. Mr. Youngs informs me, that since seeing 
 this figure, he has looked particularly to find an instance of this kind, but 
 without success. 
 
 The eggs hatch in eight days, and the larva (represented in the cut, when 
 young at d, when full grown at e and magnified at /) is from ten to twelve 
 days in getting its growth. It attains a length of about a quarter of an inch. 
 It is of an obscure olive or dull ash gray color, often with a blackish stripe 
 along the middle of the back. It is soft and of a flesh;like consistency, about 
 three times as long as thick, thickest back of the middle, with the body much 
 wrinkled transversely. The head is black and shining, and the neck, which 
 is Ihicker than the head, has two shining black spots above. Three pairs of 
 legs are placed anteriorly, upon the breast, and are of the same shining black 
 color with the head. As will be seen when it is crawling, the larva clings 
 also with the tip end of its body ; and all along its under side may then be 
 Been two rows of small tubercles, slightly projecting from the surface, which 
 serve as pro-legs in addition to the tip of its body. Above these tubercles on 
 each side is a row of elevated shining dots like warts, above which the breath¬ 
 ing pores appear like a row of minute black dots. 
 
 Like the perfect insect, the larva feeds upon the asparagus only, eating 
 holes through the outer bark of the plant, and preferring the tender bark on 
 the ends of the stalks and on the branches, to the more tough and stringy 
 hark towards the base of the stem. It moves very slowly, and is shy and 
 timorous. As you approach it, it stops eating and holding its head stiffly 
 hack it emits a drop of black fluid from its mouth. This appears to be its 
 only defence against being devoured by birds and other predaceous animals, 
 the acrid taste of this fluid probably rendering the larva unpalatable to them. 
 It also clings tenaciously to the asparagus. Before tying the cuttings up in 
 bunches for the market, they are thoroughly washed, by being held usually 
 under a pump ; but these worms cling so tightly that only a part of them are 
 washed off, and this black fluid from their mouths stains and nasties the hands 
 cf the men, in bunching the cuttings, it being as sticky as molasses. 
 
 When they were done feeding, the three larva: which came under my obser¬ 
 vation in June, left the plants. I therefore inferred that they entered the 
 
666 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 ASPARAGUS BEETLE. THE PUPA AND ITS COCOON. THE BEETLE. ITS HABITS. 
 
 earth to repose during their pupa state. But it may he that they merely 
 crawl under any mass of dead leaves and bits of straws which they find lying 
 on the surface.of the ground. This is rendered probable by Mr. Young’s 
 observations. He put several of the larvae into a tumbler, with netting tied 
 over it to prevent their escape, supplying them with fresh asparagus from 
 time to time. They finally went down to the bottom of the tumbler and dis¬ 
 appeared under the mass of dry withered leaves and branches which had 
 accumulated there. Upon raising this mass from the tumbler, the insects 
 were found to be inclosed in slight cocoons which they had spun, and which 
 adhered to the under side of the rubbish when it was elevated. As some of 
 these completed their transformations, it shows that it is not essential for them 
 to enter the ground to pass their pupa state. 
 
 In about thirty days from the time the egg is laid the insect grows to matu¬ 
 rity and comes out in its perfect form, when it appears as represented in the 
 foregoing cut at a. The time will be shorter, no doubt, in the hottest part of 
 the season in July and August, than in the cooler days of May and June. 
 How long it lives, to be eating the asparagus, after it attains its perfect form, 
 is not known. One of the beetles, fed in confinement, lived a fortnight, but 
 how long it had been hatched from its pupa before it was imprisoned was not 
 known. The females probably live much longer than the males, this being 
 the case with insects generally. As it occurs to notice upon the asparagus, 
 the two sexes are usually seen paired. They feed upon the bark, eating 
 irregular oval or oblong holes through it, lengthwise of the stalks, and vary¬ 
 ing in size from about an eighth to a quarter of an inch in length. These 
 holes are most numerous towards the top of the stalks and on the branches, 
 where, frequently, nearly the whole of the bark is consumed. The beetles 
 are very shy and timorous, whereby we are never able to see them in the act 
 of eating. As you approach, the guilty culprit always slips around to the 
 opposite side of the stalk, to hide himself from being noticed. And if the 
 stalk is taken hold of to turn him around into view he drops to the ground 
 and pretends to be dead, lying perfectly still. You think he is now playing 
 off his last dodge upon you, and that you have finally got him where you can 
 turn him over and deliberately inspect him before you crush him. But theso 
 thoughts only have time to flash across your mind before the creature takes 
 wing and flies away so suddenly that ere you are aware of it he is gone out of 
 your reach. 
 
 In its perfect state the Asparagus Beetle is a beautiful insect, of an oblong form, its length 
 very slightly exocoding twice its width. It measures a little less than a quarter of an inoh, its 
 average length being 0.22, but different Individuals vary somewhat in their sire. It is highly 
 polished and shining, of a blue-black color, frequently with a tingo of green. The head and 
 thorax are narrower than the hind body, and have numerous punctures. The head shows a fur¬ 
 row on its middle, above the insertion of the antennae. The antennse reach tho base of the wing- 
 covers, and are coarse, thread-like, with the three joints following tho basal ono somowhat smallor 
 and shining, tho remaining joints being opake and brownish black. Tho thorax is slightly oon- 
 vex and bright tawny rod. Frequently a discolored cloud appears in its conter, which in many 
 individuals becomes darker, forming two black spots, and theso spots arc sometimes moro or los* 
 united. The wing-covers are coarsely punctured in rows. They are broadly bordered on their 
 outer sides with orange yellow, which color is widened at the tips, whore, on tho edge of the 
 future, is a slender blue-black lino. Along tho middlo of each wing-cover is a row of three lemon 
 
7 STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 667 
 
 ASPARAGUS BEETLE. REMEDIES. HAND-PICKING. SKUNKS. FOWLS. 
 
 yellow spots. The anterior ono of theso spots is placed upon the base of the wing-cover, and Is 
 usually egg-shaped with its pointed end directed backward. In perhaps a majority of instances 
 this spot is prolonged and is confluent with the inner anterior angle of the middle spot. The 
 middle spot is placed at a third of the distance from the base to the tip of the wing-cover. It is 
 itransverse, being a third more broad than long, and is thicker towards its inner end, which ter¬ 
 minates at the third row of punctures from the suture, its opposite or outer end being confluent 
 with the orange border. The hind spot is placed nearer to the middle spot than to the widened 
 orange tip of the wing-cover. It is similar in most respects to the middle spot, but is frequently 
 smaller and placed somewhat obliquely, its inner end inclining backward, and its outer end unit¬ 
 ing with tho orange border by a narrow neck. But these three spots are much varied in their 
 size and form in different individuals, and are sometimes white instead of yellow. Tho under sido 
 and legs are shining blue-black, and there is frequently a dull yellowish band below the knees and 
 a spot of the same color on tho base of tho hind thighs. 
 
 We finally come to remark upon the remedies for this insect. 
 
 Being aware that the Asparagus Beetle has been known in Europe for cen¬ 
 turies, we naturally look to the long experience they have there had with it, 
 to furnish us with some convenient and efficacious mode of combating and 
 subduing it. But we look in vain. As the result of the efforts and observa¬ 
 tions of the gardeners there, we are told there is one remedy which is effectual, 
 and one only. It is given to us in a single line of Kollar’s Treatise, as in 
 other publications, that “ the only means of destroying these insects, is, pick¬ 
 ing off and killing the beetles and larvae." 
 
 Now this remedy of picking off the insects by hand and killing them, will 
 suffice very well, we doubt not, for ordinary cases, where it is only a common 
 sized bed in a family garden which requires attention. But where whole 
 acres are overrun, and every plant thereon thronged with these insects, we see 
 how vain it is to mention such a remedy as hand-picking, as being a suitable 
 resort against such myriads. We should almost require to recall the million 
 of men we have sent out to the war, and marshal them in these Long Island 
 asparagus plantations, in order to succeed in cleansing them of these vermin 
 by this process. The crops there must be hopelessly abandoned to their fate 
 unless some more practicable remedy than this can be discovered. 
 
 In the middle of one of the asparagus fields we noticed the dry dung of 
 some animal as being wholly composed of the prettily spotted wing-covers 
 and shining fragments of the legs and other hard parts of these insects, 
 showing that the animal had been feeding upon and had consumed an immense 
 number of them. The animal which had been glutting itself in this manner 
 was undoubtedly the skunk (Mephitis Americana) whose relish for insects, 
 when it can obtain them in sufficient quantity to supply its wants, is well 
 known. And it might hence be made a most valuable auxiliary in destroying 
 this Asparagus Beetle—but unfortunately we cannot recommend the pro¬ 
 tection, even for this important purpose, of a creature which is everywhere in 
 such bad odor. 
 
 But the query then occurred to us, if this tabooed animal has such an 
 appetite for these insects, have we not in our country some other animal which 
 will have a similar relish for them? This suggested an experiment to us, the 
 result of which we hastened to ascertain. A large sliver up*n which a multi¬ 
 tude of these beetles were crowded together in their winter’s sleep, was broken 
 from a rail and taken to the poultry yard and a few handfuls of corn were 
 
668 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 GARDEN FI.EA. MOST ABUNDANT, BUT HITHERTO NEVER NOTICED. 
 
 scattered around, to attract the fowls to it. It was interesting to observe 
 their gradual approach in eating the corn, until one of their number happened 
 to perceive these insects. Instantly thereupon she hurried to picking them 
 up, and in a moment, the whole flock, abandoning the corn, was crowded to 
 this spot, each on the alert to obtain a portion of the dainty fare. It amply 
 demonstrated how highly they relished these insects. 
 
 Although fowls are prone to pick and injure cabbages, cucumbers, and 
 several other garden vegetables, experienced cultivators of the asparagus 
 assure nie they never molest this plant. We are therefore to look to them, I 
 think, as being our best protectors against these insects. At the conversa¬ 
 tional meeting of the Queens County Agricultural Society above alluded to, 
 two instances were related, in which a portion of a bed to which chickens had 
 had free access, had not been injured. If a flock of fowls is placed in an 
 asparagus plantation, they will probably range over the grounds, continuing 
 to forage upon these insects so long as one of them can be found. There is 
 the fairest prospect, therefore, that they will prove to be a most eflicacious 
 protection, and that by them our Long Island market gardeners will be able 
 to rescue their valuable asparagus crops from the ruin with which they are at 
 present threatened. 
 
 2. Garden Flea, Symnthurvs hortensie, new species. (Aptera. Poduridie ) 
 
 Superabundant in gardens in May and June, upon the leaves of young cabbage, turnip, cucum¬ 
 ber, and various other plants, and also on the ground, soft black wingless insects smaller than 
 grains of gunpowder, and skipping with agility. 
 
 It is fifteen years since, that in an article on “ Winter Insects” in Dr. 
 Emmons’s Quarterly Journal of Agriculture and Science, I named and de¬ 
 scribed the Snow Flea, Podura nivicola, a minute insect which appears like 
 grains of gunpowder sprinkled over the surface of the snow upon warm 
 days in the winter and the opening of spring. An insect closely related to 
 this appears every year in our gardens during the fore part of the season’ 
 so numerous that it attracts the observation of every one at work therein, 
 and is universally regarded as injurious. No account of it, however, is to 
 be met with in any of our popular treatises upon gardening. I have 
 always supposed it to be this insect, of which Dr. Harris speaks from 
 memory, in the following paragraph in the First Edition of his Treatise, 
 page 125, but which is omitted in the subsequent edition—and if so, this 
 is the only published allusion to this insect, which, to my knowledge, has 
 ever yet appeared in our country. 
 
 ‘‘Several years ago I observed that cucumber vines were much infested 
 by some minute jumping insects, rather less than one-tenth of an inch 
 long, of a broad oval shape, and black color, without wing-covers, but fur¬ 
 nished with short thick hinder thighs. They injured the vines very much 
 by eating holes into or puncturing the leaves, and were expelled by dust¬ 
 ing the plants with flour of sulphur. These cucumber-skippers were so 
 Boft and tender* and withal so agile, that it was difficult to catch without 
 crushing them. Consequently I was unable to examine them thoroughly, 
 and failed to preserve specimens of them. It is possible that they may 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 669 
 
 garden flea, its name, its appearance and motions, its body. 
 
 come near the genus Myrmecophila (Order Orthoptera, Family Achetidas) 
 ■which was unknown to me at this time; and since then these minute insects 
 have escaped my observation. They were very different from the little 
 flea-beetles, Hallica jmbescenn, also found on cucumber vines.*’ 
 
 This is a wingless insect, most nearly related to the Lepisma or Spring- 
 tail, and like it skipping by means of a forked tail which is held against the 
 under side of the body. It thus pertains to the Apterous order of insects, 
 and to the family Podcridje, which, with the Lepisma constitutes the group 
 or sub-order named Thysaxocha. This group is arranged in scientific works 
 next to that which embraces the flea ( Pulex ); and this name, flea, is fre¬ 
 quently given to the species of the family Poduridte also, and appears to 
 be the most appropriate term which our language furnishes by which to 
 designate these insects. By some of the gardeners around Albany I have 
 heard the species now under consideration called the “ Little sand flea,” its 
 size being so similar to that of a particle of sand. But as this name will be 
 apt to give the erroneous idea that the insect abounds in sandy soils more 
 than elsewhere, I regard the name Garden Flea as its most suitable designa¬ 
 tion; and it has for a long time been entered in my manuscripts under the 
 corresponding technical name Symnthurus horlensis. 
 
 This insect is abundant in our gardens when we first commence work in 
 them in the spring, though it is not till the young plants have come up 
 from their seeds and the first weeding among them takes place that it usu¬ 
 ally attracts our observation. Numbers of them are then noticed to be stand¬ 
 ing in the warm sunshine, upon every leaf, every pebble and fragment of a 
 dry weed which projects above the surface of the ground. Some of them 
 are seen to be moving about, but with feet so minute that they are invisi¬ 
 ble. And if the finger is approached towards those which are standing 
 upon a particular leaf, one after another deliberately throws itself with a 
 sudden skip to the ground, till all have disappeared. They, however, are 
 not shy and timorous, but gentle and disposed to be familiar; for, as they 
 are everywhere skipping about in the dirt, if the hand happens to rest upon 
 the ground a few moments, one or more of them is observed to have alighted 
 upon it, and continues to stand thereon as if without any alarm or con¬ 
 sciousness of danger. And thus they continue in the garden till in the 
 latter part of June they become much less numerous and gradually cease 
 to be noticed. As we look at them when they are standing in the strong 
 sunlight, all that the eye. is able to discern of them, is, that they are ex¬ 
 tremely small dull black objects, scarcely half the size of a mustard seed, 
 that “ smallest of all seeds,” and that they have an egg-shaped form, 
 moving with their smaller end in advance. Some of them it is noticed are 
 smaller than the others, and the smallest ones are perceived to be of a paler 
 or dull brown color. 
 
 When looked at through a magnifying glass, we first notice a remark¬ 
 able difference in the structure of this Garden Flea from that of insects 
 generally, it being composed of only two principal parts, a head and a 
 body, this latter being formed of the thorax and abdomen consolidated 
 together into a single piece the same as in the higher classes of animals, 
 
670 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 GARDEN FLEA. THE FORKED TAIL AND SKIPPING APPARATUS. 
 
 the three pairs of legs being inserted upon the fore part of its under side. 
 
 As it is viewed from above the body has a 
 somewhat square outline, but is broadest pos¬ 
 teriorly. The four sides of the square are, 
 convex, with rounded angles, the rotundity 
 increasing as it is more distended with food, 
 and becoming globular when surfeited. It is 
 plump and smooth, without any visible indica¬ 
 tions of transverse impressed lines or sutures 
 dividing it into rings; but, jutting abruptly 
 out from the middle of its hind side is a large 
 teat-like protuberance forming the end of the 
 body, and this is- perceptibly composed of three 
 segments, as is represented in the annexed figure. On its under side, how¬ 
 ever, the body is uneven and transversely wrinkled, here showing four seg¬ 
 ments more or less distinctly. And on its under side is also noticed the 
 curious apparatus, the forked tail, wherewith these Garden Fleas possess 
 the faculty of skipping. Two soft flesh-like threads are plainly percepti¬ 
 ble, of a dull white color, and slightly diverging from each other, held 
 against the breast with their ends reaching forward nearly or quite to the 
 mouth. They seem to arise from the center of the under side of the body, 
 but in reality are inserted into the end of a single stalk which it is more 
 difficult to distinguish and which originates farther back toward the hind 
 end. Thus this tail-like appendage is similar in its structure to a common 
 table fork, of which the handle corresponds with the stalk or basal portion, 
 and the tines with the two threads. These threads gradually taper towards 
 their ends and are bearded with minute hairs, their tip being formed of a 
 small oblong joint which is destitute of hairiness. On the fore part of the 
 breast, bulging out between the two threads may be observed a slight pro¬ 
 tuberance or button-like elevation, looking much as though the insect had 
 a tumor upon its neck analogous to the disease termed goitre by physicians. 
 And it appears to be in a groove upon each side of this protuberance that 
 the inner sides of the threads are pressed when the insect is about to make 
 a skip. Then, in an effort to extend the tail out from the body, the threads 
 slipping suddenly from the grooves strike against the surface on which the 
 insect is standing, so forcibly as to throw it a distance of several inches. 
 
 The head is separated from the body by a deep constriction, leaving only 
 a small neck connecting these two parts. It is about a third narrower than 
 the broadest part of the body, more broad than long and of a flattened 
 globular form The antennae are inserted upon the front, wide apart from 
 each other at their origin, and are held obliquely forward and outward, 
 each moment touching the surface over which the flea is walking, as if^ 
 they were examining the nature of the pathway before it. These organs, 
 represented greatly magnified on the right of the above cut, are thread¬ 
 like, four-jointed, and elbowed in their middle between the second and third 
 joints. The three first joints are cylindrical and of equal length. The 
 fourth joint is longer and compound, being formed of six small joints, 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 671 
 
 garden flea, its food, and combats, how it injures the leaves. 
 
 and cabbages are principally destroyed, whilst in the seed-leaf, by some 
 Si/mnthurus, the size of a pin’s head, and nearly globular. It hops with great 
 facility by means of its forked tail, and may be found on every square inch 
 of all old cultivated ground, but it is not plentiful on new land.” 
 
 These Garden Fleas are so minute that the human eye without the aid of 
 glasses is wholly unable to inspect their movements. The following observa¬ 
 tions will therefore be the more interesting to the reader. It is some years 
 since, that I noticed several of these insects on a piece of new pine board 
 lying in the garden. Wondering what they could find to attract them to that 
 situation, where I thought the odor of any turpentine in the wood would 
 rather make it repulsive to them, I was able to observe their operations by 
 approaching a magnifying glass to them gently, so as not to alarm them and 
 cause them to skip away—the. light colored surface of the new wood enabling 
 me to inspect their movements much more accurately than could be done were 
 they standing upon a darker colored ground. Several of them were noticed, 
 here and there, to have, grasped in their mouths, what, appeared to be an 
 exceedingly minute flexible fiber of the wood, fine as a fragment of a spider's 
 web; and they were pulling backward, at the same time shaking their heads 
 slightly, evidently to tear off these fibers. One of the fore legs was 
 frequently used to crowd this fiber more and more into the mouth, whenever 
 it became peeled up and too long to pull upon to advantage. Everything 
 indicated that it was for the purpose of food that they were thus tearing off 
 this fine fuzz from the surface of the new board. At one place was a small 
 black spot in the board, caused apparently by some old disease in the wood 
 at this point, which rendered it more soft and palatable to the insects, for two 
 of them were here busily occupied in gnawing the particles of matter from the 
 surface, as it seemed. And this brought them so close together that one of 
 them happened to jostle against the other. This indignity was promptly 
 resented by the flea which was thus intruded upon, who resolutely put his 
 forehead against that of his comrade and pushed him back, in a similar man¬ 
 ner to two cows fighting. A combat hereupon took place between them, each 
 endeavoring to bite the head or legs of the other. This fighting lasted only a 
 moment or two, however, and then both quietly returned to the discolored spot 
 and again commenced gnawing the friable matter there. Ere long the same 
 mishap again occurred and the same combat was again repeated and their 
 differences adjusted as speedily as before. 
 
 Our gardeners universally regard these fleas as being injurious, but not so 
 everely injurious as the larger sized flea-beetles (Ilaltica) with which they 
 are almost always associated. And this appears to be a correct estimate of 
 their character. I have sought to ascertain the exact nature of the injury 
 which they do, and from the best observations which I have yet been able to 
 make I think these fleas never perforate holes in the leaves or gnaw their 
 texture where it is green and in a healthy, growing state. Their small jaws 
 arc probably too soft and weak to enable them to break down and masticate 
 the substance of the leaf. But when a flea-beetle perforates a hole in a leaf, 
 these garden fleas afterwards gather around the perforation to feed upon the 
 soft matter which is there formed by the evaporation of the exuding juice. 
 
672 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 GARDEN FLEA. COLORS. VARIETIES. IN GRAIN FIELDS AND ON CLOVER. 
 
 which are a third longer than thick, each one increasing slightly in thick¬ 
 ness towards its tip, except the apical one which has the form of an elon¬ 
 gated egg and is longer than those which precede it. The antennas are 
 bearded with fine, short hairs, as - is also the front, the hind part of the 
 body and the legs. 
 
 Its color, in the largest individuals, is dull black, without any glossiness, 
 the head being dull 'yellowish brown or rust-colored, with the eyes black 
 and the edges of their orbits whitish. The antennae are also dull black 
 with their bases rusty, and the legs are of this last color. This rusty 
 color varies in its tone, being sometimes bright and clear, and at other 
 times or in individuals from other situations, dull and obscure. 
 
 From differences in their color and size we might readily name and define 
 four or five species from what I do not doubt are merely the different stages 
 of one species in its progress/rom youth to maturity and old age. The 
 following varieties are the most important, and arc so marked and of such 
 frequent occurrence that they merit to be noticed. 
 
 1, juvenilis, or the Young Garden Flea. Yellowish brown or rust-colored 
 throughout, the body being of the same hue with the head; and but half 
 the size of the largest individuals. These are most common at the opening 
 of the season. 
 
 2, basalis. Body dull black, its anterior part and tip rust-color. 
 
 3, dorsalis. Body dull black, its tip and a stripe along the middle of its 
 fore part rust-color. 
 
 4, apicalis. Body dull black with only the contracted apical protuberance 
 or tip rust color. Common. 
 
 5, viaturus. Body dull black throughout, the head, legs and bases of the 
 antennae rust-color. This appears to be the normal state of the mature 
 insect. 
 
 This insect is not limited to the garden, but occurs more or less common 
 everywhere in arable land. In fields of young wheat and rye, in May and 
 June, I have often noticed it as being more numerous than any other insect 
 there. And in fields of clover I have sometimes found it in great numbers, 
 in company with the yellow Field Flea next to be noticed. 
 
 It is so very abundant in this country that we should expect it would bo 
 common in Europe also. But none of the species of Symnthurus described in 
 Nicolet’s article (Noveaux Memoires de la Societe Helvctique, vol. vi, p. 81) 
 in Gervais (Apteres—Suites a Buffon) or any other author which I have at 
 hand, appear to coincide with our insect. If it occurred in England as it does 
 here, we think it could not have been overlooked by Mr. Curtis, in his late 
 researches. But in his invaluable volume on Farm Insects, recently pub¬ 
 lished, we only meet with one species of this genus, described (p. 432) as 
 occurring on the under side of potato leaves in July and August, which is 
 evidently unlike this insect of our country; though in the same connection 
 he makes the following remark, which very probably refers to the species of 
 which I am here speaking. He says: “ In Nova Scotia the crops of turnips 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 673 
 
 FIELD FLEA. DESCRIBED. SINGULAR COMBAT. 
 
 This matter makes a kind of scab upon the raw surface of the wound, covering 
 it and enabling it to heal. These garden fleas feed upon this scab, thus tear¬ 
 ing open the healing wound and causing it to bleed afresh. Hereby the boles 
 in the leaf become much larger than when they are first made by the flea- 
 beetle, and nature is interfered with and embarrassed in her efforts to recover 
 from the injuries done by the flea-beetles and other insects which wound the 
 leaves. It is chiefly in this manner, I think, that these little garden fleas are 
 detrimental to the plants on which they occur. 
 
 Dusting the infested plants with ashes, sulphur, etc., and most of the other 
 remedies which we resort to for expelling the flea-beetles from them, are still 
 more efficacious in driving off these garden fleas also. These remedies will be 
 more fully treated upon when we come to speak of the flea-beetles, as they are 
 insects which it is more important to combat. 
 
 3. Field Flea, Symnthurus arvalis , new species. (Aptera. Poduridae.) 
 
 In May and Juno, sonttered upon the leaves of the pie rhubarb and other garden plants, on 
 fruit trees in the orchard, and abundant in fields of clover; a minute soft yellow wingless inseot, 
 skipping feebly. 
 
 This species is scarcely half the size of the foregoing one, usually mea¬ 
 suring only 0.02 in length. It is of a pale yellow color, commonly tar¬ 
 nished or dull yellow, sometimes with a tinge of green, and its head, under¬ 
 side and legs whitish. A dusky cloud is frequently seen in the middle of 
 the body. It is of an egg-shaped form, almost globular, with the extremity 
 of its body protruded as in the Garden Flea, its outline thus having a pro¬ 
 jecting angle on each side forward of the tip. The antennae are thread¬ 
 like, elbowed, and as long as the body. They are composed of three joints 
 only, the last one being compound or made up of ten small joints similar 
 to those of the last joint in the Garden Flea, and forming all that portion of 
 the antenna which is beyond the elbow. 
 
 In a field of clover, on sweeping over the leaves, the net gathered 
 myriads of these insects, so late as the last of June, at which time small 
 young ones were greatly in excess of those which were full sized, indica¬ 
 ting that they continue much later in the season than I have ever noticed 
 them. Upon beating the leaves of apple trees in May and June, several 
 of these insects will frequently be found in the net. And it is common to 
 see them in the garden, upon the leaves, particularly of the pie rhubarb, 
 Rheum Rhaponticum, where these leaves are perforated with holes by the 
 flea-beetles. 
 
 On one occasion, when I was endeavoring to inspect the motions and 
 operations of these insects with a magnifying glass, I saw two of them 
 approaching each other as though they intended to bunt their heads 
 together. Though I could not observe their motions so accurately as to 
 be certain of the fact, it appeared as though, just as their heads were 
 coming together, the smaller one with his antennae grasped the sides of 
 the head of the larger one, to break the force of the blow and prevent him¬ 
 self from being knocked over by his more powerful antagonist. Instantly 
 thereupon, as though to break off the smaller one from his grasp, the larger 
 Ag. Trans. QQ 
 
674 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 FIELD FLEA. OTHER SPECIES. 
 
 one commenced whirling, swinging the smaller one around and around as 
 we sometimes see a man in play grasp a child under-its armpits and whirl 
 around with it. As if to prevent himself from becoming dizzy, the larger 
 one after a few revolutions reversed his motion, whirling now in the oppo¬ 
 site direction, and after a short time returned again to the direction lie 
 first had. The two then became separated, and stood facing each other 
 for a time, the larger one ever and anon advancing slightly, as if about to 
 Jmnt against the small one, which receded at the same moment, and then 
 advanced again as the larger one drew back. At length the larger one 
 seemed to get hold of the palpi or mouth of the smaller one, pinching it for 
 a moment, and then walked away, the smaller one appearing for the instant 
 to be semi-paralyzed with pain, recovering from which, it also walked off 
 as though nothing had happened. 
 
 After the full account which has been given of the Garden Flea, it will 
 not be necessary for me to speak further of this species which so frequently 
 occurs in company with it and has the same general habits. 
 
 Several other species of this genus are known to me, but I am not at 
 present prepared to describe them so fully and point out their distinctive 
 characters so plainly, T fear, as will enable other persons to clearly identify 
 them. The three following, however, are so strongly marked that a brief 
 description will probably enable them to be readily recognized. 
 
 4. The New York Ground-flea, Symnthurus Novceboracensis, is 0.08 long, 
 and of a dull brownish yellow color throughout, its head and legs slightly 
 paler than the body, its eyes only being black. The body is but little broader 
 than the head, oval, slightly attenuated at its tip, with an impressed trans¬ 
 verse line conspicuously separating the apex from the body. The antenna* 
 are nearly the length of the body, long and slender, thread-like, elbowed 
 in the middle, with but a single joint preceding the elbow, the remaining 
 length being obscurely divided into (three?) joints. 
 
 Several specimens, small and large, occurred under a board lying in a 
 pasture field, in the month of November. 
 
 5 . The Pretty Ground-flea, Symnthurus elegans, is 0.02 long, of a very 
 pale yellow color, almost white, with a pale brown stripe along the middle of 
 its back, and a wider black one upon each side of it, these stripes being 
 common to the head and body. A still wider black stripe along each side 
 of the body Antenn* dusky, their basal portion pale, '(he body is glo¬ 
 bular, without any projection at its tip, and is a third broader than the 
 head, which is also globular. The black stripes upon the. back are often 
 somewhat interrupted, or have a curdled appearance as if composed of a 
 number of confluent black spots and clouds of different size's.. 
 
 Variety a. The middle stripe upon the head black instead of pale brown. 
 
 Variety b. The middle stripe wholly obliterated and wanting. 
 
 The history of the specimens from which the above description was drawn 
 is briefly as follows: Some diseased wheat straws sent to me from Virginia 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 675 
 
 modern vaporer moth, differs from the European species. 
 
 several years since were placed in a glass jar with moist earth in its bottom. 
 Early in May a number of these ground-fleas made their appearance in the 
 jar. And as I have never met with this species except in that instance, I 
 infer that it was bred from eggs in the Virginia straw and not from the New 
 York earth in the jar, and that it is therefore a Southern insect! Can it be 
 'he juvenile state of the following ? 
 
 6 . The Marked Ground-flea, Symnthurus signifer, is about 0.03 in 
 length, black, with two short pale yellow stripes upon the head, the underside 
 and legs dull white. Antennae three-fourths the length of the body, black, 
 their bases pale yellowish. The body is longer than broad, almost globular, 
 without any projection at its tip, and about twice as broad as the head. 
 
 Several specimens of this occurred in company with the preceding. 
 
 7. Modern Vaporer Moth, Orgyia nova, new species. (Lepidoptera. Arctiidae.) 
 
 Eating largo notches in the leaves of roses, of plum, apple and other trees, in June; a small 
 pretty caterpillar of a whitish color with a black head and back, and five pencils of long black 
 hair, orange spots on its sides, and along its back four straw-colored tufts and two small bright 
 red protuberances; spinning a cocoon which in July gives out a rusty yellow moth about 1.20 in 
 width, its fore wings largely clouded with dark brown and having a snow-white crescent near their 
 inner hind angle; the female pale gray and without wings. 
 
 In my Second Report I gave an account of our Common American Vaporer 
 Moth, Orgyia leucosligma. I have since traced out the history of another 
 species, which is closely like the European Orgyia antiqua, and is entered 
 under this name by Dr. Harris in his Treatise on Injurious Insects. Our 
 moth, however, differs from that of Europe, as I find ou comparing it with 
 very nice specimens of the antiqua, which I owe to the kindness of my friend, 
 Dr. Siehel, of Paris, and the colored figures and descriptions of that species 
 given by different authors, in having its fore wings much more extensively 
 cfouded with brown. And in its larva state it differs still more decidedly, in 
 having towards the hind part of its back two small projecting vesicles of a 
 bright red color, smooth and shining like sealing-wax. On referring to figures 
 of the caterpillar of the antiqua which I meet with in Westwood’s Introduction, 
 in Westwood and Humphrey’s British Moths, and the still more exact and 
 beautiful illustrations in the “ Iconographie et Hist. Nat. des Chenilles ” of 
 Duponchel and Gudncc, (vol. ii, pi. vi, fig. a and c) I find these vesicles are 
 not represented as pertaining to that species, nor do the descriptions of these 
 and other authors make any allusion to them; whilst the work last cited dis¬ 
 tinctly figures similar vesicles as occurring in Orgyia fascetina (pi. xi, fig. a, b,) 
 and particularly notices them in the accompanying text. We thus feel fully 
 assured that these vesicles do not occur in the caterpillar of the antiqua, whilst 
 m our American caterpillars they are constantly present, and are oue of the 
 characters which first strike the eye of the observer. The chrysalis also 
 differs from the European species in its colors and pubescence, in both sexes, 
 as wo shall subsequently have occasion to notice. 
 
 Linnasus named the European species antiqua or the Ancient, it having 
 been observed and known a long time before. Now that we find our insect to 
 
676 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW TORE 
 
 VAPORER MOTH. ITS CATERPILLAR. YOUNG CATERPILLAR. 
 
 be different from that, it may, in contradistinction thereto, appropriately he 
 termed the New or Modern Vaporer Moth. 
 
 The caterpillars of this moth begin to be seen on rose bushes and plum 
 trees the fore part of June, when they are quite small. They eat large 
 irregular notches in the sides of the leaves, sometimes consuming them so that 
 little more than the midVein is left. A medium sized leaf of the plum tree 
 suffices to feed one of these caterpillars but twenty-four hours. They prefer 
 leaves of the Natural Order Rosacea, but feed readily upon various other 
 leaves also. They are very similar to the caterpillars of our Common Vaporer 
 Moth, but differ in having the head black instead of red, and they also have 
 an additional pair of pencils of black hairs, which are placed on each side of 
 the body forward of the middle. 
 
 When young these caterpillars are black with two orange yellow spots, 
 placed, one back of the neck, the other beyond the middle of the body. They 
 lose these spots and become brighter colored as they increase in size, their 
 marks changing more or less with each change of their skins. The following 
 is a description of their larvae at different stages of their growth: 
 
 The Young Caterpillars, less than half an inch long, are black and thinly clothed with long 
 black hairs which radiate from warts symmetrically placed, those low down on each side giving out 
 white hairs. The head is black, smooth and shining. The neck is white on its anterior edge, 
 and on each side is a large wart-like spot of an orange color, giving out a cluster of black hairs 
 with little feathery knobs on their ends, which hairs are held together in a pencil. The third and 
 fourth segments have a large orange spot upon their back with a black line along its middle. The 
 four following segments have each a dense tuft or brush of short hairs, on the back, the two first 
 brushes being black and the other two gray. The top of the ninth segment is occupied by a large 
 orange spot, shaded into white along its middle. Following this are two small shining vesicles of 
 a bright vermilion red color, protruding from the middle of tho back of the tenth and eleventh 
 segments. On the twelfth segment is a tuft of black hairs similar to those on the fore part of tho 
 back. On each side of the body are two whifco stripes, tho upper one slender and much inter¬ 
 rupted, and between these stripes is a row of large oval dull orange spots. The underside is dull 
 greenish white, and the legs palo yellow. 
 
 Upon changing its skin it becomes half an inch long and wholly loses the two bright orange 
 spots upon its back. Its skin is now black upon tho fore part of tho body and of a dusky gray 
 color posteriorly. Five pencils of black hairs having their ends enlarged into little heads now 
 appear, placed, one upon each side of the neck, one on each side of tho body a little forward of 
 the middle, and one at the hind end of the back, the three last of these pencils being shorter than, 
 the forward ones. Of the four brush-like tufts on the fore part of the back the two first are black, 
 the third one smoky yellowish, and the last one palo yellow or white. Another change of its skin 
 now brings it to its full size. 
 
 The Mature Caterpillar is a littlo over throe-fourths of an inch long and of a lurid whito 
 oolor, having a smoky or bluish tinge. It is thinly covered with light yellow hairs radiating from 
 wart-like spots of different colors. On the back is a broad coal black stripe with its hind portion 
 margined on each side with white. On each side of tho back are orange red or yellow warts mar-; 
 gined with pale yellow, placed on the third, fourth, ninth, tenth and eleventh segments, these warts 
 giving out diverging yellow hairs with an occasional longor black ono; and lower down, along tho 
 middle of each side is a continuous row of similar warts. Below tkeso is a faint, interrupted 
 blackish stripe, in which the breathing pores aro placed; and farther down aro two rows of smaller 
 dusky oval warts with pale yellow margins and diverging hairs. The back is surmounted with 
 four brushes or dense tufts of short hairs, placed on tho fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth segments, 
 these brushes being usually of a sulphur yollow color, but sometimes white. A pencil of long 
 black hairs with little heads or knobs on their ends projects obliquely forward and outward from 
 each side of the neck. A similar pencil, but shorter, projects horizontally outward on each aide 
 of the sixth segment low down. And a fifth pencil, which is thicker than cither of tho others, 
 projects upward and backward from the hind eud of the back, being inserted upon the twelfth 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 677 
 
 VAPORER MOTH. ITS COCOONS. CHRYSALIS. 
 
 segment. Forward of this last pencil are two vesicles of a bright vermilion red or sometimes of a 
 bright orange color, smooth and shining like sealing-wax, or as though they were wet with var¬ 
 nish. They protrude upward from the middle of the tenth and eleventh segments, and are of a 
 teat-like form, more long than thick, and rounded at their summits when fully distended. Some¬ 
 times one of them may be seen wrinkled and retracted to half the sue of the other, and in a few 
 moments after, inflated again to its full sire. Forward of the anterior vesicle are two small yellow 
 oval dots, and on the next or ninth segment are two similar dots, but larger. The head is black, 
 polished and shining. The underside is yellowish white, and all the legs are light yellow. 
 
 When the caterpillar has finished feeding it wanders about until it finds a 
 suitable situation in which to place its cocoon. The corner formed at the 
 lower edges of the clapboards of buildings furnishes such a retreat as it desires, 
 and the cocoons of this moth may frequently be seen here, two or more of 
 them being sometimes placed together, with the fore end of one overlapping 
 the hind end of the other. 
 
 The cocoons are an inch and a quarter long and half an inch thick, and are 
 formed of white silken threads, woven in with which are the hairs of the body 
 of the caterpillar. They consist of a dense inner pod or sack inclosed within 
 a looser texture of threads crossing each other in every direction. The whole 
 of the cocoon, however, is so thin and slight that the inclosed inhabitant may 
 frequently be seen through its walls. When the caterpillar first commences 
 forming its cocoon and has inclosed itself inside of a few of the outermost 
 threads of this structure, it finds its pencils of long hairs impede it in turning 
 around within such a narrow space and embarrass all its operations. It there^ 
 fore plucks out these long hairs, one after another, and to get rid of them, 
 weaves them into the walls of the cocoon with' the threads it is spinning. And 
 as the space around it becomes more and more circumscribed as the work pro¬ 
 gresses, the shorter hairs in their turn are plucked out and similarly disposed 
 of, the skin of the caterpillar thus becoming denuded of all its rigid hairs, 
 including the short ones of the brushes, when the work is finished. Thus it 
 will be seen that it is chiefly the long black hairs with knobs on their ends 
 which are interwoven in the loose outer walls of the cocoon, and only the 
 short yellow hairs of the brushes which enter into the tissue of the more 
 densely woven pod inside. 
 
 In a short time after its cocoon is finished the inclosed insect casts off its 
 larva skin. The dry and shrunken relics of this skin, of which the black 
 shining head is the only portion which retains its natural appearance, are 
 crowded backward into the hind part of the cocoon, and the insect now appears 
 in its pupa or chrysalis form. 
 
 Guenee says the chrysalis of the female antiqua is glabuous and of a yel¬ 
 lowish color. Our species is clothed with long white hairs, and its color is 
 greenish white with the back partly or wholly black. It is soft and shining, 
 0.70 long and 0.30 thick, egg-shaped, ending in a black thorn-like point, the 
 tip of which is furnished with minute hooks which are fastened into the 
 threads of the cocoon, whereby it is securely held therein. 
 
 The Female Chrysalis has the head and thorax remarkably small and short, measuring only 
 8-10 in length. The thorax is black and the head is usually of a paje smoky yellowish oolor with 
 the mouth black, and the eyes sometimes red, sometimes black. The sheaths of the legs, firmly 
 •oldered upon tho breast, are scarcely a third of the length of tho body, the longest pair reaching 
 
678 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 VAPORER MOTH. MALE MOTH. FEMALE. 
 
 slightly upon the base of the third abdominal segment, whilst tho wing-shoafchs terminate at the 
 suture at the anterior edge of this segment. These wing-sheaths are very faint and almost obli¬ 
 terated towards their tips, whilst their basal portion is moro developed and is frequently marked 
 with black lines on thoir edges and pale brownish lines upon the veins. The abdomen is white 
 with a tinge of green, with tho sutures, or at least the anterior ones, marked by a black line. The 
 breathing pores form a row of oval black dots along each sido, and a short distance above them 
 the wholo back is overspread with black, or varies in having broad black bands with the anterior 
 portion of tho sogmenta white or on the fore part of the back tawny yellowish. The back 13 
 thinly covered with long white hairs, and on the sid^s and beneath are clusters of punctures form 
 ing round spots from which similar hairs radiate, these spots being placed in four longitudinal! 
 rows upon each side, the upper row above the breathing pores and the other three bolow, tho 
 lower spots smaller and with the hairs fewer and shorter. The tip of the body is black. 
 
 The Male Chrysalis differs notably from the female. It is a third smaller, 
 glossy, and of a pale tarnished yellow color with the back black and clothed 
 with long while hairs, thus differing from the European antiquei, which, accord¬ 
 ing to Gudnee, is black and bristly with reddish yellow hairs. It has the 
 thorax much larger than it is in the female chrysalis, and the sheaths of the 
 wings and legs are vastly more developed and larger, reaching two-thirds of 
 the total length. On each of the three anterior segments of the back is an 
 oval transverse spot, formed by short projecting crinkled scales of au ash gray 
 color, which spots do not oepur in the female chrysalis. 
 
 The moths come out from their cocoons in nine days, making their appear¬ 
 ance about the middle of July. The caterpillars which are to become females 
 feed longer and the moths are later in coining from their cocoons than the 
 males. I have known male moths to come abroad before the last female cater¬ 
 pillars of the same brood bad coYnmenced forming their cocoons. 
 
 The Male has the fore wings rust color or dull tawny yellow, largely clouded with blackish 
 brown, which color forms a broad curved band extending across thq wing forward of its middle, 
 this band through the inner half of its length being forked or double, with the anterior fork 
 broader. Beyond the middle a much broader wavy band crosses the wing, having upon its innor 
 end a snow white spot shaped like a orescent, forward of which is a curved streak separated from 
 tho band except at its inner end. The outer part of this band is narrowed into a straight black 
 streak, which extends obliquely forward and outward to the outer margin. And back of this is ft 
 brown cloud on the outer margin, reaching to the apex, forward of which it is out asundor by an 
 obliquo grayish streak, a similar streak separating it anteriorly from the outer end of the brown 
 band. A dusky cloud in the center of tho wing extends lengthwise from one band to tho other, 
 and on its outer side is a paler rusty yellow spot, very faint, crescent-shaped, and margined by a • 
 brown line, which is more or less broken and irregular. The base of the wing is also brown on its 
 outer side. Tho fringe is brown with a rusty alternation at the end of each of the veins. Tho 
 hind wings are rusty brown, their fringe with very faint paler alternations towards tho outer side. 
 On the under side the wings are paler rusty yellow, and brownish on tho outor sido of the forward 
 pair. The body is coated with hairs and tho abdomen with scales of a smoky brown color. Tho 
 latter has faint paler bands at the anterior sutures and a tuft of short black hairs on the back 
 near its base. It is gray beneath and clothed with short rust colored hairs along the sides and 
 longer brown ones at the tip. Tho broadly pectinated antennas havo tho stalk gray and tho 
 branches blackish. My specimens of this moth measure 1.15 across tho spread wings. 
 
 The Ff,male Moth is wholly unlike the. male in her color and form, and 
 being destitute of wings she appears more like a short thick-bodied hairy 
 worm than like a mature insect. When she comes out from the cocoon she 
 is half an inch in length and half as thick, being broadest slightly forward 
 of the middle. Her stein is black upon the back and dull greenish white 
 upon the sides and underneath, and is coated over with short fine soft hairs 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETT 
 
 070 
 
 VAPORER MOTH. EGOS. A PARASITE DESTROYS THE EGGS. 
 
 of a yellowish white color, which form pale bands on the edges of the 
 abdominal sutures and a faint pale stripe along the middle of the back. 
 The rudiments of the wings appear on each side of the thorax, in the form 
 of small oval scales of a hoary gray color, which is the color of the legs 
 also. The-antennas resemble short gray threads reaching only to the wing 
 sockets, when they are turned backwards. Along their under side they are 
 dark brown, with projecting sharp-pointed teeth, like those of a saw. 
 
 The female remains stationary upon her cocoon and there deposits her 
 eggs, whereby her body becomes diminished nearly one-third from its origi¬ 
 nal size. This operation so exhausts her that as soon as it is completed 
 she looses her hold upon the cocoon and falls to the ground and dies. She 
 thus lives only about twenty-four hours in her mature state, whilst the 
 male continues to fly about, actively, for several days at least. 
 
 In one instance a female lost her foothold upon the cocoon, and falling, 
 caught hold of the clapboard a short distance below it; and I relate the 
 circumstance as showing how very little these wingless females are able to 
 walk and movo about, that she did not attempt to crawl back to the cocoon, 
 but, clinging to the spot where she was, deposited her eggs there, upon the 
 smooth surface of the board, only three inches below the cocoon. 
 
 The Eggs are placed in a cluster side by side, in nearly regular rows upon 
 the outside of the cocoon, to which they are firmly glued. They are of a 
 white color, like enamel, and of a globular form, with their upper part con¬ 
 stricted and flattened, resembling a lid placed upon the summit of the egg. 
 This lid is of a purer white color and opake, with a discolored band around 
 its outer edge and with its center strongly depressed, forming a dimple, in 
 which is a glossy pale brown dot. 
 
 The eggs are left naked and not covered over with the white frothy sub¬ 
 stance with which the female of the leucostigma covers and hides her eggs. 
 And being left thus exposed, these eggs fall a prey to a minute parasitic 
 insect, a black shining four-winged fly with pale tarnished yellow legs, which 
 pertains to the Order Hymenoptera, the Family Phoctrotrupid.e and the group 
 Pi.atygastrides. In its size and general appearance it is very similar to 
 the Mistaken Parasite, figured in my Sixth Report (Plate 1, fig. 4), and I 
 name it the Egg-Parasite of the Vaporer Moth, although it is quite probable 
 that future researches will show that it is not restricted to these insects 
 hut preys also upon the eggs of other moths of similar size. It differs 
 generically from the Mistaken Parasite, in having a straight oblique branch 
 given oft' frqm near the middle of the outer marginal vein of the fore wings. 
 I present a detailed description of this fly. 
 
 Eog-Parasitb op the Vaporer Moth, Telenomus Orgyice, now species. (Ilymcnoptera. 
 
 Prostotrupid®.) 
 
 Length 0.03, or to tho ond of the closed wings 0.05. Black and shining, with the legs dull 
 pale yellowish. Head as broad as the thorax, twice ns broad as long, convex in front, concave 
 at base, and rounded on each side, its surface sparsely bearded, at least in places, with short 
 inclined hairs j tho eyes more donsoly and ovonly boarded with short oreot hairs. Antonnte black, 
 elothod with a short inclined beard, half as long as tho body, inserted near tho mouth, olbowod, 
 clavated, ton-jointed, tho fivo last joints forming an elongated egg-shaped club.. Basal joint 
 long and thick, oooupying one-third of tho total length, slightly curved, rathor thickest in tho 
 
680 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 VAPORER MOTH. THE PARASITE’S OPERATIONS. 
 
 middle, narrowing towards tho base and very slightly towards the tip. Second joint twice as 
 long as thick, obconio, and a third narrower than the basal joint. Third joint similar in length 
 and thickness to the second, cylindrical. Fourth and fifth joints globular and of the same thick¬ 
 ness with the preceding two. Sixth joint a third thicker, globular. Seventh and eighth joints 
 thickest of all, their outline square, opposite sides straight and parallel, base and apex slightly 
 convex. Ninth joint of the same form but a little smaller. Tenth or last joint narrower and a 
 very little longer than the ninth, egg-shaped. Thorax broad egg-shaped with a deeply impressed 
 transverse line across its disk back of the center. Abdomen sessile, smooth and highly polished, 
 similar to the thorax in its size and form. Wings horizontally incumbent upon the back when at 
 rest, smoky hyaline, the fore pair with a straight stiginal branch arising near the middle of the 
 outer margin and running obliquely inward and backward, ending abruptly without being 
 enlarged into a knob or head, its length about equal to one-third of the width of the wing. 
 Legs much more slender than the antennae and rather long, the forward pair shortest, with their 
 shanks thick, elliptic-obovate, and having a strong curved spur on the underside towards tho 
 tip. Shanks of tho other legs long and slender, and gradually thicker towards their tips, tho 
 hind ones longest. Feet long and thread-like, longer than the shanks on which they are respec¬ 
 tively inserted, their basal joint longest and occupying a third of the total length, the second and 
 fifth joints about equal in length and perceptibly longor than the third and fourth. 
 
 Tin's parasite passes around and punctures the shell of each egg of the 
 Vaporer Moth, inserting a minute egg of its own inside, from which hatches 
 a maggot which feeds upon and consumes the contents of the moth’s egg. 
 Each one of the latter eggs is supposed to contain the exact amount of 
 nourishment required for the growth of one of the parasites. Hence the 
 parent fly is cautious to never puncture an egg which is already occupied, 
 being aware that its young will perish from starvation should two of them 
 happen to be placed in the same egg. In the instance which came under 
 my observation, seven of these minute flies were engaged upon one cluster 
 of eggs, walking slowly about and around them, and examining them with 
 their antennas; and with a magnifying glass I could distinctly see one and 
 another of them with its sting inserted into an egg, thus leaving no doubt 
 as to the nature of the work in which they were engaged. I managed to 
 capture two of these flies, and being called away from home, on my return 
 three days afterwards the remaining five were still present, busily engaged 
 in their operations. On the following day, however, only two of them were 
 remaining. That such a number of these flies should continue day after 
 day upon the same cluster of eggs shows how pertinaciously they follow 
 up this work, never abandoning it until they become fully assured that the 
 last egg in the cluster has been ferreted out and inoculated. Although 
 there were two other clusters of eggs at distances of only six and ten feet, 
 not one of these flies discovered them—which indicates that there was some 
 peculiarity about that particular cocoon, whereby such a number of these 
 flies were able to find it and failed to detect the other two in its vicinity. 
 
 As the Common Vaporer Moth, 0. leucostigma, covers her eggs copiously 
 with a white frothy substance which dries and hardens upon them, com¬ 
 pletely enveloping and hiding them from the view, this parasite is unable 
 to come at them to destroy them; and this is no doubt one of the causes if 
 not the sole cause why that species is so much more numerous than the 
 present one in our country. 
 
 It is rarely that the caterpillars of this-moth will occur in such numbers 
 on our trees and shrubbery as to excite any solicitude. Should they do so 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 681 
 
 VAPORER MOTH. REMEDIES. 
 
 our readiest mode for lessening their numbers will be to pick off each leaf 
 qn which one of them is standing and trample it under the foot, if one can 
 find it in his heart to thus treat such beautiful objects as they are. Their 
 numbers around our dwellings may also be lessened by searching for their 
 cocoons under the edges of clapboards, in the grooves of the rough bark of 
 trees, and similar situations, and wherever one of them is found with a 
 cluster of eggs upon its surface, tearing it from its place and throwing it 
 into the fire. 
 
 In conclusion, I may add that the Common Vaporer Moth has been very 
 abundant in the city of Albany for several years past, where its larva has 
 acquired the name of the Little Yellow Caterpillar. It here appears to be 
 increasing with each succeeding year, and has this season (1863) been so 
 numerous that in some of the yards and gardens I have seen large plum 
 trees wholly stripped of their leaves by it and the rose bushes similarly 
 defoliated. On this the 21st of July the caterpillars have nearly all disap¬ 
 peared for the season, and I have to-day met with the insect in all its dif¬ 
 ferent stages—some of the caterpillars still remaining out upon the rose 
 bushes, whilst most of them have formed their cocoons and changed to 
 pup.E, some of which have already given out the perfect insects, and the 
 winged males, recognized by their smoky gray color and the white dot on 
 the inner hind corner of their wings, are seen at rest on the shaded side 
 of buildings, and occasionally a cocoon shows on its surface the milk-white 
 patch of dry frothy matter under which the female has hid her eggs. As 
 these eggs will remain unhatched until next spring, this nuisance, the 
 Yellow Caterpillar, might be greatly abated, were every person after the 
 leaves have fallen, in autumn or iu winter, to search for these cocoons 
 under every projection in the walls of his buildings and in his fences, and 
 upon every dead leaf which remains hanging upon the limbs of the trees 
 and shrubbery, and wherever one of the cocoons is found having this white 
 foam-like substance upon it, making it a point to tear it from its place and 
 burn it. 
 
 8. Hair-necked Rose-bug, Macrodactylus barbatus , new species. (Coleoptera. Me- 
 lolonthidaj.) 
 
 Associated with the Rose-bug, devouring the leaves and fruit of roses, grape vines, apple and 
 other trees, the latter part of June, a beetle like it in every respect, excopt that its thorax is 
 S ightly more broad than long, and is bearded with small erect short bristles. 
 
 As this report is being closed for the press (June, 1863,) specimens ol 
 the Hose-bug are sent me from Stillwater, Saratoga County, as an insect 
 which is there making its appearance in vast numbers in the fields of young 
 rye, corn and potatoes; and a gentleman from Saratoga Springs calling 
 upon me, states that in some of the gardens there the grape vines are so 
 thronged with these beetles, eating the fruit and leaves, as to threaten 
 to ruin them, whilst there are great complaints of it also as devouring the 
 young plants of Indian corn in the fields. 
 
 In my Second Report was given a description and figure of the Rose- 
 
682 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW TORK 
 
 HAIRY-NECKED ROSE-BUG. ITS LOCALITIES. 
 
 bug, Macrodactylus subspinosus, with details of its history and habits. In 
 the eastern section of the State of New York, there usually occurs associ¬ 
 ated with this insect, individuals which we must regard as a second 
 species, differing from it merely in having short stiff hairs upon its thorax, 
 jutting up from the smooth surface like the beard upon a man’s face, this 
 beard being of a buff-yellow color, and differing also in the relative 
 dimensions of the thorax, it being rather more wide than long, whereas in' 
 the common species its length slightly exceeds its width. Of the seven 
 specimens just received from Saratoga County, two are of this kind. This 
 hairy broad-necked species has generally been confounded with the other. 
 Dr. Bunmeister was the first to point it out as being distinct,, and he 
 supposes this to be the real subspinosus of Fabricius, and accordingly 
 describes the smooth narrow-necked species under the name polyphagus, 
 which had been applied to it in Melsheimer’s Catalogue. Dr. Le Conte, in 
 his synopsis of the Melolonthidee of the United States, published in the 
 Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences cotemporaneously with the 
 appearance of my Second Report, follows Burmeister in applying the 
 Fabrician name to this hairy-necked species, and adopts for the smooth¬ 
 necked species the name angustaius, heretofore given to it by Beauvois. 
 And he supposes the two species to inhabit wholly distinct sections of our 
 country, assigning New York as the locality of the hairy-necked beetle 
 whilst the other is found only in the Southern States and Kansas. But 
 different correspondents have sent me the smooth-necked species from 
 different parts of the State of New York, from Massachusetts, Rhode 
 Island, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Ohio, Illinois, Kansas, and the 
 Indian Territory south of Kansas. It is perfectly evident, therefore, that 
 this species is not limited to the South and West, as Dr. Le Conte supposes, 
 but occurs throughout the Northern and Middle States also. On the other 
 hand, the hairy-necked species has never been found, that I am aware, 
 except in the State of New York. My specimens of it are from the city of 
 New York, from Albany, from the neighborhood of Utica, and from Wash¬ 
 ington and Saratoga Counties. So far as yet appears, therefore, this 
 species occurs only in the valley of the Hudson River and its tributaries. 
 As Dr. Le Conte cites Dr. Harris’s Treatise as describing the hairy-necked 
 species he must evidently infer that this species inhabits Massachusetts 
 also. But this citation was probably made without due attention to the 
 description of the insect given by Dr. Harris. Though he does not state 
 whether the thorax of his insect is smooth or bearded, he says this part of 
 its body is long and narrow, which precludes us from regarding it as this 
 species, in which the thorax is wider than long. And knowing as we do 
 that the smooth-necked species occurs in Massachusetts, we cannot doubt 
 it was this which Dr. Harris had before him; as it was also the species 
 from which the description given in my Second Report was drawn, as will 
 be evident by reference thereto. 
 
 The question now remains, was I correct in pronouncing this smooth 
 and narrow-necked species to be the subspinosus of Fabricius, or are Drs. 
 Burmeister and Le Conte correct in applying this name to the bearded and 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 683 
 
 HAIRY-NECKED ROSE-BUG. THE SPECIES ERRONEOUSLY NAMED. 
 
 wide-necked species? As this Rose-bug is one of the most common and 
 formidable injurious insects of our country it is important that we have its 
 nomenclature correctly ascertained and permanently settled. 
 
 On referring to the fullest description which Fabricius has left to us of 
 the species which he names subspinosa, that contained in his Entomologia 
 Systematica, vol. ii, p. 118, wo find it applies alike to both of the species, 
 none of the terms which he employs giving any indication which one of the 
 two he had in his view. And the same remark is true of the still more 
 detailed description, cotemporaueously given by Olivier (Entomologie, i, 5, 
 p 70 ). There being nothing therefore in the original definitions of the 
 subspinosus whereby we can decide .to which of these two species this name 
 rightfully belongs, if we were left to the general fact that the one species 
 is common throughout the United States, whilst the other is quite local, 
 occurring only along the Hudson River, where the other species is associa¬ 
 ted with it and is usually the more numerous of the two, the presumption 
 would be strong that it must have been the former of these species which 
 'had found its way to Europe and was the insect with which these old 
 authors were acquainted. But in addition to this, other incidental evidence 
 is furnished us which must be regarded as decisive upon this subject. 
 Fabricius cites the M. elongata of Ilerbst as being the same insect with his. 
 If we admit this citation to be correct, it is conclusive upon the point at 
 issue, Herbst’s species with the “flachliegenden Hitrchen,” the flat-lying 
 little hairs, being evidently the smooth necked one. Fabricius further 
 gives the West India islands as the locality where the subspinosus occurs. 
 Surely this must preclude us from regarding an insect found only in the 
 State of New York as being his species. It appears from Dejean’s cata¬ 
 logue and from several other authorities that the same insect which is 
 found in the United States, is found in different parts of the West Indies 
 also, and from Lacordaire we learn that its geographical range reaches 
 south into the republic of Colombia. Thus, the proof seems to be conclu¬ 
 sive that it is the smooth narrow-necked species to which the name sub¬ 
 spinosus rightfully pertains. 
 
 We are thus left without a name for the other species, and I therefore 
 propose to term it the barbatus, the bearded or Hairy-necked Rose-bug. As 
 already stated, it is the M. subspinosus of Burrneister and of Le Conte, but 
 not of Fabricius, Olivier, Latreille, Harris, and others. In the description 
 of subspinosus given by Latreille, occurs the phrase “thorace angusto,” 
 tlio thorax narrow, clearly showing it is not this wide-necked species tc 
 which he refers. 
 
 It is difficult to ascertain the dimensions of these Rose-bugs with accu¬ 
 racy, in our dried cabinet specimens, the thorax and head being inclined 
 downwards much more in some of them than in others. My specimens of 
 this Hairy-necked species vary in length from 0.30 to 0.38, showing there 
 is no such difference in their size as has been reported, whereby this species 
 can be distinguished from the other. Nor, on the underside of the abdomen 
 in the females of the smooth-necked species do I detect any bristles, which 
 arc stated as occurring in it, on the middle of the four anterior segments. 
 
684 
 
 . ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 HAIRY-NECKED ROSE-BUG. 
 
 In both species alike, the pygidium or exposed tip of the abdomen is usually 
 black, but not unfrequently it is pale dull yellowish, and sometimes the 
 whole underside of the abdomen is of this color. Thus only the hairiness 
 and width of the thorax remain to us as characters which are constant and 
 reliable, whereby to distinguish this species. 
 
 The transformations and habits of this insect are the same, no doubt,' 
 with those of the common Rose-bug, full statements of which have already 
 been presented in my Second Report. And the same modes of combating 
 and subduing it whenever it becomes numerous will require to be resorted to. 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 685 
 
 HESSIAN FLY. 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Historical Notice of the first starting of the Hessian Fly in this Country 
 
 In the account of the Hessian Fly given in my last Report, I state that 
 it is a European insect, which was introduced into this country, probably 
 in some straw used in package, by the Hessian troops which landed on 
 Staten and the west end of Long Island, August 1176, but it did not be¬ 
 come so multiplied as to attract general notice in that neighborhood, until 
 1779; and from thence as a central point, it gradually extended over the 
 country in all directions, advancing at the rate of from ten to twenty miles 
 a year. 
 
 In my History of the Hessian Fly, published in the Transactions of the 
 Society for the year 1846, I endeavored to present as particular an account 
 of the introduction of this insect and its subsequent advance from one 
 locality to another as the information which I was able to find upon this 
 subject enabled me to prepare. In that article, (page 325) the following 
 statement is given of the first starting of this insect in this country: 
 
 “ From the ‘ flax seeds’- casually lodged in the imported straw, only a 
 few flies would probably be evolved, to deposit their eggs upon the young 
 wheat in the autumn of 1776; nor would these have multiplied to such an 
 extent in the following spring as to attract attention at the time of harvest. 
 But, increasing with each successive brood, by the harvest of the following 
 year, 1778, we might anticipate its being observed, and by a year thereaf¬ 
 ter, it would become so numerous that its real character would no longer 
 be in doubt. And in accordance with this, we are informed by Colonel 
 Morgan, that ‘the fly made its first appearance in 1778;’ and Mr. Clark, 
 who in 1787 went to Long Island expressly to gather authentic information 
 respecting this insect, says in his report, ‘ I satisfied myself in the following 
 particulars, namely: first, that the Hessian Fly made its first appearance 
 there about the year 1779, so as to injure, and in some cases to destroy 
 their crops of wheat.’ And an anonymous writer- in Carey’s Museum 
 (vol. i, p. 143) gives the same year as about the period of its discovery. 
 We therefore regard the year 1779 as most probably the date when its 
 ravages commenced.” 
 
 The opinion which I thus expressed becomes somewhat modified by a 
 statement which I meet with in the lately published Colonial History of our 
 State, vol. viii, p. 783, which indicates that this insect had become more 
 multiplied and had penetrated farther into the country in the year 1779 
 than my previous information had led me to suppose. From the document 
 alluded to it appears that in December, 1779, a tory named John Pell, of 
 
686 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 HESSIAN FLY. 
 
 the town of Sheffield, near the southwest corner of Massachusetts, made 
 his way to the city of New York, where he gave information to the British 
 authorities, of the condition of the country betweea the Connecticut and 
 the Hudson rivers, one of the items of which is as follows: 
 
 “ That no wheat is to be bought for the Continental money—nor for hard 
 money under twelve shillings (probably New England currency, i. e. two 
 dollars) a Bushel, which is more than double the old price prior to the pub¬ 
 lic troubles. That many dread a famine, the last Harvest being short on 
 account of a blast which was general thro’ the North country, and a fly 
 which before the snow falls of this Winter devoured the green blades so 
 that a part of almost every field, and some entire fields were perfectly 
 eaten up and destroyed, and the fields in some instances resown or reserved 
 to be ploughed up in the winter if the frost would permit or in the spring.” 
 
 I think there can be no doubt it was the Hessian Fly, then newly arrived 
 in the country and its habits wholly unknown, which occasioned the re¬ 
 markable disasters to the wheat crop here stated to have occurred over the 
 southwestern part of New England in the year 1719. What is here termed 
 a blast in the wheat harvested that year was probably that shrinking of 
 the kernels which the pupae or “ flax seeds” of the Hessian Fly cause when 
 they are nestled at the lower joints of the straw, and which, if they were 
 noticed at the time, would scarcely be suspected of occasioning this shriv¬ 
 eling of the kernels, their location being so far distant from the heads. 
 And the fly which destroyed the young green wheat in autumn to such an 
 extent that many fields were plowed up and resown, was the succeeding 
 generation of the same insects, nestled now in the roots and causing the 
 young wheat plants to wither and die. This insect therefore, imported to 
 our shores as we do not doubt in some straw landed at the west end of 
 Long Island in the summer of 1776, and beginning to breed there in the 
 fall sowed wheat of that year, in the course of three years or its sixth 
 generation in this country, had become so multiplied and spread that it was 
 destroying the wheat crop and exciting fears of famine over at least a 
 considerable portion of the country between Berkshire County, Massachu¬ 
 setts, and the city of New York. It thus appears on the outset of its 
 career upon this side of the Atlantic, to have advanced to the north twice 
 as rapidly as it did to the east, whilst to the south and west its progress 
 tvas very much slower than in any other direction. 
 
 As every fact relating to the first introduction of this important insect 
 and its subsequent advance over our country merits to be carefully pre¬ 
 served, and as the statement which I have quoted above was written six 
 years earlier than any which I had before been able to find, and is probably 
 the first allusion to the Hessian Fly in this country which is now extant, I 
 have deemed it of sufficient consequence to be thus particularly noticed. 
 
 The Earth-worm, Lumbricus terrestris, Linnaeus. 
 
 The Earth-worm, the long, cylindrical, reddish worm, which is so very 
 common everywhere in rich ground and is in such universal use as a bait 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 687 
 
 EARTH-WORM. IS NOT THE LARVA OF AN INSECT. FEEDS ON EARTHY MATTER. 
 
 for angling, we cannot but regard as being identical with the correspond¬ 
 ing worm of the European continent, named Lumbricus terrestris by Lin- 
 naius, though some have supposed it to be probably a distinct species. 
 When we recur to the fact that this worm is so common in gardens that 
 every box and pot of earth in which live plants are carried from one con 
 tinent to the other, will be liable to contain some of them and transport 
 them over the ocean, we see how very improbable it is but that the species 
 of the one continent will be common on the other continent also. 
 
 As a notable instance of the manner in which men of science sometimes 
 toil and waste their energies in heaping up piles of dust to be scattered 
 and dispersed by the next wind which passes by, we have the fact that M. 
 Savigny distinguished and described twenty species of these worms which 
 subsequent naturalists regard as merely varieties of one common species. 
 
 We have here an example of a worm which is not the larva of an insect. 
 This Earth-worm undergoes no metamorphosis; it always retains the form 
 in which we are accustomed to see it. It is most nearly related to the 
 leech and the hair-snake, and is accordingly associated with them in the 
 class of animals to which the name “ Worms” in strictness belongs. It 
 consequently does not pertain to the department of my investigations. I 
 however notice it, for the purpose of reporting some observations which 
 have incidentally occurred to me, and which are deemed to be of interest 
 as throwing additional light, particularly upon the food upon which this 
 creature subsists, and upon the holes or burrows which it makes under¬ 
 ground. 
 
 It is currently stated by authors that these earth-worms feed upon earthy 
 matter, from which they digest the fine vegetable mold contained therein, 
 and eject the remainder at the mouths of their burrows. By crawling 
 about in the ground as they do, they are most important and serviceable 
 agents in loosening the soil and opening it for the air and water to pene¬ 
 trate it. And by throwing out their castings at the mouths of their holes, 
 they add to the depth of the soil, and cover tracts that are comparatively 
 barren, with a superficial layer of fine, fertile soil. Hereby also, as many 
 who read these lines will probably remember to have observed, a stone or 
 chip which is lying upon the surface of the earth where the ground remains 
 undisturbed, will in a few years become sunk wholly beneath it. It is 
 some ten years ago, that, ill flagging a walk in my yard, several large flat 
 stones which were rejected as being too thin and unsubstantial for this 
 work, were carried aside to an unoccupied part of the yard and laid upon 
 the grass, with the thought that some use to which they might be appro¬ 
 priated would perhaps occur. By the grass growing over their edges they 
 in two or three years were hid from view, and had become totally forgot¬ 
 ten, till recently, happening to strike a hoe in the ground there, they were 
 re-discovered. They were found to be sunk, each one, about an inch below 
 the surface, being overlaid, to this depth by fine gritty earthy matter, with 
 only its upper part permeated by the roots of grass. I could attribute 
 this deposit of earthy matter upon the upper side of these refuse flagging 
 b tones to nothing else than the operations of earth-worms. Instances of a 
 
688 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF.NEW YORK 
 
 EARTH-WORM. DRAWS DEAD LEAVES INTO ITS HOLES. 
 
 similar character are related by Charles Darwin, Esq., in a paper “ On the 
 Formation of Mould,” published in the second volume of Proceedings of 
 the Geological Society of London, one of which is that of a pasture field 
 undisturbed by the plow, and which had received a heavy top dressing of 
 lime twelve years and of cinders three years previously. On examination 
 lumps of the lime were found, forming a well marked white line at a uni¬ 
 form depth of two inches below the surface, and at the depth of one inch 
 was a line of black spots, formed by the remains of the cinders; the soil 
 below the white line being gravelly and differing very perceptibly' from the 
 fine mold above it. Such facts show us what important and valuable 
 agents these earth-worms are, in keeping the superficial portion of the soil 
 in a most salubrious condition for the growth of vegetation. 
 
 These worms also feed upon dead leaves and other decaying vegetation; 
 and hereby they are liable in some cases to become annoying to the gard¬ 
 ener. When making my garden a few years since, from among the refuse 
 onions remaining in the cellar, a bed of escallions was planted. Soon 
 after, I was surprised to find that the onions which had thus been set out 
 were pulled over and lying prostrate upon the ground, all of them having 
 their dead tops drawn into holes about the size of a goose quill which were 
 perforated in the ground; and to enable the tops to be thus turned down 
 into these holes, the whole onion had in several instances been drawn two 
 or three inches away from the place where it had stood. They were imme¬ 
 diately restored to their places, but next morning several of them were 
 found again pulled down in the same manner. And thus, for some time 
 subsequently, a portion of these onions were reset deeper and with the 
 earth pressed more firmly around them, each day, and continued to be 
 uprooted by night, several of them perishing from being thus disturbed. 
 I was in doubt as to what creature it was that was attacking the onions 
 in this manner—drawing the decaying tops into its hole by night that it 
 might feed thereon during the day time without exposing itself to observa¬ 
 tion. The holes appeared like those of the earth-worm, but I did not deem 
 this worm able to grasp bodies of such size as were these onions, and draw 
 them along upon the surface of the ground. As it might possibly be somo 
 new and strange insect which had arrived and established itself here, I 
 resolved to ascertain decisively what it was. Repairing to the spot with 
 a lamp at different hours of the night failed to reveal the creature engaged 
 in its operations, and I finally determined to trace one of the burrows, by 
 digging, until I came to the animal in it. By inserting a straw in one of 
 the holes, and crowding it down further and further as I carefully removed 
 the earth from around it, I found the hole descended almost perpendicularly 
 till it came into very hard compact soil below where the ground had ever 
 been disturbed by the garden operations of plowing and spading. At 
 length, on reaching a depth of about fourteen inches from the surface, the 
 burrow abruptly turned from a perpendicular to a horizontal direction, and 
 following it as well as I was able to do at such a depth and in such firmly 
 compacted gravel, it here appeared to form one of a multitude of horizontal 
 burrows, winding about in every direction, whereby the ground seemed to 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 689 
 
 earth-worm, its under-ground burrows, it eats green leaves also. 
 
 be perfectly honey-combed. All doubts that it was the earth-worm which 
 I was pursuing were now dispelled; and I became aware it would be im¬ 
 possible to find the animal by following it up in its burrow, as these bur¬ 
 rows were now discovered to be interminable, and the worms would retreat 
 from me therein with infinitely more celerity than I could follow them. 
 
 I hence conclude that the principal residence of these earth-worms is at 
 a depth of some sixteen inches from the surface, and below where the frost 
 of winter penetrates; and here, in places where the surface soil is rich and 
 the worms are numerous, the earth is mined by their burrows running in 
 every direction, like the streets of a populous city. Another fact indicating 
 that the earth is thus mined, has occurred to my notice. In striking into 
 the soil of the garden with an iron bar, making holes into which to set 
 bean poles and for other purposes, I have repeatedly been surprised to find 
 that the bar, after penetrating the firm earth to a depth of .some sixteen or 
 eighteen inches, would then come into remarkably loose soil, whereby, by 
 merely working the implement backwards and forth, its own weight would . 
 carry it down some distance further—the bar sometimes going down with 
 such suddenness and case as to excite a suspicion that it would become 
 lost from dropping into a cavern in the ground there. Other persons, I am 
 sure, must have observed this same fact. Heretofore I hate been at quite 
 a loss to account for such a looseness in the soil at such a depth. I now 
 suppose it is caused by the multitudinous burrows of these earth-worms. 
 
 From this underground retreat, holes extend upwards to the surface, 
 from which by night the worms come abroad to feed^and to draw a supply 
 of food into the mouths of their holes that they may consume it unmolested 
 during the day time. This drawing of food into the mouths of their bur¬ 
 rows is a common habit of these worms. The middle of June, 1860, in 
 examining a cornfield which had been much injured by the frost a few 
 nights before, I observed the ends of the dead blades of the young corn 
 were in numerous instances drawn into the holes of the earth-worms. And 
 in grass lands I have also, found the lower dead leaves of the grass, several 
 inches in length, drawn into these holes in thg same manner. It is 
 probably by coiling one end of its body around the blades of grass that it 
 draws them to the mouth of its burrow, the minute bristles with which 
 each of its rings is furnished, aiding it in clinging to the substance which 
 is thus to be moved. That they are able to hold to and draw over the 
 ground bodies of such size and weight as were the onions, shows that they 
 have a power of prehension and avulsion, a power of grasping and pulling, 
 which much exceeds anything of this kind which they are commonly 
 supposed to possess. 
 
 But, in addition to feeding upon earthy matter and upon dead and 
 decaying leaves, these worms also attack vegetation which is green and 
 growing. I have been reluotant to believe this, until instances have pre¬ 
 sented themselves to my notice, putting the fact beyond all question. 
 They are particularly prone to fall upon and appropriate to their own use 
 tender garden vegetables which have been newly transplanted, the leaves 
 of which, being flaccid and pliant from being slightly wilted, they draw 
 
 Ac. Trans. 
 
690 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OP NEW TORE 
 
 EARTH-WORM. IS A PEST IN GARDENS. REMEDIES TO REPEL THESE WORMS. 
 
 into the mouths of their holes and consume, and not unfrequently the 
 plants themselves are hereby uprooted and drawn away from the places 
 where they had been set. In other instances, without drawing them under 
 the ground, where two or three slightly wilted leaves are lying together 
 upon the surface, keeping it moist and shaded from the sun’s rays, these 
 worms delight to ascend there in the day time and feed upon the under 
 portions of the foliage. And when in this situation, on discovering the 
 near approach of a person, they are so startled as to make a perceptible 
 rustling and agitation of the leaves in their haste to retreat into their holes. 
 Thus transplanted lettuce, turnips, etc., are liable to be injured and some 
 of the plants to be destroyed by these worms. 
 
 Another calamity frequently befalls some portions of the beds in our 
 gardens when the seeds sowed therein first start out of the ground. Rows 
 of young plants which we to-day notice as having come up profusely and 
 finely, it may be are to-morrow observed to have large vacant spots in them, 
 and in a few days more perhaps not a single plant is remaining. Cut worms 
 sometimes destroy small portions of the rows in this manner; but then some 
 of the small wilted leaves are seen, drawn partly into a crack in the ground, 
 at which place it is also noticed that the surface soil has been newly loosened 
 by the worm in entering the ground there, and on digging the worm itself 
 is found lying slightly under the surface. But here, the beds, or large 
 portions of them, are swept clean, with no wilted leaves left, no disturbance 
 of the soil, no trace whatever to indicate to us the enemy that has destroyed 
 the newly sprouted plants, save only that holes of the earth-worms are 
 seen here in the beds the same as in all the surrounding soil. And I am 
 persuaded it is these worms issuing from their holes by night and feeding 
 upon the tender newly sprouted plants, which occasions their sudden dis¬ 
 appearance in this manner. 
 
 I may further remark that in young cabbages, beans, and other garden 
 vegetation, we frequently see a large hole eaten in a leaf or a portion of 
 its margin consumed, when no caterpillars, cut worm, or other insect larva 
 to which we can impute this casualty, is to be found upon or anywhere 
 near the plant. And I believe it is often these earth worms which thus 
 wound the leaves, although to do so they must in some of these instances 
 ascend the stems of the plants such a distance that little if any of their 
 body remains upon the ground. 
 
 I have my life long deemed these worms to be perfectly innocent of harm 
 and serviceable to us by keeping the ground loosened and porous. But 
 within a few years past, having come to look particularly at their opera¬ 
 tions, I am forced to change my opinion. In our plowed fields, our meadows 
 and pastures, they are probably to be regarded as doing more good than 
 harm. But where they become so multiplied as they do in the rich soil of 
 our gardens they are a pest and a nuisance. ' 
 
 Have we any remedy against these worms ? Upon this point I have not 
 yet sufficient experience to enable me to speak with confidence. I have 
 observed that when a light approaches Jhem in the night time-they imme¬ 
 diately retreat underground, and it therefore appears probable that if a 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 691 
 
 EARTH-WORM. A FORKED EARTH-WORM. 
 
 lighted lantern were placed in the garden during the night, none of these 
 worms would come abroad near it. I have also noticed that if one of these 
 worms is dropped upon a spot where the surface is sprinkled over with ashes 
 or with salt, the worm writhes and twists apparently in misery, coiling and 
 tying itself into knots as if endeavoring to wipe off the irritating substance 
 from its skin. Around the vegetation, therefore, which I find to be molested 
 by these worms, I am resorting to a top dressing of unleached ashes, with 
 the hope of thus protecting it from them. 
 
 A singular monstrosity occurs in one of these worms which was found 
 in my garden the past season. It is a young worm about three inches 
 long, having the hind end of its body forked or divided into two branches 
 nearly a fourth of its length. The forks are cylindrical, of equal length 
 and thickness, and about a third less in diameter than the body forward of 
 them. When it was first taken in the hand both forks were noticed to dis¬ 
 charge their earthy feces alike. The structure, where the forks commence, 
 may be briefly described as follows: The fork which is on the left side 
 continues the rings of the body regularly onward, three of the rings suc¬ 
 cessively diminishing in diameter reducing the thickness from that of the 
 body to that of the fork; and the suture by which the first of these three 
 rings is united to that which precedes it, opens widely apart on the right 
 side, forming the base upon which the right hand fork is inserted—this 
 fork showing a very slight contraction or neck at its commencement, 
 whilst the left hand fork has no corresponding contraction at its base. 
 
 The specimen is preserved in a vial of spirits, in the Museum of the 
 Society, the spirits having contracted it in length about one-third. 
 
ADDITIONS TO LIBRARY, 1862. 
 
 BY PURCHASE. 
 
 Illustrated Catalogue International Exhibition, London. 
 
 American Cyclopedia.' Yol. xv., xvi. 
 
 Evening Journal Almanac. 
 
 National Almanac and Annual Record. 
 
 Grape Culture and Wines and Wine Making. By A. Haraszthy. 
 
 Annual Scientific Discoveries. D. A. Wells. 
 
 BY DONATIONS AND EXCHANGES. • • 
 
 Journal Royal Agricultural Society, England. Yol. 22d, part 2d, No. 48. 
 H. Hall Dare, Secretary. 
 
 Franklin Almanac, 1862. B. F. Sanford, Cincinnati, Ohio. 
 
 Transactions (early volumes) Society. 1 vols. Hon. T. C. Peters, Darien. 
 Medical Transactions, 1861. 1 vol. Same. 
 
 Annual Scientific Discovery, 1862. Anthony Fisk & Son., Albany. 
 Transactions Society. 5 vols. D. D. T. Moore, Rochester. 
 
 Bath and West of England Society for Encouragement of Agriculture. 
 
 Vol. 9, Parts 1 and 2. Henry St. John Maule, Sec’y, Bath, England. 
 Wiesbaden. Through Dr. F. Flugel, Leipzig. 
 
 Verien filr Naturkunde Kernhbaum. 1 vol. 
 
 Centralet der Sandes Vereing, Koningsbdrg. 2 vols. 
 
 Offeubacher Verien fiir Naturkunde. 1 vol. Dr. Ned H. Walter, A, 
 Schmaltz. 
 
 Odernheimer. Australia. 1861. 1 vol. 
 
 Centralblatt des Landwrithschafltiche, Vereini. Bayen, 1861. 
 
 Sans Landwithschafts. Calendar 1862. 
 do do 
 
 Ergebuissee Landwrithschafltiche, &c. 
 
 Inhaltsorrzeichness Zum Tabrang. 1861. Government of Bavaria. 
 
 Beucht liber die chatigkeit der banerifchen Cactenban, Cefe Ufchaft. 1861. 
 
 C. F. Hagadorn, Bavarian Consulate, Philadelphia. 
 
 Beitfcbeift fur .die Landwrithschafltichen, Vereini, &c. No. 1 to 53. 1861. 
 Verzeichnute Der in der Vierten, &c. 1861. 
 
 Catalogue International Exhibition, London. Illustrated. 
 
 Coutes’ Herd-book. Vol. 14. From Henry Shafford, Author. 
 
 Patent Office Report, Agriculture. 2 vols. 
 
 Journal Royal Agricultural Society of England. Vol. 23d, No. 49. H. , 
 Hall Dare, Secretary. 
 
 Geology of Vermont. From Geo. F. Houghton. 2 vols. 
 
 United States Coast Survey, 1860. Prof. A. D. Bache, Supt. 
 
 Meteorological Observations United States. From D. Holloway, Commis¬ 
 sioner Patents. 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 777 
 
 from the farm, and work of cunning fingers from the parlor and the shop, 
 wc ought not to forget that our kinsmen and neighbors and friends, some 
 of whom were with us a year ago, are now exposed to quick, unnatural 
 death on distant fields of heroic, strife. Yet how easy to lose thought of 
 the war at a place like this, where all nature about us is so eloquent of 
 peace, so suggestive of good will among men! In all these broad, green 
 fields you hear no sound of angrier strife than the noon-day ticking of 
 emulous crickets and katydids. In all these brilliant woods you see no 
 shallow, half-covered graves. There is no smell of human slaughter, no 
 hint of mourning and lamentation. October, as if it were the Joseph of 
 months, is. arrayed in its coat of many colors. The trees arc gaily robed, 
 as for a carnival. 
 
 The gentian’s sweet and quiet eye 
 Lobks thro’ its fringes to the sky. 
 
 % 
 
 The birds have sung their cheerful good-byes, unconscious that their 
 flight to warmer latitudes would be over armies that are deciding the sub- 
 limest, bloodiest issue in the history of our race. Throughout those gold¬ 
 en, misty, pensive days of autumn, when the chill of sudden sunsets tells us 
 the aged year is soon to die; while we are filling our barns and cellars 
 witli stores for the winter, let us be thankful to God that we are permitted 
 to uphold our country’s flag, and our Union’s integrity, without sacrificing 
 the prosperities of the farm and the workshop. Let us be devoutly thank¬ 
 ful that with us the sanctities of the church and the fireside are not touch¬ 
 ed by the blight of war; that our gardens and farms and cemeteries are 
 not trampled by the heels of rapine. The festival we keep to-day may 
 remind us of a promised era, when swords shall be beaten into plowshares, 
 and spears into pruning-hooks. In the late flowers oi the garden, happy 
 insects arc murmuring idyls bf peace. The flowers themselves are a pro¬ 
 phecy (if peace. Without shrinking from the duties and self-denials of a 
 true patriotism, let us ask God to fulfil the prophecy, and to send us the 
 Foacc. 
 
 0 flowors! the soul that faints or grieves 
 
 New comfort from your lips receives; • 
 
 Swcot confidence and patient faith 
 Arc hidden in your healing leaves. 
 
 Help us to trust Thee on and on, 
 
 That this dark night will soon be gone, 
 
 And that these battle-stains are but 
 The blood-red trouble of the dawn. 
 
 Dawn of a broader, whiter day, 
 
 Than ever blest us with its ray, 
 
 A dawn beneath whoso purer light 
 All guilt and wrong shall fade away. 
 
 At the close of Professor North’s address, the society voted their thanks, 
 and requested a cop' f for publication. 
 
 LEYI BLAKESLEE, President. 
 
 T. B. Miner, Secretary. 
 
778 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 NINTH REPORT 
 
 ON TIIE 
 
 NOXIOUS AND OTHER INSECTS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 STATE OF NEW YORK. 
 
 Br ASA FITCH M. D., 
 
 / 
 
 ENTOMOLOGIST OP TOE NEW YORK STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 [Copyright secured to the Author.] 
 
 INSECTS INFESTING GARDENS. 
 
 9 . Northern Tobacco-worm, Potato-worm, Tomato-worm, Sphinx quivquemac- 
 ulata, Haworth. (Lepidoptera. Sphingidse.) Plate 4, fig.l. 
 
 Eating the leaves of potatos, tomatos, and tobacco, in July and August, a largo green 
 worm the size of onojs finger, with a black horn at the end of its back and along each side a 
 row of seven white or pale yellow marks resembling the letter < with its pointed end forward; 
 lying underground in its pupa state during the winter and spring and producing a largo gray 
 moth, four and a half inches wide across its extended wings, having a row of fivo yellow spots 
 along each side of its body and two narrow black zigzag bands across the middlo of its hind 
 wings. 
 
 Hon. William Kelly, in a letter enclosing to me one of the millers 
 which had been obtained from the tobacco-worm by Charles L. Roberts, 
 Esq., of TariflVille, Ct., well remarks that the culture of tobacco has 
 become so important an interest now at the North, that any information in 
 regard to its insect enemies will be read with interest. Mr. Roberts 
 alludes to this tobacco-worm as being quite prevalent in his vicinity. 
 And the pains which some other correspondents and friends engaged in 
 the culture of tobacco have taken to transmit specimens of the worm or 
 the miller to me is an evidence of the importance they attach to this 
 insect. And it may well be regarded as an important enemy; for this 
 tobacco-worm makes the growing of tobacco twice as laborious a task as 
 it would be if we had no such insect in our country. 
 
 This is currently supposed to be a new insect here at the North, unlike 
 anything which we previously had, and that its presence here is due to 
 the extensive growing of tobacco which has recently been commenced. 
 It, however, is the same worm which, from time immemorial, we have 
 been accustomed to meet with in midsummer upon our potato vines, and 
 
itSJsrasiEiMS'it'''" . jip&eJt&F 3S 
 
 \Aioth of Cul ivorm Ac \ 
 

 
 
 
 - 
 
 ' 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 779 
 
 TOBACCO-WORM. TIIE NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN STECIES. 
 
 w ith which we have become more familiarly acquainted from seeing it so 
 frequently upon the tomato vines ever since this vegetable came into 
 general cultivation in our gardens. And it has obtained the names 
 Potato-worm, Tomato-worm, and now Tobacco-worm, as it occurs upon one 
 ortho other of these plants, most.persons supposing it to be a different 
 insect in each case. These three plants are closely related to each other, 
 all pertaining to the same Natural Order, Solanaceas, and this insect feeds 
 upon each of them without appearing to manifest any preference for one 
 over the other. It feeds equally well, also, upon other species of the 
 genus Solarium, to which the potato pertains. I once met with two full- 
 grown worms upon a vine of the bittersweet ( Solatium Dulcamara ) which 
 tvas growing so distant from any potatoes that it was evident they could 
 not have strayed from that plant, but must have come from eggs which tho 
 parent had laid upon this vine, knowing it to be perfectly adapted for 
 nourishing her young. It is probable that it can also nourish itself upon 
 the stramonium, henbane, and most other plants of this Natural Order. 
 
 The tobacco-worm which is common at the South and such a great pest 
 to tho plantations there, is a different species, but so closely like this in its 
 size, colors, markings and habits, both in its larva and perfect state, that 
 the two insects were for a long time confounded together. It is now just 
 a century ago that the miller or moth of the southern tobacco worm was 
 scientifically named Sphinx Carolina by Linnaeus; and it was fifty years 
 later in 1802, that our insect was separated as a distinct species by Mr. 
 Haworth, who gave it the name Sphinx b-maculalus or the Five-spotted 
 Sphinx, Ilubner some years afterwards giving it the name Celeus. I sup¬ 
 pose it to have been through an oversight that authors generally have copied 
 the original name from Mr. Haworth in its masculine form, which is evi¬ 
 dently an inaccuracy. Mr. Clemens in his Synopsis of North American 
 Sphingidne, (Journal Acad. Natural Sciences, new series, vol. IV, p. 166,) 
 cites Dr. Harris as describing the Carolina in his Catalogue ot North Ameri¬ 
 can Sphinges (Silliman’s Journal, vol. XXXVI, p. 294), whereas it is clear¬ 
 ly the b-maculala which is there described under the name Carolina. He 
 also gives both these species as being distributed generally throughout 
 the United States. But over most of New England and New York the 
 5 -maculata is the exclusive species. I have no knowledge of the Carolina 
 as occurring except in the southern sections of our State, where, and 
 throughout the middle States, the two species are found associated togeth¬ 
 er; whilst farther south this disappears and the Carolina alone is met with, 
 its geographical range extending onward through Mexico and the West 
 Indies, and into South America, probably as far as the tobacco grows. 
 
 As already remarked, the two insects are closely alike both in their larva 
 and their perfect states. The worms are of a bright green color, their skin 
 is wrinkled transversely and is commonly dotted over with white, and they 
 arc both marked with a row of oblique white stripes along each side of the 
 body; but in the southern worm there are no longitudinal white streaks 
 meeting the lower ends of these oblique ones to form the V-like marks which 
 we invariably see upon our northern worm. In their perfect state, the 
 
780 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 TOBACCO-WORH. THE FARBNT MOTH. HER BONG TONGUE. HER FOOD. HER EGOS. 
 
 millers ol both species are of a gray color with a row of five yellow spots 
 along each side of the body, these spots being bordered with black, and 
 the wings are varied with brown clouds and obscurely marked with black 
 lines, and on their undersides the hind wings are crossed by two blackish 
 zigzag bands, which are also obscurely traced upon the forward pair. Thus 
 they are so alike in their colors, and in so many of those spots and marks 
 which are most conspicuous, and which the eye first notices, that you feel 
 quite certain on looking them over, that they are both one species. It is 
 only when you come to closely inspect some particular points that you de¬ 
 tect such discrepancies as assure you they really are different insects. The 
 plainest mark of distinction between them is the black bands which cross 
 the upperside of their hind wings. In the moth of our northern Tobacco- 
 worm you see two zigzag bands on the middle of the wings, the same as 
 on the underside. But in the southern you observe in place of these a single 
 broadband, which is very slightly if at all. toothed or jagged along its 
 sides. In addition to this, on the hind body of the former, you notice a 
 slender black stripe along the middle of the back, of which there are no 
 vestiges in the latter. These marks will suffice to enable any one who has 
 cither cf these millers under his eye, to decide which species of the two itis. 
 
 We will nest relate the biography of our insect. 
 
 The moths do not all make their appearance simultaneously, but come out 
 one after another, mostly in the month of July, though co’ntinuing to occur 
 . abroad until the frosts of autumn have destroyed the flowers from which they 
 are foil. During the day time they remain at rest, hid from view, and come 
 out in the evening to feed and lay their eggs. From its thus appearing 
 abroad upon the wing at the same hours when the musketos arc most 
 numerous and annoying, Drury states that the southern species has in 
 some parts of the West Indies obtained the name of the Musketo Hawk, it 
 being also supposed that it is attracted forth at-that particular time in 
 order to feed upon these petty, torments. This, however, is a great error. 
 The sole food of these moths is the honey of flowers, for obtaining which 
 they are furnished with a remarkably long slender tongue, which, when 
 not in use, is coiled up like a watch spring, and concealed between the 
 palpi or feelers. It may be unrolled and drawn out by insert ing a pin into 
 the coil, and when fully extended is five or six inches in length. Thus itis 
 epecially adapted for probing flowers which have long slender tubes, such 
 as the tobacco, stramonium, petunia, &c., whose nectaries arc beyond the 
 reach of bees and other honey-gathering insects. The moth resembles a 
 humming bird in its motions, and also in the sound made by its wings as it is 
 hovering around flowers and sipping the honey from them. The tongue is 
 fully extended at such times; and hereby the moth is poised on its wings 
 at a distance of some inches from the flower on which it is nourishing itself. 
 
 Its eggs are probably placed on the underside of the leaves of those 
 plants on which its young feeds. The .worms which come from these eggs 
 arc voracious feeders, consuming a large quantity of foliage and growing 
 rapidly, whereby some of the earliest ones attain their full size by the end 
 of July; but it is during the month of August that they are present upon 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 781 
 
 tobacco-worm, its habits, the popa. depth op its interment. 
 the plants in the greatest numbers. They move about but little during the 
 daytime and being of the same green color as the stalks and leaves, they 
 arc- difficult to discover. Usually, the presence of one of these worms upon 
 our tomatoes is first indicated to us by the large black pellets of excrement 
 which it drops, some of which frequently lodge in the forks of the stalks or 
 adhere to the glutinous'hairs of the plant. These pellets are of a short 
 cylindrical form, and deeply grooved lengthwise; and the worm, as if to 
 guard against its presence being betrayed hereby, when it is crawling 
 along the stalks, if it chances to come to one of these pellets, it pauses and 
 takes it up in its jaws and drops it to the ground. 
 
 When the worm is grown to its full size it leaves the plant on which it 
 has hitherto been living, sometimes wandering away to a distance from it., 
 and roots down into the ground to the depth of some inches below the 
 surface. It here becomes quiescent, and casting off its larva skin it 
 appears in its pupa or chrysalis form. By this change it is diminished a 
 third in its size and is now oi an oval form, four times as long as thick, 
 and covered with a hard crustaceous shell of a glossy bright chestnut color. 
 This pupa of the tobacco-worm is particularly curious from having its for¬ 
 ward end prolonged on one side into a long slender limb which is bent, 
 backwards, reaching to the middle of the body, where its end touches and 
 is firmly soldered to the surface, thus forming a kind of loop resembling 
 the handle to a pitcher—this being the sheath in which the tongue is 
 enclosed, which, in the perfect insect becomes developed to such a remark¬ 
 able length. In this state the insect remains through the winter and 
 spring. ”lt is currently stated that it lies so deep in the ground as to be 
 beyond the reach of the winter’s frost, but this point requires further inves¬ 
 tigation, for frequently in harvesting potatoes ttiis chrysalis is disinterred, 
 lying only a few inches below the surface. Every laborer who has been 
 much employed in digging potatoes, and every boy who lias been assigned 
 the task of picking them up, will recollect having noticed it, the curious 
 loop'or pitcher-like handle on one side, having particularly drawn his 
 attention to it. In the garden, also, whore tomatoes have been grown, I 
 have met with it only slightly underground. '1 he subsoil, moreover, 
 beneath where it is loosened by the plow, is in most situations so compact 
 and hard that it would be a very arduous labor for the worm to penetrate 
 downward in it twelve inches or more; and for the moth, alter it comes out 
 from the pupa shell, to force itself up such a distance through this compact 
 subsoil, would seem to be quite impossible. We know furthermore, that 
 the pupce of the other lepidoptara, several of them equalling this in size, 
 pass the winter, some in cocoons elevated above the ground, others 
 upon the surface, others slightly under the surface, where they one and all 
 become congealed by the winter’s cold without impairing their vitality. I 
 am therefore led to conclude that the repeated instances in whichl have 
 met with this pupa lying but a few inches within the loose surface soil 
 were not abnormal, but that this is the depth to which it is commonly 
 buried; and that previous accounts, which represent it as lying deep in 
 Hie ground, beyond the reach of the frost, are erroneous. When tho 
 
732 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW TORK 
 
 TOBACCO-IVOBM. MOTH DESCRIBED. ITS HEAD. ITS BODT. 
 
 warmth of spring has penetrated the earth sufficiently to quicken it again 
 into life, its internal parts continue their growth and development, until 
 the perfect insect becomes formed within the pupa shell. This shell then 
 cracks open and the moth withdraws itself from it, crowds its way upward 
 through the ground, and comes forth in its perfect form. 
 
 We next proceed to describe this insect in its different states. 
 
 The Moth or perfect insect (Plate 4, fig. 1,) is densely coated over with 
 hairs and scales, wholly hiding the surface of the body from view. Its 
 dimensions vary in the two sexes—the body of the female being somewhat 
 shorter and more thick than that of the male. The former usually mea¬ 
 sures two inches in length, the latter a quarter of an inch more. Its width 
 from tip to tip of the extended wings is much the same in both sexes— 
 seldom varying but a trifle from four inches and a half. 
 
 The Head is pale gray with a brown spot upon each side forward of the 
 eye. The eyes are large and protuberant. The palpi are large and ap- 
 pressed to the under side of the head, with their ends projecting forward 
 aud forming a bluntly-rounded apex to the head. The long spiral tongue 
 is glossy, yellowish-brown, with its basal portion black on each side. The 
 antennas are almost half the length of ti e body, and somewhat shorter in the 
 female than in the male. They are brown, and on the exterior side hoary 
 gray. They are nearly straight and of a thick, clumsy appearance, increas¬ 
 ing in thickness very slightly and gradually from the base almost to the 
 tip, and then rapidly taper into a sharp point which is curved back¬ 
 ward. In the males they have along the two flattened faces of their inner 
 side a fine fringe of short hairs placed at the end of each joint. 
 
 The I horax is graj 1 ', and in front is crossed by two curved black lines 
 meeting at their ends, forming the outline of a crescent having its convex 
 side forward. And on each side of the middle are two black lines parallel 
 with each other through most of their length, extending backward and out¬ 
 ward along the edges of the shoulder covers. The hind part of the thorax 
 is brown, with a large black spot upon each side—each of these black 
 spots having on its fore side a roundish blue-gray spot, which is edged an¬ 
 teriorly with a transverse line of white or sky-blue hairs. The sides are 
 pale gray, with a brown streak extending from the eye backward to the 
 under side of the wing socket. 
 
 The Abdomen has the form of a cone nearly three times as long as thick. 
 In the males it is composed of seven rings—the last ones becoming grad¬ 
 ually shorter, and ending in two compressed tufts of hairs, which arc of a 
 broad elliptical form, and tapering to a point at their ends. In the females 
 the abdomen is plainly shorter and thicker, composed of but six rings—the 
 last one larger than that which precedes it, and ending in a crown of hairs 
 forming a short cylindrical brush. On the back it is of a gray color, with 
 a slender black stripe along the middle, a white band at the base, and a row 
 of white spots along each side placed in the sutures—the opposite spots 
 being in some instances prolonged’into each other, and thus forming a white 
 band upon each suture. Upon the sides the ground color is coal black— 
 this color being notched into at the sutures by the above-mentioned row of 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 783 
 
 TOBACCO-WORM. THE MOTH. ITS LEDS. PRELIMINARY REMARKS ON THE WINOS. 
 
 whito spots along its upper side, and more deeply along its lower side by 
 a similar row of larger white spots; and on the middle of each of the five 
 first rings is a large round spot of a bright ochre yellow color—the hind 
 ones smaller. The under side is pale gray, with a row of round black 
 spots along the middle, from three to five in number—the second one being 
 
 the largest. . 
 
 The Legs are gray, paler on their undersides, the feet becoming brown 
 towards their tips, with white rings on the joints. The middle and hind 
 shanks have a pair of spurs at their tips on the underside, and the hind Ones 
 have a second pair placed a short distance above the first. These spurs 
 are gray, with naked brown shining thorn-like tips, one spur of each pair 
 being longer than its mate. The feet are five-jointed, the first joint being 
 much the longest and the following ones successively shorter, with a pair 
 of sharp hooks at the end. On their undersides arc rows of small black or 
 brown prickles, with a crown of larger ones at the apex of each joint; and 
 along the hind side of the forward feet and shanks is a series of much larger 
 ones. 
 
 Preliminary to our description of the wings of this moth the reader should 
 be apprised of some generalities respecting the markings of the wings in 
 the insects cf this order. In the immensely numerous group which in com¬ 
 mon language wo designate as millers or moths, and which are scientifi¬ 
 cally termed the Crepuscular and Nocturnal Lepidoptera, an almost endless 
 diversity in the spots and marks upon the fore wings is met with. Upon 
 looking them over, one after another, no one will suspect there is any sys¬ 
 tem, any uniformity, to these spots and marks, except it may be here and 
 there among the individuals of a particular genus or tribe. And yet, when 
 we come to inspect them more particularly, we shall discover that the same 
 general designs are repeated, the same pattern is copied, more or less com¬ 
 pletely and distinctly, all through this vast series of objects, it being vari¬ 
 ations only in the minor details of the figures, as to their particular form, 
 size, colors and distinctness, that make up the wonderful diversity which 
 exists. These markings, which are'eommon to the wings of such numbers 
 of these moths, are situated and designated as follows: First, between the 
 centre of the wing and its outer margin we observe sometimes one but more 
 commonly two small spots of a peculiar aspect. Theseare called the stigmas 
 or stigmata, this name, stigma, having been anciently given to a mark burned 
 with a hot iron upon the foreheads of slaves who had been convicted of 
 theft or other crime. Second, extending across the middle of the wing and 
 between the two stigmas is frequently a darker cloudiness, which has been 
 termed the median shade. Finally, the wing is also crossed by three bands, 
 bars or strigre, as they are differently termed by different writers; first, 
 the anterior, extra-basal or sub-basal, which is placed immediately forward 
 of the anterior stigma; second, the post-medial or elbowed band, immedi¬ 
 ately back of the posterior stigma; and third, the sub-terminal, sub-apical 
 or penultimate, which is usually more slender and distinct than either of 
 the others and is parallel witli and a short space forward of the hind mar. 
 S'n. In the moth which is now before us the spots and marks upon the 
 
784 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 TOBACCO-WOIIM. THE MOTH. ITS WINGS DESCRIBED. 
 
 fore wing's appear to liave been regarded by previous writers as being so 
 confused and obscure that they have attempted to give no full description 
 of them. Yet we here find the same series of bands extending across the 
 wings as are mentioned above, though portions of some of them are so 
 modified, so faint and irregular, that they can be satisfactorily made out 
 only in specimens which are most perfect, and by an eye that is well exer¬ 
 cised in tracing the very obscure marks which so frequently occur upon 
 the wings of this order of insects. 
 
 The Wings are long and narrow, the hind ones twice and the forward 
 ones nearly thrice as long as broad. They are traversed by strong longi¬ 
 tudinal veins, of which there are eight in number ending in the hind mar¬ 
 gin of each wing and running nearly paralled and equidistant from each 
 other. The upper wings arc gray with a large faint brown cloud occupy¬ 
 ing the disk and apex. Two bands, each formed of three parallel brown 
 or blackish lines extend across these wings, very irregularly, the one 
 before, the other behind the middle. The anterior band we describe as 
 follows. On the inner margin towards the base are three parallel lines, 
 usually very distinct, running obliquely backward and outward half way 
 across the wing to the anterior end of the brown cloud, each line being 
 turned abruptly forward and forming an acute angular point upon the 
 seventh one of the eight longitudinal veins. Beyond this, these lines 
 become very obscurely traced, only one or two of them being dimly per¬ 
 ceptible, extending along the outer side of the anterior end of the brown 
 cloud, till they nearly reach the small stigma spot, where they again turn 
 Obliquely forward and outward, here becoming more distinct for a short 
 distance on the inner side of the first vein, across which they are continued 
 in three very oblique streaks to the outer margin, the anterior one ending about 
 opposite to its commencement on the inner margin. The stigma is a very 
 small egg-shaped spot, placed obliquely, with its smaller end towards the in¬ 
 ner base of the wing, its center gray and no paler than the ground color around 
 it, it being in most instances marked only by the dusky ring around its margin. 
 The three lines forming the post-medial band commence near the middle of 
 the inner margin, the two anterior lines running backwards parallel with 
 the inner margin, till they reach the inner vein of the wing, between which 
 and the next vein they each form a mark shaped like an arrow-head, at a 
 considerable distance apart. They then pass upon the brown cloud which 
 occupies the central portion of the wing, where they are widened into two 
 broad, dusky streaks', which are cloud-like and obscure, running obliquely 
 and nearly parallel with the hind margin until they reach the fourth vein, 
 where they abruptly turn to a transverse direction and extend onward to 
 the margin at right angles therewith, these lines being formed of conflu¬ 
 ent arrow-head spots, which are more distinct in the anterior line, particu¬ 
 larly at its outer end. The third line of this band extends across the wing 
 parallel with the second one, the space between them being grayish, this 
 color forming three or four pale cloud-like spots on the inner sido of the 
 middle of the wing, occupying the angles formed by the arrow-heads com¬ 
 posing this portion of the second line. Where this third line crosses the 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 785 
 
 TODACCO-WORM. THE MOTII. ITS UNDEn WINGS. 
 
 inner vein it juts backward, forming a very acute angle, as it does also in 
 a less degree in crossing most of the other veins. Extending across the 
 three lines of the post-medial band, in the space between the third and 
 fourth veins,'are two very slender black lines, which are united at their 
 ends, forming a very narrow, elongated ellipsis, its anterior end very acute 
 and reaching almost to the stigma. And parallel with this on its inner 
 side, in the space between the fourth and fifth veins is a similar ellipsis, 
 which is less than half the size of the outer one. These ellipses some¬ 
 times appear merely as gray streaks, the black lines along their edges 
 being obsolete, that along the outer edge of the outer one being most 
 prominent and near its forward end widened into a small oval spot. For¬ 
 ward of the hind margin is a coal black line, the sub-terminal, the most dis¬ 
 tinct arid conspicuous of all the marks upon the wings. It is waved towards 
 its inner end, conforming to corresponding but more slight curvatures of 
 the third line of the post-medial band, with which line it is parallel through 
 its whole length, a narrow brown space intervening between them. It is 
 frequently deflected forward as it crosses the fourth vein, and it here ter¬ 
 minates in the hind end of the elongated ellipsis. Behind this line, extend¬ 
 ing along the border of the wing near its extreme edge, is a white line, 
 the space between it and the black line being clouded with bluish gray. 
 Finally, upon the brown ground at the apex of the wing is an oblique coal 
 black line, extending from the tip forward and inward to the post-medial 
 band, where it ends between the second and third veins. Its hinder por¬ 
 tion is margined omits outer side by a pale streak, and where it crosses 
 the second vein it curves forward and forms an acute angle. The fringe 
 is short and brown, alternated with small gray spots placed half way 
 between the ends of the veins. 
 
 The under wings are blackish at their base, and have a broad, gray hind 
 border, all their middle portion being dull white, and crossed by four black 
 bands. The anterior baud is curved, and is commonly united with the second 
 band inside of the middle, and again at its inner end. The second and third 
 bands are parallel or slightly recede from each other towards their outer 
 ends, their inner ends being usually curved almost to a half circle, with the 
 concave side facing forward, the second band being widened and often 
 becoming double in the middle of its curvature. Through the remainder of 
 their length these bands are zig-zag or composed of arrow heads united at 
 their ends, which form acute points projecting backward upon each of the 
 veins. The fourth band is broader than the others, but towards its inner 
 end it tapers and gradually becomes slender, its outer end being curved 
 forward. It is parallel with the hind margin, and forms a border to the 
 gray color of the hind part of the wing. The fringe is short, and of a brown 
 color alternated with white, and becoming wholly white at the inner angle. 
 
 On their undersides the upper wings arc dull brownish gray, more clear 
 gray along the outer border, and are crossed in their middle by two ob¬ 
 scure dusky bands, sometimes with a third band very dimly perceptible 
 between them. These bands, as is particulary obvious in the hind one, are 
 [Ag. Trans.] 50 
 
786 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 TOBACCO-WORM. THE WORM DESCRIBED. 
 
 formed of a series of curves on the spaces between the veins, with their 
 ends turned backward and forming angles upon the veins; and at the tips 
 of these wings is a black oblique line, corresponding with that upon the 
 upper side, but much more slender and simple. The hind wings are gray, 
 with their hiud border brown, and are crossed by two blackish bands, which 
 are repetitions of the two middle bands of the upper surface, but more dim, 
 more slender, and running back upon the veins in longer and sharper points. 
 
 The Larva grows to the thickness of one’s little finger, and is somewhat 
 over three inches in length or three and a half inches when it is crawling, 
 it being then more elongated than when at rest. Its surface is destitute 
 of hairs or bristles. It is divided into thirteen segments, those at each end 
 
 Tobacco Worm. 
 
 being shorter and less distinct. The surface of each segment of the body 
 is crossed transversely by impressed linesand roundly elevated intervening 
 spaces, giving them a ribbed appearance, there being eight of these eleva¬ 
 ted ribs to each segment. In viewing this larva the eye first of all notices 
 a formidable looking, stout, thorn-like horn, placed at the hind end of tho 
 back, and projecting obliquely upward and backward, about as long as the 
 segment which is next forward of it, slightly curved, and its surface rough 
 from little projecting points. Low down upon each side is a row of largo 
 oval dots, which are the spiracles or breathing pores. The head is small, 
 horny and shining, of a flattened spherical form, and the month furnished 
 with a pair of stout jaws. It has three pairs of small tapering feet placed 
 anteriorly upon the breast, each having a sharp hook at its end, and four 
 pairs of short, thick, fleshy pro-legs along the underside of the body, with 
 two similar ones at the tip. 
 
 The color of this worm is commonly bright green marked with white. 
 Numerous faint whitish dots are usually perceptible, at least on the fore¬ 
 part and underside of its body, and along each side are seven straight oblique 
 stripes, the last one of which is prolonged more or less distinctly to the 
 base of the curved horn. These stripes arc usually margined along their 
 upper sides by a faint dusky cloudiness; and meeting their lower ends is a 
 longitudinal stripe, placed low down upon each segment, and forming, with 
 the oblique stripe, a V-shaped mark, having its point directed forward, with 
 the breathing pore placed in the angle which is thus formed. Tho hind¬ 
 most breathing pore also has a much shorter and more faint white stripe 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 787 
 
 TOBACCO-WORK. VARIES GREATLY IK COLOR. THE PUPA DESCRIBED. 
 
 on its upper and another on its lower side, the two stripes uniting together 
 forward of it; and at the anterior end a faint white streak is commonly 
 visible for a short distance forward of the lower end of the first oblique 
 stripe. At the hind end of the body is a flattened triangular space which 
 is margined with white upon each side. The head is green, sometimes 
 with a vertical black streak upon each side. The anterior legs are dusky 
 towards their tips, and on their inner sides are a few small black bristles. 
 The soles of the pro-legs are black, as is also the curved horn at the end of 
 the back. 
 
 This larva is liable to vary in its colors to a surprising extent. Many 
 persons from noticing in their gardens worms which are so totally dissimi¬ 
 lar in their colors confidently suppose there is two or three different spe¬ 
 cies of them infesting their tomatoes. And the same varieties occur upon 
 the potato, and probably also upon tobacco. Its most common color is 
 leek green. From this it varies to lighter yellowish green, and on the 
 other hand to various shades of darker brownish and blackish green. In 
 other instances the green color wholly vanishes, and the worm is pale or deep 
 amber brown, blackish brown, purplish black or pure black. In these 
 brown and black varieties the head sometimes retains its normal green 
 color, but is usually the same color with the body. The dots upon the 
 skin and the oblique stripes along the sides are very often light yellow 
 instead of white; aud where the ground color of the worm is dark brown 
 or black, these markings are always yellow, or sometimes pale pink red. 
 The breathing pores are black, but sometimes dark red or dull yellow, 
 and are surrounded by a ring of white or pale blue, which is usually 
 inclosed in a second ring which is sometimes brown, sometimes black. 
 The curved tail-like horn, so far as my observation goes, is the only part 
 which is constant in its color, this being always black. 
 
 The Pupa or clirysalis is of an oval form, its opposite sides nearly 
 parallel through most of its length, and tapering at each end. It is four 
 
 times as long as thick, its length being 
 two to two and a half inches. It is of 
 a chestnut brown color, paler in some 
 places and blackish in others. The 
 anterior end is irregularly narrowed and 
 Tobaooo-worm Pupa. at its apex is prolonged into a remarka¬ 
 
 bly long cylindrical tongue-case the thickness of a coarse knitting-needle, 
 ■which projects downward and is curved backward at a distance of nearly 
 a fourth of an inch from the surface of the breast, becoming straight 
 through the last half of its length and reaching half the length of the 
 body. It is thickened and bluntly rounded at its end, which slightly 
 touches the surface of the body and is firmly soldered thereto. It is 
 evenly ribbed transversely, appearing as though the inclosed tongue were 
 divided into a number of short joints like the antcniuc, and along its 
 outer and its inner sides are two elevated lines extending its whole 
 length. The wing-sheaths are smooth and glossy, with faint elevated 
 lines marking the veins of the inclosed wings. They are firmly soldered 
 
788 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW TORE 
 
 TOBACCO-WORM. KILLED IT INTERNAL PARASITES* THEIR HABITS. 
 
 to the body and reach two-thirds of its length, and interposed between 
 them at their ends is a single pair of the leg-sheaths, which exactly equal 
 them in length. Along their lower edges are the antennse-sheaths, regu¬ 
 larly marked with transverse impressed lines and tapering to a very acute 
 point on each side of the end of the tongue-case. The rings of the body 
 are closely and confluently punctured on their anterior sides and show 
 numerous transverse irregular scratches and fine wrinkles towards their 
 posterior edges. The breathing pores form a row of oval impressions 
 along each side, each having two acutely elevated lines and between them 
 a narrow elliptic cleft. On the back at the base of the abdomen is a 
 smooth black transverse ridge interrupted in its middle. The three short 
 rings at the hind end are rapidly narrowed, forming a conical point having 
 at its tip two small thorn-like points, one larger than the other. 
 
 We come in the next place to consider the natural enemies and destroy¬ 
 ers which restrain this insect from becoming excessively multiplied and 
 numerous. Large and vigorous as this tobacco worm is, enveloped in such 
 a tough, leathery skin, and jerking its body about with the force and spite¬ 
 ful ness it does when anything molests it, we should scarcely suppose any 
 other creature would eare to encounter it. And yet it finds its mortal foe 
 in a little four-winged fly, scarcely a thousandth part its size. It is truly 
 wonderful that such a pigmy as is this fly is able to attack and destroy 
 such an elephant as is this worm. The fly alights upon the worm, and with 
 the short sting or ovipositor with which it is furnished pierces its skin and 
 inserts a minute egg in the puncture. It continues to repeat this opera¬ 
 tion at one point and another upon the back and sides of the wdrm, until 
 its whole stock of eggs, amounting to a hundred or more, is exhausted. 
 These eggs hatch minute maggots, which distribute themselves all through 
 the body of the worm, feeding upon its fatty substance, but without attack¬ 
 ing any of its vital parts. And thus the worm continues industriously to 
 feed and elaborate nourishment for feasting and pampering these greedy 
 parasites which are luxuriously rioting within it. If a worm which is thus 
 infested be cut into, it appears to be everywhere filled with these little fat 
 maggots. When they have got their growth they gnaw out through the 
 skin, but instead of dropping to the ground and there secreting themselves 
 as they would be expected to do, they still cling to the unfortunate worm, 
 each maggot spinning for itself a little oval white cocoon, one end of which 
 it fastens to the skin of the worm at the orifice where it has issued from 
 it. Thus the worm comes to present the remarkable spectacle of being 
 clothed, as it were, with a hundred or more of these cocoons, resembling 
 Vttle white seeds like kernels of rice adhering to and in places wholly cov¬ 
 ering its back and sides. I have counted one hundred and twenty-four of 
 these cocoons upon a single worm, and a still larger number will probably 
 be found in some instances. 
 
 These parasitic cocoons arc milk white and of a regular oval form, 0.15 
 long and 0.06 broad. Their walls are no thicker than thin writing paper, 
 but are very dense and firm. Their surface is minutely uneven, with a few 
 loose, wrinkled threads at one end, whereby they aro held to the skin of 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL 30CIET7. 
 
 789 
 
 TOBACCO-WORK. PARASITE DESCRIBED. ITS HEAD. ITS BODT. 
 
 the worm, yet so slightly that they are liable to be detached by the slight¬ 
 est force, some of them falling off, sometimes, merely from the motions of 
 the worm. 
 
 When these parasites issue from it the worm has become so weakened 
 and exhausted that it ceases feeding and moving about, and in about three 
 days afterwards all traces of its vitality have vanished. The multitude of 
 minute hooks with which the soles of its pro-legs are furnished, however, 
 continue to hold the dead worm to the stalk of the plant, with its head 
 hanging downwards and its body shrunken and flaccid from the evapora¬ 
 tion of its fluids, until some agitation of the plant by the winds or other 
 violence detaches it and it falls to the ground. 
 
 In the meantime the parasites change to puprn and after remaining in 
 the cocoons seven days, they come out from them in their perfect form. The 
 flies are black with clear transparent wings, and legs of a bright tawny 
 yellow color, the hue of bees-wax, with the hind feet and the tips of the 
 hind shanks dusky. They belong to the order Hvmenoftera and to that 
 group of the Ichneumon-flies which in works of science have been termed 
 Ichneumonid.es adsciti or the family Braconida:. Several of the species of 
 this family present the singular character of having the eyes pubescent, 
 numerous fine short erect hairs arising from their surface. These pertain 
 to a particular genus which has received the name Microgaster, from two 
 Greek words, equivalent to our English term “ small-bellied.” It is to this 
 genus that these parasites of the Tobacco-worm belong. And they were 
 described by Mr. Say, in a posthumous paper which was published in the 
 year 1835, in the Boston Journal of Natural History, vol. i, p. 262, under 
 the name Microgaster congregata or the Congregated Microgaster, in allu¬ 
 sion to their young being found together in such numbers upon a single 
 worm. 
 
 The Tobacco-worm Parasite, Microgaster congregata, is of a coal black 
 color and 0.14 long when living. After death it contracts in drying and is 
 then scarcely 0.12 in length, and the male is a size smaller, not exceeding 
 0.10. Its head is spheroidal, or of a flattened globular form, with the an¬ 
 tennae inserted in the middle of the front side. The antennae are coarse, 
 thread-like, and longer than the body in the male, shorter in the female. 
 They are composed of about seventeen joints so closely connected that their 
 articulations are diflicult to perceive. The joints gradually become slightly 
 shorter and less thick as they approach the tips. The palpi and jaws are 
 white. The eyes are distant from each other on the sides Of the head, and 
 in a strong light their surface is seen to be closely bearded over with mi¬ 
 nute short hairs. Between them on the crown the eyelets or ocelli appear 
 as three small glassy dots placed at the corners of a triangle. The thorax 
 is the broadest part of the body. It is egg-shaped, its surface minutely 
 and closely punctured, and back of the middle it is crossed by a deep groove, 
 fhc abdomen is oblong oval and about the same length as the thorax. It 
 is smooth and shining, except the two first segments which arc rough from 
 obscure shallow punctures, with an elevated longitudinal line in the middle. 
 On its underside the three first segments are pale yellow, with a dusky 
 
790 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 TOBACCO-WORM. PARASITE DESCRIBED. ITS WIKQS. 
 
 epot on the middle of each, that on the third segment being large, and as 
 the sutures contract in drying these spots become united. At its tip tho 
 abdomen in the female is compressed and vertically truncated, with the 
 sting forming a conspicuous projecting point at the lower end of the trun¬ 
 cation. In the male the tip is rounded and without any projecting point, 
 though when living it may sometimes be seen to protrude ‘two styles or 
 slender cylindrical processes pointed at their tips, and between these a 
 thicker process from the apex of which a fine bristle is occasionally thrust 
 out. The legs are bright tawny yellow, becoming more dull and pale in the 
 dried specimen. The hind feet and tips of the hind shanks are smoky or 
 blackish. The hind thighs are also blackish at their tips and frequently 
 show a dusky line along their upper sides, extending nearly to the base 
 The ivings are hyaline, glassy and iridescent. The forward pair have the- 
 stigma appearing as a large, opake, triangular, brownish black spot on 
 their outer side slightly beyond the middle. The rib or marginal vein is thick 
 and brownish black, becoming paler brown towards its base. The basal 
 portion of the wing is traversed by two pale longitudinal veins, which 
 are parallel, the outer one straight, the inner one curved towards its 
 base. The outer vein sends off a long and nearly straight branch obliquely 
 outward and backward to the anterior end of the stigma, this branch 
 bounding the discoidal and the first cubital cells on their fore sides. The 
 discoidal cell is triangular, with the vein on its inner side brown and angu¬ 
 larly bent at one third and again at two thirds of its length, giving off at 
 each of these angles a short oblique veinlet, the first one of which is brown 
 and the other colorless. The first cubital cell is of the same size with the dis¬ 
 coidal and is irregularly six-sided, the anterior and the inner sides being 
 quite short; and the veinlet bounding this cell posteriorly is thick and 
 brownish black, the inner half of its length being oblique and the outer 
 half transverse, ending in the inner angle of the stigma. Beyond this, 
 traversing the apical third of the wing are three longitudinal veins, which 
 are very slender and colorless. The middle one of these veins is abruptly 
 thickened and blackish brown for a very short distance at its base, this 
 thickened portion forming, with the oblique inner end of the veinlet last 
 described, two of the sides of the small triangular cellule which is common 
 in the wings of the insects of this genus and family, but the short veinlet 
 which should complete the inclosure of this cellule on its hind side, is wholly 
 wanting. 
 
 Mr. Say is wholly silent respecting the interesting habits of this insect, 
 merely remarking that he obtained eighty-four of the flies from the larva 
 of a Sphinx in the month of June. As I have had the flies come from the 
 cocoons in July and also in September, it is probable that they are abroad 
 upon the wing during the whole summer season, actively searching for 
 suitable worms to inoculate with their eggs. As will be seen from a state¬ 
 ment in one of the following pages, this parasite does not appear to be 
 limited to the tobacco-worm, but preys upon the larvae of other species of 
 Sphinx also. And some of our other species of Microgaster have the same 
 habit of fastening their cocoons to the larvae from which they respectively 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 791 
 
 TOBACCO-WORM. PAnABITB’S COCOONS MISTAKEN FOR BOOS. ITS ^ APID INCREASE. 
 
 issue. It is not rare, therefore, to meet with a worm which is thus burthened 
 and shackled; and they are justly regarded as great curiosities. Correspond¬ 
 ents have frequently sent me examples of this kind; some of them suppos¬ 
 ing in the fullest confidence that the little cocoons adhering to the back 
 of the worm were eggs which the worm had laid, thus demonstrating, as 
 it was thought, that the statements made in these Reports were erroneous, 
 that it is only in their perfect and never in their hvrva state that insects 
 produce eggs. This is an error into which every one who is not acquainted 
 with insects and their wonderful habits and transformations will be very 
 apt to fall, the shape, color and size of these cocoons being so much like 
 eggs which a large worm like this might be expected to generate. And it 
 shows in a strong light how important it is that our population should be 
 correctly informed and measurably intelligent in this science. For a person 
 destroying one of these worms will be particularly careful to also destroy 
 all these supposed eggs; deeming that in each one of them he in effect 
 destroys another worm; instead of which he hereby protects and insures 
 the upgrowth of another worm—thus doing the very thing which he is aim¬ 
 ing to prevent! 
 
 Of the hundred flies which are bred from one of these Ichneumonized 
 tobacco-worms, we may assume that fifty at least will on an average be 
 females, to destroy fifty more worms. We thus see what efficient agents 
 these insects are in checking the increase of this moth, and what an 
 important service they hereby render us. Indeed, when we recur to the 
 fact that these parasites attain their growth in a space of time so very 
 much shorter than does the tobacco-worm, whereby there is probably two 
 generations of them to one of the latter, it will appear that the parasites 
 issuing from a single Ichneumonized worm will suffice to destroy two 
 thousand and five hundred other worms within the time that one brood of 
 these worms is growing up to maturity. They would therefore speedily 
 exterminate these worms from existence, were they permitted to go on 
 multiplying themselves without any check. And they are so well secreted 
 and protected that there would seem to be little risk ot their being dis¬ 
 covered and destroyed by any enemy. For during their larva state, when 
 they are soft and tender and without feet or any other means of defence or 
 escape, they are lodged within the body of the tobacco-worm where they 
 are secure from harm : and when they issue therefrom they immediately 
 inclose themselves in tough paper-like cocoons, in which they lie hid until 
 they have acquired wings wherewith to fly away from any danger which 
 menaces them. Thus they would seem to be protected and safe from 
 injury. Yet the artifice of enclosing themselves in cocoons fails to procure 
 them immunity. Another minute insect has been created and endowed 
 with the sagacity to discover them in the little pods in which they liido 
 themselves, and there this creature metes out to them the same treatment 
 which the tobacco-worm receives from them. Thus the tobacco-worm 
 does not die unavenged. The lingering, miserable death which it has suf¬ 
 fered, its enemies, as if by an act of retributive justice, are doomed to 
 undergo in their turn. 
 
792 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OP NEW TORK 
 
 TOBACCO-WORM. A DESTROYER OK TUI PARASITE DISCOVERED. 
 
 On one occasion, when I was contemplating one of the tobacco-worms 
 which I met with covered over with parasitic cocoons, I noticed a very 
 email fly wandering about among the cocoons. My first thought was that 
 this fly was probably one of the Microgaster parasites .which had just then 
 come from some one of these cocoons ; but the query soon arose in my mind 
 whether it might not be an enemy, stinging the cocoons to -destroy their 
 inmates in the same manner they had destroyed the tobacco-worm. Its 
 very small size did not enable the eye to discover whether it really was 
 one of the Microgaster flies. I was so fortunate as to succeed in enclosing 
 it in a small vial, and then upon examining it with a magnifier, I became 
 assured it had not come from the cocoons, for I perceived it pertained to a 
 different group of parasites from that to which the Microgaster genus 
 belongs. But how could the highly interesting and important point be 
 ascertained, whether it actually was a destroyer of the inmates of these 
 cocoons ? With the hope of obtaining further light upon this subject a 
 portion of the stalk of the plant with the tobacco-worm adhering to it 
 was cut off and enclosed in a glass jar. On the fifth day thereafter, two 
 Microgaster flies made their appearance in the jar, and the worm now 
 being dead and beginning to become putrid, the cocoons were all removed 
 from its surface and enclosed in a vial. It was feared that this slight vio¬ 
 lence to them had destroyed their inmates, as day after day now elapsed 
 and no more flies came from them. But, three months later, in December, 
 they being kept in a warm room, a dozen flies wore discovered, wandering 
 around in this vial ; and for some weeks after, others continued to come 
 forth from the cocoons. And these proved to be identical with the single 
 fly which had been captured among these cocoons so long a time before- 
 It was therefore evident that that fly was the parent of these which were 
 now issuing from the cocoons ; and so industrious had that little creature 
 been, that it had punctured and dropped one of its eggs into all save two 
 of the cocoons, which were more than a hundred in number; and these 
 two, it is probable, would not have escaped, if the fly had not been inter¬ 
 rupted and taken away from its work. 
 
 These destroyers of the insect which destroys the tobacco-worm are very 
 small four-winged flics of a shining dark green color, with pale yellowish 
 legs and white feet. They belong to the order Hymenoptf.ra and the family 
 ChalcididjE, and are closely related to the Hessian fly parasite, Semiotel- 
 lus destructor, figured in my Seventh Report, plate 3, fig. 1, which figure 
 will also serve to represent this insect in almost every particular. It per¬ 
 tains to the genus Pleromalus, a name derived from two Greek words, 
 meaning bad wings, the wings in these insects being nearly destitute of 
 ribs or veins. As they, by destroying the parasite of the tobacco-worm, 
 cause that worm to be more numerous and hereby more injurious to the 
 tobacco, and as they will often occur lurking about this plant in search of the 
 cocoons upon which to bestow their eggs, they may not inappropriately 
 be named the Tobacco Pteromalus. All the flies which came from tho 
 cocoons were females, from which the following description is drawn. 
 
 The Tobacco Pteromalus {Pleromalus Tabacum), is one-tenth of an inch 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 793 
 
 TOBACCO-WORM. PARASITE’S DESTROYER DESCRIBED. 
 
 long to the end of its body, and is of a dark or bottle green color with a 
 brassy reflection, and finely shagreened upon the head and thorax. The 
 head is large and placed transversely, about three times as broad as it is 
 long, convex in front and concave at its base. Viewed in front it is nearly 
 circular, with a large oval eye slightly protruding upon each side, of a 
 dull red'color fading to brown after death. On the crown three ocelli or 
 eyelets appear as glassy dots placed at the corners of a triangle. Tho 
 jaws are yellow, their ends brown, with four minute teeth The palpi or 
 feelers are dull white. The antennas are inserted in the middle of the face 
 and when turned backward reach about half the length of the thorax. 
 They become a little thicker towards their tips, and are of a brown color 
 with the long basal joint dull pale yellow, and are clothed with a short 
 incumbent beard. They are composed apparently of nine joints, the first 
 joint being long and smooth, and forming- an angle with the remaining 
 joints. The second joint is the smallest of the scries, being but little 
 longer than thick and obconic in its form. The third joint is thrice as long 
 and nearly thrice as thick as the preceding, and has the shape of a pear, 
 the contracted portion of its base being formed of two rings or small joints 
 which are rarely perceptible even in the live specimen when highly magni¬ 
 fied, except these organs be put upon the stretch. The fourth and fol¬ 
 lowing joints are a third shorter than the foregoing, and are nearly equal 
 and square in their outline, each successive joint very slightly increasing 
 in thickness and diminishing in length. The last joint is about thrice as 
 long as the one preceding it, of an oval or sub-ovate form, rounded at its 
 base and bluntly pointed at its apex, and is probably composed as in the 
 other species of this genus of three joints compactly united together. 
 The thorax scarcely equals the head in width and is egg-shaped and thrice 
 as long as wide. On each shoulder is a slightly impressed Hue extending 
 obliquely backward and inward. The abdomen is a third shorter than the 
 thorax, and in the live insect surpasses it in thickness, is egg-shaped and 
 convex with its tip acute pointed. When dried it scarcely equals the 
 thorax in thickness, and becomes strongly concave on the back and trian¬ 
 gular when viewed from one side. It is smooth, polished and sparkling, 
 of a green black color, the middle segments each with a broad purple 
 black band visible in particular reflections of the light. Beneath it is black 
 and at the tip shows some fine impressed longitudinal lines forming the 
 edges of the groove in which the sting is inclosed. The legs are slender, 
 pale wax yellow, with the feet and ends of the shanks dull white, the hips 
 of the hind legs being stout and black, with their outer faces green blue 
 and their tips pale yellow. The feet are five-jointed and dusky at their 
 tips. The wings are transparent and reach slightly beyond the tip of the 
 abdomen when at rest. The anterior ones are broad and evenly rounded 
 at their ends, and have, near the outer margin, a thick brown rib or sub¬ 
 costal vein extending more than a third of their length and then uniting 
 /With the margin and terminating some distance forward of the tip, after 
 sending off a short straight stigmal branch which is thickened at its end, with 
 its apex notched. Towards the inner margin an exceedingly lino longitu- 
 
794 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 TOBACCO-WORM. PARASITE AND ITS DESTROYER. THEIR DIFFERENT MOTIONS. 
 
 dinal vein is perceptible, which, near its middle, gives off a branch running 
 almost to the inner hind end of the wing. The hind wings are much 
 smaller and without veins, except a brown subcostal one, which extends 
 into the outer margin and abruptly ends a little beyond the middle. 
 
 All the examples of this species which I have obtained from cocoons upon 
 the Tobacco-worm have been females. The last of August 18G2, I received 
 from Dr. Allen of Saratoga Springs, a larva of the Sphinx Kalmice to which 
 thirty-six cocoons were adhering. And the middle of July, the following 
 year, H. Markham, Esq., of Stony Brook, Long Island, sent me the samo 
 larva, similarly infested. It may here be incidentally observed that both 
 these gentlemen met with these larvaj upon the leaves of the grape-vine. 
 As I have repeatedly observed it, in different years, upon the lilac, the 
 leaves of which arc certainly its usual food, the interesting query arises, 
 whether, when it is infested internally with parasites, they do not cause a 
 morbid appetite in the worm, whereby it ceases to relish its nat¬ 
 ural food and comes to crave the leaves of the grape in place 
 of those of the lilac 1 Plies were obtained from more than half the 
 cocoons upon the first mentioned worm, and these being all of one 
 species I supposed they were probably the true parasites of the Lilac-worm. 
 But I now find on comparing them, that they are identical with this species 
 which is now under consideration. It thus appears that the cocoons adher¬ 
 ing to the Lilac-worm had been formed by a species of Microgaster, prob¬ 
 ably this same species which infests the tobacco-worm, and that the flies 
 I obtained were its parasites and consequently were protectors instead of 
 destroyers of the Lilac-worm. The cocoons from Mr. Markham, might per¬ 
 haps have given more light upon this subject, and I now regret that, when 
 they came to hand, supposing they would only produce the same flies which 
 I had examined the preceding summer, I felt that it would be a waste of 
 time to attend to the rearing of their inmates. 
 
 Of the flies obtained from the Lilac-worm, four were males, whereby it 
 appeals that this sex differs from the females above described, in the fol¬ 
 lowing particulars: 1st, their color is lighter and more bright, being 
 brilliant metallic green, when dried becoming blue green; 2d, their antennm 
 are tarnished yellow, longer, and not at all thickened toward the tips, 
 their joints being cylindric and a third longer than thick, with the last 
 joint egg-shaped and but little longer than its predecessor; 3d, the abdomen 
 is flattened oval and rounding at its tip, with a large translucent pale yel¬ 
 low spot near the base; 4th, the legs are paler and pure yellow without 
 any mixture of orange or tawny. 
 
 One who is acquainted with this insect and the Microgaster fly, will 
 readily distinguish them by their motions, notwithstanding their smallness 
 and similarity in size. The Microgaster is very brisk and active in its 
 movements, running about with agility and flying away if any danger 
 menaces it. this insect, on the other hand, appears tame and sedate, walk¬ 
 ing around slowly, and as if with deliberation as to what it is doing; and 
 if any annoyance approaches it, to escape therefrom it gives a slight skip, 
 throwing itself about an inch, and repeating this leap again and again if 
 pursued, it being not at all inclined to take wing. 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 795 
 
 TOBACCO-WORM. HAS A 8BC0ND PARASITE. REMEDIES. 
 
 And after these flies have left their cocoons, it is readily told by the 
 appearance of each cocoon whether it is a Microgaster or a Pteromalus 
 fly which has come out from it. The Microgaster, by which all the cocoons 
 are constructed, makes an opening for its escape, in a more neat and 
 artistic manner than does its destroyer. When it passes from its pupa 
 state and awakes to life in its perfect form, it finds itself closely pent up 
 within its narrow cell —so closely that about the only motion it is able to 
 make is to turn its head from side to side. And it discovers that by grasp¬ 
 ing with its jaws the wall of its cell, it is hereby able to gradually roll 
 itself over in its bed. And now, with the minute sharp teeth at the ends 
 of its jaws, it cuts a slit transversely through the wall of its cell, length¬ 
 ening this slit more and more as it gradually turns itself around, llius it 
 cuts the end of its cocoon smoothly off in the form of a little lid, a few 
 unsevered fibres being left on one side, which serve as a hinge to hold 
 this lid in its place. The inclosed fly then pressing its head against this 
 lid raises it up and crawls forth from its prison, Thus the evacuated 
 cocoon has its end smoothly cut off, with the severed portion usually 
 adhering to it. The Pteromalus fly, on the other hand, being a size smaller, 
 is able to move about and can probably turn itself around inside of the 
 cocoon. And to make its escape, it gnaws a hole through the side near 
 one end, of sufficient size for its body to pass through, this hole in different 
 instances being round, oval, or irregular, and its edges ragged and uneven. 
 
 In addition to the eggs of the Microgaster, which are inserted under the 
 skin of the Tobacco-worm and thus are not visible externally, I have 
 occasionally met with a worm having one or more eggs glued upon its 
 surface, usually placed in a crease of the skin to render the attachment 
 to it more secure. These eggs are about three-hundredths of an inch loug 
 and a third as thick, oval, white, smooth and glossy like enamel. Within 
 them a minute soft white worm or maggot becomes formed, which is 
 hatched by gnawing through the shell ol the egg at one end, and as it is 
 coming out, it sinks itself downward through the skin of the worm and into 
 its body, a blackish dot upon the skin near the end of the empty egg 
 marking the point where it has entered. Its history I have not been able 
 to trace further than this. The facts show it to be another parasite 
 destroying the Tobacco-worm, and that it is probably a two-winged fly 
 belonging to the order Diptera. 
 
 The remedies for this insect arc remaining to be spoken of. But as wc 
 have had no personal experience in combatting it, it will not be expected 
 that we dwell upon this branch of the subject at any length. 
 
 The leaves of the potato and tomato being of no value, the presence of 
 this worm upon them is wholly disregarded, as its limited numbers never 
 consume the foliage to such an extent as to perceptibly diminish the growth 
 of the tubers in the one or of the fruit in the other of these plants. But 
 with the tobacco it is very different. The whole value of this plant depends 
 upon its leaves; consequently every morsel which this worm consumes from 
 them is a loss, and if the leaves are much eaten the loss is great. The 
 utmost vigilance is therefore required to save the tobacco from injury from 
 
796 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 rOTATO-BETTLE. ITS LOCALITIES. ITS EAHE. 
 
 this enemy. At the South, where they have had long and sore experience 
 with the twin sister of our insect, the only remedy found to be effectual is 
 searching out and destroying the worms. This “ worming ” of the tobacco 
 fields, as it is termed, is an indispensable measure, forming a regular part 
 of the tobacco culture. After the leaves are grown to a sufficient size for 
 the worm to begin to feed upon them, not a day is suffered to pass without 
 examining them. The leaves are so large and so very tender and brittle 
 except for a short period at mid-day, when they become pliant from being 
 somewhat wilted by the heat of the sun, that the utmost care is requisite 
 in passing among them to avoid breaking and tearing them. Notwith¬ 
 standing the closest scrutiny some of the worms will be overlooked, at 
 each search which is made. Moreover, new moths are coming out and 
 depositing their eggs day after day, whereby a succession of worms are 
 appearing. Thus it becomes necessary to repeat this examination daily, 
 searching out and destroying every worm while it is yet young and small! 
 
 When these ugly looking worms first began to be noticed upon the toma¬ 
 toes in our gardens, some sensitive persons were much alarmed with fears 
 that they were poisonous and would render the fruit deleterious if they hap¬ 
 pened to touch or crawl over it. But such fears arc wholly groundless. 
 The sharp, thorn-like tail of this worm, however, if it chances to penetrate 
 the skin, inflicts a painful wound. This is the only thing to be guarded 
 against. 
 
 10. Ten-Lined Potato-beetle, Doryphora 10 -lineata, Say. (Coleoptcra. Chry- 
 somelidae.) Plate 4, figure 6. 
 
 Eating the leaves of the potato in immense numbers through tho whole suramor; a thick, 
 oval beetle nearly half an inch long, and of a pale yellow color with five black stripes on each 
 wing cover, accompanied by its thick-bodied, worm-liko larva of a pale yellow color with 
 rows of blaok dots, and six legs upon its breast and a pro-leg at tho pointed end of its body. 
 
 Iii connection with the foregoing potato-worm, some account may here 
 be given of a new enemy which, within the past two or three years, has 
 fallen upon the potato-vines in numerous places all over the Northwestern 
 States, stripping them of every vestige of their foliage and eating the stalks 
 also, and hereby arresting the formation and growth of the tubers. Speci¬ 
 mens ol this insect arc being frequently sent me for information respecting 
 it, whereby I am able to present a description of it in its different stages 
 of life and several important tacts respecting it. Fortunately for us, it'is 
 not an inhabitant of our State, being found only in the valley of the Mis¬ 
 sissippi at a distance from our borders. 
 
 This insect was first discovered as being common on the Upper Missouri, 
 by Mr. Say, when accompanying Long’s Exploring Expedition to the Rocky 
 Mountains. He met with it upon the Arkansas river also. In 1823, he 
 published a description of it (Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences, 
 vol. iii, p. 453), naming it from the number of the stripes upon its wing* 
 coveis Doryphora \0-lineataov the Ten-lined Doryphora — this genus having 
 been separated from the old genus Chrysomela, by Illiger, to include a 
 number of South American species which have the middle portion of the 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 797 
 
 POTATO-BEETLE. ACCOUNTS OF ITS DESTBUCTIVENESS. 
 
 breast prolonged into a horn-like point, wherefore the name; Doryphorus 
 being a Greek word meaning a spear-bearer, and particularly memorable 
 as the name of one of the most celebrated statues of the sculptor Polycle- 
 tus. But our insect and a few other species of this genus are destitute of 
 the sharp, thorny point alluded to. Chevrolet, in Dejean’s Catalogue, pro¬ 
 posed to form these into a distinct genus, named Polygramma —i. e., many- 
 lined. But this step lias not been approved of by subsequent authors. 
 
 The year after Say described this insect, the distinguished German ento¬ 
 mologist Gerrnar also published it, under the name Dorypliora juncta, 
 which, of course, will be merely a synonym of the anterior name. 
 
 The first notice of this as being an injurious insect, appears in the Prairie 
 Farmer of August 29th, 1861 (vol. viii, p. 116), in a letter from J. Edger- 
 ton, of Gravity, Iowa, saying that “ they made their appearance upon the 
 vines as soon as the potatoes were out of the ground, and there being a 
 cold, wet spell of weather about that time, they devoured them as fast as 
 they were up.” They appeared most fond of the Prince Albert variety, 
 doing but little injury to several other kinds. Several generations appeared 
 to grow up in the course of the summer. The specimens were sent to 
 C. Thomas, Esq., of Marion, Williamson county, Ill., who in reply announces 
 them to be the species above named, and says that this same insect “ is 
 found in abundance in Southern Illinois; but so far I have only discovered 
 it on worthless weeds and low shrubs; and here it has not proved injurious 
 to useful vegetation,” wherefore he thinks it is only accidental that it has 
 fallen upon the patotocs in Mr. Edgerton’s vicinity, and that some pecu¬ 
 liarity of the plants, state of the atmosphere, or other influence may next 
 year cause it to forsake the potato and take up its residence upon some 
 other plant. 
 
 The next year, Thomas Murphy, of Atchison, Kansas, sent a number of 
 the beetles to the Valley Farmer, with an accompanying letter, published 
 in that periodical July, 1862 (vol. xiv, p. 209), saying that in August, 18C1, 
 
 “ soon after a heavy shower of rain, these bugs suddenly made their appear¬ 
 ance in large numbers on the potato vines. They were so numerous that 
 in many instances they would almost cover the whole vine. It is no exag¬ 
 geration when I tell you that we have often, in a very short time, gathered 
 as many as two bushels of them. When the cold weather set in they dis¬ 
 appeared. Early this spring I was setting out some apple trees, and away 
 down in the hard yellow clay, I found these bugs apparently dead, but put 
 them in the sun and they immediately came to life. They have again (May 
 22d) made their appearance in large numbers in my garden. Last year 
 they first ate up everything green on the potato vines, then commenced on 
 the tomatoes, and so on, on everything green. Strange to say, they trouble 
 no one else.” Some of the beetles had been forwarded to Benj. I). Walsh, 
 Esq., of ltock Island, Illinois, who communicates their name and a good 
 figure, but is singularly unfortunate, not to say erroneous, in several of 
 his statements made in connection with this subject; for instance, that the 
 New York weevil is “ an exclusively western species,” “ Mr. Murphy’s 
 account is the first on record of this beetle occurring in gardens in such 
 
798 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 POTATO-BEETLE. ITS EGOS AND LARVA DESCRIBED. 
 
 numbers as to be injurious,” &c. He regards the fact of Mr. Murphy's 
 finding the beetles under ground in the spring, as full proof that this insect 
 always goes under ground to pass its pupa state; overlooking the additional 
 fact that Mr. M. found these beetles lying dormant and apparently dead 
 which indicates that no warmth had at that time penetrated the earth 
 sufficient to change them from their pupa to their perfect state. Mr. M’s 
 recital of his observations would seem to make it plain that it is in their 
 perfect, not in their pupa state that they hibernate. He says the beetles 
 were immensely numerous; but when the cold weather set in they disap¬ 
 peared. Early the next spring he again found them away down in the 
 bard yellow clay, apparently dead but immediately reviving when exposed 
 to the sun. And finally, May 22d, they had again made their appearance 
 abroad in large numbers. Everything thus appears to show that these 
 beetles remain abroad in full force until a frosty night cuts off their food 
 and chiils them, whereupon they hasten into any crack they can find in the 
 hard clay soil, or under any log or stone lying on the surface. They there 
 become dormant and thus repose through the winter, and with the warmth 
 of returning spring revive and issue from their retreats. 
 
 Specimens of this beetle, its eggs and larvae, we received first from John 
 S. Bowen, Elkhorn city 7 , Nebraska, in May 1863. Similar remittances have 
 since come to hand from different parts of Iowa. A correspondent at Web¬ 
 ster City writes that these insects are “ very voracious feeders, not only 
 denuding the vines of every vestige of a leaf, but also devouring the stalks. 
 Killing them seems to do no good, they breed so rapidly; and as they fly 
 through the air, they would soon be re-established were they all extermina¬ 
 ted from afield. It is now August 1st, and few if any tubers are yet set 
 upon my potatoes, though the planting was very early.” And from New 
 Sharon we are told that some have been discouraged from planting pota¬ 
 toes, the ravages of this potato-bug have been so great. 
 
 The beetles though sent from such a great distance have in every 
 instance reached me alive, whilst the larvae accompanying them have 
 been nearly or quite dead, except in two or three instances. The eggs 
 also uniformly hatch and the young from them perish before they come to 
 hand. Kept in confinement, the beetles usually live so long as they are 
 supplied with food. I have thus kept an individual captured in May, 
 until the frosts of autumn destroyed my supply of potato and tomato 
 leaves. And beetles newly born, if gradually exposed to the cold, will 
 undoubtedly become torpid and dormant, and lying in this state through 
 the winter will revive and return to activity with the return of warm 
 weather. 
 
 The female in confinement drops her eggs in little clusters upon the 
 leaves on which ^he has been feeding. The eggs are bright yellow, 
 smooth and glossy, 0.06 long and 0.035 broad, of an oval form with rounded 
 ends. 
 
 The Larva when full grown is over a half inch in length and half as 
 thick, being thickest back of the middle and tapering to a point at its tip. 
 It is a thick plump grub, strongly arched above, and when viewed on one 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 799 
 
 POTATO-BEETLE. TUB BEETLE DESCRIBED. 
 
 Bide its outline is nearly the form of a crescent. The head is small and 
 much narrower than the fore part of the body, of a flattened spherical 
 form. Its mouth is furnished with short, conical, jointed feelers and 
 large jaws which are blunt at their ends, with little sharp teeth like those 
 of a saw. Immediately above the mouth on each Side of the head is a 
 small conical and jointed projection, which is the antenna. The thorax 
 has a large transverse space on the top of its first ring, of a firmer and 
 somewhat coriaceous texture and broadly margined with black on its hind 
 side and with dusky at each end. The abdomen is the thickest part of the 
 body and is distinctly divided into nine segments. It is very plump and 
 rounded, but flattened on its underside. It gradually tapers posteriorly 
 into a conical point the apex of which is blunt and serves as a pro-leg, 
 two small vesicular processes on its lower side at the end serving as feet. 
 There are six legs, placed anteriorly, upon the breast, each leg being com¬ 
 posed of three joints and ending in a small claw. The larva is of a pale 
 yellow color, often slightly dusky or freckled on the back with minute 
 blackish dots, and along each side are two rows of large black dots, those 
 of the upper row larger, seven in number, not being continued upon the 
 thoracic or the last abdominal rings, each dot having a small breathing 
 pore in its centre. The head is black and shining, and more or less mottled 
 on the face with dull yellowish. The neck or first ring has a black band 
 near its hind edge; the second ring has also either a short black band or 
 two black dots, whilst the third ring usually shows two small black dots 
 on its back. On the narrow tip of the body are two black bands, the 
 anterior one having at its end on each side a small black dot, and beyond 
 this a large black dot which is the last one of the lower row of dots along 
 the sides. On the next ring forward is a transverse row of six small 
 equidistant black dots, in addition to the two large dots on each side, 
 whereof the upper one is the last of the upper lateral row and the lower 
 the penultimate one of the lower row. The legs are black; and often along 
 the middle of the body, on the underside, is a row of transverse black 
 spots or clouds, and also a row of small black dots upon each side. 
 
 The Beetle or mature insect is 0.40 long and 0.25 thick, the female being 
 slightly larger. It is of a regular oval form, very convex above and flat 
 beneath, of a hard crustaceous texture, smooth and shining, of a bright 
 straw color, the head and thorax being sometimes tawny yellow, which is 
 the color of the underside; and it is dotted and marked with black. After 
 death its colors often fade, becoming more dull and dark. The head is near¬ 
 ly spherical and little more than half the width of the thorax, into which 
 it is sunk nearly or quite to the eyes. It is sprinkled over with fine 
 punctures and shows on the front an impressed medial line, and on each 
 side of this a wider shallow indentation. On the crown is a triangular 
 black spot. The nose piece or clypeus, occupying the space between the 
 antennae, is nearly semicircular and placed transversely, and is coarsely 
 and closely punctured. The jaws are coarsely punctured, black at their 
 tips, and have a slender black line along their outer edge. The tips of 
 the palpi or feelers are dark brown. The antennas reach nearly to the base 
 
800 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW TORK 
 
 POTATO-BEETLE. THE BEETLE DESCRIBED. REMEDIES. 
 
 of the thorax when turned backward. They are gradually thickened 
 towards their tips, twelve-jointed, the last joint being quite small, conical 
 and sunk into the apex of the preceding joint. The five first joints are pale 
 yellow or tawny, obovate, the basal one largest, and the third one longer than 
 cither of the other three. The remaining joints are black and somewhat globu¬ 
 lar. The thorax is transverse, twice as broad as long, broadly notched in front 
 for receiving the head, and its hind side convex. Five punctures are scat, 
 tcred over its suriace, these punctures becoming more numerous and coarser 
 towards the outer sides. It is commonly margined all round by a slender 
 black line. In the centre are two oblong black spots which diverge for¬ 
 ward. Back of these is a small black dot which is often wanting; and on 
 each side are about six small black spots; one towards the base, of an oval 
 form and placed transversely; and two round ones, nearly upon aline for¬ 
 ward of this, the three being equidistant from each other; two towards 
 the hind angle, placed close together and often united, the inner one of 
 these being largest of the six; and the sixth one placed halfway between 
 the two last and the forward angle. The scutcl is dark brown. The wing- 
 covers have the sutural edge dark brown, and five equidistant black stripes 
 on each. The first or inner stripe is shortest and tapers backward as it 
 gradually approaches the suture, terminating in a very long slender point 
 a considerable space forward of the apex. The two next stripes are broadest 
 and are united at their tips, beyond which they are sometimes prolonged 
 into the end of the fourth stripe. The outer stripe is the most slender and 
 longest of all, placed on the outer margin but terminating before it attains 
 the apex. The wing covers are also punctured in rows extending along 
 the margin of the stripes, the rows being uneven and the middle ones dou¬ 
 ble; and the outer interspace is also punctured. Beneath, the sockets of 
 the legs are black or edged with black, and on the hind breast is a trans¬ 
 verse black spot on each side, forward of the insertion of the hind legs, 
 and also a black stripe on the outer margin of the hind breast, outside of 
 which on the parapleura is a triangular black spot. The abdomen is finely 
 punctured on the disk and base, and has a short black band on the middle 
 of the anterior edge of each segment except the last, and near the outer 
 margin a row of six black dots. The legs are tawny yellow, with the hips 
 at least of the hind pair black and also the knees and feet. 
 
 Say mentions a variety of this beetle having the wing-covers white. 
 This is probably always their color when recently disclosed from tho pupa. 
 
 What will be the best remedies for this new insect enemy can only be 
 ascertained by experiments with it in its native haunts when its habits 
 are more fully observed. We know not whether turkeys and other fowls 
 relish these beetles, whereby they may be employed to aid in lessening 
 their numbers. The large size of the beetles and their sluggish move¬ 
 ments favor their being readily noticed and picked from off the vines. 
 But their numbers are so immense as to dishearten from attempts to thus 
 get rid of them unless some way can be devised to gather them rapidly 
 in large quantities. The method that has been resorted to with somo suc¬ 
 cess against the blistering flies where they have been numerous on tbe 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 801 
 
 GARDEN TIGER-MOTH. ITS AMERICAN HISTORY. MOTH DESCRIBED. 
 
 potato vines, may be of utility, namely, holding a pan with an inch or 
 two of water in it, under the vines here and there, and shaking and knock¬ 
 ing the insects off into it, the water holding them from escaping until a 
 quantity, are gathered, when they may be emptied into a bag, and another 
 quantity gathered. They can be killed by immersing the bag in boiling 
 water, and its contents may then be fed to the swine. 
 
 11 . Garden Tiger-moth, Arctia Gaja, Linnaeus. (Lcpidoptera. Arctiidae.) 
 
 Eating the leaves of lettuce, strawberries, &c., a largo thick-bodied caterpillar nearly two 
 inches long, of a black color with a row of whito shining dots along each side and thickly clothed 
 with long soft hairs which are black upon the back and red on the nock and sides; enclosing 
 itself in a thin pale brown cocoon from which towards the ond of July comes a large beautiful 
 brown moth with whito spots and many irregular stripes crossing its fore wings, its hind wingi 
 ochre yellow with about four large round blue black spots. 
 
 This truly elegant insect, named Gaja or the bride by Linnaeus, and the 
 caterpillar of which is popularly called the Garden Tiger in England, is 
 abundant all over Europe, but as yet is quite rare in this country. Several 
 specimens were met with in our State at Trenton Falls, by Mr. Edward 
 Doubleday, in 1837. A male has long been in my collection, which I think 
 was taken the same year at Canajoharie and presented me by Win. S. 
 Robertson ; and when closing these pages for the printer, on the evening 
 of July 27th, 1864, a female came in at the open door of my study, flying 
 slowly around with a rustling of its wings which indicated it to be. some 
 moth of a large size and heavy body. 
 
 One of Mr. Doubleday’s specimens was presented to Dr. Harris, by whom, 
 first in the year 1841, in his lieport to the Legislature on the Insects of 
 Massachusetts Injurious to Vegetation, it was described as a new species 
 under the name Arctia Americana, although Godart had previously regarded 
 it as identical with the Caja, in which opinion Boisduval and other French 
 naturalists have since continued to concur. In Agassiz! Lake Superior, 
 Dr. Harris gives a more full description and a figure of this moth, in 
 which he says the white spots and rivulets on its fore wings are the same 
 as in the European insect, but that it is distinguished from that by the 
 white band margining the thorax in front. But in a European .specimen 
 which I have before me, this white band is present and conspicuous as in 
 American examples, except that it is less broad; which is a circum¬ 
 stance of no importance in an.insect subject to such great variations in its 
 colors and marks. Thus we are left without any grounds for regarding 
 this as different from the European species. 
 
 This moth measures from two and a half to three inches across its wings 
 when they are extended, the males being a trifle smaller than the females. 
 It is of a rich brown color, the hue of burnt coffee, with some of its parts 
 I'f'ght ochre yellow or orange red, and it is variegated with spots and 
 mar ks of milk white, crimson red, dark blue and black. But it varies 
 astonishingly in its colors and marks. I draw the following description 
 <lf the spots and markings chiefly from the living specimen before me, in 
 which they appear to occur in their most usual and perfect condition. 
 
 The head is brown. The palpi or feelers form two conical points project- 
 |Aq. Trans.] 51 
 
802 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 GARDEN TIGER-MOTH. ITS ASTONISHING VARIETIES OP COLOR. 
 
 ing obliquely forward and downward from the lower front part of the head 
 of a darker brown with longer and less dense hairs of'a red color along 
 their underside and around the mouth. Coiled up between them is the 
 Bpiral tongue, of a white color, and only equaling them in length when 
 extended. The antennae reach a third of the length of the wings. They 
 resemble slender, tapering threads, white, their tips brown, their basal 
 joint red, and a brown stripe along their underside. In the males they are 
 pectinated, each joint sending off two short brown branches. The thorax 
 is globular and brown, with a broad white band in front, occupying the 
 base of the collar and extending backward across the shoulders and uniting 
 with the white stripe or spot upon the middle of the base of the wings. 
 The collar is edged all round with crimson red, forming a slender margin 
 along the lower edge of the white band and on each side crossing this band 
 and forming a narrow arched band above it. The base of the thorax is 
 also slenderly margined with red, which color widens on each side into a 
 small spot. The sides of the thorax are pale brown, with a pened of red 
 hairs in the axilla of the wings. The abdomen is bright ochre yellow with 
 a row of brownish black spots along the middle of the back, the spots 
 transverse, four or five in number, the hind ones largest. The underside 
 is pale brown with the edges of the segments yellow. The wings are 
 brown, slightly paler towards their hind ends. Their base is white, which 
 color near the middle o^ each wing is prolonged backwards into a long 
 acute point, forward of which are two long egg-shaped brown spots, placed 
 side by side, and on the outer edge are two larger brown spots slightly 
 parted from each other by a curved line, with a fifth spot on the inner edge. 
 Towards the middle of each wing on the outer edge are two large whito 
 spots of an irregularly triangular form. Beyond these, crossing the wing 
 transversely from the outer margin to the inner angle is a wavy white band 
 which is thickened at its ends. From the middle of this band a curved 
 branch extends forward and inward to the inner margin;, and from the 
 same point on the opposite side of the band another branch extends back¬ 
 ward, nearly to the hind edge, when it abruptly turns outward and forward 
 and then outward and backward, reaching the outer margin of the wing 
 forward of the tip. In the closed wings these markings upon their hind 
 part are observed to be beautifully symmetrical, having some resemblance 
 to the Greek letter omega with a bar placcdjiorizontally across its middle. 
 The lower wings arc deep ochre yellow with four large round blackish blue 
 spots having a black margin, whereof three are situated in a row forward 
 of the hind margin, the inner one of these being the smallest, and. the 
 fourth one, which is slightly transverse, is placed forward of the centre. 
 The undersides are colored and marked similarly but much more pale and 
 dim. The legs are brown with the thighs crimson except upon their under¬ 
 sides, and the shanks and hind feet are yellow on their undersides. 
 
 In respect to its colors and spots, this moth is truly protean, varying to 
 an extent which is most astonishing. Thus the fore wings are sometimes 
 black instead of brown, with all vestiges of the white spots and rivulets 
 upon them vanished. In other instances they are of the suine bright yellow 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETT. 
 
 803 
 
 HARDER tiger-hoth. its eggs, caterpillars described, the coooon and chrysalis. 
 or red color with the hind wings, with a few brown spots upon them; and 
 in' still other instances they are white with but a faint tinge of yellow. The 
 hind wings sometimes have their spots diminished and nearly obliterated. 
 In other instances these spots are increased in number and size; again, 
 they become confluent, forming two broad black bands across the wing; 
 and finally, the whole wing is black and without spots. The Arctia Par¬ 
 thenon it cannot be doubted is one of the latter varieties of this species, in¬ 
 termediate between the banded winged and black winged varieties. It is 
 erroneously credited to Kirby in the Smithsonian Catalogue of Lepidoptera. 
 Itwas described and figured by Dr. Harris, in Agassiz’ Lake Superior, and 
 is essentially distinguished as having the base and inner margin of its 
 hind wings black with the remaining portion yellow crossed by a broad 
 black band. 
 
 The female moth above mentioned dropped seven hundred and forty-four 
 eggs in the course of four days after her capture. Being so prolific it is 
 evident this insect would very soon become as abundant in our country as 
 it is in Europe if it were npt checked in its increase. It must be, that 
 nearly all the caterpillars of each generation are destroyed, probably by 
 birds. Judging from the proceedings of the female when in confinement, 
 her eggs are laid upon the surface of leaves and firmly glued thereto in 
 clusters of from fifty to one hundred, the eggs in each cluster being placed 
 for the most part in contact with each other in regular rows. The eggs are 
 quite small, being about 0.034 in diameter. They are globular, shining, 
 white, with a large faint spot on their summit of a watery appearance. 
 
 The caterpillars which come from these eggs grow to about two inches 
 in length and have a thick cylindrical body which authors describe as being 
 of a deep black color, densely covered with long soft hairs which arise in 
 bundles from elevated warts. These hairs are of a bright red color bn the 
 three first rings and along the sides, and on the rest of the body are black 
 with their ends gray. The warts from which the red hairs arise are of a 
 bluish gray color; those from which the black ones come are blackish brown. 
 Three of these warts of a blue color and placed in a row one above the 
 other on each side of each ring are most obvious to the eye. The breathing 
 pores form a row of shining white dots along each side. The head is shin¬ 
 ing black; the underside and feet are blackish brown. From all the other 
 caterpillars of our country this is particularly distinguished by the three 
 blue warts on each side of each segment, and the conspicuous row of white 
 dots along each side of the body. As it approaches maturity, however, its 
 unusually large size will alone suffice to point it out. It would appear to 
 he this creature to which Hiawatha is represented to refer, in Longfellow’s 
 much admired poem, as 
 
 “ Tho mighty caterpillar 
 Way-muk-kwana, with tho bearskin, 
 
 King of all tho caterpillars!” 
 
 When it is fully grown it incloses itself in a grayish brown cocoon of a 
 ?° closely woven texture, intermixed with the hairs of its body. In this 
 ‘changes to a chrysalis, having the form of an elongated egg, of a shining 
 
 ack color with the sutures yellowish brown and the pointed end two-lobed 
 
804 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OP NEW YORK 
 
 CUT-WORMS. THE INJURIES THEY DO. 
 
 and studded with little rust-colored points. The insect remains in’the co- 
 coonfrom eighteen to twenty days and then comes forth in its perfect state. 
 
 Like other caterpillars of the group to which it belongs, this is a general 
 feeder, subsisting upon low herbaceous plants of almost every kind, and 
 on a pinch feeding also upon the leaves of trees and shrubs. An incident 
 related by Duponchel (Hist. Nat. des Chenilles), shows how able it is to 
 sustain itself upon any substance of a vegetable nature which is sufficiently 
 soft for it to masticate. Having forgotten one of these caterpillars which 
 he had wrapped up in a paper envelope and inclosed in a wooden box, he 
 .afterwards discovered it had nourished itself upon the paper, as was pro¬ 
 ven by the dry pellets of excrement in the box, and had after this com¬ 
 pleted its transformations, producing a moth which was a dwarf in its size 
 but with very bright colors. Sume ctirious facts are reported, showing the 
 colors of this moth to vary according to the quality of the food on which 
 the caterpillar is nourished. Thus, if it be fed upon lettuce or other vege¬ 
 tation of a similar succulent nature, the colors of the moth are more dim 
 and pale than when it is reared on substances which are less watery. The 
 German collectors are said to obtain the variety having the under wiugs 
 black by forcing the caterpillars to feed exclusively upon the leaves of the 
 walnut. Some of the French, however, are stated to have tried this with¬ 
 out success. It may be that some concurring atmospherical influences, 
 some peculiarity of the season, is also necessary to insure the particular 
 result. The species certainly presents a most interesting subject for the 
 experiments of amateurs.- 
 
 12 . Corn- Cut-worm, Agrotis nigricans, Linn., Var. Maizi. (Lepidoptera. 
 
 Noctuidae.) Plate 4, fig. 2, 3. 
 
 In June, severing the young Indian oorq and other plants, half an inch above tho ground, by 
 night, and by day hiding itself slightly under tho surface; a thick, cylindrical, gray worm an 
 inch and a quarter long, with rather faint, paler and darker stripes, the top of its nook shining 
 black with three whitish stripes. 
 
 The insects from which our farmers experienced the greatest vexation 
 and injury the past season (1863), were the Cut-worms—the same worms 
 which are sometimes called corn-grubs, and which in English agricultural 
 works are termed surface grubs or surface caterpillars. The name Cut¬ 
 worm, however, is most commonly given to them in this country, both in 
 print and in common conversation, and appears to be the most appropriate 
 and best term by which to designate them, having allusion as it does to a 
 habit which is peculiar to these worms, namely, that of cutting off tender 
 young plants as smoothly as though it was done with a keen-edged knife. 
 
 These Cut-worms are among the most, important injurious Insects of our 
 country. It is mostly in our fields of Indian corn and in our gardens that 
 their depredations are noticed. They are so common as to occasion some 
 losses almost every year; whilst every few years they make their appear¬ 
 ance in such numbers as to nearly or quite ruin the corn-fields, obliging the 
 oroprictors to plant their ground a second and even a third time, or to re¬ 
 plow it and sow it with a different crop. Thus, in consequence of the pre- 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 805 
 
 CUT-WORMS. EARLY NOTICES AND RECORDS OP TREIR INJURIES. 
 
 scnce of this worm in our country, the labor of the husbandman is fre¬ 
 quently doubled to obtain from his land a crop either materially diminished 
 in amount or of a less valuable kind from that which he would be able to 
 harvest were it not for this enemy. The attention of the farmers of our 
 State was this past season prominently directed to the rearing of flax, and 
 a breadth of land was given to this crop far exceeding what has ever be¬ 
 fore been assigned to it. But soon after the young flax appeared above 
 the ground, these Out-worms began their depredations, feeding upon and 
 wholly consuming the small tender plants to such an extent that many fields 
 had large patches in them which were eaten perfectly bare, whilst in others 
 the crop-was totally destroyed. 
 
 Many of our injurious insects are new pests which have but recently 
 been observed in our country. But these Out-worms appear always to 
 have been here, depredating upon and despoiling the cultivated crops in 
 centuries gone by, the same that they are now doing. Before European 
 settlers arrived upon this continent, the cornfields of the Indians are said 
 to have been ravaged at times by these worms, this being of all others a 
 disaster to them of which they were most fearful, and one which they felt 
 themselves wholly powerless to avert, their only resort for protecting their 
 fields from this calamity being that indicated in the lines of the poet: 
 
 e< Di&w a magio circle round them, 
 
 So that neither blight nor mildew. 
 
 Neither burrowing worm nor insect 
 Shall pass o’er the magio circle . 55 
 
 And this is well known to have been a casualty of frequent occurrence, all 
 along since the soil of our country has been cultivated by civilized men. 
 In those diaries which have occasionally been kept in different parts of our 
 land by persons who have been curious to preserve a record of local inci¬ 
 dents of interest, we are sure to meet ever and auon with the statement, 
 “Indian corn was this year greatly injured by the worms,” “The season 
 was wet and cold, and the worms made extensive ravages on the corn,” 
 and other entries of the same purport. From one of these sources we learn 
 that a century ago there had been a distressing drouth in 1761, followed 
 by an unusually long and severe winter and a late spring. “ When at last 
 the corn was planted, millions of worms appeared to eat it up, and the 
 ground must be planted again and again. Thus many fields were utterly 
 ruined.” (Flint’s Second Report, Mass. Board of Agriculture, p. 40.) It, 
 however, may have been the Wire-worm which occasioned at least a por¬ 
 tion of the destruction here related, for usually when one of these worms is 
 numerous the other is so likewise. It is unnecessary to mention other years 
 in which we have little more than the mere fact stated that these corn 
 worms were very injurious. 
 
 In addition to such manuscript mementoes, the published allusions to these 
 Pests date far back. Upwards of seventy years ago, when the old Agri¬ 
 cultural Society of our State was first organized, in a circular which the 
 Society issued, containing inquiries upon different topics on which inlbrma- 
 hon was solicited, the first query respecting insects was, “ Is there any 
 
806 
 
 ANNUAL EEPORT OF NEW TORE 
 
 CUT-WORMS* HAT* NEVER TET BEEN INVESTIGATED. 
 
 way of destroying the grubs in corn and flax?” No answer to this in¬ 
 quiry, of sufficient importance for publication, was received. 
 
 But, although these Cut-worms have always been such a formidable foe 
 in this country, against 'which the cultivators of the soil have had to con¬ 
 tend, they have not, down to the present day, been subjected to any care¬ 
 ful scientific examination. It was formerly supposed they were all of but 
 one kind, one species of insect. In our day it has been ascertained that 
 they are of several different kinds, and that they are bred from a particular 
 group or family of millers or moths, of a dark color, which fly about in the 
 night time and remain at restand hid from our observation during the day- 
 most of them belonging to the genus named Agrotis by naturalists. But 
 the observations which have been made upon these Cut-worms have been 
 so hasty and superficial, that, when we see one of these worms cutting off 
 the young corn in our fields or the cabbage plants in our gardens, we are 
 unable to give it its exact name; we are unable to say what particular 
 species of miller or moth it is which has produced that worm. 
 
 All that has yet been done towards a scientific investigation of this sub¬ 
 ject may be narrated in a few words. 
 
 Upwards of forty years ago, Mr. Brace, of Litchfield, Ct., in a short arti¬ 
 cle published in the first volume of Silliman’s Journal, gave what he evi¬ 
 dently regarded as a sufficient elucidation of thjs matter. It appears that 
 in a patch of ground planted with cabbages, where the worms had been 
 numerous, he found their pup® to be common, lying a few inches below the 
 surface, just after the worms had disappeared. From some of these pup® 
 he obtained the miller or moth. In the article alluded to, he merely des¬ 
 cribes this miller as being the insect which produces the Cut-worm, naming 
 it the Phalena devastator or the Devastating miller. As he supposed all the 
 Cut-worms were of one kind, he gives no description of the worm from 
 which this miller is produced. And thus it remains unknown to this day 
 what the characters and appearance of the worm are which belongs to this 
 miller which Mr. Brace described. 
 
 Some ten years after this, Dr. Harris, one season, gathered a number of 
 full grown cut-worms from different situations, to breed the moths from 
 them; but what is most surprising* he took no notes of the differences in 
 the appearance of these worms. He obtained from them four* different 
 moths in addition to the one which Mr. Brace had previously obtained. These 
 he names and describes, but is unable to give any account of the worms 
 
 which belong to either one of these species. 
 
 In the Second Report which I presented to this Society, I gave very exact 
 figures of the miller which Mr. Brace described, and of two others of the 
 most cohnnon millers of our country belonging to the same group; and I 
 also described five of the cut-worms which I had noticed as being common 
 kinds in our cornfields and gardens. Finally, in my Third Report 1 was 
 able to give an account of one of our cut-worms, and the moth which was 
 raised from it. 
 
 And this is the posture in which this subject now stands. Seven of tho 
 moths or millers of our country, which produce cut-worms, have been name 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 807 
 
 CUT-WORMS. OUR ILL SUCCESS IN REARING! THEN* 
 
 and described. But only one of them is known to us in its larva state* 
 IVe also know that at least five other out-worms in addition to this 
 one, are formidable enemies to us, depredating every 'year, more or 
 less, upon the young plants in our fields and gardens, but we know not 
 the species to which they respectively pertain, and consequently are unable 
 to distinguish either of them definitely, by giving to it its correct name. 
 
 I have for a great many years regarded these cut-worms as a most 
 important subject requiring to be elucidated. And accordingly, almost 
 every year, upon meeting with some of these worms, I have written in my 
 notes a particular description of them, and have endeavored to feed and 
 rear them to their perfect state, but without success. They are very intol¬ 
 erant of confinement, especially when they are not grown to their full size. 
 Upon discovering that they are imprisoned, they lose all relish for food, 
 and become intent on one thing only, namely, to find some orifice in their 
 prison walls through which to escape. Accordingly, when the shades of 
 evening arrive, they come out from the earth in the box or pot in whicji 
 they are placed, and crawl hurriedly and anxiously around and around, the 
 whole night long, as I have found on going to them with a light. The 
 vegetables transplanted into the box for them to feed upon remain un¬ 
 touched. In this manner, they in a few nights wear their lives away, and 
 are found lying stark and stiff on the surface of the dirt of their cage. 
 Prom the experience I have had, I regard them as among the most diffi¬ 
 cult insects which I have ever taken in hand to feed and rear from their 
 larva to their perfect state. 
 
 It had accordingly become evident to me that a suitable knowledge of 
 these Cut-worms could nevetbe gained in the manner I had attempted— 
 by casual observations made at moments snatched from other investiga¬ 
 tions. It was only by making them the leading subjects of examination- 
 devoting to them ample time and care and vigilance; studying them as they 
 were growing up in the fields and gardens; watching them from day to¬ 
 day, there, in their natural haunts, until they became fully matured and 
 were done feeding, and then placing them in cages to complete their trans¬ 
 formations and reveal to us what they are in their perfect states; I say, it 
 had become evident to me that it was only in this manner that the requisite 
 knowledge of these creatures could be obtained, to prepare such an exact 
 history of them as their importance and the advanced state of science at 
 this day demand. 
 
 I have, therefore, for several years, had it in contemplation, when a 
 season occurred in which these worms were numerous, to devote my chief 
 attention to them. And accordingly, on becoming aware last May, that 
 these worms would bo quite common in my vicinity, I resolved to make 
 them the subjects of special investigation. 
 
 And I now proceed to give a summary account of these insects and their 
 habits, and the progress which the researches of the past season has enabled 
 UB to make towards a more full and exact knowledge of them. 
 
 II is in midsummer, mostly in the month of July, that the moths or mil- 
 
 leri 
 
 8 come abroad and lay the eggs from which the cut-worms aro bred. 
 
ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 808 
 
 CUT-WORMS. YOURO WORMS IR AUTUMN. FALL PLOWIRO TO DRSTROT THEM. 
 
 The eggs are dropped at the surface of the ground, around the roots of 
 grass and other iierbage. The worms hatch and feed during the autumn, 
 coming abroad by night and eating the most tender vegetation which they 
 are able to find, and during the daytime withdrawing themselves under 
 the ground to hide from birds and other enemies, and feeding upon the 
 roots of the vegetation which they there meet with. Grass appears to be 
 their favorite food, and its young, tender blades and rootlets furnish most 
 of these worms their subsistence through the first stages of their lives. 
 During the autumn the earth is so profusely covered with vegetation and 
 these worms are so small that no notice is taken of them or the trifling 
 amount of herbage which they then consume. They become about half 
 grown when the cold and frosty nights of autumn arrive, whereby they 
 are no longer able to come out to feed. They then sink themselves deeper 
 than usual into the ground, going down to a depth of three or four inches; 
 and there, each worm, by turning around and around in the same spot, 
 forms for itself a little cavity in which to lie during the winter; and it 
 then goes to sleep, and lies torpid and motionless as though it were dead. 
 The soil at the depth where these worms are lying, very slowly and gradu¬ 
 ally becomes colder and colder as the winter comes on, and at length freez¬ 
 ing, these worms reposing in it are also frozen. And when the warmth of 
 spring returns, the ground thawing and becoming warm in the same 
 gradual manner, these worms slowly thaw and awake from their long sleep 
 and return again to life. The case is analogous to what occurs with our¬ 
 selves when we have a finger or a foot frozen. On coming into a warm 
 room, if we keep the frost-bitten part covered with snow or immersed in 
 ice-cold water, whereby it very slowly thaws and the circulation gently 
 and gradually returns to it, the part readily recovers; whereas, if instead 
 of this, we hold it to the fire and thaw it suddenly and abruptly, high in¬ 
 flammation and gangrene follows, and we lose the limb. And so, if these 
 cut-worms lying in the ground should be suddenly frozen or thawed, it 
 would be fatal to them. 
 
 This brings to our view an important measure which is much practised 
 for the purpose of destroying these worms and securing the corn crop from 
 their depredations. Our farmers quite generally endeavor to break up 
 their planting ground in the autumn, rather than in the spring, under the 
 idea that they hereby disturb these worms in their winter quarters, and 
 expose them to the cold and frost, whereby a considerable portion of them 
 are destroyed. And I believe it is the general experience of our farmers 
 that corn planted upon ground which has been thus broken up in the 
 autumn is less liable to bo injured by these worms, than where it has been 
 broken up in the spring. But these worms, in common with all other 
 insects, continue to be active in autumn so long as the weather remains 
 warm. It is not till they feel the chill of the autumn frosts that they retire 
 into their winter quarters. Therefore, if the ground be broken up early m 
 autumn, when the weather is still warm and the worms are in full life and 
 activity, it can be of little, if any avail, for the purpose intended, as they 
 will readily crawl into the ground to the depth which they require for their 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 809 
 
 CUT-WORMS. THEIR HABIT OP SEVERING YOUNG PLANTS. 
 
 protection. In order that this fall plowing Should be efficacious, it is 
 obvious it should be deferred until near the close of the season, when the 
 worms have withdrawn themselves downwards and are lying torpid and 
 inactive in their winter retreat. If the turf under which they are reposing 
 be then turned up to the surface, they will be incapable of crawling away 
 into any new quarters, and the sudden freezings by night and thawings by 
 day to which they will be alternately exposed, we are confident must destroy 
 a large portion of them. 
 
 When the spring has returned and we are engaged in making our gar¬ 
 dens, a Cut-worm is occasionally turned up to our view in digging and 
 working in the earth there ; and if grass has been permitted to grow and 
 form a turf around the roots of currant bushes or elsewhere, upon digging 
 up and rooting out this grass, we are quite sure of finding a number of 
 these worms nestled among it, indicating to us that grass more than any¬ 
 thing else furnishes them with the covert and food which they desire. 
 
 Although we thus find these Cut-worms lying in the soil of the garden 
 early in May, it is not until the close of that month and the beginning of 
 June that they begin to attract our notice by the injury they do in our 
 gardens and cornfields. It is when they are grown to about two-thirds of 
 their full size that they commence the work which renders them so perni¬ 
 cious to us,—that of severing the young, tender plants. Previous to this, 
 during all the first period of their lives, as has already been stated, they lie 
 concealed under the ground during the day time, feeding there upon the 
 roots of plants, and only venture out by night to feed upon the green vege¬ 
 tation above ground. Although in England they arc called surface grubs, 
 
 I discover they are not restrained to the surface of the ground, but mount 
 up the stems of young cabbages and beans and eat portions of their leaves. 
 But, about the commencement of June, the nights have become so short and 
 the days so long, and the worms arc now grown to such a size and their 
 appetites have beoome so ravenous, that they are forced to a most singular 
 change of their habits. The insipid roots of plants fail to yield them the 
 amount of nourishment they require during the eighteen hours of daylight. 
 They must either stay out to feed upon green herbage during the daytime, 
 or they must, so to speak, set their wits to work, to devise some way by 
 which they can get this herbage down under the ground so that they can 
 there feed upon it. We accordingly see them adopting the curious expedi¬ 
 ent of cutting off tender young plants in order to draw them into the 
 ground, whereby they may feed upon them during the long hours of the 
 day. Is it not wonderful, that such sluggish, stupid looking creatures as 
 these worms are, should have the • intelligence to perform such a feat as 
 this—cutting off the plant, to enable them to get the end of it down into 
 the ground, so that they may cosily lie there and feed upon it in safety— 
 gradually drawing it in, more and more, until by the close of the day the 
 whole of the plant and its leaves are consumed; a feat strikingly analogous 
 to that for which the beaver is so renowned, cutting down small trees and 
 drawing and swimming them away to build a dam with them. Surely we 
 should admire this loathsome-looking worm for such a skilful performance, 
 
810 
 
 ANNUAL EEPORT OF NEW TORE 
 
 CDT-WORUS. THE STRIPED WORM FOLLOWED BY THE LARGER YELLOW-HEADED WORM. 
 
 were it not that it is this very act which renders this creature such a pest 
 such a nuisance to us! 
 
 As to the kinds of plants which these worms thus sever to feed upon 
 them, they appear to have but little if any preferences. They relish every¬ 
 thing that is young and tender and succulent. Thus they attack the corn 
 the flax, the potato stalks in our fields, and in our gardens the cabbage 
 plants and beans, cucumber and melon plants, beets and parsnips, and also 
 the red-rood and several other weeds. Nor are they limited to herbaceous 
 plants. Where a sucker starts up from the root of a tree, while it is yet 
 young and tender it is liable to be severed, if one of these worms chances 
 to find it. 
 
 They appear to have no discrimination in their taste, but relish equally 
 well the most acrid and bitter plants, with those which are mild and aro¬ 
 matic. Thus the onion stalks in our gardens are about as liable to be cut 
 off as any other plants; and I have known the acrid smart-weed to be 
 severed by them. The past summer, I set out in my garden a few tobacco 
 plants, that I might notice what insects would come upon this filthy weed; 
 and within a few days after, one of these cut-worms gave me a very palpa¬ 
 ble reminder that he would not tax me for cabbages and beans if I would 
 only furnish him with what tobacco he wanted to chew. I have known a 
 piece of writing paper to be partially consumed by one of these worms en¬ 
 closed in a box where it became pressed with hunger. And where several 
 worms are enclosed together in a box of dirt, over night, without any food, 
 it is a common occurrence for the larger ones to devour the smaller ones. 
 
 The past season, it was upon the 22d of May, in a hot bed, that I first no¬ 
 ticed a plant severed by a Cut-worm; and the query at once arose, how 
 could this worm get into such a close and secure place as that was ? The 
 loam forming the top of the bed had been obtained from the garden; and 
 it was evident this worm must have been lying in the soil there, and had 
 been brought from thence, in this soil, when the bed was being made. And 
 the warmth of the bed had quickened the growth of this worm and brought 
 it forward in advance of all its fellows. 
 
 Three days later, the first bean plant in the garden was found cut off by 
 another of these worms; and from that time they continued to become moro 
 common until about the first of June, when they were out in their full force, 
 both in the fields and in the gardens. At first I supposed the worms in the 
 cornfields were different from those in the gardens. But the more I exam¬ 
 ined and compared them, the more assured I became that they were all of 
 one species, although they varied greatly, some being pale and others dark, 
 and some having very distinct stripes, whilst others had them scarcely per¬ 
 ceptible. It was the same species which I named the Striped Cut-worm, in 
 the Transactions of 1855, p. 545. It continued out in full force, depredating 
 everywhere in the fields of flax and corn and in gardens, for a period of three 
 weeks, when, the'worms having got their growth, began to be less nume¬ 
 rous, and had all disappeared at the end of the month. 
 
 Just as this worm was about to vanish, another one, larger and moro 
 voracious, came out to occupy its place and continue the work of destruc- 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 CUT-WORMS. DIFFERENT OPERATIONS OF THE TWO WORMS. 
 
 811 
 
 tion in the fields, none of them being met with in the gardens. It was on 
 the 20th of June that, in examining a cornfield, I first noticed this second 
 worm, lying under the sods, it being of a white or pale smoky color with a 
 bright tawny yellow head, and the same kind which I have heretofore 
 named the Yellow-headed Cut-worm This cornfield had been broken up 
 just before planting, and the roots of the grass were still juicy, succulent 
 and unwithered, at least in all the larger masses of turf; and this worm 
 evidently preferred (these grass-roots to the young corn; for on examining 
 a multitude of the hills of corn in whiqh one or more of the young plants 
 had been cut off, it was invariably the Striped worm first mentioned, which 
 was discovered there; not one of these Yellow-headed worms had as yet 
 molested the corn. Five days afterwards, this same'cornfield was again 
 visited. The weather in the interval had been warm and dry, whereby the 
 grass-roots in the clumps of turf had become dry and withered, unadapted 
 for feeding the worms any longer. And now on examining where the 
 blades of young corn had been newly cut off, the mischief was discovered 
 to have been done in nearly half the instances by this Yellow-headed worm, 
 which was found lying in the earth contiguous to the severed plant. Thus, 
 it was sufficiently demonstrated that so long as it could find any roots of 
 grass for its nourishment, this worm did not molest the corn. Therefore 
 the corn remained unattacked by it, until about the date specified, namely, 
 the 25th of June. A few years before, however, I found this same Yellow¬ 
 headed Gut-worm making severe havoc in a cornfield at the very beginning 
 of June—there probably being no juicy roots of grass in this field, on 
 which it was able to sustain itself. Having the fact thus established, that 
 these worms will not trouble the corn, so long as they are able to find grass 
 in the field on which to nourish themselves, it becomes an important ques¬ 
 tion to be considered, whether, after all, it may not be better to break up 
 our corn ground in the spring than in the fall; so that hereby, a portion of 
 the roots of the turf may remain sufficiently fresh and unwithered to 
 feed these Gut-worms and hereby keep them back from falling upon the 
 corn. This is a difficult subject to determine ; and it is only by repeated 
 observations, carefully made, that it can be satisfactorily settled. 
 
 The operations of these two worms were so very different that upon see¬ 
 ing a severed plant it was readily told which worm it was that had cut it 
 off', and would be found lying in the ground by its side. The smaller 
 Striped worm, which first appeared, cut off’ the plants half an inch or an 
 inch above the surface of the ground; and many of the plants, being sever¬ 
 ed at this height, survive the injury, new leaves pushing up from tho 
 centre of the stump. Instances were noticed, in which the worm had cut 
 off the plant above the lower leaf, which leaf remaining, green and thrifty, 
 the plant would thereby be vigorously sustained while new leaves were 
 putting forth from its centre. The larger Yellow-headed worm, on the other 
 hand, severs the plants almost an inch below the surface of the ground, 
 whereby they are effectually killed in every instance. This worm also 
 lies deeper in the ground than the other, it being usually met with about 
 two inches below the surface, whilst the smaller worm only goes down 
 
812 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 CUT-WORMS. THEIR PUPA STATE. STRIPED CUT-WORM DESCRIBED. 
 
 sufficiently to hide itself from view. It is also much more irritable, more 
 ferocious and combative. If two of them are inclosed in a box together, 
 and one crowds against or attempts to crawl over-the other, it spitefully 
 resents this freedom and snappishly tries to bite the intruder. 
 
 These Yellow-headed worms continued to cut off the corn for more than 
 a week after the others had disappeared, remaining out till about the close 
 of the first week in July. 
 
 When the Cut-worm is done feeding it crawls down into the earth to the 
 depth of three or four inches, where it is' not liable to be disturbed by any 
 other worms inhabiting the superficial soil. It here doubles itself together 
 in the shape of a horse-shoe, and by turning around and around in the 
 same spot, presses the soil outward from around it, compacting it into a 
 thin brittle kind of shell which the wet from any showers of rain 
 will not penetrate, forming a large oval cavity with a smooth sur¬ 
 face on its inside. In this cavity the worm lies motionless and be¬ 
 comes contracted in size and of a stiff and more firm consistency. The 
 forward part of its body becomes swollen, more and more, till at 
 length the skin bursts open upon the back and the hard shining yellow 
 shell of the pupa begins to protrude from this opening. By slight sudden 
 starts or shrugs, the skin is gradually thrown off and remains in a shrivel¬ 
 led mass at the end of the insect, which is now in its pupa form, without 
 any mouth or feet, its shape being that of an elongated-egg of a shining 
 chestnut yellow color, thrice as long as thick, but only half as long as was 
 the full grown worm. This pupa or chrysalis lies quiet and motionless in 
 its oval cell under the ground for about four weeks, when its outer shell¬ 
 like covering cracks open upon the fore part of the back, and the moth or 
 perfect insect crowds itself out from it, and upward through the loose earth 
 to the surface. The first moth from the Striped Out-worm presented itself 
 to us this year on the evening of the sixth of July, and upon the evening 
 of the tenth the same moths had become exceedingly numerous. The 
 worms had been so diversified in the depth of their color and the distinct¬ 
 ness of their stripes, that I had confidently expected to see a similar diver¬ 
 sity in the moths which they produced. I was, therefore, greatly surprised 
 to find the latter remarkably uniform, no differences occurring to my obser¬ 
 vation this season that were susceptible of being described as varieties. 
 
 Now that we have ascertained the moth of this, one of our most common 
 Cut-worms, it is important that we give the most accurate description of 
 it and of the worm from which it comes, that we are able to draw up from 
 the numerous specimens we have examined, and thus place this species on 
 record so distinctly that it may ever hereafter be readily recognized. 
 
 The Striped Cut-worm, as we have heretofore termed it, is a cylindrical 
 worm, usually about an inch in length when disinterred beside the severed 
 plants in our gardens and corn fields, and upwards of an inch and a quar¬ 
 ter when it is fully grown. Its ground color is dirty white or ash gray, 
 occasionally slightly tinged with yellowish; the top of its neck shining 
 black, with three white or pale longitudinal stripes; a whitish line along 
 the middle of its back between two dark ones; on each side three dark stripes 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 COT-WORMS. MOTH OF THE STRIPED WORM DESCRIBED. 
 
 813 
 
 separated by two pale ones, whereof the lower one is broader; often a some¬ 
 what glaucous white stripe below the lower dark one, and all the underside 
 below this dull white. This is the best concise general description of thd 
 worm that I am able to give, the characters stated being sometimes quite 
 faint, but in most instances sufficiently plain and distinct. I proceed to 
 give a more full description of the several parts. The head is shining black, 
 with a white stripe in the middle, which stripe is forked, resembling an 
 inverted letter Y. The nose piece and uppei; lip. are whitish, the former 
 being wrinkled or longitudinally striated, and. the latter having a trans¬ 
 verse row of white bristles. The jaws are black and four-toothed. On 
 each side is usually a white spot, and in other instances the whole head is 
 more or less mottled with white, or is throughout of a tarnished white color 
 with only a dusky streak on each side of its base. The neck above is of 
 the same shining black color and horny substance as the head, with a white 
 stripe in the middle, continuous with that upon the head, and a stripe on 
 each side, curving slightly outward at its hind eAd. The sides of the neck 
 are dull white, with a short double blackish stripe across the middle. The 
 hack is ash gray, this color forming a stripe along each side of the middle, 
 where are two dusky lines, and between them a whitish line of the same 
 thickness. The sides are dark gray or of the same dusky shade as the two 
 lines on the middle of the back, this color being divided into three stripes 
 of equal width by two faint pale lines, the lower one broader and formed 
 of spots mottling the surface. These pale lines sometimes take on a glau¬ 
 cous white appearance, and sometimes adjoining the lower dusky stripe on 
 its underside is a third glaucous white stripe, which is broader than those 
 above it, and along its lower edge are the breathing pores, forming a row 
 of oval coal black dots. The underside, including all below the breathing 
 pores, is dull whitish, the legs being varied with smoky brown, and the 
 pro-legs having a ring of this color at their base. 
 
 The Moth is represented, plate 4, figure 2, with its wings spread, and 
 figure 3 as we usually see it when at rest and with its wings closed. It 
 measures 0.10 in length and 1.30 across its extended wings, and is of an ash 
 or dusky gray color, and distinguished principally by two coal black spots, 
 one nearly square, placed outside of the centre of the fore wings, and the other 
 nearly triangular, a little forward of it, a roundish nearly white spot sep¬ 
 arating them. Its head is gray, and its palpi or feelers are blackish upon 
 their outer side. These organs are held obliquely forward and upward and 
 are densely covered with erect hairy scales, giving them a short, thick 
 outline of a compressed cylindrical form, and cut off transversely at then- 
 ends, with a small naked joint protruding therefrom, little longer than 
 thick, and scarcely a third of the thickness of the joint from which it pro¬ 
 jects. Coiled up between the palpi and slightly visible on their underside 
 is the long spiral tongue or trunk. The antennae are slender, thread-like, 
 hut tapering towards their tips. They are simple in the females, and in 
 the male are toothed like a saw along their opposite sides, the teeth being 
 sharp and fringed with minute hairs at their tips. The thorax is the thickest 
 part of the body and is of a square form, as is very evident when tho 
 
814 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 CUT-WORMS. WINGS OP THE MOTH DESCRIBED. 
 
 wings are spread. It is gray, with a black band in front, edged on its hind 
 side with an ash gray one, paler than the ground; and on the shoulder at 
 the base of the fore wings is usually a small spot of dull pale yellow 
 •The abdomen is tapering and somewhat flattened, dusky grayish, paler 
 towards its base, its <tip more blunt in the male than in the female and 
 covered with a brush of hairs. The legs are blackish gray and hairy on 
 their undersides, the spurs at the end of the middle and hind shanks being 
 black in their middle and white at each end. The feet are five-jointed, long 
 and tapering, the first joint much the longest and the follo'wing ones suc¬ 
 cessively shorter. They are gray, gradually passing into black at their 
 ends, each joint having a white ring at its tip. The wings in repose are 
 laid flat, one upon the .other, in a horizontal position, sometimes so closed 
 together that their opposite sides are parallel, but oftener widening back¬ 
 ward (as represented in figure 3), and forming a broad shallow notch at 
 their hind end. The fore wings vary in color from ash gray to dusky gray, 
 and sometimes have a tawny reddish reflection. Their outer edge is gray¬ 
 ish black, with irregular alternations of black spots having an ash gray 
 spot between them, and towards the tip are about three equidistant pale 
 gray dots. The costal area or narrow space between the outer edge and 
 the first longitudinal vein is pale ash gray, gradually becoming dull and 
 obscure beyond the middle. At the base, on the outer edge, are two black 
 spots or short transverse streaks, with a pale gray streak between them, and 
 opposite these, on the basal middle of the wing, are similar streams placed 
 obliquely, which are frequently faded to a blackish cloud-like spot, with a 
 pale gray streak crossing its middle. Outside of the central part of the 
 wing are the stigmas, two large roundish pale gray spots, having a 
 square coal-black spot between them and a triangular one forward of 
 them. The anterior one of these stigmas is broad oval, almost circular, 
 and placed obliquely, with its outer end more towards the base of the 
 wing than is the inner end. It is of a uniform pale gray color, slightly 
 paler than any other part of the wing. Its edge is well defined by the 
 black color surrounding it, except at its outer end, where it is incom¬ 
 plete, being confluent with the ash gray color of the costal area. 
 The hinder stigma is kidney-shaped, being concave on its hind side, 
 and occupying this concavity is a pale gray spot or cloud, quite variable 
 in its size in different specimens, and frequently taking on a buff or cream 
 yellow tinge. This stigma is brownish or watered gray, becoming paler 
 along its anterior edge, its ends, particularly the inner one, being vague 
 and indefinite, blending with the adjacent coloring, sometimes so much so 
 that only its middle portion is distinct. Between these stigmas is a large 
 square spot of a coal black color, occupying the whole space between the 
 two midvein-s of the wings, its fore and hind sides made concave by the 
 rotundity of the stigmas which bound it upon these sides. Forward of the 
 anterior stigma is a second black spot of a somewhat triangular form, also 
 occupying the whole space between the two mid veins at this point. On its 
 hind side it is concave and cut off obliquely by the obliquity of the stigma, 
 whereby it is prolonged along the inner vein, usually into a long acute 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 815 
 
 CUT-WORMS. DESCRIPTION OP THE WINGS CONTINUED. 
 
 point. Its anterior end is cut off, either transversely, obliquely or irregu¬ 
 larly, by a faint pale gray streak, which is a portion of the anterior or 
 extra-basal band. (See generalities preceding the description of the wings 
 of the Tobacco-worm moth). In the best specimens this pale streak is dis¬ 
 tinctly seen to be prolonged backwards along the outer side of the black 
 spot almost to the Stigma; and then suddenly turning at a right angle, it 
 runs obliquely forward and outward in a straight line to the outer margin, 
 between the two small black spots which are here placed on the margin. 
 In the opposite direction this pale streak is also prolonged from the for¬ 
 ward end of the black triangular spot, inward and backward and curves 
 slightly forward to the inner longitudinal vein, and beyond this, with 
 another similar curve, is extended to the inner edge of the wing, it being 
 margined on both sides by a black line, that along its hind side being 
 commonly more conspicuous. And a short distance back from this line, 
 equidistant between the inner midvein and the inner vein, may always be 
 seen a black dot or short dash, which is the extreme point of a black 
 stripe called the teliform stigma, which is common upon the wings of the 
 moths of this genus, but in this variety of this species is wholly wanting, 
 except this minute vestige of its apex. And also crossing this inner half 
 of the wing obliquely at about two-thirds of the distance from the base 
 to the hind edge are two other parallel blackish lines, representing the 
 post-medial band. The anterior one of these lines is irregularly wavy and 
 angular, and turns obliquely forward as it approaches the posterior stigma, 
 and appears to pass into the inner hind angle of the square black spot. 
 The posterior line, as traced from the inner edge of the wing, curves 
 slightly backward till it reaches a point a short distance back of the inner 
 end of the hind stigma, when it becomes nearly transverse, and then curves 
 forward and obliquely outward to the outer edge of the wing, ending in 
 the posterior one of the two black spots which are on the outer edge oppo¬ 
 site to the anterior side of the hind stigma. This line, in the middle of 
 the wing, is festooned or made up as it were of crescents united at their 
 ends, these ends projecting backwards and forming about four acute angu¬ 
 lar points ; and sometimes this line is made more distinct by a faint pale 
 gray line bordering it on its hind side, at least in the concavities of the 
 crescents. But both those blackish lines are commonly quite faint and entire¬ 
 ly vanish in many specimens. Beyond this, a broad space on the hind bor¬ 
 der of the wing is darker colored and traversed by a whitish line, which 
 is wavy and often broken into a series of small irregular spots, these spots 
 sometimes having larger black cloud-like spots abjoining them on the fore 
 side. Back of the outer end of this line the tip of the wing is occupied by 
 a triangular gray spot. The hind edge is faintly sinuated, with a series of 
 slender black crescents surmounting the sinuosities. The fringe is con- 
 color with the portion of the wing immediately forward of it. The hind 
 wings are smoky whitish, with a broad dusky hind border, dusky veins, 
 a nd an obscure dusky crescent near the centre. Their fringe is dull white 
 with a dusky band near its middle. On the underside they are clearer 
 white, with a broad dusky hind border and sprinklod with dusky scales 
 
816 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 CUT-WORMS. NAME OP TRP, MOTII. DESTROYER OP THE CUT-WORMS. 
 
 towards the outer side. The veins are not marked with dusky, except a 
 spot or short streak upon each of them, forming a transverse row forward 
 of the hind border, which row becomes obsolete towards the inner edge 
 and towards the outer edge is confluent, forming a dusky band. The cen¬ 
 tral crescent is more distinct than on the upper side, and on the hind edge 
 is a row of slender black crescents. The fore wings are dusky, of the 
 same shade with the border of the hind pair, becoming slightly paler 
 towards their bases. They show an oblique black streak on the outer 
 edge between the middle and the tip, and immediately beyond this is a very 
 faint band crossing the wing parallel with the hind margin. 
 
 The description now given makes it apparent, I think, that this moth is 
 not essentially different from the species of Agrotis named nigricans by Lin¬ 
 naeus, which species we have upon this continent with the same varieties 
 described by authors as occurring in Europe. In this species the teliform 
 stigma is marked by two parallel lines connected by a rounded mark at 
 their ends. But in the examples which I bred from the Cut-worms of the 
 corn, and all those which I captured that season a mere dot was the only 
 remaining vestige of this stigma. Therefore to facilitate future references 
 to this particular variety of which I have here treated, it may be well to 
 separate it under a distinct name, which I have accordingly done. 
 
 The larger Yellow-headed Cut-worm which came out as this was disap¬ 
 pearing, produced as I expected, the same moth which was described in 
 my Third Report, under the name Iladena amputatrix, the Amputating bro¬ 
 cade moth. 
 
 Thus it was the larvae of these two insects which were so numerous and 
 did all the injury to our crops the past season, neither of these being the 
 species which Mr. Brace describes as the insect which produces the Cut¬ 
 worm. And it is therefore evident that in different years and at different 
 localities, it is sometimes one sometimes another of the insects, of this 
 group which becomes multiplied and injurious to us; whereby it will require 
 a series of observations extending through several seasons to obtain a full 
 acquaintance with them. 
 
 Before leaving this subject I may advert to one of our most efficient na¬ 
 tural destroyers of these Cut-worms, which correspondents are occasionally 
 sending me, for information as to its name, its origin, &c. It is the larva 
 of a large black beetle, (Plate 4, fig. 4), having rows of round dots upon 
 its back resembling burnished gold, the brilliancy of which dots cause it 
 to be frequently noticed as it is wandering about in plowed fields and pas¬ 
 tures in search of food, the beetle as well as its larva subsisting upon these 
 Cut-worms. It is the Bold Calosoma, Calosoma calidum, as it is named in 
 scientific works, and pertains to the order Coleoptera and the family CarA- 
 B1DJS. 
 
 Its larva'(Plate 4, fig. 5,) is a flattened, black, worm-like creature, hav¬ 
 ing six legs inserted upon its breast, and a pair of sharp hook-like jaws 
 projecting in front of its head, giving it, in connection with the agility of 
 its movements, a very ferocious and formidable appearance. It is curious 
 to watch this little creature when it is upon a hunting excursion, in pursuit 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 CUT-WORMS. THEIR DESTROYER'S MODE OF KILLING THEM. 
 
 817 
 
 of its prey. It wanders about over the plowed land, until it comes upon a 
 spot where it perceives the surface has been newly disturbed. This indi¬ 
 cates to it that a Worm ha* probably crawled down into the ground at that 
 spot. It immediately thereupon roots down into this loosened dirt, and 
 disappears from view, the motion of the dirt indicating its movements, 
 as it pushes itself along. At times it lies perfectly still, to discover if £*ny 
 worm is moving in the dirt anywheres near it. Now it is the habit of the 
 Cut-worm, the same as of most other worms, when any other creature ap¬ 
 proaches and disturbs it, to give at short intervals a sudden, spiteful jerk, 
 to menace and frighten away the intruder. But now, aware by the brisk 
 motion made in the dirt near it, of the proximity of its mortal foe, it 
 restrains itself from its wonted habit, and lies as still as though it were 
 dead. It is only by some motion in the dirt, or by coming abruptly against 
 it with its head and feelers, that this destroyer can discover the worm, for 
 I have seen it draw the hind part of its body along the side of a worm 
 which was lying perfectly still, and crawl away, without being made aware 
 of the worm’s presence by touching it in this manner. 
 
 One of the most interesting and wonderful exhibitions of insect economy 
 which the world affords, is this Calosotna larva murdering a Cut-worm. The 
 larva it may be is young and less than half the size of the worm, but the little 
 hero never shrinks from the encounter. Upon discovering a worm, he is in¬ 
 stantly on the alert, all vivacity and as if crazy with excitement. The worm 
 perhaps holds its head bent down stiffly upon its breast. The larva hereupon 
 briskly roots -and pushes the worm about and pinches it with his jaws, 
 whereby he gets it to throw back its head, whereupon he instantly grasps 
 the worm by its throat, sinking his sharp jaws through the skin, and cling¬ 
 ing thereto with the grip and pertinacity of a bull dog. The worm mad¬ 
 dened by the pain writhes and rolls over and over and thrashes his tormen¬ 
 tor furiously about, to break him off from his hold; he coils his body like 
 a Boa constrictor tightly around him to pull him away; ho bends himself 
 into a ring with a small orifice in the centre, and then briskly revolving, 
 draws him through and through this orifice to tear him off; but every 
 expedient of the poor worm fails. The larva clings to his grip upon the 
 worm’s throat, till the latter, exhausted by his violent struggles, gradually 
 relaxes his efforts, becomes more and more weak and powerless, and finally 
 succumbs to his fate. Having thus killed the worm the larva leisurely pro¬ 
 ceeds to feed upon it, biting two or three holes through the skin in differ¬ 
 ent places to suck out its contents. It is occupied three or four hours in com¬ 
 pleting this work. And the larva becomes so gorged hereby that its own 
 skin is distended almost to bursting. It then crawls slightly under ground, 
 and there lies and sleeps off its surfeit, and then comes out and wanders 
 of! in search of another meal of thC same kind. 
 
 When this larva is small a single Cut-worm suffices it for one or two 
 days; but as it approaches maturity it devours one or two worms daily. 
 
 LAo. Trans.] 
 
 52 
 
818 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 BEE>KILLER. A HEW INSECT. ITS CLASSIFICATION AND HAMS. 
 
 13 . Nebraska Bee-kii.ler, Trupanea Apivora, new species. (Diptera. 
 
 Asilidae.) Plate 4, fig. 1. 
 
 Killing the honey bee in Nebraska; a large slender-bodied two-winged fly, an inch long. 
 
 Whilst we are occupied in closing this Report to place it in the printer's 
 hands, July, 1864, a new insect comes under our examination, of such an 
 interesting character that we herewith present a figure of it, and the fol¬ 
 lowing account, the principal portion of which we have also communicated 
 to the Country Gentleman. 
 
 R. 0. Thompson, Esq., Florist and Nurseryman, in a note dated Nursery 
 Dill, Otoe county, Nebraska, June 28th, 1864, says: “I send you to-day 
 four insects or animals that are very destructive to the honey bee, killing 
 a great number of them, and also of the Rose bugs. What are they? 
 Many wish to know what this Bee-killer is. Is it the male or the femalo 
 that has the three-pronged sting?” 
 
 The specimens, two of each box, laid between pledgets of cotton wool in 
 a small pasteboard box and forwarded by mail, came to hand in good con¬ 
 dition, admitting of a very satisfactory examination. They are a large 
 two-winged fly, having a long and rather slender and tapering body, about an 
 inch in length, with small three-jointed antennas, the last joint being 
 shorter than the first, and giving out from its end, and not from its side, 
 a slender bristle. The ends of its feet are furnished on the underside with 
 two cushion-like soles, and the crown of its head is hollowed out or concave, 
 and in this hollow is seen three little glassy dots or eyelets. These charac¬ 
 ters show it to pertain to the order Diptera, and to the ^roup which Lin¬ 
 naeus a century ago separated as a genus, under the name Asilus, but 
 which is now divided into several genera, forming the family Axilidas. 
 On inspecting its wings we see the two veins which end one on each side 
 of the tip of the wing are perfect and unbroken, and towards the middle of 
 the outer one they are connected together by a small veinlet or short 
 transverse vein. This indicates these flies to pertain to the genus named 
 Trupanea by Macquart. 
 
 About a half dozen species inhabiting the United States and pertaining 
 to this genus have Jbeen described by Wiedemann, Say, and others. This 
 Nebraska fly appears to be different from either of those, and I am, there¬ 
 fore, led to regard it as a new insect, hitherto unknown to the world. And 
 a more appropriate name cannot be given it than that by which it is called 
 by Mr. Thompson and his neighbors, the Bee-killer or Trupanea Apivora. 
 The general definition of this species, or its brief essential characters will 
 be, that it is dull black with the head yellow, the fore body butternut brown, 
 the hind body on its underside and thejegs pale dull yellow, the thighs 
 being black on their foresides, and it is coated over with hairs which are 
 gray in the female and grayish yellow in the male, the end of the body in the 
 latter sex having a conspicuous silvery white spot. 
 
 In this Asilus group of flies the species are separated from each other 
 by marks which are often very slight and obscure. It is, therefore, im¬ 
 portant that a detailed description of these Nebraska flies should here bo 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 819 
 
 * BEE-KILLER. DESCRIPTION OP THE INSECT* 
 
 given, that they may not be confounded with any other species which may 
 be closely similar to them. 
 
 They measure to the end of the wings 0.85 to one inch, and to the end of 
 the body 0.95 to 1.15, the males being rather smaller than the females. The 
 head is short and broad, shaped like a plano-convex lens, flat on its hind 
 side and convex in front. Its summit or crown is deeply excavated, leav¬ 
 ing a vacant space between tiic upper part of the eyes, in the middle of 
 which excavation are the ocelli or eyelets, appearing like three black glassy 
 dots placed at the corners of a triangle. The ground color of the head is 
 yellow. All the face below the antennae is covered with long hairs, form¬ 
 ing a moustache of a light yellow color, with a tuft of short black bristles 
 at the mouth, and on each side arc whiskers of a yellowish gray color. 
 The base of the head has a sort of collar formed of radiating gray hairs, 
 and behind the upper part of each eye is a row of black bristles. The eyes 
 are large and protuberant, occupying two-thirds of the surface of the head, 
 and are finely reticulated or divided into an immense number of minute 
 facets. The antenna; are inserted at the anterior edge of the excavation 
 in the crown ot the head. They are small, scarcely reaching to the base 
 of the head if turned backward. They are black and composed of three 
 joints, the first one longest and cylindric; the second shortest and obconic; 
 the third thickest and egg-shaped, its apex ending in a bristle which is 
 about equal to the antenna in length, and is slightly more slender towards 
 ils tip, where it becomes a little thickened. The trunk or proboscis is as 
 long as the head, its end projecting out from the bristles of the face. It 
 appears like a long, tapering tube of a hard crustaceous texture, black and 
 shining, blunt at the end, with a fringe of hairs around the orifice. In 
 one specimen the tongue protrudes from the orifice in the end of the trunk, 
 sharp pointed and like the blade of a lancet in shape, hard, shining and 
 black. The thorax or fore body is the broadest part of the insect, and is of 
 a short oval form, with bluntly rounded ends. It is of a tarnished yellow¬ 
 ish brown or butternut color, with two faint gray stripes along the middle 
 of the back, alternating with three darker brown ones. It is bearded with 
 black hairs and posteriorly with long yellowish gray ones, which are inter¬ 
 spersed with black bristles. The abdomen or hind body is long, slender 
 and tapering from its base in the male, and is more broad and somewhat 
 flattened in the female. It is black above and covered with prostrate hairs, 
 which are dull yellow in the male and gray in the female. On the sides 
 and beneath the ground color is dull yellow in the male and gray in the 
 female, and clothed with gray hairs in both sexes. The two last segments, 
 the eighth and ninth, are conspicuously protruded, making two or three 
 more segments than are usually visible externally in insects. In the female 
 these segments taper to an acute point, and are black and shining. In the 
 male they appear like a cylindrical tube with a projecting valve under¬ 
 neath at the base, and are coated over with dull yellow hairs, and on the 
 npper side with silvery white ones, pressed'to the surface and forming a 
 conspicuous oblong spot of this color, which is two-lobed or notched at its 
 end. And in the dead specimens before me three bristle like processes 
 
820 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORft 
 
 DEE-KILLER. LEGS AND WINGS DESCRIBED. DELIGHTS IN THE SUNSHINE. 
 
 over a tenth of an inch in length, of a tawny yellow color, polished and 
 shining, project from the blunt end of the body, these are termed a three- 
 pronged sting in the above letter. But the magnifying glass shows they 
 are abruptly cut off at their ends and do not taper to a sharp point capable 
 pf piercing the human skin. The legs are long and stout and of a pale, 
 dull yellowish color. The thighs in the males arc chestnut brown, and on 
 their anterior sides they are dull black in both sexes, the hind pair being 
 entirely black, except a stripe of dull yellowish along the under side. The 
 hind shanks also are frequently black on their anterior sides. The legs 
 are covered with gray hairs and have several black bristles in rows running 
 lengthwise. In the males the four anterior shanks and feet have the hairs 
 yellow, and on the feet the bristles also are of this color. The wijjgs are 
 long and narrow, and in repose are laid flat, one upon the other. They are 
 transparent, with a smoky tinge, and are perceptibly darker at their tips. 
 Their veins are black, except the parallel ones in the outer border, which 
 arc dull yellowish brown. The broad pane or panel at the tip of the wings, 
 which is technically termed the second sub-marginal cell, rapidly narrows 
 as it extends forward into the wing, for two-thirds of its length, the remain¬ 
 ing third being quite narrow, with its opposite sides parallel. Along the 
 vein which forms the boundary of this cell on its outer side, is a percepti¬ 
 ble smokiness, which is not seen along the sides of the other veins. This 
 vein is slightly bent in the form of a bow two-thirds the length of the cell, 
 when it abruptly curves in the opposite direction, and is then straight the 
 remainder of its length. A veinlet connects it to the next longitudinal 
 vein, thus forming between the anterior portions of these two veins a third 
 sub-marginal cell, which is very long and narrow. 
 
 The arrangement of the veins in the wings, forming three submarginal 
 cells as above described, induces me to refer this species without hesita¬ 
 tion to Macquart’s genus Trupanea-, although the silvery white spot on the 
 tip of the male abdomen would indicate it to pertain to the genus Erax, as 
 restricted by the same author. 
 
 The brief note of our correspondent gives us no particular information 
 upon the habits of these fli<% or the manner in which they attack and kill 
 the bees. But the members of this Asilus group are all so similar in their 
 habits that we are aware what the operations of this species will be. And 
 some account of the habits of these insects may be of sufficient interest to 
 the reader to be here related. 
 
 These Asilus flies, like some others of our most rapacious insects, parti¬ 
 cularly delight in the hot sunshine. One or two evidences of this may here 
 be adduced. 
 
 Flies of this kind are rare in my vicinity. I suppose I might hunt for 
 days without being able to find a living specimen. And I do not recollect to 
 have ever seen one of them, hitherto, about my house or yard. Three days 
 ago, however, when occupied in preparing this account, I casually sprea 
 some damp newspapers before my door to.dry in the hot sun. On stepping 
 out to gather up these papers I was most agreeably surprised to seo 
 alighted upon one of them and basking in the sun, what proves to be a 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 821 
 
 BEE-KILLER. ITS FETID ODOR. CRUEL MODE OF KILLING ITS PRET. 
 
 species of Trupanea which I had never met with before and which is closely 
 like though probably distinct from this Nebraska Bee-killer. The genial 
 warmth reflected from the white surface of the paper lying in the clear sun 
 had evidently attracted it to this unusual situation. 
 
 So late as the month of October, ten years ago, upon a clear warm day, 
 in a sunny nook upon the south side of a forest, I came upon quite a num¬ 
 ber of the Erax rujibarbis, flying about and alighting upon the leaves—a 
 species I have never met with except in that instance. They were warmed 
 into such quickness of motion, and were so extremely vigilant and shy of 
 my approach, that with my utmost skill I was able to capture but two in¬ 
 dividuals which were impeded in their movements from being paired to¬ 
 gether. I infer these Nebraska flies to be common and far less wary than 
 the species alluded to—else our correspondent would have been unable to 
 secure two individuals of each sex to transmit to us. And I suspect these 
 specimens were obtained when they were copulated. If so, it is probablo 
 that the three sting-like bristles which I have described above, are not 
 protruded and visible externally, except at such times. 
 
 In flying, these insects make a very loud humming sound, which can 
 scarcely be distinguished from that of the bumble-bee; and when involved 
 within the folds of a net, they utter the same pipingnotc of distress as does 
 that insect. This very probably contributed to impress our correspondent 
 with the thought that the three bristles which are extruded by the male 
 are a formidable three-pronged sting. 
 
 Another fact which I do not see alluded to by any author, is the fetid 
 carrion-like odor which some of these Asilus flies exhale. I noticed this 
 odor in the Erax rufibarbis which was captured as above related. And in 
 these Nebraska specimens, though they have now been dead a fortnight 
 and freely exposed to the air the latter half of that time, this disgusting 
 scent still remains, and so powerful is it that on two occasions nausea has 
 been produced when they have happened to be left upon the table beside 
 me. As the newly captured fly above mentioned is wholly destitute of. 
 this fetor, it may be that it is only at the period of sexual intercourse that 
 it occurs. 
 
 These flies are inhuman murderers. They arc the savages of the insect 
 world, putting their captives to death with merciless cruelty. Their large 
 eyes divided into such a multitude of facets, probably give them most acute 
 and accurate vision for espying and seizing their prey; and their long stout 
 legs, their bearded and bristly head, their whole aspect indicates them to 
 be of a predatory and ferocious character. Like the hawk they swoop upon 
 their prey, and grasping it securely between their fore feet they violently 
 bear it away. They have no teeth and jaws wherewith to bite, gnaw and 
 masticate their food, but are furnished instead with an apparatus which 
 answers them equally well for nourishing themselves. It is well known 
 what maddening pain the horse flies occasion to horses and cattle, in wound¬ 
 ing them and sucking their blood. These Asilus flies possess similar 
 organs, but larger and more simple in their structure, more firm, stout and 
 powerful. In the horse flies the trunk or proboscis is soft, flexible and sen- 
 
822 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 BEE-KILLER. ITS HABITS ANB BESTRTJCTIVENESS. 
 
 sitive. Here it is hard and destitute of feeling—a large, tapering, horn¬ 
 like tube, inclosing a sharp lance or spear-pointed tongue to dart out from 
 its end and cut a wound for it to enter, this end, moreover, being fringed 
 and bearded around with stiff bristles to bend backward and thus hold it 
 securely in the wound into which it is crowded. The proboscis of tho 
 horse flies is tormenting, but this of the Asilus flies is torturing. That 
 presses its soft cushion-like lips to the wound to suck thb blood from it; 
 this crowds its hard prickly knob into the wound to pump the juices there¬ 
 from. It is said these Asilus flies sometimes attack cattle and horses, but 
 other writers disbelieve this. Should any of* our Nebraska friends see one 
 of these bee-killers alighting upon and actually wounding horses or cattle, 
 we hope they will inform us of the fact, that this mooted point may be defin¬ 
 itely settled. Certain it is that these flies nourish themselves principally 
 upon other insects, attacking all that they are sufficiently large and strong 
 to overpower. Even the hard crustaceous shell with which the beetles are 
 covered fails to protect them from the butchery of these barbarians. And 
 formidably as the bee is equipped for punishing any intruder which ven¬ 
 tures to molest it, it here finds itself overmatched and its sting powerless 
 against the horny proboscis of its murderer. These flies appear to be par¬ 
 ticularly prone to attack the l>"es. Robineau Pesvoidy states that he had 
 repeatedly seen the Asilus diadema, ar European species somewhat smaller 
 than this of Nebraska, flying with a bee in its hold. But it probably does 
 not relish these more than it does other insects. We presume it to be 
 because it finds them in such abundance, as enables it to make a meal upon 
 them most readily, and with the least exertion, that these Nebraska flics 
 fall upon the b<jes and the rose bugs’. And so large as they are, a single 
 one will require perhaps a hundred bees per day for its nourishment. If 
 these flies are common, therefore, they will inevitably occasion great losses 
 to the bee keepers in that part of our country. 
 
 No feasible mode of destroying this fly or protecting the bees from it at 
 present occurs to me. Indeed such an accurate knowledge of the particu¬ 
 lar habits of this species as we do not at present possess, is necessary, to 
 show in what manner it can be most successfully combatted. 
 
 Since the foregoing account was written, Mi’. Thompson has favored us 
 with another communication, givingsomemostinterestingobservntions upon 
 the habits and destructiveness of this insect, which we here append in his 
 own words. He says, My attention was first called to this fly destroying 
 the honey bee by a little boy, a son of P. C. Utty, Esq., of this place. 
 After sending you the specimens I watched ils proceedings and habits with 
 much care, and find that, in addition to the honey bee and rose bugs, 
 it devours many' other kinds of beetles, bugs and flies, some of which are 
 as large again as itself. It appears to be in the months of Juno and July 
 that it is abroad upon the wing, destroying the bees. None of them are 
 now (August 2d) to be seen. When in pursuit of its prey it makes quito 
 rapid dashes, always capturing the bee on the wing. When once secured 
 by wrapping its legs about it, pressing it tightly to its own body, it imme¬ 
 diately seeks a bush or tall weed, upon which it alights and commences 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 823 
 
 BEE-KILLER ITS TENACITY OP LIFE. 
 
 devouring its prey by eating (piercing) a hole into the body and in a short 
 time entirely consuming it (sucking out the fluids and soft internal viscera) 
 and leaving only the hard outer skin or shell of the bee. Upon the ground 
 beneath some favorable perch for the fly near the apiary, hundreds of these 
 shells of bees are found accumulated in a single day—whether the work of 
 one fly or of several I am not able to say. I have just returned from a pro¬ 
 fessional tour through the northern portion of our Territory, taking Nur¬ 
 sery orders; and in many things this business and the apiary are closely 
 connected. In no case have I found a hive of bees that has thrown off a 
 swarm this season! The dry weather, bad pasture and other reasons were 
 assigned as the cause. But many persons, since they have found this fly 
 at his work of destruction, now believe it to be the cause of the non¬ 
 swarming of their bees; and I am led to the same opinion. I have only 
 to add further, that this Bee-killer delights in hot, dry weather, and is very 
 invulnerable and tenacious of life. I have observed the honey bee and 
 also the hornet sting it repeatedly, but with no other effect than to cause it 
 to tighten its hold upon them. Once when I forced the assassin to release 
 his prey, he gave me such a wound in the hand as has learned me ever 
 since to be cautious how I interfered with him. He will live an hour with 
 a pin thrust through his body which has been dipped in the solution of 
 Cyanuret of .Potassium. 
 
824 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT Op NEW PORK 
 
 AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS, 1863. 
 
 The blanks for the collection of statistics were prepared in due season 
 and distributed throughout the State, in December, as required by the act 
 of the Legislature. It was soon ascertained that the work would not bo 
 performed, unless the transactions of the Society and the Institute for 18G3 
 could be had—of this, there was no assurance that they could be had until 
 the close of 1864. We were advised that unless the books were ready the 
 work would not be done, and the returns which are annexed are all that 
 have been received up to January, 1865, being from twelve counties, onlj’ a 
 portion of which are complete. If the transactions were printed and ready 
 for delivery in September, as they formerly were, there would be little diffi¬ 
 culty in obtaining competent persons to take the statistics as provided in 
 the law; many suggestions have been made as to changes in the provisions 
 of the law, substituting money for books, and placing the work in the 
 hands of Trustees of school districts, or with the town assessors. The 
 whole matter is submitted for the consideration of the Legislature. 
 
 To show what might be done, if the statistics were properly taken, wo 
 give the summing up of.Steuben county for the year 1864, which is com¬ 
 plete, and is in addition to the statistics of 1863 given in the annexed list: 
 
 Total value pasture and meadow lands... 
 
 Cereal crops. #. ... 
 
 Root crops and peas and beans 
 
 Hay.. 
 
 Tobacco seed. 
 
 Tobacco leaf. 
 
 Hops. 
 
 Bees honey. 
 
 Ilccs wax. 
 
 Neat cattle. 
 
 Reef cattlo. 
 
 Dairies. 
 
 Market gardens. 
 
 6wino. 
 
 Sheep . 
 
 Poultry. 
 
 Fruit crops. 
 
 Horses. 
 
 Sugar and syrup per year. 
 
 Syrup... 
 
 $2,145,17! 
 
 2,021,824 
 
 427,527 
 
 18,150 
 
 7,401 
 
 5,062 
 
 4,482 
 
 40,430 
 
 5,057 
 
 30,040 
 
 138,450 
 
 1,139,088 
 
 10,084 
 
 829,021 
 
 831,937 
 
 68,470 
 
 141,996 
 
 214,452 
 
 42,350 
 
 9,497 
 
 Grand total of all the agricultural industry of the county—$9,082 
 
 00 . 
 
 00 
 
 00 
 
 00 
 
 00 
 
 00 
 
 00 
 
 00 
 
 00 
 
 00 
 
 00 
 
 50 
 
 00 
 
 24 
 
 70 
 
 4T 
 
 42 
 
 50 
 
 00 
 
 00 
 
 ,005.63 
 
 for the year 1864. 
 
 It will be seen by an examination of these returns, that should every 
 county secure an animal return like the above, our farmers would veiy 
 soon learn what crops would be most advantageous, what depai linents o 
 industry most remunerating, and govern themselves accordingly. 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 433 
 
 TENTH REPORT 
 
 ON THE 
 
 NOXIOUS AND OTHER INSECTS 
 
 OF THE I ( 
 
 teTATE OF NEW YORK. 
 
 Bt ASA FITCH, M. D., 
 
 ENTOMOLOGIST OF THE NEW YORK STATE AGRICULTUItAL SOCIETY. 
 
 [Copyright scoured to tho Author.] 
 
 INSECTS INFESTING GARDENS. 
 
 14. Cucumber-beetle, Galleruca (Diabrotica) Americana, Grnelin. (Coleop- 
 
 tera. Gallerucidte.) 
 
 Boring in tho roots of the cucumber, melon and squash, and causing tho vines to wilt and 
 (lie; small, slondor, white worms, black at eaohcnd; passing their pupa state underground 
 and producing oblong, bright, lemon-yellow beetles, a quarter of an inch long or somewhat 
 less, with blaok heads and three blaok stripes on their wing covers, which are common in the 
 garden, gnawing the stalks, loaves and flowers of tho same plants. 
 
 Decidedly the worst insect in our gardens is this yellow striped Cucum- 
 ber-bcetle, or “Cucumber-bug,” as it is commonly but less correetl}' called. 
 Hitherto this insect has been known to us only in its perfect state, gnaw¬ 
 ing the stalks and eating the leaves of the cucumber vines; and it is 
 hereby so pernicious that it has all along been ranked as one of the great¬ 
 est pests in the gardens of this country. Notv that I have discovered 
 what the larva of this beetle is, and thus find that it is more destructive 
 and more difficult to contend against in this its young and growing state 
 than it is afterwards when it has attained maturity, this insect assumes an 
 importance it has not before been supposed to possess, and is left without 
 a compeer in the garden in the depredations it commits and the vexatious 
 losses which it occasions. 
 
 Early in the season, upon our first planting of cucumbers, melons and 
 squashes, it frequently happens that particular hills of one and another of 
 these seeds do not sprout so as to make their appearance above the ground, 
 and wo conclude the seed is bad, and very likely the next time we see tlio 
 merchant from whom we purchased it, we berate him for imposing a worth¬ 
 less article upon us. It is an undoubted fact that in hundreds of instances 
 [Ag. Trans. j - 28 
 
434 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 CUCUMBER-BEETLE. VINES KILLED BY WORMS IN THE ROOT. 
 
 our seedsmen are censured for the bad quality of some of their seeds 
 when the particular kinds complained of have been perfectly good, but 
 have failed to grow from some hidden and unsuspected cause—underground 
 insects being one of these causes of failure, and a much more common one 
 than is usually supposed—they, like the “ worm i’ the bud,” nipping the 
 tender growing point of the seed as soon as its germination commences 
 hereby totally destroying it. 
 
 In other instances we notice our vines to be coming up nicely from the 
 ground. Being thus measurably relieved from our solicitude respecting 
 them, it may be we for a few days omit to visit them, tfhen, on going to 
 them, we are surprised to find that every plant has strangely disappeared 
 from particular hills if not from the entire plantation, and the ground is as 
 bare as when we first covered the seeds with the hoe. We thereupon 
 hasten to replant all the vacant hills, little suspecting we are hereby pro¬ 
 viding the same enemy who occasioned the destruction in the first instance 
 with another instalment of food, to favor him in growing up to maturity. 
 This second planting most probably shares the same fate with the first, if 
 the seed is even permitted to sprout from the ground. And on coming 
 thus to learn that some hidden enemy is probably lurking about that par¬ 
 ticular spot, we abandon it and plant elsewhere, and thus succeed in obtain¬ 
 ing a late crop. 
 
 Finally, when our vines have escaped these calamities to which they are 
 first liable, and are growing thriftily and arc beginning to bear their fruit, 
 a particular plant is discovered to have the leaves drooping and wilted 
 through the whole length of the vine and its branches, and in a day or two 
 after, it is all dried up, faded and dead. Ere long an¬ 
 other vine in the same hill follows it, and perhaps 
 another. I knew an instance some years ago in • 
 which all the vines in a garden withered and died one 
 after another in this way, in a short time. On exam¬ 
 ining a vine which is thus drooping, no wound or 
 other injury is anywhere visible upon the stalks or the 
 leaves, and we therefore become assured the malady 
 must be seated in the root, and on coming to inspect 
 this part we immediately discover the cause of the 
 disaster. The root is found to be irregularly eaten in 
 spots and pierced with small holes, and its central 
 pith is more or less consumed and spongy, with one 
 or more worms, the authors of the mischief, lurking 
 within it. . 
 
 The accompanying figure represents a root of the 
 cucumber or melon of the natural size and structure. 
 In these plants a thick, succulent, cylindrical root 
 as bored by ex t fir 'ds straight downwards an inch or two into the 
 
 Cucumber root i 
 
 larvas of the Cucumber- ground, when it becomes abruptly narrowed into a 
 slender tapering rootlet of a more firm and leathery 
 texture, the small fibrous rootlets being given off laterally from this tapered 
 
/' o/' C\tl H'ornt 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 435 
 
 CUCUMBER-BEETLE. ITS LARVA. 
 
 portion. It is tlie thick succulent part between the small fibrous rootlets and 
 the surface of the ground in which this larva works, gnawing its surface iu 
 irregular spots of various sizes, as represented in the figure. Sometimes holes 
 are bored directly through the root, transversely. More commonly, especially 
 when the root is young and tender, the worm works in the centre, consum¬ 
 ing the whole length of the pith from the surface of the ground downward 
 to the tapered part. Sometimes only a part of the pith is destroyed. One 
 young plant on being' carefully taken up and examined, was found to have 
 an inch in length of its root all eaten away, only the bark on one side re¬ 
 maining, rough and ragged, and almost severed at one point; whilst on 
 each side of this eroded space all the central portion was consumed, down¬ 
 ward to the slender rootlets, and upward, extending above the ground to 
 the seed leaves, only the outer bark remaining. On removing the earth 
 from around the root of a withering plant, a worm will sometimes be dis¬ 
 covered lying on its outer surface, which immediately hides itself by 
 crawling into some one of the holes in the root. And on dissecting the 
 root, from one to a half-dozen worms are found inside, scattered about at 
 different points. Moreover, when recently planted seeds are beginning to 
 germinate, if the growing point which they send out chances to be found 
 by one of these worms, it is devoured with avidity, and the worm entering 
 the seed continues to feed upon the inclosed meat until this also is con¬ 
 sumed. I have thus found them iu sevelal instances nestled inside of the 
 largo seeds of the squash. 
 
 The Larva is represented in the annexed cut, greatly magnified, the small 
 figure on the left side showing its natural size and appear¬ 
 ance. It is a soft, slender, cylindrical worm, slightly 
 tapered towards its forward end. It is of a dull white 
 color, with the head and the last segment of the body black. 
 Frequently some tawny yellowish stains are seen here and 
 there upon its surface, some of which form traces of a stripe 
 along the middle of the back. When crawling it is more 
 elongated and more distinctly tapered auteriorly than 
 when it is at rest, and it then measures 0.30 to 0.35 in 
 length. It is composed of thirteen segments, faintly 
 marked by impressed transverse lines at the sutures. Its 
 head is but half as wide as the broadest part of the body, 
 and is longer than broad, of a short oval form, flattened, 
 cumber-beetle, and held obliquely downward and forward, with its base 
 sunk into the first ring of the body. It is of a horny texture, polished and 
 shining, coal-black or sometimes black-brown, with minute bristles scat¬ 
 tered over its surface. The neck or second segment is shorter than any r 
 of the other segments, broader than long, stained with brown above, its 
 anterior end concave for receiving the base of the head, and its underside 
 hearing the first pair of feet. The segments of the body are nearly as long 
 as wide, each having a small tubercle in the middle upon each side, which 
 tubercles aye broad, Hat, and but slightly elevated from the surface, and 
 are frequently made more distinct by being of a pale tawny color. Three fine 
 
 Larva of tho Cu- 
 
436 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 CUCUMBER-BEETLE. ITS PUTA. 
 
 short hairs are also given out upon the middle of each side of the segments. 
 The last segment is nearly the, size of the preceding one, flattened and 
 bluntly rounded at its end, polished and shining, usually black, lint some¬ 
 times brown with the margin only black. On its underside this segment 
 is white on its basal half, and bears a short large teat-like projection which 
 is the anal proleg. Three pairs of short robust legs are placed anteriorly 
 upon the under side of the three first rings. 
 
 When this worm is crawling over a smooth surface, it moves curiously, 
 the fore part of its body advancing slowly but continuously, whilst the hind 
 part alternately halts and hitches forward suddenly, step by step. In other 
 words, the'legs are constantly in motion, carrying the anterior end of the 
 body along without any pause, whilst the hind end is held by the proleg at 
 its extremity and only advances when it becomes stretched, when it gives 
 a long stride forward and again halts, progressing about the twentieth part 
 of an inch at each step. 
 
 When it is done feeding the worm forsakes the root and forms a little 
 cavity underground, by turning itself around and around in the same place 
 and crowding the dirt outward until it becomes compacted on every side 
 of it, funning a little lump of such firmness that it will not crumble or 
 break asunder from any motion given to the earth around 
 it by the hoe or the plow. Inside of this cell the worm 
 throws off its larva skin and becomes a pupa. Under this 
 form it appears as represented in the adjoining cut, the 
 small figure on the left hand side showing its natural size. 
 
 The Pupa is 0.28 long and scarcely a third as broad, soft 
 and flesh-like, of a white color tinged with yellow, with the 
 first segment of the thorax sulphur-yellow. It is thickest 
 anteriorly, tapering, conical, and bluntly rounded at the 
 tip, the head and thorax and also the hind end thinly 
 bearded with minute erect bristles qf a tawny color, and 
 Pupa of the Cucum- eac ^’ segment of the body having a transverse row of very 
 bcr-bectio. minute hairs upon the middle of its back. The eyes are 
 large, slightly protuberant, black and glossy. The antennae, legs, wing- 
 covers and wings are enclosed in separate sheaths, which are free and not 
 at all adherent to the body. The wing sheafhs are broader than those of 
 the wing covers and project beyond them, and are of a smoky black color. 
 Each suture of the back is marked by a blackish line, and the knees and 
 feet are dusky. The tip of the body is furnished with a pair of small slen¬ 
 der black sharp pointed spines. 
 
 A squash root containing six of these cucumber worms I inclosed in ajar 
 of earth, and upon examining it three weeks afterwards, some of the cells which 
 the worms had formed in the earth were found to contain pupa) and in others 
 the fully formed beetles were lying in a quiescent state. As the worms might 
 have been occupied some days after they wore inclosed, in feeding and in 
 forming their cells before they changed to pupae, I infer they remain in their 
 pupa form about a fortnight. What length of time the larva is,occupied in 
 feeding and getting its growth I have as yet no criteria from which to judge- 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 437 
 
 CUCUMBER.BEETLE. THE BEETLE DESCRIBED. 
 
 When this insect throws off its pupa skin and first appears in its perfect 
 form, it is of a white color, the thorax only having a tinge of yellow; the 
 three black stripes upon its wing covers however are then distinct and perfect 
 in every respect. It is very soft and flaccid, and remains quiescent in its cell 
 without any motion or sign of life, I think for several days, to allow the 
 superabundant juices of its body to evaporate aud its several parts to ac¬ 
 quire sufficient firmness and strength to permit their active exercise. At 
 length, sudden as though it had been touched with a shock of electricity, it 
 awakes into full life and vigor, and with its feet and jaws it briskly attacks 
 the walls of its prison, breaking au opening through them, and scrambles up¬ 
 ward out of the loose surface earth of the garden and runs fleetly away, joy¬ 
 ously exulting in its newly acquired life and liberty. One of these beetles 
 which I confined in a vial upon its first coming out of its pupa cell lived with¬ 
 out food until the fifth day after, vigorously gnawing the cork stopper of 
 the vial in an effort to open a passage out for itself, and making therefrom a 
 large quantity of chips like saw dust. During all this time its wing covers re¬ 
 mained pure white, which leads me to think that it is only after the beetle 
 has been feeding that its fluids obtain the coloring matter which gives it the 
 bright yellow dress in which we are accustomed to see it clad. 
 
 The Cucumber beetle is glossy and shining, of a bright pale lemon-yellow 
 color, varied with black. It is rather more than twice as long as wide. The 
 females arc larger than the males, measuring nearly or quite a quarter of an 
 inch in length while the males are scarcely two-tenths of an inch. The head is 
 narrower than the thorax, into which it is sunk to the eyes. It is of a coal- 
 black color, including, the mouth and palpi or feelers. On the middle of the 
 forehead, is a deep round impression. The face is clothed with a minute beard, 
 the hairs inclining downward. The ayes, occupying the sides of the head, are 
 large, protuberant, and roundish oval. The antennae arc two-thirds the length 
 of the body, slender, thread-like, minutely bearded, eleven-jointed, black with 
 the three first joints yellowish white and somewhat hyaline. The first joint 
 is longest, nearly thrice as long as thick, thicker towards its apex, where is a 
 large black spot on the upper side and another one opposite ou the under side. 
 The second joint is smallest, egg-shaped with the larger end outward, and has 
 also a black spot on its upper and another on its under side. The third joint 
 is twice as long as the second but similar to it in thickness and is slightly 
 narrowed towards its base. The remaining joints are more thick and succes¬ 
 sively become a very little shorter as they appoach the apex, each joint being 
 slightly narrowed towards its base. The thorax is less broad than the wing 
 covers, more wide than long and nearly square in its outline, with its forward 
 corners rounded and each of its hind ones forming a right angle. On its up¬ 
 per side slightly hack of the centre aretwodilated impressions or little hollows, 
 placed side by side and sometimes more or loss confluent with each other. 
 Ihe seutcl is small, black, smooth and shining. The wing covers when fully 
 closed are oblong-oval in their outline, being slightly convex on the sides and 
 cut off transversely at the forward end. Their surface is thinly bearded over 
 'Mill minute short erect hairs, and is traversed lengthwise by elevated smooth 
 'ihs and intervening furrows. The ribs are nine in number on each wing cover, 
 the first one from the suture being the most slender and the second one broad- 
 
438 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 CUCOMBKH-BEETI.E. ITS SCIENTIFIC NAMES. 
 
 est. The fifth to the eighth ones are run together at their anterior ends, form¬ 
 ing an elevated smooth shining spot upon the shoulder. In each furrow is a 
 row of close shallow punctures. The wing covers are also ornamented with 
 three parallel hlack stripes. The middle one of these stripes is placed upon 
 the suture, occupying all the space inside the second rib. It is narrowed pos¬ 
 teriorly to an acute point which ends before it quite attains the tip of the 
 wing covers. The lateral stripes occupy the fifth, six and seventh ribs and 
 the intervening furrows, commencing upon the shoulder and terminating in 
 an abruptly rounded end on the posterior declivity of the wing covers, distant 
 from the margin. The wings are large, transparent and smoky brown. The 
 underside is black and shining, with the fore-breast or throat light yellow. The 
 surface is minutely punctured and covered with a dense fine grey beard. The 
 leys are yellowish-white and translucent, with a close inclined beard. The 
 knees are black, and also the anterior shanks, the tips of the middle and 
 hind shanks and the feet. The feet are four-jointed, the first joint being longest, 
 about twice as long as thick, and a third longer on the hind feet. The second 
 joint is short, but little longer than thick. The third joint is shortest and 
 very deeply cleft or two-lobed. The last joint is inserted bet-ween the lobes 
 of the preceding joint, and is long, slender and curved, thicker towards its 
 tip where it is furnished with a pair of sharp claws which are forked or double. 
 
 This beetle was described first in the year 1181, by Fabricius, in his 
 Species of Insects, vol. i, p. 148, under the name Cistela melanocephala or 
 the Black-headed Cistela. Eleven years afterwards be changed its place 
 to the genus Crioceris, in which there was already a species bearing the 
 same name, wherefore he was under the necessity of re-naming our insect, 
 and accordingly called it the viltata or Striped Crioceris. Four years pre¬ 
 vious to this, however, Gmelin, in his edition of the System of Nature, vol. 
 iv, p. 1115, had for a similar reason entered this same insect under the 
 name Cnjptocephalus Americanus. Authors appear to have overlooked this 
 name of Gmelin, whereby our insect has come to be universally known 
 under the name given it by Fabricius. But as the name bestowed by 
 Gmelin has the unquestioned priority, 1 do not perceive any valid ground 
 on which it can be set aside. This insect being so prominent as a depre¬ 
 dator in our gardens here in America, whilst it is unknown in those of the 
 old world, renders Gmelin’s name quite appropriate; although on several 
 accounts the Fabrician name would be the preferable one if the established 
 rules of nomenclature allowed us any liberty of choice in the premises. 
 Olivier, more correctly than his contemporaries, determined the true place 
 of this insect to be in the genus Galleruca, where it has since remained. Chev- 
 rolat, however, in Dejean’s Catalogue, has proposed a dismemberment of 
 this genus, giving the name Diabrotica to the section in which our Cucum¬ 
 ber-beetle falls. Although the divisions which he proposes have never yet 
 been characterized that 1 am aware, they may very probably be eventually 
 adopted, at least as subgenera. 
 
 These Cucumber beetles come forth from their winter retreats and begin 
 to appear abroad here in the State of New York as early as the commence¬ 
 ment of May r , and correspondents at the South have sent me specimens 
 which were there captured a month earlier than this. As there are no 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 439 
 
 CUCUMBER-BEETLE. IT DESTROYS THE YOUNG PLANTS. 
 
 cucurbitaceous plants sprouting from the ground until two or three weeks 
 after this time, it is obvious they are able to subsist on some other vegeta¬ 
 tion when they cannot obtain their favorite food. I first meet with them 
 each year upon bushes of different kinds along the borders of fields and 
 meadows, in which situations they continue to be found during the whole 
 season. They are particularly common in May on the different species of 
 thorn (Cralcegus), from whence I have thought that the flowers and leaves 
 of these shrubs very probably furnish them with a portion of their suste¬ 
 nance at this early part of the season. 
 
 So soon as the cucumber and its kindred plants begin to-push themselves 
 up out of the ground in our gardens, these beetles commence gathering 
 around them, hiding themselves from our sight in the cracks in the dried 
 surface of the ground, which the plants make as they force themselves out 
 of the soil, and there lurking unsuspected, dropping their eggs around the 
 plants and feeding upon the tender young stalks and the seed leaves. I 
 find in my notes the following memorandum under the date of May 29th: 
 “For several days I have noticed my young cucumbers and squashes were 
 drooping and badly gnawed. The only insects I could see around them 
 were numberless garden fleas ( Podura) and a few flea beetles ( Haltica ), 
 and it was a query in my thoughts whether these were causing the injury. 
 All the plants have disappeared from several of the hills. Early this moriv 
 ing I went to all the hills without discovering any enemy that I thought 
 could occasion their sorry condition. A hill having two dozen plants, some 
 just out of the ground and others bursting from the seeds, has every plant 
 drooping and many of them so badly wounded they cannot recover. While 
 looking at their sad plight, I happened to notice a yellow striped beetle 
 crawling out of a crack in the ground. He was instantly killed, and in 
 disturbing the dirt in killing him two other beetles crawled up into sight. 
 And now upon carefully examining, I found upwards of fifty of these beetles 
 lurking there, just under the baked crust of the surface, wholly hid from 
 view, nibbling and glutting themselves with the young tender leaves just 
 beginning to push up from the seeds into daylight. I made out to pinch 
 and kill every one of the villains, just as they were awaking apparently 
 from their night’s slumber. And now on opening the cracks in the ground 
 at the other hills, I found from half a dozen to a dozen of these beetles at 
 each of them. They evidently prefer the youngest, tenderest plants, to 
 those which are more advanced.” 
 
 As is well known, these beetles continue to infest the plants during the 
 whole season; but after the stalks begin to shoot out into running 
 vines, they are ^o robust and vigorous as to withstand the wounds they 
 continue to receive from these insects. The texture of the plants has now 
 become so firm and woody that the beetles only relish their most tender 
 and succulent parts, such as the flowers and the leaves, particularly any 
 leaves which are sickly and drooping. 
 
 In autumn these Cucumber-beetles are quite common upon the flowers 
 ot the golden rod, to which they are probably attracted to feed upon their 
 pollen and petals. They are among the last insects which withdraw into 
 
440 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 CUCUMBER-BEETLES. REMEDIES. AN EXPERIMENT. BOXES THE BEST PROTECTORS. 
 
 their winter quarters, some of them continuing abroad into the month of 
 October. 
 
 On the subject of remedies, I may remark that these Cucumber-beetles 
 being very shy and timorous, any new and unusual appearances about the 
 cucumber hills may cause them to forsake them in some instances, when 
 in others they will have no effect. Hence many of the remedies which 
 have been proposed are of but slight efficacy and wholly unreliable, such 
 as ducting the plants with ashes, snuff, plaster, &c. A few years since I 
 noticed the following statement in one of our most respectable agricultural 
 periodicals: “Charcoal a cure for the striped bug. It may be implicitly 
 depended upon. Dust it on from a sieve or coal sifter. If the raius wash 
 it off, put it on again. We have used soot with good effect, but recom¬ 
 mend charcoal dust on the strength of the most reliable personal testimony. 
 There is no humbug in it.” As I had just then discovered that my vines 
 were invaded by the Cucumber-beetle, I resolved to test the efficacy of this 
 substance, and some other remedies. The history of the experiments thus 
 made are briefly stated in my notes, as follow's: 
 
 “June 16th. I dust powdered charcoal thickly over a hill of cucumbers, 
 a hill of squashes and a hill of citrons. Another hill of squashes I turn 
 up the leaves and dust their undersides with all the charcoal powder their 
 hairs will hold. 
 
 I dust powdered soot thickly on another citron and a squash hill. 
 
 I dust ashes on another hill of cucumbers, all that will adhere to the 
 hairs on the under and upper surfaces of the leaves and on the stalks. 
 
 I put a box (open at the bottom and top) around a cucumber hill and 
 another around a squash hill — to observe which of these several measures 
 is the most efficacious. Other hills are remaining without anything ap¬ 
 plied to them. 
 
 June 11th. On going to the patch of vines at noon, I find the beetles as 
 numerous on the hills dusted with charcoal and with soot as on those not 
 dusted. I notice one beetle crocked over as black as any son of Vulcan, 
 and still wallowing and crowding around upon a leaf thickly covered with 
 the charcoal dust. The hill on which I dusted the underside of the leaves 
 appears to be no better protected thereby than the others. No beetles were 
 on the hill dusted with ashes. One was found in one of the boxes. 
 
 June 18th. The hills dusted with charcoal and with soot continue to 
 have several beetles upon them, and two were on that dusted with ashes. 
 The boxes certainly are the most efficacious, there being no beetles in them, 
 while but for them there would have been a dozen no doubt, on each of 
 these two hills.” 
 
 For more than twenty years I have made use of boxes, finding them a 
 most reliable protection against these beetles. And placed over the hills 
 soon after they are planted, whereby no beetles can get to the young plants 
 to drop their eggs around the roots, I am inclined to think will be one of 
 the most efficacious methods of saving the roots from being attacked by 
 the larvae. But our knowledge of these larvae is as yet too imperfect to 
 enable us to speak with confidence respecting measures for combatting 
 them. 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 THREE-LINED POTATO-BEETLE. ALARM FROM IT. 
 
 441 
 
 15, Three-lined Potato-beetle, Criocerix (Lema) trilineata, Olivier. (Cole- 
 
 optera. Crioceridm.) 
 
 Eating the leaves of the potato in July and August; small yellowish worms with black heads 
 and feet, in clusters on the underside of the leaves, wet and ooated over with slimy filth; 
 passing their pupa state under ground and producing oblong bright tawny yellow beetles a 
 quarter of an inch long and having three black stripes on their wing-oovers. 
 
 In the central parts of our State this past year (1864,) in the fore part 
 of July, public attention became directed to a worm which was discovered 
 eating the leaves of the potato vines. It was found to be quite common 
 all over the potato fields, and excited considerable alarm. Having never 
 been noticed before, it was thought to be a new enemy, which it was 
 greatly feared would multiply and seriously damage this important crop. 
 Accounts of it were published in some of the local newspapers, and a cor¬ 
 respondent of the Rural New Yorker having transmitted specimens of it 
 to that periodical, they were forwarded to me for information, coming to 
 hand July 17th. These specimens being of a soft worm, and pressed in a 
 paper envelope, wevo too distorted, dried and faded, to show definitely 
 what particular species they were. An inspection of them, fyowever, in 
 connection with the information gathered from an article in the Fulton 
 (Oswego' Co.) Patriot under date of July 13th—to the effect that these 
 potato worms resided on the underside of the leaves, and were “from a 
 fourth to a third of an inch long and an eighth of an inch thick, red orange 
 with a black head and six black legs on the forward half of the body”— 
 led me to infer with considerable confidence that they were the larva: of 
 the Three-lined Potato-beetle, which occurs, more or less common every 
 year, in the potato fields all over our country; though they might perhaps 
 be the similarly shaped and colored larvae of the fearfully destructive Ten- 
 lined Potato-beetle of the West, newly introduced into our State in some 
 unknown manner. An article embodying these facts and giving such a 
 description of these two insects as would enable any one having either of 
 them before him, to determine which species it was, was thereupon pub. 
 lished in the' Rural New Yorker. The public anxiety appeared to be imme¬ 
 diately abated thereby, as I have heard nothing further of these worms. 
 
 Of the injurious insects which are constantly present in our potato fields, 
 this Three-lined Potato-beetle is the most important. Living as it does, at 
 the expense of one of our most valuable field crops, its history and habits 
 merit to be generally known, although fortunately for us it never becomes 
 so greatly multiplied as to occasion any serious injury. 
 
 These beetles begin to be seen abroad each year about the middle of 
 May. Dr. Harris states (Treatise, 2d ed., p. 105) that the larvae in autumn 
 go into the ground and there remain during the winter in their pupa state, 
 to give out the perfect insects the following spring. But, as I have found 
 these beetles torpid under boards lying on the surface of the ground, as 
 early as the 201 li of April, 1 infer that it is in their perfect state that they 
 pass the winter, like the Asparagus-beetle and other kindred species. The 
 first individuals which 1 have met with abroad, in different years, have 
 been upon the leaves of bushes and trees in the woods, from which it 
 
442 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 POTATO-BEETLE. 1T3 EGGS. ITS LARVA. 
 
 would appear that they resort to the forests for a more secure shelter 
 during the winter than they are able to find in the open fields. For a few 
 weeks at the commencement of the season they sustain themselves upon 
 whatever vegetation they meet with that is most palatable to them. About 
 the middle of June, when the potato tops are become considerably ad¬ 
 vanced, they begin to gather upon them, and there take up their abode for 
 the remainder of the season, feeding upon the leaves and eating large 
 irregular holes in them, and ere long commencing to drop their eggs upon 
 them. 
 
 The Eggs are of an oval form with the ends bluntly rounded. They are 
 four hundredths of an inch long and scarcely half as thick; of a vitelline or 
 golden yellow color, their upper end often showing a brown stain. They 
 are smooth and glossy, being, for some time after they are deposited, coated 
 over with a glutinous fluid, whereby they adhere to any smooth surface and 
 leave a yellow stain upon it. They occur in clusters of some six to ten in 
 number, placed irregularly, sometimes on the upper but oftener on the under 
 side of the leaf, loosely adhering thereto and to each other by the glutinous 
 fluid just mentioned, which, becoming dried before they hatch, glues them 
 firmly in their several positions. 1 have sometimes met with clusters in 
 which several of the eggs were destroyed, only their transparent shells 
 remaining, empty and shrunken, their conteuts having been sucked out, no 
 doubt, by the larvae of some of the Golden-eyed flics (Ghrysopa genus,) which 
 flies are frequently met with in potato fields. 
 
 The eggs have been stated to hatch in about a fortnight, the larvae from 
 them taking up their residence on the underside of the leaf where they will 
 be hid from view and shaded from the rays of the sun. They here com¬ 
 mence feeding, usually at the apex of the leaf, but sometimes on one side. 
 When engaged in feeding they stand regularly in a row, side by side, with 
 their heads at the edge of the leaf. When their meal is finished they draw 
 slightly back and are then huddled irregularly together. When they have 
 consumed a fourth part of the leaf or thereabouts, they commonly migrate 
 to another part of the stalk, taking up their abode on a leaf there, until 
 they have consumed a similar portion of it. As they approach maturity 
 they are less inclined to remain together in society, many of the larger 
 worms being met with scattered about singly, whilst others are found 
 associated, two, three or more together. And they now remain upon a 
 particular leaf-stalk, frequently until they have consumed all or nbarly all 
 of the foliage growing from it. 
 
 The Larvae are soft slug-like worms rf an oval form, thickest back of the 
 middle and very convex on the back. They are transversely wrinkled from 
 impressed lines at the sutures and a more shallow impression on the middle 
 of each ring; and low down on the sides arc rounded tubercular elevations 
 which have a minute beard. When young they are of an obscure olive 
 yellow color, becoming brighter yellow as they approach maturity, a faint 
 stripe low down on each side and embracing the breathing pores being 
 clearer yellow than any other part of the surface. They are glossy and 
 shining, more or less, as their bodies are wet or dry. Along the middle of 
 the back is a black pulsating line, with a yellow stripe bordering it on 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 443 
 
 POTATO-BEETLE. LARVjE COVERED WITH FILTII. 
 
 each side, and next to these stripes a dusky cloudiness is perceptible, form¬ 
 ing a broad stripe upon each side, at least on the anterior part of the body. 
 The head is about as broad as the first ring of tho body, from which it is 
 separated by a deep and widely constricted neck. It is flattened-spheiical, 
 smooth and polished, and of a coal black color. The first ring is black 
 above, cut across in the middle by a pale longitudinal line. The three 
 pairs of legs are glossy black, arid are placed anteriorly, on the three first 
 rings. Back of these, on the underside of each of the other rings of the 
 body are two retractile tubercles serving as pro-legs. When fully grown 
 the larva is over three-tenths of an inch in length, and is twice or thrice as 
 long as wide, its dimensions varying very considerably as it is elongated 
 and in motion or contracted and at rest. 
 
 These larvae are commonly wetted over with a glutinous fluid which is 
 copiously secreted from their skin. The most singular trait in their econ¬ 
 omy, however, is their habit of covering themselves with their excrement. 
 The orifice from which this excretion is voided, instead of being placed at 
 the tip of the last ring of the body as iaall other insects, opens upon the 
 upper side of this ring, forward of the tip, and in a direction to project the 
 feculent matter forward upon the surface of the back. And the glutinous 
 fluid with which the skin is wetted holds this feculent matter to the back, 
 and at the same time prevents its drying and adhering to the skin. Thus 
 it is by degrees pushed forward and molded to the convex surface of the 
 back untif it nearly covers it, like the shell with which the tortoise is 
 covered. The larva is able to cast off this covering, at will, and renew it 
 again in a few hours’time; and these castoff masses of excrement may 
 frequently be noticed upon the potato leaves. The clusters of these worms 
 being so wet and slimy and coated over as they arc with this excrement 
 present a most filthy and disgusting appearance. 
 
 Several of the foreign species of this genus, when in their larva state, 
 have this same habit of covering their backs with a layer of slimy excre¬ 
 ment. For what purpose do they coat themselves in this nasty manner ? 
 Writers generally have supposed it was to protect their soft tender bodies 
 from the heat of the sun. This idea is naturally suggested horn seeing 
 these larva} as we so frequently do, upon clear summer days when the 
 warmth is quite oppressive, the wet with which they are coveiod gi\ing 
 them an aspect of such refreshing coolness. But there is reason to distrust 
 the correctness of this opinion. These larvse on the potato vines aie always 
 stationed on the underside of the leaves where they are shaded from tho 
 direct rays of tho sun, and are elevated but a foot or two from the eaith, 
 the humidity arising from which keeps the atmosphere constantly cool down 
 among the mass of foliage where they reside. On cool cloudy days they 
 cover themselves with this excrement the same as on hot sunshiny dajs. 
 Upon a cloudy day in July, when a north wind had reduced tho temper atuie 
 below sixty degrees, I removed its coat lrom one ol these larvae, atrd 
 although there was no sunshine and no warmth or dryness to the atmosphere 
 to induce it to renew its coat, it nevertheless did renew it, as I found on 
 returning to it some time afterwards. Moreover, upon some of the hottest 
 days of summer, when they should most need this protection, one and 
 
444 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 POTATO-BEETLE. ITS PUPA. 
 
 another of these larva; may be seen with their skins dry and destitute of 
 this coating', yet without manifesting any uneasiness or discomfort from 
 the privation. These considerations induce us to regard this opinion as 
 not being well founded. Another supposition of authors, namely, that this 
 coating serves to protect these larvae from being devoured by birds, is prob¬ 
 ably correct, as no bird will be apt to relish a worm which is thus covered 
 with filth. 
 
 The larva having attained its growth, it descends into the ground to 
 repose during its pupa state, and there forms for itself a small oval cell, 
 the walls of which are made firm and smooth by being wetted and plais- 
 tered over with a'white frothy substance which the worm'ejects from its 
 mouth. A full grown larva which I had inclosed in a small box was dis¬ 
 covered the next day to have cast off its wet filthy coat, and to have com¬ 
 menced inclosing itself in a cocoon, which it was forming upon the bottom 
 of the box, from white froth which it was giving out copiously from its 
 mouth. This froth was full of little air bubbles at the place where it had 
 just then been emitted, but elsewhere it had become more dried and con¬ 
 densed, resembling the pulp of paper. Herewith the worm had then built 
 a wall around itself, in the form of an oval ring, about the tenth of art- 
 inch in height. Two days after it was found to have completed its 
 cocoon, which was of an oval shape, measuring 0.35 by 0.20, its external 
 surface uneven, white, pliant and yielding, but afterwards becoming dry 
 and hard. 
 
 I have not fed and reared this insect to observe with accuracy the time 
 it requires to pass through its several forms and complete its growth. Dr. 
 Harris states that the eggs arc about a fortnight in hatching, that the 
 larva gets its growth in about another fortnight, and that it remains a fort¬ 
 night more in its pupa state. As these are the same periods which arc 
 given in books as occupied bj'the European Crioceris merdigera in obtain¬ 
 ing its growth, we are in doubt whether Dr. Harris’s statements arc made 
 from actual observation or are inferences derived from the analogy furnished 
 by that species. 
 
 The insect at length emerges from the ground in its perfect form, a 
 totally different creature in every respect from what it has previously 
 been, save only that it still continues to subsist upon the potato leaves. It 
 is now a bright shining, prettily colored beetle, so clean, so neat and tidy 
 in its appearance that it would not be suspected of having been such a 
 filthy, groveling, repulsive creature as it was in the days of its youth. On 
 cloudy, cool days, these beetles remain at rest and concealed from view 
 down among the foliage of the potato fields. It is on pleasant, sunshiny 
 days that they are observed, standing here and there upon the leaves. 
 They are shy and timorous, taking wing as you come near them, and 
 flying a few yards away and again alighting. When annoyed or in dis¬ 
 tress, they make a peculiar creaking sound, by rubbing the tip of the 
 abdomen briskly up and down against the hind end of the closed wing- 
 covers. , 
 
 It has been reported that there are two generations of these insects 
 annually, the beetles coining abroad early in June and again towards the 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 4,45 
 
 POTATO-BEETLE. ITS NAME. BEETLE DESCRIBED. 
 
 end of July and early in August. But they are certainly present in the 
 potatb fields throughout the season, as are also their larvae, at all the dif¬ 
 ferent stages of their growth. * It is evident, therefore, that they are not 
 periodical, but are continuously coming forth, one after another, and 
 depositing their eggs, from the commencement of their operations in June 
 until the chilly nights of autumn suspend their work. 
 
 This insect is closely related to the AsparagusJbeetle, the history of 
 which was given in my Eighth Report. And I have deemed it unnecessary 
 to present figures of this beetle and its larva, as they would be little else 
 than repetitions of the illustrations heretofore given of that insect. 
 
 This Potato-beetle received its scientific name, Grioceris trilineata, up¬ 
 wards of sixty years since, from M. Olivier, Who described it, first in the 
 Encyclopedic Methodique, vol. v, p. 203, and subsequently in his Entomo- 
 logie, vol. vi, p. 139. This celebrated author appears to have been over¬ 
 looked by Mr. Say, who has redescribed this species under the name 
 trivittata ( Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci., vol. iii, p. 429). And M. Chevrolat has 
 still later described one of its varieties as a distinct species, under the 
 name imviaculicollis. 
 
 This Beetle measures a quarter of an inch in length, the female being 
 usually a trifle larger than the male. It is oblong, being rather more than 
 twice as long as wide. It is convex above and beneath, with its opposite 
 sides parallel and the thorax 'a third narrower than the abdomen and wing 
 covers. It is glossy and shining, of a bright, tawny, yellowish red color, 
 varied in places with black. The head across the eyes is almost as wide 
 as the thorax. It has a transverse groove immediately back of the eyes, 
 and another between the eyes above the base of the antennae, and the 
 front between these grooves is marked by three impressed longitudinal 
 lines. The face between and below the antennae is often paler yellow and 
 is finely punctured and bearded with short hairs inclining downward. The 
 eyes are protuberant and black, and have a conspicuous notch on their fore 
 sides. The antennae are about half as long as the body, thicker towards 
 their tips, eleven-jointed, the joints very distinct, longer than thick, widen¬ 
 ing towards their tips, where they are furnished with a crown of short 
 minute hairs. They are opake brownish black, with the three basal joints 
 shining, the first joint being thicker than the following ones, globular 
 and orange red. The second joint is smallest and shaped like a top. 
 The apical joints are nearly cylindrical, the last one being at its tip ab¬ 
 ruptly tapered to a blunt point. The thorax is as wide as long. Its sides 
 have a strong notch or constriction in the middle, forward of which they 
 are regularly rounded, and back of which they are widened to the base. On 
 the back are some scattered punctures, and towards the base is a shallow 
 transverse groove, having in its middle a large impressed puncture. On 
 each side of the back slightly forward of the middle is a black dot, usually 
 of a large size but sometimes small. The scutel is quite small and black. 
 The wing covers are lomon yellow and ornamented with three parallel black 
 stripes. The middle stripe is placed upon the suture'and gradually nar¬ 
 rows backward to a slender line, which ends before it quite reaches the 
 tip. The lateral stripes are broader, are placed slightly inside of the outer 
 
446 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 POTATO-BEETLE. ITS VARIETIES. ITS FOOD. REMEDIES. 
 
 edge, and terminate abruptly before they roach the margin. The wings 
 are hyaline and smoky. The underside is bright tawny yellowish-red with 
 a short black line on each side of the hind breast at the edge of the wing 
 covers. The breast and abdomen are minutely punctured and bearded with 
 short fine hairs. The thighs are of the same color as the underside of the 
 body, and are furnished with a few scattered hairs. The shanks are also 
 yellowish red on their bases and along their inner sides nearly to the tip, 
 the rest of their surface being black, and they are clothed with a fine dense 
 beard. The feet, too, are black with gray cushions on their soles. They 
 are four-jointed, the two first joints being triangular and the third deeply 
 divided into two lobes, between which is inserted the fourth joint, which is 
 polished, long and slender, thicker towards its end, where it terminates in 
 two short sharp-pointed claws. 
 
 Individuals of this species occur, which vary in some points from the 
 description now given. The most common variation is in the ground 
 color of the wing covers, which is frequently rich orange, only the outer 
 margin, including all below the lateral black stripes, being of the ordinary 
 pale lemon color. And in these instances there is a tinge of pale green¬ 
 ish-yellow along the edges of the black stripes. Though the variation 
 now spoken of is very manifest in the living insect, it disappears after 
 death, whereby it cannot be discovered in the dull and faded specimens of 
 the cabinet. 
 
 But the most important differences occur in the black dots upon the tho¬ 
 rax, which present us with the following varieties: 
 
 Variety a, immaculicollis, Chevrolat, having the thorax destitute of any 
 traces of the two black dots. 
 
 Variety b, unipunctala, having one of the thoracic dots present and the 
 other wholly obliterated. 
 
 Variety c, tripunctata, having an additional black dot, placed on the mid¬ 
 dle of the thorax in a line with the other two. 
 
 Of these varieties the first is rather common and the other two quite 
 rare. 
 
 These beetles are not limited to the potato, but are eqnally common upon 
 the stramonium and some of our other plants pertaining to the Natural 
 Order Soi.anace^e. Their yellow color and the three black stripes on their 
 wing covers give them a marked resemblance to the well known Cucumber- 
 beetle described in the preceding pages, which, however, is of a smaller 
 size and has the head black, whereby it is easily distinguished from this 
 its yellow-headed neighbor. 
 
 Although these beetles are more or less common every year in the potato 
 fields throughout the United States, we have never heard of an instance 
 where they have been multiplied to such an extent as to be severely inju¬ 
 rious to the crop. If they should anywhere occur in such force as to be 
 intolerably detrimental, their numbers may be readily diminished by pass¬ 
 ing along the rows of the potato vines and breaking off each leaf or leafless 
 stalk on which a cluster of the worms is present, dropping it into the fur¬ 
 row in a spot where the ground is firm and hard, and drawing the sole of 
 the boot over it, hereby crushing and destroying the filthy creatures. Dr. 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 447 
 
 HOP-APHIS. ITS DESTRUCTIVENESS• MALADIES OP THE HOP. 
 
 Harris suggests “ to brush them from the leaves into shallow vessels con¬ 
 taining a little salt and water or vinegar.” But, enveloped in slime and 
 filth as they are, upon leaves which are so pliant and yielding, swaying 
 aside on the slightest touch, it is quite impracticable to brush them off. 
 Even when a leaf is immersed and swashed about in a basin of salt and 
 water, diluted vinegar, or soap suds, I find they do not let go their hold, 
 and can only be detached from the leaf by forcibly crowding and wiping 
 them off against the brim of the basin. Even a feather dipped in coal oil 
 and touched to them is little if at all regarded by them, further than to 
 cause them to draw back and refrain from eating the leaf where it is wetted 
 by this acrid fluid. 
 
 16. Hop-aphis, Aphis Humuli, Schrank. (Ilomoptera Aphidae.*) 
 
 On the undorsido of the leaves of the hop, suoking thoir juicos; small pale yellowish-green 
 plant lice, sometimes in myriads, oovering the uppor surface of the leaves with their honey- 
 dew,> which afterwards beoomes changed to a sooty black substance termed the black blight. 
 
 The insect which the past season attracted the most notice and did the 
 most damage in our State, was the aphis or plant-louse upon the hops. Al¬ 
 though the hop has been growing, both wild and cultivated, in this country, 
 from time immemorial, I am not aware that this enemy has ever attacked or 
 been observed upon it, until two summers ago, when it suddenly made its 
 appearance in excessive numbers ; and in consequence ol its advent, the two 
 past years have been the most disastrous to the extensive hop growers in the 
 central section of our State, which they have ever experienced. In some 
 yards the hops have not been picked, and in other yards a portion of those 
 that have been gathered, it is said ought never to have been dried and 
 put up for market, they are so small and worthless ; whilst the best that have 
 been grown are of an inferior quality, the bitter principle, on which their 
 value depends, being deficient, according to the published reports, to the ex¬ 
 tent of from 15 to 25 per cent. 
 
 The newspapers and agricultural periodicals have abounded with notices 
 of this failure of the hop crop. From the extended accounts which some of 
 these publications have given, it would appear that there are three different 
 maladies with which the liop vines have recently become affected, namely, the 
 aphis or plant-lice, the honey dew, and the black blight. The plant-lice are 
 soft pale yellowish-green insects, not so large as the head of a pin, which remain 
 stationary upon the under sides of the leaves, crowded together and wholly 
 covering the surface. The honey dew appears on the upper surface of the 
 leaves, as a shining, clear and transparent fluid, sticky like honey smeared over 
 the Surface. The black blight also occurs on the upper sides of the leaves, 
 and resembles coal dust sifted upon and adhering firmly to them, or the leaves 
 look as though they had been held in the smoke of a chimney until they had 
 become blackened over with soot. This black blight is deemed to be a kind 
 of fungus growing from the leaves, analagous to the rust and smut in grain, 
 and it is stated that in some hop yards sulphur has been dusted over the 
 loaves to kill or cheek its growth, but without having the slighest effect upon 
 it. 
 
 Which of these maladies is the most pernicious, it would he difficult to 
 
,448 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OP NEW YORK 
 
 nOP-APUIS. HONEY DEW AND BLACK BLIGHT. HOW PRODUCED. 
 
 judge from the published accounts, one writer seeming to regard, the aphis 
 as the principal evil, whilst another wholly ignores this insect and dwells 
 upon thd black blight as being the cause of the failure of the crop. And 
 it is not a little amusing to observe how very wise the reporters to some of 
 the newspapers appear in giving an account of these diseases, and what a dis¬ 
 play of scientific lore they make, when th^ir statements betray to us the fact 
 that they have not the first correct idea upon the subject on which they are 
 writing. 
 
 The truth is, these three maladies, about one and another of which so much 
 has been said, are all one thing—differing merely as cause and effect. If there 
 were no lice on the hops there, would be no honey dew an<j no black blight. 
 I am aware the hop growers will be much surprised at this statement, and 
 will scarcely credit it, they have been so accustomed to regard these things 
 as distinct from and in no wise connected with each other—deeming the 
 honey dew to be a fluid which has exuded from the leaves in consequence of 
 some disease therein, and the black blight to be, as already stated, a kind of 
 fungus growing from the leaves, whilst the plant-lice, occuring only oh the 
 opposite or under side of the leaves, appear to be wholly separated from these 
 substances upon their upper surface. But I am perfectly assured of the cor¬ 
 rectness of what I say, and can produce specimens which will demonstrate 
 that I am correct. I regret that this subject did not occur to my mind last 
 summer, or I would have such specimens on exhibition at this time. Upon 
 the first opportunity, I will procure and place in the Museum of our Society, 
 specimens of leaves showing this honey dew upon them, and others showing the 
 black blight; and by the side of these leaves I will place white paste-board 
 cards having the same honey dew and the same black blight upon them—thus 
 demonstrating that these substances do not exude and grow from the leaves 
 unless they also exude and grow from the paste-board cards. 
 
 I will now briefly explain how these two substances come upon the leaves. 
 
 Each aphis has two little horns projecting from the hind part of its back, 
 which horns are termed the honey tubes From these tubes the fluid called 
 honey dew is ejected, in the form of minute drops, like particles of dew, 
 which falling upon the leaves beneath thorn, the upper surface of the leaves 
 becomes coated over with this fluid, more or less copiously as the Aphides 
 producing it are more or less numerous. And now, this deposit of honey 
 dew being exposed to the action of the atmosphere, and alternately moistened 
 by the dews at night and dried by.the sun by day, is gradually decomposed, 
 changing from a clear, shining, transparent fluid, to an opake, black substance 
 resembling soot, and it is then the black blight. In this simple manner do 
 we account for and explain these phenomena—these three important diseases 
 of the hop, about which so much has been said and such erudition has been 
 displayed by some pf the writers in our newspapers. 
 
 1 These same phenomena, called honey dew and black blight, are not pecu¬ 
 liar to the hop, but occur on other kinds of vegetation when infested by plant- 
 lice; and an abundance of authority will substantiate my statement that this 
 honey dew is caused by these insects. But I find no allusion to the black 
 blight in any author, aud what I state of that is the result of my own observa- 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 449 
 
 HOP-APniS. INFLUENCE OF THE WEATHER IN PRODUCING IT. 
 
 tions. It is proper, therefore, that I here adduce some of the evidence 
 which I have, upon this particular point. 
 
 It is over twenty years ago that I first noticed this blackness as being occa¬ 
 sioned by plant-lice. Among several willow trees by the side of a stream 
 near my residence, there was one so thronged with the Willow-aphis that I 
 \tant several times to that tree to contemplate the spectacle which these 
 insects presented. And all through the following winter, no person passing 
 within sight of that tree could fail of noticing the blackness of its trunk and 
 limbs, it being the more remarkable as none of the other willow trees around 
 it had any tinge of this color. The thought thereupon became impressed 
 upon my mind, that it was the plant-lice with which this tree had been so 
 overrun the preceding summer, which had in some way imparted this black¬ 
 ness to its bark. Two or three winters afterwards, I noticed the same black¬ 
 ened appearance to a pine tree, which tree I knew had been thronged with 
 Aphides the summer before. I need not specify the several other instances 
 of this phenomenon which I have noticed. Several years since, when T was 
 investigating the aphis of the apple tree, I discovered that, in addition to the 
 bark of the trees, the leaves also acquired this sooty appearance from these 
 insects; and then upon giving this subject a particular examination, I became 
 assured that this black substance was merely the honey dew in a decomposed 
 state. 
 
 Some writers have remarked that dry weather causes the several kinds of 
 plant-lice to increase and become pests to the different species pf vegetation 
 which they respectively inhabit; and my own observations incline me to regard 
 this remark as being correct. During the dry period in June which frequently 
 succeeds the spring rains, I have in particular years noticed these insects as 
 occurring in unusual numbers, whereupon I have apprehended that, having 
 acquired such a start so early in the season, they would prove to be the most 
 pernicious insects of the year; but rainy weather coming on after this, they 
 have seemed thereupon to decline and have ceased to attract further attention. 
 Hence I think it true as a general rule, that dry weather favors and wet 
 weather retards their increase. And at first thought, this view is further 
 strengthened by the fact that this aphis upon the hops was so excessively 
 numerous the past summer, when we experienced a drouth of such protracted 
 length and severity. But, on the other hand, these insects were similarly 
 numerous the year before, when the summer was unusually wet. We are thus 
 assured there is some influence more potent than the hygrometric state of the 
 atmosphere, which has brought them forth in such hosts upon the hops. F. 
 W. Dogget, Esq., read a paper “Upon the weather in connection with Aphis 
 Blight and the growth of Hops,” before the London Meteorological Society, 
 Nov. 28, 1854, a report of which we meet with in the Gardener’s Chronicle of 
 that year, p. 820. Mr. Dogget found, on comparing the fall of rain each 
 month for a period of thirty-eight years, that “ the years in which an excess of 
 rain had fallen in or about the three mouths ending in September of the pre¬ 
 vious year —the three following months and the March following being both 
 comparatively deficient in rain — were followed by a short crop of hops, arising 
 from the Aphis blight; and on the contrary, when the quarter ending Septem- 
 [Ag. Trans.] - 29 
 
450 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 HOP-APHIS. LONG KNOWN IN EUROPE. PI.IES DESCRIBED. 
 
 ber of the previous year had been dry, an average or large crop had been 
 grown. And when the quarter ending September had been wet and the 
 December quarter very wet, a like result had followed.” This, however, was 
 found to be modified by the temperature. “When the weather of the previous 
 year has been such as to indicate a blight, there may be partial recovery, if 
 Oie temperature succeeding should be hot,”—“with few exceptions, all the 
 small crops were grown in years in which the temperature of the three summer 
 months was below the average, and the large crops were produced in years in 
 which the temperature of the like period was high.” 
 
 Pqrhaps in no other group or family of insects are the different species so 
 very closely akin to each other as in this of the Aphides. So nearly identical 
 are most of them, both in their appearance and habits, that we know them to 
 be distinct species only from the fact that they inhabit different plants, each 
 one being unable to sustain itself upon any other than the plant to which it 
 belongs. Being thus intimately related, we should confidently expect that the 
 same atmospherical or other influence which causes one species to suddenly 
 multiply and become extremely numerous, would operate upon and similarly 
 affect the other species also. But this is by no means the case. As every one 
 will remember, in the summer of 1861, all our fields of grain suddenly became 
 so thronged with the Grain-aphis as to throw the whole country into alarm. 
 Why did not the same cause which brought that insect upon us in such a re¬ 
 markable manner, operate also to bring this insect upon the hops at that time, 
 instead of two years later ? Or, if this hop insect was not then in our country, 
 when it did appear in such vast numbers two years ago, why was not the same 
 influence which occasioned its surprising multiplication then, felt also by the 
 Grain-aphis, causing it to re-appear in our grain fields ? The two insects be¬ 
 ing so intimately related, it is a mystery beyond the reach of human compre¬ 
 hension, how some hidden influence comes to operate upon the one, causing it 
 to multiply and increase so astonishingly, whilst the other remains passive and 
 not in the least affected by it. 
 
 This insect is not limited to the extensive hop plantations in the central 
 parts of our State, but appears to have everywhere overrun the hop vines, both 
 wild and cultivated. It was abundant the past summer in my own neighbor¬ 
 hood, and specimens were also sent me from St. Lawrenco county, whereby we 
 know that its range extends to the eastern and northern confines of the State, 
 but farther than this we do not at present possess any definite information. 
 
 This aphis appears to be identical with that which has long been known in 
 Europe as the worst enemy to the hop, and which sixty-five years ago received 
 its scientific name, Aphis Humuli or the Hop-aphis, from the German natu¬ 
 ralist Schrank (Fauna Boica, vol. ii, p. 110.) 
 
 The young lice, or “ nits,” are of a watery yellowish-white color with black 
 eyes. As they arrive at maturity they acquire a green hue. They moult a 
 few times, whilst attaining their growth, and their white cast skins are nume¬ 
 rous, adhering to the hop leavos and intermixed with the honey dew. 
 
 The flies or perfectly formed winged lice are green with tho back of the 
 thorax and the breast black. The abdomen or hind body has black bands upon 
 the back and along each side is one or two rows of black dots. Tho legs are 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 451 
 
 hop-aphis. its anhitai. career. 
 
 pale yellowish, with the feet and the ends of the thighs and of the shanks black. 
 The antennae nearly equal the body in length and are black except towards 
 their bases. The honey tubes are rather long, slender, and blackish towards 
 their tips. The wings are transparent, with the stigma of a greenish gray 
 color and the veins brown. 
 
 Messrs. Kirby and Spence, in their Introduction to Entomology (American 
 edition, p. 135,) speqk of the damage inflicted by this insect as follows: 
 "Upon the presence or absence of Aphides, the crop of every year depends; 
 so that the hop-grower is wholly at the mercy of these insects. They are the 
 barometer that indicates the rise and fall of his wealth, as of a very important 
 branch of tjie revenue, the difference in the amount of the duty on hops lieing 
 often as much as £200,000 per annum, more or less, in proportion as this 
 fly prevails or the contrary.” This statement forcibly shows what a direct 
 interest our own government has in patronizing these investigations in which 
 I am employed—this one little insect, in years when it is numerous, taking 
 from the revenue of the British government half a million of dollars ! 
 
 My own researches upon this insect are obviously too limited as yet, to 
 enable me to give such a particular account of its habits and operations, as 
 its importance merits. I therefore present the following history of the annual 
 career which it runs, from an admirable article on the Hop, by J. M. Paine, 
 Esq., in Morton’s Cyclopedia of Agriculture, vol. ii, p. 55. 
 
 “The great destroyers of the hop crop, the Aphides, or long-winged flies, 
 usually make their first appearance about the middle of May ; fresh detach¬ 
 ments often follow up their first incursion, throughout the whole summer.— 
 Whence they come is at present a mystery ; for, contrary to the vulgar opin¬ 
 ion, the insects in the spring are viviparous ; but if in the autumn visitation, 
 when the flies are very different in external appearance, there is a change also 
 in their economy, and they become oviparous, some of the existing difficulties 
 will be cleared up, and this would account for certain phenomena, and their 
 consequences, which we have often witnessed, but could not explain, excepting 
 on this hypothesis. 
 
 “ As soon as the aphides settle upon the hops, they suck the under side of 
 the leaves, and immediately deposit their young — the aphis louse. The lice, 
 too, are viviparous, and they have the singular faculty of propagating their 
 species within a few hours after their birth ; and in this manner many genera¬ 
 tions aro produced without the intervention of the fully formed fly ; indeed up¬ 
 on one hill of hops millions of lice are born and die, neither parents nor pro¬ 
 geny having ever attained the condition of a perfect insect. 
 
 1 ‘ When the first attack of these flies upon the hops is severe and early in 
 the season, the growth of the plant is commonly stopped in the course of three 
 or four weeks. If the attack be late — that is about midsummer, or after¬ 
 wards, — the vine has then attained so much strength that it struggles on 
 against the blight to its disadvantage, and the result is a total failure of the 
 cro P last; for the leaves fall off, and the fruit branches being already form- 
 ad, there is no chance of recovery. At this time, and in this condition, the 
 stench from the hop plantations is most offensive. In an early blight, how- 
 ev er, we have many instances recorded of extraordinary recoveries ; for these 
 •Meets are remarkably suseeptiblo of atmospherical and electrical changes, 
 
452 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OP NEW YORK 
 
 HOP-APniS. DESTROYED BY OTHER INSECTS. 
 
 and on a sudden alteration of the weather we have known them perish by myr¬ 
 iads in a night. This was especially exemplified in the Farnham district, 
 about the middle of June 184G, which suddenly recovered from a most severe 
 attack, and afterwards produced the largest crop ever known in that quarter. 
 The condition of the plant, therefore, is never hopeless, however severe the 
 attack may be, provided there is time for it to put forth its lateral or fructify¬ 
 ing branches. We know also several instances in East Kent which occurred in 
 the same year, when the planters sold their own growths* on the poles at a few 
 shillings per acre, and these same plantations so far recovered that many of 
 them afterwards produced a crop worth from thirty to fifty pounds per acre. 
 
 ‘ ‘ The progress and usual termination of the aphis blight may be thus de¬ 
 scribed. The flies, as before remarked, on their first arrival, immediately 
 suck the under side of the upper small leaves of the bine, and thus they there 
 deposit their young, upon the most succulent part of the plant. The multipli¬ 
 cation of the lice is so rapid, that the leaves become so thickly covered as 
 scarcely to allow a pin to be thrust between them. They quickly abstract the 
 juices of the bine, so that the leaves assume a sickly brown hue, and curl up, 
 and the bine itself ceases to grow and falls from the pole, the lice continuing 
 till they perish for want of food; and thus, without the intervention of a 
 favorable change, the crop is destroyed, and the grower may often consider 
 himself as fortunate if the plant recovers a due amount of vitality to produce a 
 crop in the following year, for occasionally the hills are killed by the severity 
 of the attack. This description of course, applies only to the most severe and 
 unusual blights.” 
 
 The Aphides are the most evanescent of all insects. They spring up 
 suddenly, in such immense numbers as to threaten the utter destruction of 
 the vegetation on which they subsist, and ere long they vanish with equal 
 suddenness—sometimes continuing but a few weeks, and rarely remaining 
 in force longer than through one year. It thus appears, that, so long as 
 the atmospherical or other influence which favors their increase, continues 
 to operate upon them, they thrive and prosper, and when this influence 
 passes away they rapidly decline. 
 
 The decline and disappearance of these plant-lice is greatly expedited by 
 other insects which destroy them; and in many instances it appears to be 
 to these destroyers rather than to any atmospherical change, that the vege¬ 
 tation on which they abound becomes so suddenly released from them. No 
 other tribe of insects has so many enemies of its own class as the plant- 
 lice. The different species of Coccinella or lady-bugs which are every¬ 
 where so common, live exclusively upon the Aphides, as do also the larvas 
 of the two-winged Syrphus flies and the four-winged Golden-eyed flies. 
 Snperadded to these destroyers the plant lice also have their internal para¬ 
 sites — exceedingly minute worms or maggots residing within their bodies 
 and feeding upon till they kill them. Thus, whenever a tree or shrub 
 becomes thronged with plant-lice, these destroyers gather among and 
 around them, in rapidly augmenting numbers, and subsist upon them until 
 they have wholly exterminated them. Kirby and Spence (page 187) state 
 that in the year 1807 the sea shore at Brighton and all the watering places 
 on the south coast of England, was literally covered with lady-bugs, to the 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 453 
 
 BOP-APHIS. BIRDS DESTROYING IT. OTHER REMEDIES. , 
 
 great surprise, and even alarm, of the inhabitants, who were ignorant that 
 their little visitors were emigrants from the neighboring hop-grounds, 
 where each had slain his thousands and tens of thousands of the aphis. 
 
 These several kinds of destroyers of the plant lice were everywhere com¬ 
 mon upon the hop vines the past summer. I believe that in every instance 
 in which leaves with the lice upon them were sent me by correspondents, 
 
 I found one or more of these destoyers also upon the leaves; and in one 
 box that came to me, not one of the lice was remaining, all having been 
 devoured by several of these enemies which had happened to be inclosed 
 in the box. These destroyers having been so common, it is quite probable 
 that they have now subdued these lice to such an extent that the coming 
 season the crop will be much less if at all damaged by them. 
 
 One of our most intelligent'and successful hop growers, F. W. Collins, 
 Esq., Morris, Otsego Co., informs me that he has five acres planted to hops. 
 In 1863 the aphis appeared in his vicinity in such prodigious numbers and 
 with such disastrous effect, that some of the yards around him were not 
 picked and the best yards were much injured. But he had an excellent 
 crop. And last summer, although the severe drouth diminished the yield 
 of his vines, the quality of his crop was excellent whilst that of neighbor¬ 
 ing yards was poor. His success these two disastrous years, he is per¬ 
 fectly assured was due to birds. A large flock of barn swallows, to the 
 number of several hundreds, have their residence near his hop yard. These 
 swallows were flying about the vines continually. It could have been 
 nothing but these insects that attracted them there. And by feeding freely 
 upon them, as he is sure they did, they kept them so thinned and limited 
 in number, that his crop has escaped injury. 
 
 It is of great importance that we should have some remedy, whereby, 
 when these insects do fall upon the hop vines in such myriads as they 
 have done the past two years, we may be able to promptly destroy them. 
 
 As the lice remain stationary upon the undersides of the leaves and are 
 so very tender and delicate that the slightest pressure suffices to crush and 
 kill them, Mr. Kirby recommends to take the leaf between the thumb and 
 finger, and move the finger so as to gently rub over the under surface of 
 the leaf, whereby every aphis upon it will be destroyed. He thinks women 
 and children can be employed for a small compensation to do this work, 
 taking every leaf in succession between the thumb and finger, and thus 
 wholly ridding the vines from these vermin. But we all know it will be an 
 immense labor to thus take hold of every infested leaf upon the vines occupy¬ 
 ing whole acres of ground. Many of the leaves, too, are quite large, being 
 five or six inches broad, and the finger is but three inches long. It will there¬ 
 fore require one hand to hold the leaf steady, whilst the thumb and finger 
 of the other are drawn several times along it, mowing down the vermin 
 hy successive swaths. Moreover, the veins on the underside of these large 
 ■loaves are studded with prickles, whereby I doubt if a dozen leaves can 
 thus be rubbed over before the skin of the finger will be cut through to the 
 quick. I need not specify other obstacles which occur to my mind, all con¬ 
 curring to convince me that this proposed remedy, of the success of which 
 Mr. Kirby is quite sanguine, is wholly impracticable. 
 
454 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 BARBERRY^-APHIS. ACCOUNT OP THE BARBERRY SHRUB. 
 
 Washing and syringing the plants with strong soap suds has been often 
 recommended for destroying the aphis upon them. I have recently been 
 experimenting with this remedy, upon the plant lice which so bady infest 
 the beautiful verbenas of our Flower Gardens, and I find it to be of but 
 partial efficacy. It only kills the young, tender lice; those which are ma¬ 
 ture are so robust that they are not destroyed, even though the infested 
 stems and leaves are immersed in a strong solution of soap. 
 
 There is one remedy, and one only, which we know to be efficacious and 
 perfectly sure for destroying the different species of plant-lice. This is the 
 smoke of tobacco. It operates like a charm. It never fails. But to apply 
 it, it is necessary to place a box or barrel over the plant, burning the 
 tobacco in a cup underneath, until its smoke has filled the inclosed space 
 and penetrated all the interstices between the leaves. Hereby the rose 
 bushes and other shrubs and plants in our gardens are with ease wholly 
 cleansed from these vermin. To render it available for destroying these 
 insects upon the hops, probably a piece of canvass or other large cloth can 
 be thrown over them or some other apparatus devised whereby they can be 
 fumigated for a few moments in the same thorough manner. 
 
 17 . Barberry-aphis, Aphis Berberidis, Kalt. (Homoptera. Aphid®.) 
 
 On the underside of the leares of the barberry, through the summer, clusters of pale yellow 
 and green plant-lice, each marked on its back with a black or dark green elliptie ring. 
 
 The barberry shrub (Berberis vulgaris, Linn.) is currently regarded as a 
 native of the northern hemisphere in both the eastern and western conti¬ 
 nents. In Europe DeCandolle remarks of it that while in northern lati¬ 
 tudes it is a valley plant, at the south it becomes exclusively a mountaineer, 
 being on Mt. Etna the most alpine shrub of the sterile belt of that moun¬ 
 tain, at the height of 1,500 feet. Here in America it appears under 
 analogous circumstances, growing wild in the neighborhood of the sea 
 coast in New England and New York, and upon the Alleghany range of 
 mountains in Virginia and onwards south, although by some botanists the 
 mountain shrub has been regarded as a species distinct from that of the 
 sea coast. Spontaneously springing up so abundantly as it does in waste 
 grounds of the maritime districts here at the north, it iB rather remarkable 
 that we do not meet with it growing wild in the interior of the country 
 also, since at the south it occurs at a distance from the sea shore. But in 
 all the inland portion of our State we only see a bush of it here and there, 
 where it has been planted by the hand of man. Although it is justly 
 esteemed as an ornamental, and is of some account also as a useful shrub, 
 it is but little cultivated with us, the old prejudice that it blasts any grain 
 which is growing near it, causing it to be distrusted and shunned. We 
 therefore only meet with examples of it sparsely scattered at intervals 
 usually several miles apart. Under these circumstances it is little liable 
 to be discovered and preyed upon by any insect enemy. It accordingly is 
 one of the most thrifty and cleanly shrubs which we have. During the 
 extended period of my observations only one insect has made its appear¬ 
 ance upon this shrub. Of this insect I here present the account. 
 
 A bush of the barberry planted in my yard before the commencement 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 455 
 
 BARBERRY-APHIS. ITS EGOS. WHERE PLACED. 
 
 of the present century, became infested with an aphis in the year 1846. 
 How this insect came upon this shrub was quite a query in my mind. The 
 nearest bush of this kind within my knowledge was two miles distant, 
 with intervening hills, woods and streams of water. None of the insects 
 appeared to acquire wings whereby it was possible for them to migrate 
 and establish themselves elsewhere, until quite late in the autumn. And 
 upon quite a thorough, research which I was able to make, it did not appear 
 that any insect of this kind had ever been noticed as occurring upon the 
 barberry in any other part of the world. Under all the circumstances I 
 was in doubt whether this insect could have come to this bush from some 
 distant bush of the kind in the country around it, or whether by some pecu¬ 
 liar condition of the atmosphere or other agency it might not have been 
 spontaneously generated upon the shrub. 
 
 In the year 1851, in my Descriptive Catalogue of New York Homoptera, 
 published in the Fourth Report of the State Cabinet of Natural History, 
 page 65, I inserted this insect as a new species, under the name Aphis 
 Berberidis. I soon after discovered that this name had a few years previ¬ 
 ously been given to a European species, by Kaltenbach, in his Monograph 
 of the Plant-lice, page 95—a work which I have not seen. But from the 
 information which I obtain from Koch (Aphiden, p. 30), and Walker (List 
 of Homopterous Insects of the British Museum, p. 996), I entertain no 
 doubt that the European Aphis Berberidis is identical with the insect to 
 which I had given the same name in this country. 
 
 This insect continued to infest the same bush until the year 1855, when 
 it failed to make its appearance, and has not since returned. At no time 
 did it become greatly multiplied, nor was the shrub perceptibly injured by 
 it. From the full notes taken on repeated examinations made in different 
 years, I prepare the following description of the insect in its different stages 
 of growth and the course which it annually runs. 
 
 The Barberry-aphis is started each year from eggs laid in autumn and 
 which have survived the winter. So late as the middle of November I have 
 observed the winged females busily engaged in depositing their eggs. 
 They place them in the most secure and best protected situation which this 
 shrub furnishes. At regular distances along the slender straight stalks of 
 the barberry are permanent buds forming thick stump-like projections bear¬ 
 ing in summer a erown of leaves from their summits and armed on their 
 outer sides with three formidable prickles, so sharp that neither bird nor 
 beast will be apt to come near them. It is in the axils of these buds that 
 the Female drops her eggs. When first extruded the eggs are very glossy 
 and bright yellow, but by exposure to the air and light they soon change 
 to a brown and finally to a jet black color. They lio loosely, as many as 
 can be heaped together in some of the axils, the roughness of the bark aid¬ 
 ing in holding them. But their attachment is so slight and insecure that 
 they nearly all become dislodged by the storms of winter and fall off and 
 perish. Any which remain are quickened by the warm days of early spring, 
 the young lice hatching from them as soon as the leaves arc sufficiently 
 expanded to shelter and nourish them. If but a single egg survives the 
 
456 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 BARBKRRY-AmiS. FIRST APPEARANCE OK. FEMALE DESCRIBED. / 
 
 winter it amply suffices to start these insects, since all that hatch from the 
 eggs are females. 
 
 The young lice which are disclosed from the eggs rapidly grow up to 
 maturity, casting their skins a few times as they increase in size. They 
 do not acquire wings, nor do they produce eggs, but bring forth their young 
 alive. In two instances which I carefully observed, these wingless females 
 gave birth to six young in twenty-four hours, two of these being born in 
 the day time and four during the night. The female is usually stationed in 
 the centre of the leaf on its underside, her head towards the base of the 
 leaf, and her young are settled along the midvein, some of them behind but 
 most of them forward of her. She sometimes remains thus until the under 
 surface of the leaf is almost covered with her progeny. But it appears to 
 be the common habit of the female to stay but a day or two upon a particu¬ 
 lar leaf. She then forsakes her half dozen or dozen descendants and 
 wanders away and stations herself upon another leaf for a similar period of 
 time, thus planting small colonies upon a dozen leaves or more before she 
 has finished bearing and expires of old age. Some of the young lice also 
 sometimes wander off and locate themselves upon a contiguous leaf. And 
 so it comes to pass that, so early as the middle of May, leaves here and 
 there over the whole of the bush, become inhabited by these lice, there 
 being commonly from six to twelve clustered together on each infested leaf. 
 They are stationary and motionless, with their heads towards the base of 
 the leaf, hugging closely to its surface, their antennas and honey tubes 
 turned backward and pressed to their bodies, their sharp needle-like beaks 
 sunk into the leaf and sucking from it the juices. If the leaf be broken off, 
 whereby the flow of sap through it begins to cease, they immediately dis¬ 
 cover it, become uneasy, and commence moving about and wandering away. 
 Although they reside on the underside of the leaf, at particular times, owing 
 probably to some peculiar condition of the atmosphere, many of them are 
 seen upon the upper side, in the groove here made by the midvein. 
 
 Upon plucking a leaf and attentively examining the lice upon it with a 
 magnifying glass, we find the cluster is made up of many small young 
 individuals, and about an equal number of large older ones, all these being 
 similar to each other in color, and a single large one wholly unlike the 
 others in its color, this last being the mother of the group. 
 
 The small lice or young larvae are short and thick, with the opposite sides 
 of their bodies parallel. They are of a very pale yellow or yellowish-green 
 color, the head often whitish and the eyes appearing like a small black dot 
 on each side of it, with the legs and antennae white, short, thick and clumsy 
 looking, the antennae not half as long as the body. 
 
 The larger lice, which are larvae which have nearly or quite got their 
 growth, are twice or thrice the size of the small ones and measure six to 
 seven hundredths of an inch in length. They are egg-shaped, moderately 
 flattened, and of a pale yellowish-green color, the head often paler, with 
 coal-black eyes, and the body frequently shows a row of squarish grass- 
 green spots along each side of the middle, sometimes with part of a, second 
 row outside of these, giving them a checkered appearance. The legs, 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 457 
 
 BARBEKHY-APIII9. DESCRIPTION OF WHEN MATURED. , 
 
 antennae and honey-tubes are white, and the antennae are about half the 
 length of the body. 
 
 The wingless female, the single individual unlike the rest of the group, 
 coincides with the mature larva in size, and in all the details above stated, 
 except only the color of the body. In this it differs notably. Nor is it 
 constant in its colors, different females being unlike each other, and the 
 same female sometimes changing very sensibly in a short time. Some of 
 these females are bright orange-red with all the middle portion of the back 
 dull pale-green, frequently with two orange-red streaks on this pale ground, 
 the streaks widening backward and uniting with the orange-red of the 
 border. Others are very dull red with the middle of the back smoky, the 
 sutures and a line along the middle of the back being greenish-white. 
 The female is more plump and less flattened than the larva. In some spec¬ 
 imens the feet and apical half of the antennae are blackish, and the honey- 
 tubes smoky with only their bases greenish-white. They are slighly shorter 
 than the space from their bases to the tip. A short conical tail, little longer 
 than thick, is protruded from the apex of the abdomen. The beak, which 
 is white with its tip sometimes smoky, reaches to the middle pair of legs. 
 
 Such are the characters presented by these lice when they are first begin¬ 
 ning to appear upon the leaves in May. As noticed at later periods of the 
 season, the larvce are mostly pale yellow, and the females pale, both being 
 marked upon the back with a dark colored elliptic ring, formed by a stripe 
 along each side towards the outer margin and extending from the head to 
 near- the tip, these stripes being black in the mature insect and deep green 
 in the larva, and cut across by slender pale lines at the sutures. 
 
 The first season that these lice appeared, winged individuals were often 
 sought for but none were found, until the month of November, when they 
 became quite numerous. They were noticed at that time as being black 
 and shining, with the breast and abdomen pale yellow, the latter black at 
 the tip, and the legs dusky. When they were about disappearing eight 
 years afterwards, winged specimens were found in plenty among them in 
 May and June. These were fourteen hundredths of an inch in length to the 
 ,end of their closed wings, pale greenish-yellow with the top of the thorax 
 slightly dusky, the antennae black except at their bases, the legs dusky 
 towards their tips, the wings transparent with the stigma salt-white and 
 the veins blackish. The relative distances between the veins of the wings, 
 and the aberations from their normal arrangement which were observed 
 are as follows: 
 
 Second voin about twico as far from the first at its tip as at its base, and rather farther from 
 tho third at its tip than at its base; its base equi-distant between the first and third yeius. 
 First fork at tip most commonly much nearer the tip of tho second fork than of the third vein, 
 and oftenest as near to tho third vein as this is to the second. Second fork much nearer to tho 
 first fork than to the fourth vein. Fourth vein strongly curved, becoming straight towards its 
 tip, commonly somewhat nearer the second fork than to the tip of tho rib voin. 
 
 Varioty a. Tip of third vein nearer tho first fork than to tho second vein. Common. 
 
 Vuriety b. Second vein in the left wing with a short fork near its middle. 
 
 Varioty c. Seoond fork wanting in the left wing. 
 
 Variety d. Seoond fork in the left wing wanting, and second vein with a short fork near tho 
 middle. 
 
 . Variety e. Second fork in tho left wing wanting, and second voin in the right wing forked 
 10 the middle. 
 
 Variety/. Tip of tho third vein nearer tho seoond voin than to tho first fork. 
 
458 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 FLATTENED CENTIPEDE. ITS DEPREDATIONS. 
 
 The secretion and emission of honey dew is a trait in their economy 
 which is almost peculiar to the Aphides—this secretion being in most of 
 them very copious and going on continuously. It is, therefore, a singular 
 circumstance that we meet with some species among these insects which 
 are nearly if not entirely destitute of this secretion. In my account of the 
 Grain-aphis in a previous Report, this destitution of honey dew was 
 remarked as occurring in that species. This Barberry-aphis is another 
 instance of the same kind. When we look at a cluster of them no drops of 
 this fluid are to be seen at the tips of any of their honey tubes. No parti* 
 cles of it arc sprinkled on the leaves under those occupied by these lice. 
 No ants are standing among them nor travelling up the stalks to them to 
 feed upon this sweetish fluid. And no perceptible blackness of the stalks 
 is caused by this aphis. 
 
 The leaves of the barberry are of a thick, firm and somewhat leathery 
 texture, whereby they do not become at all curled or otherwise distorted 
 by these insects. And although their presence cannot but be injurious to 
 the shrub by abstracting from it a portion of its juices and thus weakening 
 it, in this instance which passed under my observation the health and vigor 
 of the bush was not perceptibly impaired. No measures for destroying the 
 lice were therefore resorted to or deemed to be called for. 
 
 18 . Flattened Centipede, Polydesmus complanalus, Linnajus. (Aptera. 
 
 Julidse.) 
 
 Eating the roots of plants and other tender vegetation, and probably causing the anbury (club 
 root) disease in cabbages; small, slender white and brown worms, from one to five-tenths of an 
 inch long, flattened upon the back, and with numerous small legs appearing like a fringe along 
 each side of the body; crawling everywhere over the damp surface of the ground by night, and 
 withdrawing into the crevices under chips, stones and similar situations during the day time. 
 
 Upon coming to give particular attention to the different insects which 
 occur in our gardens, and ferret out what they are doing there, I detect 
 some important depredators to which our Treatises on Gardening make no 
 allusion, aud most of our gardeners are quite unaware of their pernicious 
 character, although they have been accustomed to see them almost daily, 
 their lives long. One of these is so very common in all our gardens, and 
 appears to be the cause of such important injuries, that I am induced to 
 report some of the observations already made, although my researches are 
 still too limited for me to attempt to write out its complete history. 
 
 Early in the day when the earth is moist from the night dews, if engaged 
 in sowing seeds, uprooting small weeds or any other garden work which 
 causes us to closely observe the surface of the ground, we shall frequently 
 see a small brown worm from a quarter to half an inch long, slender and 
 snake-like, flattened upon its back and with a row of short thread-like legs 
 appearing like a fringe along each side of its body the whole length. It 
 is crawling slowly about, here and there, with many short turns, in making 
 which it frequently doubles its body almost together. If you enclose it in 
 a dry box or vial you will probably find it dead an hour afterwards. But 
 put it in a vial of damp earth or wet moss and it will live there for months 
 unless you allow it to get dry. You thus learn that it delights in a damp, 
 humid atmosphere, whilst a dry situation is fatal to it. It therefore comes 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 459 
 
 FLATTENED CENTIPEDE. ITS LOCALITIES AND MODE OF INJURY. 
 
 abroad in the night time, wandering about over the moist'surface of the 
 earth in search of the nicest, daintiest food it can discover whilst the hours 
 of darkness last; but when the morning arrives and the sun begins to dis¬ 
 sipate the dampness of night and dry the top of the ground, it can no 
 longer remain there. It accordingly travels around till it finds some crack 
 in the ground or some crevice under a stone, a stick or a piece of board, 
 where the sun’s drying rays will not penetrate and the earth will remain 
 humid during the heat of the day. Into this crevice it enters and there 
 remains until the dews of night are again beginning to fall, enabling it to 
 leave its retreat. Thus, on raising up a chip Or fragment of board that 
 happens to be lying anywhere in the garden, you will commonly find lurk¬ 
 ing under it a dozen or it may be fifty of these worms—the young smallest 
 ones being white, and the larger ones brown. And always in company 
 with them will be observed some individuals of a different kind, having 
 bodies more slender and perfectly cylindrical, which are the young of other 
 species of this family of insects. When they chance to find a moist situa¬ 
 tion where they have an abundant supply of food they probably remain 
 there night and day, having no occasion to wander away until the store is 
 exhausted And others of their kind discovering the same spot, join in 
 company with them, until the place becomes thronged with as many of 
 these worms as can crowd themselves into it. 
 
 Next, we are most deeply interested in knowing on what these insects 
 feed in the garden, that they are there assembled in such numbers. The 
 remark of Latreille (Cuvier’s Animal Kingdom, American edition, vol. iii, 
 p. 249) that “ these insects feed on dead and decomposed animal and vege¬ 
 table matter,” has all along been impressed on my mind as being without 
 doubt "the truth and the whole truth” on this subject, until the following 
 evidence assured me that they feed on living healthy vegetation. And I 
 since notice accounts in other authors, concurring with my own observa¬ 
 tions. I make the following extract from my manuscript notes: 
 
 ‘‘August 24, 1864.—To-day on picking a cucumber around which the 
 rains had washed the earth, burying it one-third under the surface, I find 
 this buried underside to be literally covered with young flat-backed centi¬ 
 pedes and a few round ones—the former mostly white, and of all sizes from 
 an eighth to a half inch long. And I notice this underside of the cucum¬ 
 ber has many clear, sweat-like, watery drops upon it, small and large; 
 and on looking with a magnifying glass, it is perfectly plain to be seen 
 , that the skin of the cucumber has been extensively eaten by these worms, 
 in irregular patches of different sizes, from the surface of which wounds it 
 is that the watery drops ooze out like sweat. Here is positive proof that 
 these worms are not limited to decaying vegetation, but attack also that 
 which is healthy and growing. There can be no doubt, therefore, but that 
 they will attack any other soft, tender vegetable substance lying upon the 
 ground or roots underground, where they can lurk in a moist situation adap¬ 
 ted to their habits.” 
 
 As every one knows, many of the cucumbers in every garden are stunted, 
 knurly and deformed, with gummy spots upon them, their substance hard 
 sad knotty, and their taste bitter. What causes them to be thus deformed 
 
460 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 FLATTENED CENTIPEDE. HOW IT DESTROYS THE ONION. 
 
 and worthless ? Is it not from being gnawed and wounded by these centi¬ 
 pedes ? Had the cucumber mentioned above remained upon the vine, its 
 wounded surface in healing would have become knobby and gummy, and 
 in further growing it would have become crooked and deformed. I there¬ 
 fore think it is these insects, crowding themselves underneath cucumbers 
 which arc lying on or slightly sunk in the surface of the ground, and there 
 nibbling and wounding the skin, that is one common cause of their becom¬ 
 ing stunted, deformed and worthless. 
 
 A peculiar disaster sometimes occurs to the onion. When the bulbs are 
 small, having attained but a third or half their growth, many of them 
 cease growing and the tops gradually wither and die. And on pulling up 
 those which are thus affected, it is found that most of the thread-like root¬ 
 lets underneath have been severed at the point of their junction with the 
 bulb, as smoothly and evenly as though they had been cut off with a knife, 
 only a few of the central ones retaining their connection with the bulb. 
 Indeed, some instances occur in which all the rootlets are cut off. What 
 is it that thus severs these rootlets, and hereby arrests the growth of the 
 onion when it is so small as to be valueless ? When we raise one of these 
 onions from the ground, we commonly find some of these young centipedes 
 adhering to its underside, whilst more of them are lying among the severed 
 ends of the rootlets in the bottom of the hole. And I make no doubt it is 
 these worms that do this mischief. This disaster is most apt to occur, I 
 think, when onions are growing thickly together. The bulbs crowding 
 against each other as they increase in size, gradually raise each other up 
 in an oblique direction, whereby a crevice is opened between the bulb and 
 the earth in which it is imbedded. These centipedes wandering about upon 
 the surface of the ground and coming to this crevice, enter it as is their 
 wont, and there finding these rootlets, soft and tender, the very quality of 
 food which they desire, they take up their abode there, and commence nib¬ 
 bling the rootlets and thus cut them off one after another. Seed and Top 
 onions are frequently leaned over by the weight of their long stalks, thus 
 opening a crevice on one side of their bulbs also, into which these worms 
 will be liable to enter ; though as their fibrous rootlets are less tender and 
 delicate than those of young-seedling onions they will be less liable to be 
 eaten by them. 
 
 When engaged in setting out some young cabbage plants, I noticed a 
 singular irregular warty swelling on the root of one of the plants. On a 
 moment’s inspection it was perceived to be a healed wound which had been 
 made upon the root ; and I recognized this swelling as being to all appear¬ 
 ance the commencement or incipient stage of that remarkable disease of 
 the cabbage, termed the anbury, or more commonly club root. If this root 
 in its subsequent growth should be again wounded a few times in the samo 
 manner, it was quite evident it would grow into the large knobby canker¬ 
 like excrescence which constitutes that singular disease — whose cause 
 has never yet been ascertained, though it is commonly conjectured to be 
 occasioned by some insect. The query hereupon arose in my mind, how 
 did this plant come to be thus wounded? The plant it was noticed was 
 badly crooked, apparently from having been bent down to the ground when 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 461 
 
 FLATTENED CENTIPEDE. PROBABLE CAUSE OF CLUB BOOT IN CABBAGES. 
 
 it was younger, probably by a shower of rain, and not having been able to 
 again recover its perpendicular position. And this wound had been made just 
 below the surface of the ground, upon the side where the force bending the 
 plant had been applied. Several of the other plants which were similarly 
 bent, were now observed to. have similar warty swellings from healed 
 wounds upon the roots, the wounds being in every instance in the same 
 position, that is to say, with the top of the plant inclining from the side 
 where the wound had been made. It hereupon occurred to me, that these 
 plants being thus bent over, the upper part of their roots^tanding in the 
 soft ground of the seed bed would participate in the violence and be carried 
 slightly to one side in the same direction, thus opening a slight crevice 
 upon their opposite side. And into these crevices some of these small 
 young centipedes had probably crawled, and gnawed the tender white bark 
 of the root to which they h%d thus obtained access, thus making the wounds 
 the scars of which were now noticed. Obviously no worm residing under¬ 
 ground would come to the roots on the same side in every instance, and 
 wound them in this regular manner. 
 
 It will now, I think, be easily perceived how the club root in the grow¬ 
 ing cabbages is probably caused by these insects. The large thick leaves 
 of the cabbage spreading out as they do but a few inches above the ground, 
 keep its surface shaded, cool and moist, thus inviting these insects to the 
 spot. A strong wind, blowing in one direction all day and repeatedly 
 catching the leaves of the cabbage, gradually work it over to one side, thus 
 causing the stalk to be inclined instead of perpendicular, (as we see in so 
 many instances in every cabbage yard,) and hereby opening a crevice down¬ 
 ward .upon one side of its root. Into this crevice a multitude of these cen¬ 
 tipedes will soon be gathered, and will there take up their abode, feeding 
 upon and eroding' any tender succulent parts of the root which they are 
 able to find. And this injury goes on augmenting, for as the vegetable 
 increases in size its top becomes heavier, weighing the inclined stalk still 
 further over and opening the cleft at its root wider and deeper, thus pre¬ 
 senting new portions for the worms to feed upon. The root being thus con¬ 
 tinually wounded and irritated, an increased flow of juices to the part is 
 produced and kept up, causing it to grow and swell out into the knobby 
 fungus-like excrescence of the anbury. I feel very confident this is the 
 way this disease is produced. 
 
 These young centipedes are equally as abundant in our grain fields as in 
 our gardens. I, however, defer a further account and a full description of 
 them until I shall have observed their habits more fully, and have only to 
 remark in conclusion of this present notice that I have always regarded 
 them as being identical with the species similarly common in the gardens 
 and grain fields of Europe, named complanatus by LinnaJus, the name Poly- 
 demus canadensis being also given to one of the varieties of our insect 
 described by Mr. Newport in his valuable monograph of this family, in the 
 Annals and Magazine of Natural History, vol. xiii, p. 265. 
 
432 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW TORE 
 
 INDEX TO THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE NEW 
 YORK STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.—YOL 
 XVI. TO XXIV. 
 
 The index given in the Transactions of 1856 of the preceding 15 volumes, 
 having been so favorably received, it has been deemed advisable to give 
 the index of the succeeding volumes to 1864. These volumes contain much 
 valuable matter for farmers, and will enable them to refer to any par¬ 
 ticular without requiring an examination of the several volumes to find the 
 information which is desired. 
 
 Every contributor will find his name in the index and the title of his 
 work. All who are desirous of consulting the transactions will find this 
 index a very desirable assistance, giving with the preceding index a refer¬ 
 ence to all that has been done by the Society and its contributors. 
 
 B. P. JOHNSON, Secretary. 
 
 Ball L. Chandler.vol. xvii, 534 ; vol. xix, 545 ; vol. xx, 581 
 
 Beman, N. S. S.vol. xvii, 512 
 
 Brewer, Win. H.vol. xvii, 510 
 
 Burritt E.vol. xix, 511 
 
 Conger, A. B.vol. xviii, 32; vol. xix, 43 
 
 Cornell, E.vol. xxi, 36 ; vol. xxii, 19 
 
 Dewey, Win.vol. xxi, 230 
 
 Dix, John A.vol. xix, 22 
 
 Ellery, Henry,...vol. xxi, 419 
 
 Everett, Edward,.vol. xvii, 23 
 
 Faile, Edward G.vol. xxiii, 43 
 
 Faxton, T. S.vol. xvi, 33 
 
 Fisher, S. W, D. D.....vol. xxiii, 20 
 
 Foote, H. G.vol. xxiii, 498 
 
 Fox, Rev. H. J.vol. xix, 123 
 
 Geddes, Geo.vol. xx, 50 ; vol. xxi, 41 
 
 Gould, J. Stanton,.vol. xxiii, 438 
 
 Graves, Ezra..vol. xx, 620 
 
 Hand, A. C.vol. xxiii, 560 
 
 Harris, Joseph.vol. xxiii, 453 
 
 Hodges, Wm.vol. xvii, 548 
 
 Huntington, B. N.vol. xix, 40 ; vol. xx, 265 
 
 Ilurlburd, C. T.vol. xvii, 524 
 
 Jessup, Wm.vol. xvi, 13 
 
 Johnson, R.vol. xxiii, 522 
 
 Jones, D. R. Floyd.vol. xix, 691 
 
 MoCouu, Win. T.....vol. xvii, 66 ; vol. xviii, 11 
 
 McCormick, R. C.vol. xxi, 284 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 487 
 
 ELEVENTH REPORT 
 
 OX TUE 
 
 NOXIOUS, BENEFICIAL AND OTHER INSECTS 
 
 OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. 
 
 BY ASA FITCII, M. D. 
 
 Onton-fly and worm, Anthomyia Ceparum, Linn. (Diptcra. Muscidie. 
 
 Boring into the bulb of tho onion at all seasons, causing it to wilt and decay; a plump, 
 whito, cylindrical maggot, pointed at the anterior end and obliquely cut off at its tip, pass¬ 
 ing its pupa state under ground, and produoing an ash gray fly, having a row of black spots 
 along tho middle of tho hind body. 
 
 The Onion-fly, Anthomyia Ceparum , is one of the most perni¬ 
 cious insects in our gardens, it being the parent of the white 
 "grub,” as it is frequently termed, but, as it has no distinct head, 
 it is more properly a “ maggot,” which bores into and destroys 
 the root of the onion. 
 
 This insect has infested the onion in Europe from time imme¬ 
 morial, and has been in this country many years, making its 
 appearance from time to time in one neighborhood and another, 
 and remaining several years, greatly injuring or totally destroying 
 the crop. In many parts of New England and New York it was 
 extremely numerous and destructive about the year 1854, and 
 again in 1863. 
 
 In June, as soon as the young seedling onions are only an inch 
 or two in height, these insects commence their depredations and 
 continue them through the whole season, getting their growth and 
 coining out in their perfect state one after another, whereby some 
 of the flies are liable to be ahvays present in the garden, in readi¬ 
 ness to deposit their eggs, and maggots of widely different sizes 
 are commonly met with in the same onion. 
 
 The eggs or “fly-blows” are loosely placed upon the onion 
 
438 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 ONION-FLY. EGGS. MAGOOT. 
 
 slightly above the surface of the ground, as shown in the accom¬ 
 panying cut, Fig. 1, some of them being dropped along the thin 
 edge of the sheath or white membranous collar, which is formed 
 by the base of the lower leaf, clasping around the stalk, and others 
 arc crowded into the crevices between the bases of the leaves, 
 slightly above where they issue from this sheath. From two to 
 six or more eggs are usually placed on particular plants here and 
 there through the bed. They are perceptible to the eye, being 
 white and smooth, four-hundredths of an inch (0.04) long, and a 
 fourth as thick, and of an oval form, as seen in Fig. 4, where they 
 are represented of their natural size, and in tlic lowei figure 
 magnified. 
 
 A few years since, a person from the northern section of our 
 State calling upon me, informed me as a most important discovery 
 that a Mr. Somebody in that vicinity had made, that these grubs 
 came from germs or eggs contained in the seed, and that by merely 
 wetting the seed a moment in boiling water, the vitality of these 
 o'erms would be destroyed, and the crop grown from the seed thus 
 treated would be perfectly free from this insect. And in the 
 Country Gentleman (June 25th, 1855, p. 408), a correspondent 
 advances this same theory. Why will persons venture in the pub¬ 
 lic prints to state mere surmises and conjectures as being authentic 
 and well ascertained facts ? “ If the light that is in thee be dark¬ 
 
 ness, how great is that darkness 1 I he seed is the part, of all 
 others, with which this insect has the least to do. 
 
 The minute worm or maggot which hatches from each egg, 
 works its way downward inside of the sheath, its track being 
 marked by a slender discolored streak, till it reaches the root, on 
 which it feeds till it is wholly consumed, only the thin outer skin 
 remaining. A small young onion furnishes only a small portion 
 of the nourishment which one maggot requires, and commonly 
 there are several maggots, big and little, feeding together upon 
 the same onion. Therefore, when it is consumed, if there is 
 another onion growing in contact with the first, or nearly so, they 
 readily discover and invade it. But if no onion is growing near 
 the first, when it is consumed they are obliged to go forth on an 
 exploring expedition, scattering themselves in different directions, 
 and each one crawling around in the ground, until he chances to 
 come to another onion, or to one of the rootlets, which will servo 
 to guide him to the bulb from which it issues. Thus, when the 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 489 
 
 ONION-FLY. WORK OF THE MASCOT. 
 
 seed has been thickly sown, and the young plants are crowded 
 together, they are successively cut down, one after another, until 
 a wide vacancy is produced in the row, all vestiges of the plants 
 being gone, except on one or both sides, where is usually, first, a 
 plant dead and turned yellow, lying flat upon the ground, the 
 maggots having consumed its root and passed on to one or two of 
 the next plants, which are wilted and drooping, and of a flaccid 
 feeling, but still of a natural green color, and in the roots of these 
 the young worms are nestled and feeding. And if these wilted 
 plants be not disinterred, and the worms in their roots killed, the}'' 
 will next daj^ have passed onward, destroying the next plants, and 
 the next, until the whole row, it may be, will be cut down before 
 the worms have got their growth and are finished feeding. 
 
 The first indication which we have that our onion bed is invaded 
 by this enemy, we discover that two or three of the young plants 
 are wilted down and lying on the surface of the ground, perhaps 
 changed to a yellow color, and the plant next in the row to those 
 prostrate ones probably has its lower or outer leaf similarly 
 wilted and prostrate, although it is green and shows no wound or 
 other indication of disease, and the other leaves of this plant are 
 erect, and to the eyo appear perfectly healthy; but on feeling 
 them we find they are soft and flaccid, not firm and substantial like 
 those of the unaffected plants. Thus by the feeling of the leaves 
 we readily detect those plants which have worms in their roots. 
 
 On carefully digging up and examining the affected plant, if it 
 is young and the root small and cylindrical, we commonly find it 
 completely cut assuuder as represented in Fig. 
 1, only the thin outer skin remaining, whereby 
 the slightest pulling upon the top draws it 
 up out of the ground. Later in the season, 
 when the round bulb is beginning to be 
 formed, as in Fig. 2, we find a hole perforated 
 in its side, opening into a cavity in the inte¬ 
 rior, and the earth around this perforation is 
 wet and slimy, forming a mass of filthy mud 
 in which those worms are lying which are not 
 engaged in feeding. And by this interior 
 
 cavity the central leaves of the plant arc sev- 
 Fig. 1. » . . ^ 
 
 Voting onion out asunder. el-ed from their connection with the fibrous 
 
490 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 ONION-FLY. WORK OF THE MAGGOT. 
 
 rootlets, as shown in the figure, whereby 
 it is now these central and not the outer 
 leaves which first turn yellow and die; 
 and all the upper portion of the root soon 
 becomes soft and putrid, while the bot¬ 
 tom part, continuing to be nourished by 
 the fibrous rootlets, remains sound, and 
 the worms now crowd into this part to 
 feed, whereby it sometimes presents a Fig- 2- Onion bulb perforated, 
 wonderful appearance, being thronged with worms wedged 
 together side by side in a compact mass, all with their heads 
 downwards, eagerly consuming the last remains of food there is 
 there, and only the rounded hind ends of their bodies exposed to 
 view, these forming an even surface similar to the cobble stones of 
 a street pavement, as represented m Fig. 3. 
 
 Multipliers, escallions, and old onions planted for 
 growing seed, arc about as liable to be attacked as are 
 • '(ji]W' the young seedling onions. And there would seem to 
 tom'of an onion be something peculiar in particular onions which 
 crowded with tracts the flies to them to deposit multitudes of their 
 “'upon them. Thus an escallion, a month after it was set out, 
 having wilted and turned yellow, the whole of its root was found 
 to be a soft, putrid mass, of a most offensive smell, everywhere 
 thronged with these maggots, of all sizes, some of them newly 
 hatched and no larger than the eggs from which they came, others 
 full grown, and others changed to pupae and lying in the wet dirt in 
 contact with the root. I judged there rvere upwards of two hundred 
 maggots in this one onion, which was little more than a half inch 
 in thickness. And though there was no sustenance now remain¬ 
 ing for thoir nourishment, unless they feed upon the putrid as well 
 as°the sound substance of the onion, every crevice above ground, 
 around the bases of the leaves, was occupied with eggs, to the 
 number of about fifty, and many empty shells from which worms 
 had recently issued. It was a mystery to me why such a multi¬ 
 tude of worms should occur in this particular onion, and why flies 
 continued to deposit their eggs upon it when it was already so 
 overstocked as to furnish no food for their young. 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 491 
 
 ONION-FLT• LAnVA AND PUPA DESCRIBED. 
 
 The larva is represented 
 in the two middle figures 
 of the accompanying cut, 
 the upper cut being its 
 natural size and the lower 
 one magnified. It is shin- Fig. 4. Onion-fly eggs, lamo and pupa>. 
 ing, dull white, cylindrical, tapering to a point at its forward end, 
 and when crawling and elongated nearly the whole length of the 
 body becomes tapering. At the forward end the jaws appear 
 under the skin as a short black stripe. Frequently a pale brown 
 stripe or cloud is perceptible behind the middle of the body, 
 caused by internal alimentary substances. The hind end is cut oil 
 abruptly in an oblique direction, forming a flattened surface, 
 on which, slightly above the centre, are two elevated dots of 
 a cinnamon-brown color and appearing somewhat like a pair of 
 eyes; and around the margin are eight small projecting teeth, 
 of which the two lowest ones are largest; and a little forward of 
 these, on the underside of the body are two additional teeth, like 
 minute feet, by the aid of which the maggot shoves itself for¬ 
 ward when crawling. 
 
 The larva obtains its growth, in summer, in about a fortnight. 
 It is then so plump and full fed, with its skin distended and glossy, 
 that it sometimes seems to be too obese and lazy to crawl away, 
 and it accordingly remains in the cavity inside of the onion to pass 
 its pupa state. But as it is liable to be disturbed if it is lying 
 here ,by other younger maggots moving around and rubbing against 
 it, it much more frequently crawls out into the wet slimy earth 
 which is in contact with the onion. It here ceases to move, it 
 becomes contracted and shorter in length, its skin hardens and 
 changes to a tarnished yellow and finally to a chesnut color with 
 a stain of black at each end. It is now in its pupa state, as shown 
 in the two right hand figures of the preceding cut, its hardened outer 
 skin forming a pod or case, inside of which the real pupa is inclosed 
 — white, soft, and showing on its surface the wings and legs of 
 the future fly in'a rudimentary state. 
 
 The insect lies dormant in the ground in its pupa state about 
 two weeks, the time varying, being shorter when the weather is 
 hot and longer when it is cool. The hard outer shell then breaks 
 open and a fly comes from it, which has a considerable resemblance 
 to the common house-fly, though when the two are placed side by 
 
. 492 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 ONION-PLY. FLY DESCRIBED. PARASITES. OTHER DESTROTERS. 
 
 side this is observed as being smaller and more slender in its form. 
 
 It is represented in the annexed cut, 
 Fig. 5, the cross lines showing its 
 natural dimensions when its wings are 
 extended. The two sexes are readily 
 distinguished from each other by the 
 e} r es, which in the males are close to¬ 
 gether and so large as to occupy 
 almost the whole surface of the head, 
 *ig a. umuu-uj. whilst in the female they are widely 
 
 separated from each other. These flies are of an ash gray color, 
 with the head silvery, and a rusty black stripe between the eyes, 
 forked at its hind end. And the species is particularly distin¬ 
 guished by having a row of black spots along the middle of the 
 abdomen or hind body, which sometimes run into each other, and 
 then forming a continuous black stripe. This row of spots is quite 
 distinct in the male, but in the female it is very faint or is often 
 wholly imperceptible. This fly measures 0.22 to 0.25 in length, 
 the females being usually rather larger than the males. 
 
 On examining the diseased onions we find the operations of these 
 worms vary considerably in different instances. Sometimes a round 
 hole is bored, either in the side or the bottom of the onion, and only 
 one worm is present. More commonly several worms of different 
 sizes are found, and if the plant is young, with the root cylindrical, 
 it is cut completely asunder, as represented, Fig. 1. If it is more 
 advanced and the bulb partly formed, a large, irregular cavity 
 will be found in its centre, as shown by Fig. 2, and the earth 
 around the orifice is wet and slimy, forming a large, muddy mass, 
 into which the maggots crawl to repose when not engaged in feed¬ 
 ing. From being thus perforated and gnawed, the onion soon 
 perishes and becomes soft and putrid, except its bottom part, 
 which, continuing to be nourished by the fibrous rootlets, remains 
 sound, and the larger worms thereupon crawl into this part to 
 feed, whereby we sometimes meet with it presenting the appear¬ 
 ance shown in Fig. 3, being thronged with worms, wedged 
 together in a compact mass, as already described. 
 
 Wo learn from Bouch6 (Garden Insects, page 131), that the 
 Alysia manducator of Panzer is the parasitic destroyer ol different 
 species of Antliomyia. This is a small black four-winged Ichneu¬ 
 mon-fly, which in Europe is frequently to be seen upon and around 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 493 
 
 ONION-FLY • REMEDIES. 
 
 decaying turnips and other vegetables, its larva living inside of 
 the pupae of these flies, where on getting its growth it incloses 
 itself in a yellow cocoon. Like other injurious insects which 
 have come to us from the old world, the parasites, which in their 
 native haunts prey upon them and constantly restrain their multi¬ 
 plication and destructiveness, have not yet found their way to our 
 shores. The only natural destroyer of the Onion-fly which I have 
 observed, arc the Golden-eyed flies of the genus Chrysopa, in the 
 order Neuroptera, a full account of which is given in my first 
 report. I have repeatedly noticed one or more eggs of these 
 insects, elevated upon their white hair-like pedicels, attached to 
 the lower part of onion plants. In one instance ten of these eo-o-s 
 were found in this situation, placed at equal distances apart in a 
 straight row, an inch and a quarter in length. It is undoubtedly 
 that its young may feed upon the eggs of the Onion-fly, that the 
 Chrysopa fly places them in this situation. Puncturing and sucking 
 the contents of the eggs which the onion flies deposit, as is its 
 habit, one of these Chrysopa larvae residing upon an onion plant 
 will ordinarily suffice to preserve it uninjured. Hence it will be 
 seen what an important service they render us. 
 
 These flies have, in many instances, disheartened people from 
 attempting to grow onions; and where the crop has been nearly 
 or quite destroyed one year, we may confidently expect there will 
 he enough of these insects in that place the following year, to ruin 
 the crop, it it is sowed. I have thought in such cases, a farmer, 
 by making an onion bed upon some remote part of his farm, where 
 none of these flics are present, and where there is no garden so near 
 that they will be apt from thence to find their way to the spot, 
 may probably elude this enemy and obtain a crop uninjured by 
 these maggots. And by wholly ceasing to grow the onion one 
 year in the garden, these insects will wholly vanish therefrom, 
 whereby this vegetable may thereafter be grown without molesta¬ 
 tion. 
 
 As it requires several young seedling onions to nourish one 
 maggot until it grows to maturity, our mode of growing onions, 
 in contact with each other in rows, in a bod together, accommo¬ 
 dates this insect perfectly, enabling it to find the root of one plant 
 after another, without the least difficulty. If we wore to change 
 our modo of culture, where this insect is present, and grow the 
 onion in hills here and there among the other vegetables in tho 
 
494 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 PUNCTULATED FLEA-BEETLE. ON CUCUMBERS. OTHER PLANTS. 
 
 garden, with only three or four seedlings iu a hill, it is evident 
 the young worms could nowhere find a sufficient amount of food 
 to nourish them to maturity. Having consumed all the young 
 plants iu ono hill, they will be unable to work their way through 
 the ground to come at another hill, except it be by the merest 
 chance, and will thus perish. 
 
 When an onion bed is attacked by these maggots, the only 
 effectual mode of saving it from ruin is to look the plants carefully 
 over and uproot every wilted one, and destroy the worms the root 
 contains ; since if they are not killed they continue at work, feed¬ 
 ing upon one plant after another, until they are all or nearly all 
 destroyed. 
 
 Punctulated FLEA-BEETLE, Psylliodes punctulata, Melsh. (Coleoptera. 
 
 Chrysomelidae.) 
 
 On tho cuoumber, pio rhubarb, and other garden plants throughout the season, eating 
 numerous small holes in tho loaves; a brassy blaolc and finely punotnred floa-beetlo with 
 its shanks, feet and tho basal joints of its antonnai pale obscure yellowish. 
 
 In addition to the Hairy flea-beetle which Dr. Harris mentions 
 as infesting the cucumber, I find on these plants another species, 
 closely similar, but on careful examination proving to be very dif¬ 
 ferent from it, having the first joint of the hind feet more long 
 and slender than is usual in this tribe of insects, and inserted for¬ 
 ward of or above the lower end of the shank, it thus belonging 
 to the genus which Latrcille has separated from Hallica under 
 the name Psylliodes. This species is described by Dr. F. E. 
 Melsheimer, in the third volume of Proceedings of the Academy 
 of Natural Sciences, under tho name Psylliodes punctulata , or 
 the Punctulated flea-beetle, in allusion particularly to the fore¬ 
 body. the surface of which is covered with fine distinct punctures, 
 as if made with the point of an exceedingly fine needle. But this 
 character varies in different specimens, some having the surface so 
 smooth, that these punctures become scarcely, if at all, perceptible. 
 
 This is the common flea-beetle upon the cucumber leaves in tho 
 eastern section of our State. I have also noticed it upon other 
 plants in the garden. On radishes, one or moro are sometimes 
 seen associated with tho Striped flea-beetle. The leaves of tho 
 beet are sometimes noticed as having scattered boles perforated m 
 them, which are usually the work of this insect. The pie rhubarb 
 which is cultivated iu all our gardens for its thick, tender, juicy, 
 acid leaf-stalks, as an early substitute for fruit in the making of 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 495 
 
 PUNCTULATED FLEA-BEETLE. BOO PARASITES. THEIR CURIOUS HABITS. 
 
 pies, has its leaves attacked by several insects, this flea-beetle being 
 the most common one, at least in the forepart of the season. Both 
 on the upper and under surface of the leaf it gnaws through the 
 skin and eats the pulp, leaving the skin on the opposite side of 
 the leaf entire, which becomes discolored, forming yellowish brown 
 freckles, and as the leaf grows and expands, the skin at these points 
 becomes torn and perishes, whereby holes through the leaf are 
 formed. In this manner the older leaves often become riddled 
 with holes of different sizes, the largest being about one-tenth of 
 an inch in diameter. A few of the Hairy flea-beetles are com¬ 
 monly found associated with these upon the leaves of the pie 
 plant, being readily distinguished by being usually of a smaller 
 size and not at all glossy and shining. 
 
 These flea-beetles are frequently seen paired. The following 
 incident is so remarkable and curious that it well merits to be 
 here related. On the 4th of June, 1863, I noticed two of these 
 flea-beetles paired, upon a leaf of the pie plant, when a minute 
 Chaleidian parasite alighted upon the leaf quite near them. The 
 male, hereupon, immediately descended, and went directly towards 
 this parasite, as if he intended to walk over it; but it receded 
 from him, stepping aside to avoid him, two or three times, till the 
 male walked away. The Chaleidian then darted upon the back 
 of the female, and appeared to be inserting its sting in the tip of 
 the body of the female, when she gave a leap, and both disap¬ 
 peared among the foliage. I conjecture this Chaleidian to have 
 been an egg-parasite of the flea-beetle; and that the eggs of the 
 flea-beetle are so minute that the young parasite requires several 
 of them to nourish and bring it to maturity, the same as in the 
 case of the egg-parasite of the Hessian-fly as discovered by the 
 late Mr. Herrick. And as it appears from the careful investiga¬ 
 tions of Mr. Le Keux, that the eggs of this group of insects are 
 few, and the females drop only one per day, to enable the young 
 parasite to obtain the number of eggs it requires for its suste¬ 
 nance, the parent, watching her opportunity, deposits one of her 
 eggs internally in the ovaries of the flea-beetle or in the passage 
 wa y therefrom, and the parasitic larva which hatches from this 
 egg. taking up its residence there, consumes the eggs of the flea- 
 beetle, one after another, as they become developed, whereby 
 none of them will be extruded until after the parasite has obtained 
 its growth and ceased to feed. Most singular and truly wonder- 
 
496 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW TORE 
 
 CABBAGE-FLY. MAGGOT. ITS HABITS. 
 
 ful as such a provision of nature would he, it is the most probable 
 conclusion I am able to arrive at from the facts observed. 
 
 The transformations and habits and the remedies for this group 
 of insects will bo found fully stated under the Striped flea-beetle. 
 
 Cabbage-fly and worm, Anthomyia Brassicw, Bouchd (Diptera Muscidee.) 
 
 Tho roots of tho cabbage orodod and bored, and the young plants hereby often killed by 
 a white maggot having its flattened hind end margined nround with minute toeth, whereof 
 the lower two are largor and their tips notohed; the pupa underground, producing an ash- 
 gray fly, having on the hind body a black stripo along the middle and a narrower black 
 band upon each of the sutures. 
 
 The young plants of the cabbage are liable to be destroyed by 
 maggots excoriating the surface and boring iuto the interior of the 
 roots. In the years 1856 and 1857 they were very destructive in 
 different parts of the State, appearing quite early in the season 
 and attacking the young plants in the seed bed, destroying them 
 so extensively that in many neighborhoods it was impossible to 
 obtain plants for setting out. My attention was first called to this 
 insect, by receiving from Prof. Wm. Hopkins, then of Genesee 
 College, stems of young cabbages containing these maggots, which 
 it was stated, were at that date, June 16th, 1856, ruining all the 
 cabbage and cauliflower plants in his and his neighbors’ gardens. 
 From pupa; which were also remitted mo a fortnight later, I ob¬ 
 tained flics, answering to the description given of the European 
 Anthomyia Brassicce of Bouche, the larvte also coinciding with tho 
 characters stated as pertaining to the larvae of that species; where¬ 
 fore I make no doubt it is the same. It continues to infest the 
 roots through the season, which arc better able to withstand its 
 attacks, the more they are grown. At the time of gathering the 
 cabbages in autumn I have repeatedly noticed this maggot, bur¬ 
 rowed in the bark of the root, or, in two or three instances just 
 beginning to enter it, with the end of its body projecting stiffly 
 out, like a peg driven in half its length. 
 
 These maggots infest the turnip and ruta baga also, mining an 
 irregular burrow in tho interior, or inhabiting eroded spots upon 
 their outer surface. Sometimes a small roughened spot is seen, 
 appearing like a crack in the skin of tho turnip, with its edges 
 rough and ragged and turned outward, and on pairing oil tins 
 roughened spot a plump white maggot is come upon, lying in a 
 cavity it has there made for itself. At other times a larger eroded 
 spot occurs, which is filled with wet and slimy dirt. On remov 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 497 
 
 CABBAGE PLY. MAGGOT DESCRIBED. 
 
 ing this dirt the surface is found to be rough and warty, with 
 little grooves here and there, in each of which is a maggot. 
 Sometimes also a maggot is seen with only its anterior end imbed¬ 
 ded in the turnip, leaving a third or half the length of its body 
 projecting out therefrom. 
 
 And I am unable to discover any point in which these worms in 
 the roots of the cabbage and turnip differ from those in the radish, 
 or any character by which the flies bred from the one can be dis¬ 
 tinguished from those of the other. Nor from the descriptions of 
 authors do I gather any marks whereby A. Brassiccn and radicum 
 are well distinguished from each other. Curtis (Farm Insects, p. 
 143,) states that the larva of the latter is similar to the former, 
 but is of a yellowish olive color, the larva of A. Brassiccc being 
 given as yellowish white. But, according to my observations, the 
 larvse are invariably pure white when we tirst come upon them in 
 their burrows in the roots ; and it is from exposure to the light 
 that they acquire a yellow tinge, which becomes deeper as they 
 are more exposed. And the flies seem, from the descriptions 
 given by the same author, to be only different in this, that those 
 ot the radicum have the face ochreous reflecting satiny white, with 
 a rust colored stripe on the forehead, whilst in Brassicce the face 
 is said to bo silvery gray, with a black streak on the forehead, in 
 the female shading into chestnut color in front. The experienced 
 observer will scarcely be able to persuade himself that these 
 slight differences in color arc anything more than accidental and 
 ot sufficient value to indicate a specific difference as existing 
 between these insects. We know the larvae which occur in the same 
 root are liable to have the two spiracles on the truncated tip of 
 the body vary in their color from ochreous or cinnamon-yellow to 
 smoky and black. But I have not examined the flies bred from 
 the respective roots of the radish, cabbage and turnip, iu a suffi¬ 
 cient number of instances to lead me to a decided opinion respect¬ 
 ing their identity. 
 
 I have noted the following characters as presented by the larvaa 
 in the roots of cabbages. They occur of different sizes at the 
 same date, the largest measuring 0.30 in length, They are foot¬ 
 less and white, composed of ten or eleven visible segments. On 
 the throat or underside of the pointed end the jaws appear as a 
 hifid black internal streak. The hind end is bluntly cut oil' and 
 [Ag.] 32 
 
498 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW TORE 
 
 CABBAGE FLY. PUPA AND FLY DESCRIBED. 
 
 flattened, with two elevated tawny yellowish dots or spiracles on 
 the disk, and around the margin is a row of twelve conical fleshy 
 points, the lower two larger and forked at their tips, the next one 
 on each side equally long hut narrower and acute-pointed, and 
 forward of these last is another transverse row of similar points. 
 
 The pupa is formed by the larva’s contracting into an oval form, 
 about 0.20 long and 0.07 thick, the size, however, varying in dif¬ 
 ferent examples, and the external skin becomes dry, stiff and hard, 
 of a yellowish white color at first, but gradually growing darker 
 until it becomes chestnut-brown, continuing to show on its surface 
 the sutures of the larva more or less distinctly, and the little 
 points around the margin of the hind end w.hich were soft and 
 flesh-like in the larva are changed to dry hard immovable teeth or 
 spines. This dried and hardened outer skin now forms the case 
 or cocoon, within which the real pupa is contained, which shows 
 upon its surface the legs and wings of the future fly in their rudi¬ 
 mentary state. 
 
 It lies dormant in the ground about a fortnight in its pupa state, 
 and then gives out the perfect insect, which is a two-winged fly, 
 resembling the common house fly, but somewhat smaller in size, 
 measuring 0.20 in length to the end of its body, and 0.26 to the 
 tip of the closed wings. It is of an ash-gray color, and with three 
 black stripes on the thorax or fore body, and on the hind body a 
 black stripe along the middle of the back, and a black band upon 
 each of the sutures. In the male the head is silvery white, the 
 eyes coppery red in the living specimen, and very large, nearly in 
 contact above — having between them a black stripe, which is much 
 broader at its commencement at the base of the antenme. The 
 antenum, feelers, and legs arc black. On the crown of the head, 
 the legs, and the hind body are black bristles, and on the fore 
 body are coarser ones arranged in rows. The hind body is of a 
 cylindric-eonic form, its under side with a black stripe in the mid¬ 
 dle and black bands on the sutures, similar to the upper side. 
 The wings are hyaline, ciliated with fine bristles along the outer 
 or costal edge nearly to the tip. At the‘apex of the first vein is 
 a slight notch, where is a coarser bristle. 
 
 The female differs in having the eyes smaller and farther apart, 
 and the black stripe between them is much broader, and is tinged 
 with tawny red in its middle, and forked at its upper cud, with a 
 small black spot between the forks. The black stripes on the fore 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 499 
 
 STRIPED FLEA-BEETLE. ITS DESTRUCTIVENESS ON CABBAOES. 
 
 body are obsolete, as arc also the black bands on the sutures of 
 the hind body. 
 
 This Cabbage-fly is so closely related to the Onion-fly that the 
 same remarks made respecting the remedies for that species will 
 apply equally well to this. In the Country Gentleman , May 14, 
 1857 (vol. ix, p. 319), E. Sanders reports that one of the Albany 
 gardeners had saved his plants from the general ruin of the pre¬ 
 ceding year, by sifting powdered tobacco upon them—so much 
 ouly as to lay a flue dust upon the leaves, and repeating the appli¬ 
 cation if the dust is scattered off by a high wind or by rain. It 
 is confidently stated that the fly will not alight upon the dusted 
 plants to deposit its eggs. If this is an effectual remedy, it will 
 no doubt be equally effectual against the radish fly and other flies 
 of this genus. 
 
 Striped flea-beetle, Haltica (Phyllotrela ) striolata, Illiger. (Coleoptera. 
 
 Chrysomelidae.) 
 
 Gnawing numberless little pits in tho loavos of tho cabbage, turnip and radish, and per¬ 
 forating with holes the thin leaves of tho mustard and othor cruciferous plants; a small, 
 black, shining flea-beetle with a broad wavy palo dull yellow 6tripo upon each wing-eover. 
 
 The Striped flea-beetle is one of the most common insects in the 
 garden through the.whole season, attacking all the numerous gar¬ 
 den plants and flowers which pertain to the natural order Cruci- 
 ferce, and when these plants are young and tender, wholly destroy¬ 
 ing them if neglected. Thus the injury sometimes occasioned by 
 it is quite serious. In the market gardens around Albany I am 
 told that some years whole beds of cabbage plants are destroyed 
 by it, sometimes within the space of twenty-four hours, so sud¬ 
 denly is it liable to invade the beds in immense numbers. Mr. 
 Lawrence, a former member of the State legislature, informed me 
 that this flea-beetle had been very destructive in the year 1856, in 
 all the gardens around New York ; he had planted six acres to 
 cabbages in his own grounds at Flushing, and to such an extent 
 were the plants wounded and killed by these insects that he finally 
 cultivated but one acre, and only accomplished this by repeatedly 
 setting new plants wherever those disappeared which had been 
 set previously. And the last of June, after the plants are grown 
 so large as to survive their depredations, the beetles cluster upon 
 particular leaves, those usually which are next inside of the large, 
 tough outer ones, and feed upon their margins, commencing near 
 the base and working along to the apex, eating the upper surface 
 
500 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 STRIPED FLEA-BEETLE. ON FLOWERS. ON MUSTARD. 
 
 and the parenchyma, whereby a wide space upon the border be¬ 
 comes excoriated. And in August, after the cabbages are headed, 
 scores of these beetles are to be seen upon nearly all the large, 
 loose outer leaves, which are freckled all over with whitish dots 
 from their bites, causing them to turn yellow and perish. 
 
 The radish is the earliest vegetable, common in our gardens, 
 which the striped flea-beetle infests. It no sooner appears above 
 ground, with its small tender leaves beginning to put forth from 
 between the two seed leaves, about the middle of May, than the 
 beetle makes its appearance upon it, and the leaves soon become 
 thickly freckled with the wounds the insect makes, hereby greatly 
 retarding the plants in their growth. 
 
 They fall upon the leaves of the turnip, also, as soon as they 
 begin to put forth, two or three crowding themselves together fre¬ 
 quently upon one small leaf, and eating it full of holes. 
 
 To those much admired flowering plants, which every amateur 
 florist strives to raise in the greatest perfection, the Brompton and 
 Ten Weeks Stock (Mathiola annua), these flea-beetles are tho 
 greatest of pests, riddling the leaves of the young plants with 
 holes, thus stunting them in their growth and rendering them puny 
 and dwarfish, and utterly ruining them if the insects aro allowed 
 to continue unchecked in their depredations. 
 
 They equally molest the pretty Virginia Stock (CaJeile man- 
 tima), which is so much prized for the profusion of its bright 
 little flowers, not only eating the leaves but also, whenever a 
 flower puts out, one or two of these beetles are apt to immediately 
 locate themselves upon it. feeding upon the delicate petals, and 
 thus destroying all the beauty of the blossoms unless carois taken 
 to keep them expelled from the plants. 
 
 The rocket, candytuft, and all other cultivated flowers which 
 pertain to the order Cruciferm are more or less attractive to these 
 flea-beetles. 
 
 But the plant of all others of which they are most fond, is cer¬ 
 tainly tho mustard (Sinapis nigra). Wherever a weed of this 
 starts up in the garden, it will be seen sprinkled over with these 
 striped flea-beetles in much greater profusion than any other plant. 
 Its leaves are so thin that tho beetles in feeding gnaw entirely 
 through them, whereby, so early as tho middle of June, the mus¬ 
 tard leaves are everywhere found riddled with holes. A hungry 
 beetle continues to cat the leaf until he makes a hole an eighth o i 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 501 
 
 STRIPED FLEA-BEETLE. LAKVA A LEAF MINER. 
 
 an inch or more in diameter. But most of the holes are small 
 perforations, scarcely large enough to admit a pin. These holes 
 in the young mustard leaves are edged with white, forming a little 
 ring of this color around the margin of the perforation, which is 
 bordered on its outer side bj' a blackish ring. The holes are 
 mostly circular, but some of them are oval or oblong. In the 
 thick, succulent leaves of the cabbage, radish, &c., they merely 
 nibble little pits which 'do not reach through the leaf. Some of 
 these are in the upper and others in the under surface of the leaf, 
 and these nibbled spots are of a pale grayish color, giving to the 
 leaves a speckled appearance. 
 
 A peculiar mark is frequently observed upon the leaves of tur¬ 
 nips, beets and other plants in the garden. The first thought 
 which is apt to strike the mind upon noticing this mark is, that a 
 crinkled dead worm of some kind has been lying upon the leaf, 
 
 and has in some waj' made 
 there an exact print of its 
 form. And if this mark is 
 particularly inspected, it 
 will be observed that it 
 gradually increases in its 
 thickness, through its sev¬ 
 eral crooks and turns, from 
 its commencement to its 
 end. These marks are 
 really produced by minute 
 worms living in the inte¬ 
 rior of the leaves, feeding; 
 upon their green pulpy 
 substance, and leaving the 
 skin uubrokon — mining a 
 serpentine track, which in¬ 
 creases in thickness as the 
 worm grows to a larger 
 size. These worms are 
 
 These worms are 
 
 Rig. 0. Traoks made by tho larvco of flea-booties, termed leaf miners. It is 
 the larvae of these flea-beetles which make most of these marks 
 which occur in tho turnip and other leaves in the garden. The 
 accompanying Fig. 6 represents a turnip leaf with two of these 
 worm tracks in it, and also showing holes perforated by these Ilea- 
 
502 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 STRIPED PLEA-BEETLE. EGOS. LARVA. 
 
 beetles, arul now enlarged in size by the subsequent growth of the 
 leaf. 
 
 It is but recently that the larva state and transformations of this 
 srerms of insects has been discovered. We owe it to the careful 
 investigations of Mr. H. Lo Keux that we are now made acquainted 
 with the complete history and economy of these little beetles. 
 From his valuable paper on this subject, published in the Transac¬ 
 tions of the Entomological Society of London, vol. ii, p. 24, the 
 following statement is derived. It refers to the common European 
 species, Haltica ( Phyllotreta) nemorum, which, both in its appear¬ 
 ance and habits, is almost identical with our American Striped flea- 
 beetle. This account will consequently apply to our insect in 
 every respect, it is probable, as exactly as though it was the insect 
 upon which the observations were made. 
 
 Mr. Le Keux states that if the spring be early and warm the 
 sexes begin to pair in April, and continue doing so till September. 
 The female deposits her eggs upon the under sido of the leaves of 
 the turnip, and probably, also, we suppose, of the cabbage, radish 
 and other plants upon which she dwells. She lays apparently 
 about one egg per day. Ten pairs laid only forty-three eggs in a 
 week. Although this was in a state of confinement, the correct¬ 
 ness of the estimate is supported by the fact that in leaves taken 
 from the field and having as many as six larvae in them, these 
 larvae were of such different sizes as to indicate that their ages 
 varied from each other. 
 
 The eggs are very minute, oval, smooth, and partaking of the 
 color of the leaf on which they are deposited. They are hatched 
 in ten days, and the little maggots immediately upon coming from 
 the shell begin to eat through the skin of the leaf, and to form 
 wiuding burrows by feeding on the pulp. These burrows become 
 plainly visible to the eye after the larvae have left them, and the 
 skin of the leaf along their track is withered and discolored; but 
 in the early stage of their formation they arc difficult to discover, 
 and it is only by holding the leaf up between the eye and the 
 light that they can be readily detected. 
 
 The larvae are pale, or of a golden yellow color, fleshy and 
 cylindrical, with six feet placed upon the breast, and a prolcg at 
 the end of the body. The head is furnished with jaws and large 
 dark eyes, and the first and last rings bear dark patches. They 
 become full fed in about six days, when they leave their burrows 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 503 
 
 STRIPED PLEA-BEETLE. PCPA. BEETLE DESCRIBED. 
 
 and bury themselves in the earth not quite two inches below the 
 surface, selecting a spot near to a turnip, where its leaves will pro¬ 
 tect them from wet and from drouth. 
 
 Here iu the earth they become immoveable pupce or chrysalides, 
 which are brought to maturity, it is supposed, in about a fortnight, 
 when the beetle emerges from its tomb to again fulfill the laws of 
 nature. 
 
 Thus, from the careful observations and experiments of Mr. 
 Le Ivcux, it appears that the female beetle lays but few eggs com¬ 
 pared with most other insects, and that it requires a period of 
 about a mouth to carry the animal through its different stages, up 
 to the time when it becomes a perfect luictle again—namely, it 
 remains an egg ten days, a maggot six, and a pupa fourteen days. 
 The beetles themselves are rather long-lived, for they have been 
 kept from July until the following February. 
 
 In its perfeot state as we meet with it upon the leaves in our gardens, our American 
 Striped flea-beetle is of an oval form, twico as long as thick, and usually measuring one- 
 tenth of an inch in length, though individuals of a slightly smaller sizo aro not unfre- 
 quently met with, these being usually males. It is of a shining black color with the sur¬ 
 face covered with very fine shallow punotures. Tho head is small and deeply sunk into 
 tho thorax, with tho oyos and mouth slightly protruding above the gonoral level 
 of tho surface. The antenna) aro inserted noar each other slightly above tho 
 r | nose, in tho middle of the face, and are about half as long as the body, and very 
 “ plainly grow thicker towards their tips. They aro composed of olevon joints, 
 which aro rather compactly united together, tho first joint longest and gradu¬ 
 ally thickened towards its tip, as are tho remaining joints, which are about a 
 third longer than thick, the last joint being oval and pointed at its ond. The 
 
 Fig. 0. 
 
 Striped flea- throe first joints aro palo dull yellow, and 
 
 the others black. Tho thorax or 
 beetle, forebody is moro broad than long, broadest at its base and gently narrowing 
 to its apex with the sides convex. Tho wing-covers whon closod together aro oval in 
 their outline, and twice as wide as the thorax, and four times as long. On tho middle 
 of each is a broad, irregular stripo of a palo tarnishod yellow color, occupying about 
 a third of tho width of the wing-covers. This stripe bogins almost upon tho base, 
 inside of tho middle, and extends at first obliquely outward and backward a short distance, 
 and then turns directly backward, its hind end being bluntly roundod and slightly turned 
 inward towards tho suturo. Tho middle third of its length is narrow and slender, from 
 having as it wero a half oval notch cut from it upon its outer side, this notoli including 
 about two-thirds of its width, but being sometimes moro sometimes less deep. And 
 slightly forward of this notch, on tho outer side of the stripo, at the point whero it turns 
 from an oblique to a longitudinal direction, is a roundod, somotimosan angular projection, 
 with tho point in tho latter case directed forward. Tho legs aro black with tho knees and 
 foot palo dull yollow. Tho hind thighs aro very thiok and stout, whereby they are adapted 
 for making a strong leap, and thoir shanks on tho outer side towards the apex are fringed 
 with coarse bristles, rendering tho foothold moro secure whon in tho aot ol leaping, the 
 other parts of the surface of these as of tho other shanks being clothed with an inclined 
 beard. Tho feet aro four-joiotod, tho first joint longest and equal to tho two following 
 onos in its length, the second joint shortest, tho third dooply divided into two lobes, these 
 three joints having short inclined bristlos on their upper side, and their under side tur- 
 nished with brushes of fine hairs, enabling thorn to cling and walk with facility, up tho 
 
504 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OP NEW TORE 
 
 STRITED FLEA-BEETLE. SCIENTIFIC NAME. LEAPING POWER. WINTER QUARTERS. 
 
 sides of glass and otlior smooth surfaoos. The fourth joint is inserted botween the lobes of 
 the third joint, and is slonder, gradually more thick to its ond, whoro it is furnishod with 
 two minute claws. 
 
 These beetles vary iu having the slender middle portion of the 
 pale-yellow stripe upon the wing-covers entirely obliterated, leav¬ 
 ing only the two ends of the stripe, and thus forming four spots 
 upon the back of the closed wing-covers. This four-spotted vari¬ 
 ety was described previous to the normally marked insect, by 
 Fabricius, in the year 1801, who gave it the name Crioceris bipus- 
 tulata (Systema Eleutheratorum, vol. i, p. 4(54). But as this is 
 only the name of a variety, it is not entitled to stand as the designa¬ 
 tion of the species. On a subsequent page (469) of the same vol¬ 
 ume, Fabricius described the species more correctly, naming it 
 Crioceris vittata, but he had already given this name to another 
 species of this genus, hence it could not be employed to designate 
 this species also. In 1806 it received the name striolata from 
 Iiliger (Magazine, vol. vi, p. 148), and by this name it has since 
 been currently designated. 
 
 A small black beetle, with two pale yellowish spots on each of 
 its wing-covers, which is very common iu our gardens, so much 
 resembles the four-spotted variety of this flea beetle, that corre¬ 
 spondents have sometimes sent it to me, supposing it to be the 
 same insect. It is the Four-spotted Bembidium (IJ. A-maxulalum , 
 Linn. Fauna Suecica, vol. i, p. 813), a species common to Europe 
 and this country. By noticing its motions, it will readily be dis¬ 
 tinguished from the flea-beetle. It never hops, but, sparkling like 
 a diamond in the bright sunshine, it runs briskly in a very serpen¬ 
 tine or zigzag track, a few inches, till it gains some crack in the 
 ground, or other covert, in which it abruptly disappears. It feeds 
 on other insects—its strength and agility enabling it to overpower 
 those that are much larger than it in size. 
 
 This Striped flea-beetle and all the group of insects to which 
 it pertains, and which form the genus Haltica , are readily known 
 by the great thickness of their hind thighs, which gives them the 
 power of leaping to a prodigious distance, considering their small 
 size. They are able to leap about eighteen inches, which is about 
 216 times the length of their bodies. They seldom walk, and 
 when at rest they sit with their hind legs folded under them, ready 
 to skip away in an instant, if any danger approaches them. But 
 it is during the warmth of the day and in the clear sunshine that 
 they are thus active; After sundown they become more sluggish, 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 505 
 
 STRIPED PLEA-BEETLE. WINTER QUARTERS. DESTROYS SPROUTING SEEDS. 
 
 aud are less on the alert, and leap with much less quickness and 
 force. They also fly with facility in the warm, clear sunshine. 
 
 These beetles arc not limited to the garden, but occur every¬ 
 where in the meadows and pastures. They live through the win¬ 
 ter in a torpid state, and may be found under the loose bark of 
 trees as well as among the fallen leaves, in the cracks of old tim¬ 
 ber, in the hollow stalks of straw and stubble, and all similarly 
 sheltered situations. Inactive as they are during the inclement 
 months of winter, the warmth of the hand is sufficient to revive 
 them in a few minutes, and an uuusually mild day occurring at any 
 time in the winter will allure many of them out from their retreats. 
 
 On the first fine weather of spring, warmed by the genial heat 
 of the sun and cheered by his rays, these flea-beetles arouse from 
 their slumbers and come forth from their winter-quarters, leaving 
 them for sunny situations, where they may be seen in considerable 
 numbers, sitting on the sides of buildings and fences, or sunning 
 themselves on dry banks and on projecting clods of earth, pro¬ 
 tected from the cold wind. In the gardens some of them may be 
 seen abroad some years in March, and in April they begin to appear 
 on the crops in the fields ; but May and June are the months in 
 which their most general and fatal attacks are made, -when the 
 vegetation is young aud tender, and easily killed. Even before 
 the sprouted seeds shoot out from the ground, I have reason to 
 think the plants arc frequently destroyed by these flea-beetles 
 feeding upon them in concealment under the surface. It often 
 happens to the cabbage that not a plant makes its appearance in 
 the bed where the seed has been sowed, in which cases the seed 
 is commonly inferred to have been -worthless, but in most of these 
 instances it is more probable that the young plants iu their way 
 out from the ground have been consumed by these flca-bectles. 
 Aud, as I have already published in No. 23 of my series of ento¬ 
 mological articles in the Country Gentleman and in the Cultivator , 
 I860, page 270, a correspondent at Solsville, Madison Co., N. Y., 
 sent me this Striped flea-beetle with the statement that they early 
 in June were “ committing great depredations upon the bean crop. 
 They eat mostly under ground. After the beans are well sprouted 
 and within half an inch of the surface of the ground, they bore 
 minute holes on the inner side of each half of the bean, and it is, 
 of course, stunted, and soon turns black. They sometimes attack 
 tlie stalk below the beau, also, and follow it down an inch or 
 
506 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 STRIPED PLEA-BEETLE. WEATHER FAVORING IT. REMEDIES. 
 
 more.” And through the summer and the fore part of autumn 
 different crops continue to suffer from these pests. Mr. Curtis 
 states that sometimes so late as the middle of September the tur¬ 
 nip crop, in England, is liable to be destroyed by them. They 
 arc everywhere abundant from May till October, amongst the 
 grass in meadows and pastures and in the fields of grain, for 
 plants occur everywhere which are adapted for their sustenance: 
 but the most abundant supplies of the most palatable food for 
 them is found in the gardens, aud hence they are there present in 
 much greater numbers than in any other situation. They appear 
 to have the greatest relish for the leaves of the mustard, turnips 
 of all kinds, cabbages aud cauliflowers, radishes, and horse-radish; 
 but they are by no means fastidious respecting their food, and 
 readily sustain themselves on hedge mustard' water cresses, and 
 all other plants of the cress group, pepper-grass, shepherds’ 
 purse, &c. 
 
 They delight in the bright sunshine, .and avoid shaded situa¬ 
 tions. This was very evident one season when I had cabbages set 
 upon the south side of my garden where the fence cast a deep 
 shade upon the outer row. This row it was very observable was 
 wholly free from these beetles, when they were common on the 
 next row only two feet distant, aud on all the other rows in the 
 patch. It consequently follows that warmth and sunshine are far 
 more favorable to their multiplication than cool cloudy weather, 
 and that in hot dry seasons they will be most numerous and 
 destructive. Showery weather after a long drouth, and cloudy 
 days with gleams of sunshine, render them abundant, as such 
 seasons do the greater portion of insects. It is in clear sunlight 
 and warmth that they delight. Dampness and wet does not 
 appear to be at all repulsive to them, for it is common to meet 
 with some of them upon water cresses growing in rivulets and 
 marshy pools, if they are but exposed to the strong light of the 
 sun. 
 
 Without attempting to notice the numerous remedies for these 
 flea-beetles which correspondents are every year communicating 
 to our agricultural periodicals, I will only speak of those with 
 ■which I am familiar from personal experience, as this will com¬ 
 prise everything which it is necessary to know for combatting and 
 destroying them. 
 
 As these beetles arc very shy and timorous, whenever I seo 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 507 
 
 STRIFED FLEA-BEETLE. REMEDIES. DDSTINO WITIl LIME. 
 
 them on radish, cabbage, or other leaves in the garden, I have 
 always been accustomed by striking the hand menancingly towards 
 them, and by brushing and shaking the plants, to dislodge and 
 scare them away. There is very little efficacy in this, however, 
 unless it be repeated two or three times daily, for the insects all 
 return to their favorite locations, immediately after the threatened 
 danger passes by, and in an hour will be found again as numerous 
 upon the leaves as they were before. But if they arc frequently 
 disturbed upon any particular plants they will be apt to forsake 
 them and take up their abode in other quarters where they can 
 remain unmolested. 
 
 Being so timorous and fearful, the thought occui'cd to me, that 
 something upon the plan of a “scare-crow” might, perhaps, be effi¬ 
 cacious in protecting plants from these beetles. I accordingly, a 
 few years ago, crumpled an old newspaper together, tieing a pack¬ 
 thread around it and suspended it above abed of turnips, to swing 
 backwards and fo'rth with the wind, the lower edge of the paper 
 brushing slightly against a few of the leaves. The result was, 
 those leaves only that were brushed by the paper were free from 
 beetles. A leaf over which the paper was frequently whirling and 
 swinging, quite close to it but without touching it, appeared to be 
 as much infested by them as any leaf in the bed. 
 
 Mr. LeKeux experimented with several substances. He found 
 that washing over the plants with sulphate of potash had no effect 
 upon the flea-beetles. Powdered sulphur, strewed one-tenth of an 
 inch thick, did not deter them from attacking the plants. Snuff, 
 assafoetida, and a powder called “ anti-tinea,” for preserving furs, 
 proved equally powerless. They did retire from smelling salts 
 (carbonate of ammonia), and died immediately on being exposed 
 to the effluvia from it; but a small bit placed an inch from the 
 plant would destroy it also. 
 
 With regard to lime, Mr. LeKeux states that forty 7 bushels per 
 acre, spread upon the ground immediately before the seeds were 
 sown, did no good. And when the turnip plants came up, and the 
 beetle was observed attacking them, lime-dust was thrown over 
 them, so that many of the plants were quite white with a coat of 
 it; after which as many flies were found upon those as upon any 
 that were free, and they were eventually devoured. Mr. Curtis 
 (Farm Insects, p. 27), quoting this statement, observes that it is 
 oontrary to his own experience; for a plot nearly eaten off by 
 
508 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 STRIPED PLEA-BEETLE. DUSTING YFITII ASHES. WITH SULPHUR. 
 
 those beetles, recovered on being woll dusted with lime. And ho 
 cites Mr. Birk, who says that he used slacked lime with perfect 
 success, and although profusely, it did not at all injure the plants. 
 
 Dusting the infested plants with lime, plaster, ashes, soot, Scotch 
 suulf, sulphur, &c., or with two or three of these substances mixed 
 together, are measures which have been extensively resorted to in 
 this country, and the efficacy of which are everywhere known by 
 experience. The beetles pretty generally forsake the plants which 
 arc thus dusted. I am inclined to think the efficacy of these 
 dry powders is partly due to the embarassment they give the 
 beetles, by preventing them from leaping with their customary 
 agility—their feet being unable to get a firm support for making 
 the leap, when standing among this loose dry powder. I extract 
 from my memoranda one of the several observations I have made, 
 on the efl'ects of dusting the plauts with these substances: “June 
 15, 18G3. My young cabbage plants, now some six inches high, 
 are much infested with the Striped flea-beetles. They gather upon 
 the upper sides of the leaves, in the bright sun-shine, and towards 
 the base of the leaf they eat into the soft pulp, or parenchyma, 
 thus forming a large, rough, raw spot, to which the minute gar¬ 
 den fleas ( Poduridce ) delight to resort. On other leaves they cat 
 similar rough streaks along the border. Two days ago I sprinkled 
 with my hand, dry unleached ashes on six rows of the cabbage 
 plants, and sulphur on four rows. The effect has boon most happy. 
 I to-day find no flea-beetles or garden fleas upon any of the plants 
 which wero dusted with ashes, and only a few of the leaves dusted 
 with sulphur have any upon them, whilst the rows of plants which 
 were not sprinkled are much infested. And the wounds made by 
 the beetles are healed. I now sprinkle air-slaked lime upon four 
 of the remaining rows. I notice that the beetles do not throw 
 themselves off from the leaves so quickly when the lime powder 
 strikes them, as they did when the ashes began to fall upon them, 
 and I think the ashes are to be preferred to any other substance 
 for protecting plants from these flea-beetles.” 
 
 But although these substances, ashes especially, usually suffice 
 for driving these flea-beetles from the plants, my observations 
 assure me of the fact, that a season occasionally arrives when they 
 fail of having any perceptible effect. The insects at times become 
 more bold and feaidess than is their common habit. Numbers o 
 t>£? em will cling to the leaf, regardless of the dust falling upo n 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 509 
 
 STRirED FLEA-BEETLE. CHICKENS THE BEST REMEDY. 
 
 them; and some individuals being stationed in the little pits which 
 they have eaten in the thick texture of the leaves, and others down 
 in the axils at the base of the leaf-stalks, pertinaciously remain, 
 regardless of any jarring or shaking of the plants, and are only 
 dislodged by crowding them out from their lairs with the point of 
 a'knife or other implement. And though the plants be kept well 
 dusted over with ashes, and the beetles be repeatedly driven off 
 from them, they immediately return to them again. It was, no 
 doubt, a season when these insects were thus froward and bold, 
 when Mr. LeKeux failed to perceive that lime, sulphur, snuff, &c., 
 had any effect in expelling them from the plants. What is the 
 cause of their thus varying from their ordinary timorous habits, 
 we know not. One occasion, when we particularly noticed their 
 clinging to the plants in the garden so persistently, the season 
 was quite backward, with rains falling almost daily in May and 
 June. 
 
 But this dusting of the plants with ashes, lime, &c., is only a 
 palliative remedy, valuable as a temporaiy resort when we have 
 no better means at hand for averting this evil. It leaves the 
 insects as numerous as they were before. It does not subdue the 
 enemy ; it merely drives him away from one point, and leaves him 
 in full force to make his attack upon some other point. It should 
 be our aim to kill and lessen his numbers, and hereby so weaken 
 his force that ho will not be able to do us serious injury. The 
 best mode of accomplishing this will probably be most clearly 
 imparted to the reader by another extract from my memoranda, 
 reading as follows: 
 
 “June 21, 1864, I discovered that my young cabbage plants 
 were being considerably injured by the Striped flea-beetles. 
 Many of the leaves had a wide strip upon their border excoriated, 
 with several of the beetles present upon these particular leaves, 
 feeding and extending the injury. I thereupon sprinkled tho 
 leaves copiously with ashes. But the rain soon after washed off 
 tho ashes, whereby tho single application was but partially suc¬ 
 cessful. I then turned some large half-grown chickens into the 
 garden, and watching their movements, I saw them spitefully 
 picking at these cabbage leaves. I thought it was tho cabbage 
 they were picking; but keeping my eye upon a particular leaf 
 which I saw a chicken picking at, and going to it I found tho leaf 
 was not at all wounded. It was therefore evident it was theso 
 
510 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW TORE 
 
 STRIPED FLEA-BEETLE. TOADS DESTROY IT. 
 
 flea-beetles which the fowl was picking from the leaf. I after¬ 
 wards noticed them repeatedly at this work, first picking off from 
 the leaf, and then off from the ground under it—it thus bein'* 
 plain that a portion of the beetles leaped to the ground for safety 
 as the work upon the leaf was going on, but failed by this 
 resort to escape from the piercing eyes of the chicken. And a 
 few days after I found these flea-beetles had totally disappeared 
 from the cabbages, and were seen no more that season. Most of 
 them had no doubt been devoured by the chickens; a few may, 
 perhaps, have fled to safer quarters. An old hen getting into the 
 garden commenced helping herself freely to the leaves ; but the 
 chickens only want the beetles which are on the leaves.” 
 
 I would further say, every owner of a garden in city, village or 
 country, should make it a regular practice* to ‘rear at least ono 
 brood of chickens each year in the garden, keeping the parent 
 hen confined under a small coop placed somewhere in the midst 
 of the grounds, and allowing the chickens to run freely about and 
 forage for themselves, until they are grown so large as to begin 
 to molest the cabbages, cucumbers or other vegetation. The 
 number of these flea-beetles, centipedes and other injurious insects 
 and their larv®, which a brood of chickens will search out and 
 consume in getting their growth, is immense, and is by far our 
 most convenient, most economical and effectual resort for keeping 
 our gardens clear of these vermin. 
 
 We have another important and invaluable animal to aid us in 
 this work. Next to chickens, toads are beyond doubt our best 
 safeguards against these and other noxious insects. A few of 
 them should always be kept domesticated in every garden. How 
 very serviceable these animals are in destroying this striped flea- 
 beetle, is amply shown by the statement of a “Brooklyn bee¬ 
 keeper,” made at a meeting of the American Institute Farmers’ 
 Club, as reported in the New York Tribune, August 30, 1864, p. 
 6, col. 6. He saj's he saw a toad snap up one or two bees from 
 the ground, and fearing he was living on the bees, he killed him, 
 and examined his stomach and found no bee or part of a bee 
 therein, but “ two long, hairy caterpillars, and numerous heads 
 and parts of beetles ; but the bulk was made up of a sort of cab - 
 bage beetle or flea, jet black, of small size, with a hard shell, 
 which I had noticed very abundant on my cabbages and turnips.” 
 
 From what has now been stated, it will bo seen that we need 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 511 
 
 CABBAGE APniS. INJURIOUSNESS. LIVES IN CLUSTERS. 
 
 never suffer from this insect. By raising a brood of chickens 
 annually iu our gardens, and having the toad domesticated there, 
 we can readily prevent these striped ilea-boctles from becoming 
 multiplied and injurious. And if these animals cannot be pro¬ 
 cured, and these beetles get to be numerous and detrimental, we 
 can usually protect the plants from them by dusting them with 
 ashes. Thus we have remedies against this insect which are so 
 easily obtained and applied, and are so efficacious, that we can 
 scarcely desire anything further in the premises. 
 
 Cabbage aphis, Aphis Brassicce, Linn. (Uomoptera. Aphides.) 
 
 •On the loaves of cabbage and ruta baga through tho soason, sucking their juices; dull 
 greonish plant lice, solitary or in dusters, the winged ones varied with black. 
 
 One of the insects most common upon the cabbage and from 
 which it suffers much injury is the plant-louse. From July to 
 the close of the season it may be found at all times upon some of 
 the leaves of almost every plant, either wandering about solitary, 
 or stationary and closely crowded together in clusters covering 
 portions of the surface. It inhabits for the most part the upper 
 sides of the inner leaves and the under sides of the outer ones. 
 It is in the former case that it is most pernicious, by sucking the 
 juices from and weakening this part, whereby it heads tardily and 
 imperfectly, or, if the lice are numerous, no head is formed and 
 the plant is worthless. J. L. Edgerton, of Waverly, N. Y., states 
 (Country Gentleman, July, 1857, p. 80), that his patch of cabbages 
 the year before, comprising 350 large, thrifty plants, were attacked 
 by lice just as they were beginning to head, and in three weeks 
 every plant was covered by these vermin, and he lost tho whole, 
 neither ashes or salt having any effect upon them. 
 
 Each cluster of these plant-lice is composed of wingless indivi¬ 
 duals of different sizes, all of which, except the smallest ones, are 
 coated over with a gray meal-like powder. And a few very small 
 black lice, having wings, are common!}' standing here and there 
 among and around those mealy wingless ones. And in almost 
 every colony there may be noticed one or more bright yellow 
 maggots. These are tho lame of ono or moro species of flics 
 pertaining to the genus Syrjpkus, which feed upon and destroy the 
 plant-lice. Lady-bugs and other destroyers also abound in their 
 vicinity. And we frequently see places upon the leaves where the 
 mealy powder and the white cast skins show that a colony of these 
 
512 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 CABBAGE Arms. YOUNG LICE. WINGLESS FEMALES. 
 
 lice has recently been located, which has been wholly broken 
 up by these destroyers, not a living insect being left. 
 
 The ruta baga or Swedish turnip also frequently suffers from 
 this Cabbage aphis, the under side of the curled leaves bcino- 
 sometimes densely covered with them, of all sizes. In August, 
 September and October, the old wingless females are seen, resting 
 stationary, with their bills inserted into the leaf pumping out its 
 juices, surrounded by their young broods, all similarly employed, 
 with here and there a winged male walking lazily about over tho 
 backs of his kindred. 
 
 The cabbage was no doubt introduced upon this continent with 
 the first arrival of European settlers, it is so readily grown from 
 the seed. And this aphis no doubt followed it ere many years, 
 the live insects or their eggs having probably been brought here 
 in cabbages forming part of the stock of provisions on shipboard. 
 It has long been well known in our country. In 1791, the old 
 New York Agricultural Society, in its circular of inquires (Trans¬ 
 actions, vol. i, p. 14), asks for replies to tho query, “ Do you know 
 how the lice or flies that infest cabbages and turnips can be over 
 come?”—showing that seventy years ago this insect was a pest in 
 the country, of such importance that a remedy for it was earnestly 
 desired. 
 
 Upon particularly inspecting a colony of these plant lice, it will 
 be observed that the smaller, young ones or larvae, are egg-shaped 
 and of a dull pale greeen color, and their bodies are dusted over 
 with pruiuose matter resembling a pale grayish powder. Their 
 antennae and legs are smoky or black, and in some individuals a 
 row of minute black dots may be discovered along each side of 
 the back, and on the hind part other dots inside of the row. The 
 smallest, recently born larvae, however, differ from the others in 
 being destitute of any gray mealy coating, and also in being more 
 v . y narrow and somewhat cylindrical in their form, 
 
 with the head narrower than the anterior end of 
 the body, and the antennas and legs dull white. 
 
 The females, or largest wingless individuals in 
 J iipfmM I n. the colony are also coated over with gray meal- 
 
 like powder. They are less than a tenth of an 
 J inch in length, egg-shaped and of a dull ycllow- 
 ? V ish green color, the eyes black and also two large 
 Fig. 8. Wingiose fomaio. spots on the crown, and one on each side of the 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 513 
 
 Winged fomalo. 
 
 CABBAGE APHIS. WINGED FEMALE FLY. nEMEDV. TOBACCO SMOKE. 
 
 neck. The antennae are also black, with the third joint dull yel¬ 
 lowish. The body is plump, large and unwieldy in its aspect, 
 with the breathing pores, and several dots on the back, black, and 
 on the hinder part some vague blackish transverse streaks. The 
 honey-tubes are short and black, as are the legs also, the base of 
 the thighs being pale greenish. 
 
 The winged individuals, Mr. Curtis takes it for granted, are 
 males, but they certainly are, at least for the most part, females, 
 and show the end of the ovipositor slightly projecting like a tail 
 at the tip of the body. 
 
 These winged^ females , represented in 
 the cut, Fig. 9, the lower figuro showing 
 the natural size, measure 0.075 in 
 length to the tip of the abdomen, and 0.14 
 to tho end of the closed wings, and their 
 width from tip to tip of the extended wings 
 is 0.18. They are of a dull greenish color, 
 varying to palo dull yellowish, and largely 
 varied with black. Tho head, neck and foro- 
 body on its upper side are black and shining. 
 The horns or antennto are two-thirds the 
 length of the body, more slender towards 
 their tips, and black. On the neck, one or 
 two palo yellowish bauds are somotimos poroeptiblo. Tho hind body is usually pale 
 green, with dark groou or black bands on the back, which are often narrowed or somewhat 
 broken asunder in tho middle and have ono or two dots or small spots at their outer ends 
 in a longitudinal row; the honey-tubos scarcely equal the distanoe to the tip and are black 
 with their bases palo yellowish. Tho legs are black with tho basal half of tho shanks and 
 of tho thighs palo yellowish. Tho wings are hyaline and iridescent, their stigma palo 
 greenish and their veins black or dark brown. Tho distance between tho first and second 
 veins at tlioir base, is a little more than half that between them at their tips; third vein 
 further from tho second at the tip than at tho base, and a little nearer to tho second at 
 the base than tho second is to the first; first fork a little nearer to the second fork than to 
 the third vein, and a little nearer to the third vein than tho third is to tho second; second 
 fork very little nearer to tho fourth vein than to tho first fork; fourth vein slightly curved 
 and very littlo nearer to tho second fork than to tho tip of tho rib-vein. 
 
 Usually these plant-lice are not present upon the cabbages or 
 turnips in such numbers as to occasion any anxiety. Their natural 
 destroyers ordinarily suffice to keep them in check. But when, as 
 m the case of Mr. Edgerton, they throng the vegetation in such 
 hosts as to threaten its ruin, I should drive short stakes among 
 the cabbages or turnips and spread a sheet, a large piece of can¬ 
 vass or old carpeting over as many plants as the cloth would cover, 
 and burn tobacco in cups here and there underneath, till I was 
 certain the smoke had tilled the whole space. Hereby every aphis 
 vould instantly be smothered. I should then remove tho cloth 
 :uul wiLl1 clean water from a watering pot wash the plants 
 [Ag.] 33 
 
514 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 CABBAGE APHIS. OTHER REMEDIES. 
 
 thoroughly. I should then inclose and treat another portion of the 
 plants in the same manner, and another, until I had gone over the 
 whole. Tobacco smoke will cleanse any plant from lice where it 
 is so applied as to penetrate between the leaves sufficiently to reach 
 every insect upon them. And this is the only known remedy 
 which is certain and infallible. All others are merely palliative. 
 
 Soap suds, which are so often recommended, will kill all the 
 young tender lice, and leave most of the old ones alive, to each 
 commence founding a new colony. 
 
 Mr. Curtis, in his Farm Insects, p. 70, makes the following re¬ 
 marks on the subject of remedies for these cabbage plant-lice: 
 
 Protected as the aphides are in tho wrinkles of the leaves, 
 which they themselves have caused by tjhe pumping up and 
 extravasion of the sap, it is, I think, impossible in the open field 
 to apply any effectual remedy for the extirpation of this prolific 
 tribe. When it is in our power, the best plan would be to cut off 
 the diseased leaves as soon as the presence of the insects is detect¬ 
 ed, and crush them completely under foot, or put them into a 
 sack and carry them away to be destroyed by boiling water. 
 Watering the plants with equal parts of tobacco-water and lime water 
 is said to he the best mode of destroying the aphides in gardens; and 
 if plants be washed with tobacco-water alone—about half a pound 
 of tobacco to a half gallon of hot water — it will kill the aphides; 
 and if applied warm it will kill them the sooner. Strewing 
 tobacco on hot cinders will soon rid a green-house of this pest; 
 and sprinkling tobacco-dust upon trees, when the dew is upon the 
 leaves, is an infallible remedy; hut these applications would avail 
 but little in the field, even if it were practicable to employ them. 
 Sprinkling of lime-dust is likewise considered a very effective cure, 
 but not in wet weather, rvhen the lime not only loses its caustic 
 quality, but the aphides so perfectly secrete themselves, that it is 
 impossible to annoy them. I have been astonished to see plants 
 swarming with them on the first dry day after long continued and 
 very heavy rains. 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 515 
 
 RADISH-FLY■ MAGGOT BORES RADISH ROOTS. 
 
 Radish-fly and worm, Anthomyia Baphani , Harris. (Diptera. Muscida.) 
 
 Boring in tho roots of tho radish; white maggots thrico as loDg as thick, their bluntly 
 flattened hind end margined with minute teeth, of which tho lower two are larger and 
 notched at their tips; the pupa lying underground and producing ash gray flies having on 
 tho hind body a black stripe on the middle of the back crossed by narrower black lines on 
 the edges of the rings. 
 
 The leaves of the radish, are perforated with small holes by the 
 same Striped flea-beetles which infest the cabbage leaves. But the 
 worst enemy of this vegetable is the larva of the Radish-fly, An¬ 
 thomyia Raphani as it is named by Dr. Harris, although it appears 
 to be identical in every particular with the European A. rcidicum. 
 This larva is a maggot which eats spots in the skin of the radish 
 and also bores an irregular yellow track in the white interior of 
 the root, rendering it hard, stringy and unfit for the table. Here¬ 
 by a large portion of the radishes grown in all our gardens are 
 every year worthless, and many never attempt'to grow this vege¬ 
 table, in consequence of its liability to be thus worm eaten. It is 
 only my earliest sown radishes, each year, from which I obtain 
 any that are fit for use, and for several years past, this first sowing 
 has also been a total failure. The worm and also the pupa differs 
 in no respect from those of the Onion-fly, that I perceive, except 
 that at the hind end the two larger teeth on the middle of the 
 underside are slightly notched or two-toothed at their tips, instead 
 of being tapered to a single point. The flies, too, are very simi¬ 
 lar, but here three faint brownish stripes are perceptible on the 
 thorax or fore-body, and upon the hind-body in the male is a 
 black stripe along the middle of the back, which is crossed by 
 narrower black lines on each of the sutures. 
 
 Sometimes the wounds of the radish are merely superficial, con¬ 
 sisting of round pits ate in the skin, and possibly it is some other 
 worm living in the ground which gnaws these shallow holes. 
 These may be wholly cut out with tho knife, in preparing the 
 radishes for the table, and thus their injury is unimportant. But 
 at other times the maggot is found in the root, in a burrow which 
 it has bored, running irregularly about in the interior, to the 
 length of one or two inches, forming a tawny yellow streak in tho 
 white succulent substance of the root. Sometimes these streaks 
 run everywhere through the root. The external orifice is wet and 
 slimy, and the worm is frequently noticed reposing here at tho 
 mouth of its burrow, its blunt hind end forming a plug as it were 
 k> the hole. "When disturbed it retreats inward, moving along its 
 
516 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 RADISH-FLY. MAGGOT AND FLY DESCRIBED. 
 
 burrow with agility, by alternately contracting and elongating its 
 body. 
 
 The larva is 0.20 long, elongating itself to 0.25 when crawling. 
 It is about three times as long as thick, appearing to be more 
 short and broad than the larva of the Onion-fly. It is white, 
 shining, cylindrical and tapering to a point anteriorly, where the 
 jaws appear under the skin as a short, black, movable line, its 
 anterior end when protruded forward becoming split, and then 
 seen to be two sharp hooks, which are curved downward, and 
 when the animal is crawling these hooks are pressed downward 
 against the surface to aid in locomotion. The body is divided by 
 transverse lines into eleven or twelve segments, and when the 
 head is exserted thirteen segments can be counted. At the hind 
 end of the back a pale tawny yellowish dorsal stripe is faintly 
 visible. The hind.end is abruptly cut off, obliquely downward and 
 slightly backward, forming a flat surface, having above its centre 
 two conspicuous spiracles or elevated dots, their surface opake and 
 rugose, and their color sometimes tawny yellow, sometimes black. 
 This flattened hind end has a number of small acute teeth 
 around its outer margin, of which the two lower ones are thicker, 
 of a brownish color, and slightly notched or two-toothed at their 
 tips in the large but not in the smaller young larvae. Above these 
 on each side are three teeth, distant from each other, the middle 
 one nearer to the upper than to the lower one. 
 
 When full grown they change in the ground to reddish brown 
 pupae, similar to those of the onion and cabbage maggots. The 
 insect remains in this state two or three weeks, when the fly 
 hatches and crawls up out of the ground, with its wings crump¬ 
 led up, and climbing up the side of a clod or any perpendicular 
 surface which it finds, these members expand and assume their 
 proper form before they become dried and firm. 
 
 In these Radish-flies the two sexes differ materially. Tho «ia/e is ash gray and very 
 bristly; tho large compound eyes occupy most of tho surfaoo of tho head and are almost in 
 contact upon the crown. There are also three minute eyes at tho base of tho crown. Tho 
 face is silvery gray, almost whito in some reflections of tho light, with a long black streak 
 on the forehead, which is pointed at its hind end. Below this streak are tho black three- 
 jointed autonnm, tho basal joint being small, the second large, tho third largest and oval, 
 with a two-jointed pubescent bristle on tho back, tho first of tho joints being very minute. 
 Tho fore-body is oblong, whitish on the sides, with throo faint interrupted dusky stripes 
 upon the back. Tho hind body is shining gray, rather small and elliptical, tapering to 
 the apex, with a black stripe down the back, tho edges of tho segments and tho region of 
 the scutol being also black. The two wings are largo, transparent, iridescent, laid the 
 one upon tho other in repose, tho longitudinal veins extending to tho margin, with two 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 517 
 
 HAIRY PLEA-BEETLE. ON TOMATO, PETDNIA AND TOTATO LEAVES. 
 
 transvovsc veinlots in the disk. The poisers are pale yellowish. The six legs aro black 
 and bristly, the feot five-jointed, ending in two little claws, and two large pale leathery 
 lobes. 
 
 The female is of a uniform ash gray color, excepting the silvery white face and pale 
 sides of tbo fore-body. The oyes are widely apart, with a broad black stripe between 
 them, which is shaded into ohestnut color in front. The hind body is larger than in the 
 male and conical towards its apex. Tho wings have a tinge of yellowish at their bases. 
 The species moasures 0.22 in length, and 0.45 in width across tho extended wings. 
 
 This species is so closely akiu to the cabbage and the onion 
 maggots, that the same remedies will be efficacious for it, which 
 are mentioned in the accompanying account of those insects. 
 
 Hairy flea-beetle, Baltica (Macrocnema) pubescens, Illiger. (Coleoptera. 
 
 Clnysomelidre.) 
 
 On the tomato, potato, petunia, Ac., throughout tho season, gnawing small holes 
 through the leaves; a small black flca-boetlo olothed with fino short whitish hairs, and 
 having palo dull yellowish legs and antenna). 
 
 In addition to the Striped flea-beetle, of which the full history 
 is presented in the foregoing pages, several other species of 
 these minute flea-beetles occur in our gardens, and would be more 
 noticed if the species mentioned were not so extremely numerous 
 as to quite eclipse them by attracting to itsplf the principal atten¬ 
 tion. Next to it in numbers is one similar to it in form, but 
 smaller in size and not at all glossy, of a black color throughout, 
 except the legs and antennae, which arc pale dull yellowish. 
 
 As the Striped flea-beetle infests the cruciferous group of plants, 
 this occurs mostly upon vegetation pertaining to the natural order 
 Solanctcece. It is to be found in abundance upon the tomato from 
 May till September, perforating the leaves with small holes. It 
 infests also the petunia, being according to my observation the 
 worst insect enemy which we here have upon this much esteemed 
 flowering plant. Young seedling plants are liable to be seriously 
 injured by it. On tirst becoming aware of their presence upon a 
 small cluster of young petunias only an inch high, I found eighty 
 oi these insects, one season, in company with a few individuals of 
 the striped species. It sometimes occurs quite common upon hop 
 leaves, eating numerous small holes therein, as is its habit upon 
 whatever plant it stations itself. I have observed it noon the 
 bitter-sweet in company with the tortoise beetle (Cassula clavata,) 
 the latter eating larger holes in the same leaves. 
 
 But the leaves of the potato appear to be its favorite food. From 
 about the middle of June till the end of the season, it almost every 
 
518 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 HAIRY FLEA-BEETLE. BEETLE DESCRIBED. 
 
 year occurs upon this plant in great abundance, every leaf often 
 showing from one to five or six of these beetles upon it. And the 
 pota f o leaves are sometimes noticed so profusely pierced and 
 riddled with holes that little more than their ribs and veins are 
 remaining untouched. Destroying the leaves to such an extent as 
 it does in seasons when it is particularly numerous, it must cer¬ 
 tainly be quite detrimental to this important vegetable. 
 
 Having given a full account of the larvae and transformations of 
 this genus in connection with the Striped flea-beetle, it is unneces¬ 
 sary to repeat the same details here. 
 
 The Hairy flea-beetle is eight-tenths of an inch in longth, oval, convex, black, and 
 opako or destitute of any glossinoss. It is clothed with thin, short, whitish pubcscenoo. 
 Its head is black, with the eyes prominont, and the horns or antennas of a clay yellow 
 color, clavate, and ton-jointed, the two basal joints elongated, the third joint a little 
 shorter, the tips tinged with dusky. The fore body is covered with fine punctures, and 
 shows a transverso groove near tho baso; it is more wido than long, slightly narrowed 
 before, with tho sides convex. The scutel is minute. The wing covers have eight rows of 
 coarse punctures placed in slightly impressed furrows, with a shorter similarly punctured 
 furrow on each side of tho scutel. The wings are largo, transparent, folded and withdrawn 
 under the wing covers when not in use. Tho legs aro clay-yellow with the thighs, at least 
 tho hind pair, blackish brown and very thiok; tho shanks aro rather short, tho internal 
 angle forming a curved Iobo at tho apex, whioh is out off obliquely; tho foot are four- 
 jointed, the third joint two-lobed, the apex furnished with two claws; tho hind pair very 
 long and inserted on tho inside of the shank, with the basal joint as long as all the others 
 united. 
 
 The same remedies which are employed for the striped flea- 
 beetle will be equally efficacious for this species. 
 
 This is named the cucumber flea-beetle, Haltica Cucumeris , by 
 Dr. Harris. I am not certain that I have ever met with it upon 
 the cucumber, all the flea-beetles which have occurred to my obser¬ 
 vation upon that plant proving, upon close examination, to be not 
 this species, but the very similar one named Psylliodes punclulata 
 by Dr. F. E. Melsheimcr. In one instance where potatoes and 
 cucumbers were growing side by side, and the potato leaves 
 abounded with this species, I made a careful search for it upon 
 the cucumber leaves, but without being able to find a single indi¬ 
 vidual, all the flea-beetles thereon proving, when carefully in¬ 
 spected, to be the punctulata. 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 519 
 
 WIREWORMS. IMPORTANT PESTS. EXTENSIVE DEPREDATORS. 
 
 Wireworms, Cratonychus communis, Gyllenhal, and other Elaters. (Cole- 
 optera. Blateridse.) 
 
 The roots of the turnip, potato, and numerous other garden plants and field crops, 
 eaten, and the orops frequently destroyed by long, slender, tough, tarnished yellow 
 worms, which finally change to slender, elliptical beetles, which, if placed on their backs, 
 with a snap throw themselves upward to regain their foot. 
 
 I propose in the following pages to present as full an account 
 of the wireworms, their habits and economy, as my means of in¬ 
 formation will enable me to prepare. Those who are sustaining 
 most vexatious losses from these pests, are frequently, in our agri¬ 
 cultural periodicals, calling for all the information that can be 
 given. “We want a Wircworm Essay;” “Inform us, at least, of 
 every remedy that has been tried;” such are the calls which are 
 ever ancl anon being made. My own observations will enable me, 
 I think, to present a more accurate and satisfactory account of our 
 American wireworms than has before been given the public. The 
 late Mr. Curtis made, probably, the ablest investigation of these 
 insects which has ever been accomplished. We shall make free 
 use of the valuable information embraced in his report, published 
 first in the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society, and subse¬ 
 quently in his volume entitled “ Farm Insects,” these wireworms 
 forming the subjects of the sixth and seventh chapters of this 
 volume. And on the subject of remedies, we shall glean much 
 important information from several of the agricultural periodicals 
 both foreign and domestic. 
 
 Mr. Curtis well remarks, that of all the insect enemies with 
 which the farmer, and he might also say the gardener, have to 
 conteud, there are none which arc more fatal in their eflects and 
 more difficult to overcome, than the wireworms. To destroy these 
 pests and prevent their ravages, baffles the efforts of the most 
 skillful and ingenious. Most of our inject enemies limit their 
 depredations to a single species of plant, or, at least, to the plants 
 of a particular group or natural order. Thus the attacks of the 
 striped flea-beetle are confined to plauts of the order Cruciferas; 
 those of the onion-fly, to the onion; the midgo and Hessian-fly, to 
 wheat; the curculio, to the pomaceous and stone-fruits, &c. But 
 the wireworms may almost be termed omnivorous. There is 
 scarcely a product of the farm or the garden which is exempt from 
 their ravages. They destroy, alike, the coarsest vegetables and 
 the nicest flowers. , And being thus unlimited in their operations, 
 the amount of mischief they do is almost incalculable. Says Mr. 
 
520 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 WIREWORMS. NAME MISAPPLIED. ARE BRED FROM ELATERS. 
 
 Alvord (Cultivator, 1864, p. 115), “I, for oue, would Avilliugly 
 pay a large sum to be informed how I could rid my farm of this 
 troublesome pest, for I have lost more in the injury and destruc¬ 
 tion of my crops from the depredations of this worm, than from 
 all other insects, birds and beasts combined, and after years of 
 fruitless effort and experiment to destroy them, or to prevent their 
 ravages on my crops, I have come to the conclusion that for the 
 present I must bear with the loss which I annually suffer from their 
 ravages, as all the different methods which I have tried to guard 
 myself against them, have thus far proved of no avail.” 
 
 Mi. Cuitis states that in Britain, overy grub and worm found by 
 the farmer and gardener at the roots of their crops, including cen¬ 
 tipedes and the larvae or maggots of gnats and Tipuke, have°been 
 confounded together under the appellation of “the wireworm,” 
 and that in so respectable a periodical as the Gardener’s Magazine, 
 figures have appeared as the larva and pupa of Elater segetis , or 
 the true wireworm, which were undoubtedly taken from some 
 insect not belonging even to the same order. And he correctly 
 remarks that such errors are sadly mischievous in a publication 
 expressly intended to convey information to all classes, and no 
 subsequent correction can entirely eradicate a blunder and its 
 effects, when once circulated by the press. Although, in this 
 country, many errors and crudities in relation to insects are being 
 published, of the very many persons who have mentioned the wire- 
 woim in conversing or corresponding with me, I recollect no one 
 who applied this term incorrectly, and in but rare instances has 
 the inquiry been made of me, whether the centipede might also be 
 termed a wireworm. No such error, I think, as that complained 
 of abroad, is at all prevalent here. 
 
 These w'ireworms are the progeny of the Elater group of beetles, 
 which constitute the genus to which the name Elater was given 
 by Linnaeus, and which naturalists in our own day have divided 
 into a number of genera which are grouped together, forming the 
 family Ei.aterid.e in the order Coleopteka. These beetles are 
 known to every one from their curious manner of recovering their 
 upright posture when they chance to fall upon their backs. Their 
 legs being too short to enable them to turn over, they have the 
 faculty of giving a sudden snap or spring, whereby they bound 
 upward several inches, and in falling usually alight right side up, 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 521 
 
 WIREWORMS. MANY KINDS. THEIR DIFFERENCES. 
 
 or if they fafl of doing so, they repeat this spring again and 
 again, until they succeed, resembling the feats of an acrobat or 
 tumbler, and with each spring making a loud click, similar in 
 sound to the ticking of a clock. They have hence received the 
 names of “click-beetles,” “spring-beetles,” and “skip-jacks” in 
 England, and in this country I do not recollect to have ever 
 heard them designated by any other name than that of “ snapping- 
 bugs,” although suapping-beetles would be a much better term. 
 From their appearance when about to make a skip the Indians 
 called them the “neck-breaker,” or the “insect that breaks its 
 neck.” 
 
 These Elaters or snap ping-beetles are an extensive group of 
 insects, and there are consequently many kinds of wire worms, these 
 worms being the Elaters in their larva state. We meet with them 
 in two very different situations, a part of them being found under¬ 
 ground where they feed upon the roots of plants, and another 
 portion residing under the loose bark of diseased and decaying 
 trees, feeding there upon the putrid wood. They have been called 
 wireworms from their long, slender, nearly cylindrical forms, their 
 smooth, shining surface, and the tough, leathery texture of their 
 bodies. It would be expected that these wireworms would closely 
 resemble the larvae of the Buprestis family of beetles, as this 
 family and the Elaters are so closely alike in their perfect form, 
 that, in the systematic classification of insects, authors have been 
 unanimous either in placing them side by side or uniting them 
 into one group under the name Sternoxes or Breast-spined beetles. 
 Their larvae, however, arc very dissimilar. On the other hand, 
 the close resemblance of the wireworm to the meal-worm has been 
 remarked by every one, although this pertains to a group which 
 is widely separated from the Elaters in our systems of classifica¬ 
 tion. 
 
 On coming to submit a number of wireworms taken from dif¬ 
 ferent situations to a particular examination they are found to 
 differ from each other in various particulars. Most of them show 
 an impressed line along the middle of the back, but in some 
 specimens this line entirely disappears. The surface is usually 
 covered with punctures, fine or coarse, but is sometimes perfectly 
 smooth. But the most remarkable differences occur in the struc¬ 
 ture of the last segment of the body. 
 
522 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 
 WIREWORMS. ElfD OP THEIR DORIES OF MANY SHAPES. 
 
 The annexed cut will give 
 the render a view of the princi¬ 
 pal variations which take place 
 in this part. In some specimens 
 this last segment is simply 
 conical and bluntly rounded at 
 the end, as represented at «. 
 Fig 10. End of tho body of different wireworms. In Others it tapei’S to an acute 
 point with a sharp prickle projecting from the end, as at b. 
 Others, as shown at c, are similar to one or the other of the pre¬ 
 ceding, but have on the back of this segment near its base, two 
 conspicuous punctures resembling breathing pores, and thought 
 by some entomologists to be such. Others have the tip flattened 
 and rough, with its edge showing three or live tooth-like points 
 on angular projections, as represented in the cut at cl. In all the 
 instances of these four different forms of this part, variously modi¬ 
 fied as they are in different specimens, this last segment is much 
 longer than wide, and the worms have a narrow, long and slender 
 form. In the remaining examples they are shorter and thicker 
 bodied, and have the last segment about as broad as long, and 
 roundly notched or forked at its end. In some instances this last 
 segment is convex and smooth, and ends in two conical sharp 
 points, as represented at e, these points being in most instances 
 curved upward. Others have the back of the last segment flat¬ 
 tened and rough, appearing as though it had been impressed with 
 a seal, the margin on each side being elevated and smooth, with 
 three or more projecting teeth. Some of these as shown at /, 
 have the two forks tapering to sharp, upturned points, each fork 
 usually having a small lateral branch. Others, as at y, have the 
 forks blunt and notched or two-toothed at their ends. But it is 
 not probable that these differences in their structure have any 
 important influence upon the habits and economy of these wire- 
 worms, the different species which reside underground being alike 
 in their manner of life, so far as is known. 
 
 Before describing the species we will relate the origin and 
 growth of these insects. The sexes having paired, the female 
 beetle deposits her eggs; but exactly where these arc placed has 
 never been ascertained that I am aware. The eggs hatch minute 
 wireworms, which feed and grow, and at length change to pupae, 
 from which the beetle comes out in its perfect form. 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 523 
 
 WIRETVORMS. HATCH FROM EGGS. TWO TO FIVE TEARS IN GROWING. 
 
 I ofice observed a female of the short-horned Elatcr, Ludius bre- 
 vicornis , at the root of a recently-set cabbage plant, where she sank 
 herself down in the earth the whole length of her body, her swol¬ 
 len abdomen showing she was on the point of extruding her crop 
 of eggs. Everything indicated that she was about dropping some 
 of these upon the root of this plant. Other business was too 
 pressing at the moment to permit me to wait and watch her sub¬ 
 sequent movements, and I accordingly inclosed her in a vial. 
 Two days after I could not discover any eggs yet dropped in this 
 vial, but at the end of three days more, on examining, I found 126 
 eggs had been deposited. They were scattered about, irregularly, 
 singly or several in a cluster together, not glued to the damp sur¬ 
 face inside, though perhaps they would have become adherent if 
 dried. 
 
 The eggs were broad oval and quite small, only three hun¬ 
 dredths of an inch long, of an opake white color, smooth and 
 glossy, soft and rupturing on being gently pressed upon, the fluid 
 within forming a shining, varnish-like, colorless spot upon the sur¬ 
 face where it dried. 
 
 The worms which come from these eggs must be so very minute 
 as to be nearly or quite invisible to the eye, and they grow very 
 slowly. The Swedish naturalist, Bjerkauder, in his account of the 
 wireworms, published nearly a century ago, stated that they are 
 five,years in growing to their full size. I am not aware that any 
 one has since investigated this subject, all subsequent writers 
 contenting themselves to copy his statement. The opinion is 
 impressed upon me that these wireworms, for the most part, are 
 only two years in growing to maturity. There are two facts which 
 lead me to this inference. First, when I have obtained several 
 worms of one species, I have repeatedly observed they were of 
 two sizes only, the smaller ones about half as large as the larger 
 ones, indicating them to be respectively one and two years old; 
 whereas, if they were live years in growing to maturity they 
 would occur of all sizes. Although Mr. Curtis met with a variety 
 of sizes at the same time and around the same turnip root, ho 
 remarks that possibly two kinds were present. Second, -where 
 explicit statements are given of the crops destroyed by -wireworms, 
 I observe that this destruction always occurs the first and second 
 years after the ground has been broken up from grass. Is the 
 crop of the third year ever harmed? But if these worms were 
 
524 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 WIREWORMS. WORM DESCRIBED. 
 
 five years in obtaining their growth, a considerable number would 
 be remaining the third and fourth years, injuring the crops of 
 those years. It, however, may very probably be the case, that in 
 cold northern countries many worms are double the number of 
 years in growing to maturity that they are in more mild and tem¬ 
 perate climates. Were our summers but half as long as they are, 
 it appears evident it would require two years to produce the same 
 advance in the growth of a worm that is now accomplished in one 
 year. Hence it may be that in Sweden, where Bjerkander’s 
 observations were made, these wireworms are, as he states, four 
 or five years in attaining their growth, when, in more southern 
 and temperate localities, only half that time is required. 
 
 As they increase in size they moult or cast off their skins, pro¬ 
 bably thrice, like most other larvae—the skin at the anterior end 
 of the back cracking asunder, and the worm drawing itself out 
 through this opening. They are quite soft, tender and pale col¬ 
 ored immediately after leaving their old skin, but by exposure to 
 the air soon acquire their normal color and firmness of texture. 
 The young worms are white or nearly so, and become more tinged 
 with tarnished yellow as they approach maturity. They are of a 
 cylindrical form, somewhat depressed or flattened. The head is 
 more strongly flattened and wedge-shaped. The mouth is rather 
 small, with stout, horny jaws of a black color. The antennae are 
 placed near the anterior angles of the head, and arc quite smwll 
 and only three-jointed, the basal joint being largest and the termi¬ 
 nal one short and narrow. Behind the antennae, on each side of 
 the head, is a minute black dot resembling an eye. The body is 
 composed of thirteen segments, including the head, the third and 
 fourth or two last thoracic segments being shortest. On the under 
 side, the second, third and fourth segments are each furnished 
 with a pair of short legs, which are inserted near the hind edge of 
 each segment. The legs arc four-jointed, and at their ends is a 
 strong claw of a brown color. The fifth and each of the following 
 segments, except the last, has on each side a minute dot, which is 
 the breathing pore. The last segment has on its under side towards 
 its base a retractile pro-leg, which also appears to be the orifice 
 from which the castings of the digested food are evacuated. The 
 different forms of this last segment have already been described 
 on a preceding page. 
 
 As stated by Mr. Curtis (Farm Insects, p. 155), when the wiro- 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 525 
 
 WIREWORMS. CHANGE TO PUPA2. BECOME SNAPPING-BEETLES. 
 
 ■worm has arrived at maturity, it descends a considerable dearth 
 into the earth, forms an oval cell there, entirely composed of the 
 surrounding particles of soil, and not even lined with silk. It 
 then casts its skin again, and becomes a pupa or chrysalis, gener¬ 
 ally, it seems, at the end of July or beginning of August. It is 
 long and narrow in form, like the perfect insect, but of a yel¬ 
 lowish white color; there are two minute spines projecting from 
 the anterior angles of the thorax; all the organs of the mouth are 
 visible, the horns and legs are folded or incumbent upon the breast, 
 and the wing-cases as well as the wings arc small, and the least 
 developed of any part;- the scutel and abdominal segments are dis¬ 
 tinct—the apex being furnished with two moveable spines and two 
 lobes terminated by nipples in the middle beneath. 
 
 Of course, at this period of its life the animal is at rest, being 
 deprived of the power of locomotion, and is consequently no longer 
 injurious. Several were found in their pupa state on the 26th of 
 July. In Sweden, Bjerkander states that the wire-worms which 
 he reared entered into their pupa state in the month of July, and 
 that the beetles came forth in their perfect state about the tenth 
 of August. They remain in this state two or three weeks; but 
 many no doubt pass the winter, buried and protected from casual¬ 
 ties and the rigor of that inclement season. When, however, the 
 appointed time comes, they burst from their shrouds and the 
 earthly tombs they inhabit, and rising through the soil, arrive at 
 the surface, changed to perfect beetles, but of a whitish color, 
 soft, and extremely tender. Exposed to the air and light, their 
 bodies harden and their color gradually changes, so that in a few 
 hours they have attained the horny coat which covers them, and 
 assumed the tints which the Author of nature has assigned to the 
 species. 
 
 The parts of the animal which were previously indistinctly seen, 
 as through a veil, are now distinctly visible, and the legs, wings, 
 and all the members are liberated, to give action to its body and 
 animation to all its senses. They walk and run like dogs, with 
 their heads inclining downwards, and their noses close to the 
 ground. When they leap, their legs are applied closely to their 
 bodies, and by the same means they drop down when the plants 
 are approached upon which they are resting. These snapping- 
 beetles have small heads and eyes — the latter minute, hemispheri¬ 
 cal, and reticulated, a portion being frequently concealed beneath 
 
526 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 WIREWORMS. SNAPPING!-BEETLE’S HABITS. MODE OP BOUNDING UP. 
 
 the margin of the thorax. The two horns or antenna} are gener¬ 
 ally slender and eleven-jointed, and are received, when at rest, into 
 two grooves beneath, in the breast; the thorax is more or less four- 
 sided-oval, the hind angles projecting and forming spines; the wing- 
 cases are long and narrow, covering a pair of ample wings which 
 are plaited, lengthwise like a fan, with the tips folded over when 
 they are at rest. They have also six legs for walking; the ant rior 
 pair is a little the shortest, and the hinder pair the longest; the 
 thighs are stout; the shanks are simple; the feet are as long as 
 the shanks and are all five-jointed, the basal joint the longest, 
 except in the anterior pair, and the last joint is furnished with 
 two curved, acute claws. In this state its habits are quite altered; 
 instead of the ravenous, destructive wire worm, it is now become 
 mi active beetle, running up the grass and readily flying to flowers, 
 to which it resorts for food; the sexes also pair, and the male prob¬ 
 ably dies' soon after—the femalo being longer lived. At the tip 
 of her body is a longish horny ovipositor, which is easily pro¬ 
 truded; it is flat and linear, the apex conical, thickened, and form¬ 
 ing two lobes, each of which is projecting and hairy; at the tips 
 are two minute obovate appendages, with two hairs at the apex. 
 
 Allusion has already been made to the remarkable power which 
 these beetles have of recovering their natural position when they 
 chance to fall upon their backs. . Their legs not being long enough 
 to enable them to turn themselves over therewith, they are fur¬ 
 nished with a curious apparatus for this purpose. Between the 
 first pair of legs arises a spine, with two small teeth at ifs base 
 and sometimes one above, towards the apex. Upon the breast arc 
 two oval cavities into which the second pair of legs is inserted, 
 and behind these cavities are the hips or trochanters to which the 
 third pair of legs is attached. At the interior margin of the breast 
 is a long cavity into which the spine is pressed, and the insect 
 when on its back, by bending downward its head and tip raises 
 this spine with such force that the point is jerked out of the cavity 
 that holds it; bringing the centre of the back suddenly upon the 
 plane, a spring is produced which raises the insect many inches 
 from the ground, and turning over in the air it usually alights 
 upon its feet—the height of the leap depending greatly upon, the 
 hardness and smoothness of tho surface of the plane, and some 
 species can bound much higher than others. 
 
 One of our American snapping beetles has been particularly 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 527 
 
 WIREWORMS. TRUNCATED SNAPPING-BEETLE. LIVES IN GRASS LANDS. 
 
 noticed in consequence of its close resemblance to the European 
 Agriotes segetis, the species which produces “ the true wireworm.” 
 It is the insect which is entered in Dr. Harris’s Treatise as being 
 the Agriotes obesus of-Say. Among our American Elaters this 
 has such a corpulent aspect, that Dr. Harris was probably hereby 
 led on a hasty examination to ticket it as the species named obesus 
 by Say, and subsequently having forgotton but that he had com¬ 
 pared it with the description given by Sajq he published it with¬ 
 out any intimation of doubt as being that species. It is very evi¬ 
 dent he could not have fallen into an error so palpable, except in 
 some such inadvertent manner. Dr. Lc Comte regards this insect 
 as being the mancus of Say. I greatly doubt its being that spe¬ 
 cies, which is stated to be black, whereas this is constantly dark 
 brown with the wing-covers paler. It is manifestly the species 
 described by Dr. F. E. Melsheimcr (Proceedings Acad. Nat. Sci., 
 vol. ii, p. 217) under the name Agriotes truncatus, this name having 
 been originally given it in the old Melsheimer Catalogue published 
 in 1806. 
 
 This Truncated snatping-beetle, which has been thus named 
 in allusion to the outerior edge of its head, which 
 is not rounded, but ends abrubtly, as though it 
 had been cut off in a transverse direction, is re¬ 
 markably short and thick, as represented in the 
 accompanying figures, the smaller one on the 
 right hand side showing its natural dimensions. 
 It is of a dark brown color with the wing-covers 
 _. m , a shade paler than the anterior part of the 
 
 Fig. 11. Truncatod 1 A 
 
 snapping-bootlo. body. 
 
 It is in lands unfavorable for tillage and which- permanently 
 remain in grass that I have met with this beetle, and in no other 
 situation. At any time during the months of April and May if I 
 hunt for insects in old pastures and meadows, either on low inter¬ 
 vals along streams of water or on dry hillsides abounding in rocky 
 ledges and hereby unadapted for plowing, I commonly come upon 
 one or more specimens of this beetle, usually lurking under stones 
 and sticks lying loosely upon the surface of the ground, but 
 sometimes mounted up upon weeds. It is thus rendered pretty 
 certain that it is exclusively the roots of grass that the larva of 
 this species infests. And a wireworm corresponding with this 
 beetle in its diminutive size, which I have met with in grass lands, 
 
528 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW TORE 
 
 WIREWORMS. TRUNCATED SNAFPING-BEETLE AND WORM. COMMON SNAPPING-BEETLE. 
 
 and have found in two instances perforating the roots of Timothy 
 grass, I believe to be this insect in its larva state. 
 
 
 This wireworm, a side view of which is given in the cut, 
 Fig. 12, is very slondor, cylindrical, somewhat flattened 
 along its underside, and having its surface smooth, 
 glossy, and without any impressed lino along tho middle 
 
 of its back, and with some fine hairs towards the apex of 
 
 g. . ireworm o runcated eac j 1 r j n g # The i as t segment is nearly twice as long as 
 snapping cet o. broad, its basal half cylindrical and the remainder of 
 
 Its length tapering and ending in a subacute point. On its upper side towards tho base 
 are two conspioious dots rosombling breathing-pores. It grows to six tenths of an inch in 
 length. 
 
 The Truncated snapping-beetle is three tenths of an inch or slightly more in length. 
 Its head and thorax are blackish brown with a slight glossiness, and are closely punctured 
 and clothed with fine, short, incumbent hairs of a dull yellowish color. The head is more 
 broad than long, and is inclined almost vertically. It is slightly convex and cut off trans¬ 
 versely at its anterior end. Tho mouth and eyes are black. The antenss are pale dull yel¬ 
 low, about as long as to the base of tho thorax, thread-like, eleven-jointed, the first joint 
 thickest and longest and narrowing slightly towards its base, tfhe following joints obconic, 
 the second one perceptibly though but very slightly longer than the third, all the following 
 ones moderately compressed, tho terminal one oval. Tho thorax is scarcely as long as 
 wide, very convex on the back, narrowest at the forward end, the anterior half gradually 
 rounded inward, a shallow groove along the middlo of the basal half, the hind angles pro¬ 
 longed backward and very slightly outward, into a sharp point or spine, which has a short 
 olevated lino on its uppor sido and a more prominent longer one on its outer side. Scutel 
 broad oval. Wing-covers about throe times as long as the thorax and equalling it in 
 width, slightly widost across the middlo, convex, each with nine deeply impressed and 
 punctured strim, tho interstices between which arc slightly convex, finely wrinkled trans¬ 
 versely, and furnished with minute punctures, tho alternate interstices faintly wider. 
 Underside dark brown and densely punctured. Legs pale dull yellow, tho feet five-jointod, 
 the four first joints successively diminishing in length, tho fifth double the length of tho 
 preceding joint and ending in a pair of small, simple claws. 
 
 The Elater which is most frequently seen 
 in our gardens is the Oratonychns communis 
 of Gyllenhal, or the Common snapping-beetle, 
 which is represented in the annexed cut, Fig. 
 13. It is of a dark chestnut color, covered 
 over with short fine prostrate hairs of an ash 
 gray color, ifs wing-covers having rows of 
 punctures resembling the stitches in a gar¬ 
 ment, and its forebody with an impressed line 
 in the middle. 
 
 Fig. 13. Common snapping 
 beetle. 
 
 This is well entitled to the name it has received, it occurs so 
 plentifully in such a variety of situations in all parts of the United 
 States. During the months of April, May and June, it is most 
 abundant. Its numbers then diminish and it nearly or quite dis¬ 
 appears in August, but is again met with in September and 
 through the following months. Many years since a corner of my 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 529 
 
 WIREWORMS. COMMON WIRBWORMS AND SNAPPING-BEETLE DESCRIBED. 
 
 garden having been neglected through a few seasons and becom¬ 
 ing overgrown with quack grass, in April a perfect swarm of these 
 beetles were there gathered, basking in the warm sunshine, having 
 probably hatched from wireworms which had there been nurtured. 
 They occur quite frequently in strawberry beds and similar places 
 where the dense foliage furnishes a hiding place for them. And 
 out of the garden they abound among the grass in pastures and 
 meadows, and on the leaves of the apple and other fruit trees, 
 and those of the oak, birch and other forest trees. Upon the 
 approach of cold weather they resort to old and decaying trees to 
 pass the winter, crawling under the loose bark of their trunks 
 and into the crevices in rotten wood, where they are met with at 
 the close of autumn and in the beginning of spring, a few being 
 also found under stones and fragments of wood lying upon the 
 ground. 
 
 The wireworms which I meet with in the garden are nearly all 
 of one particular kind. I hence have little doubt they are the 
 larva of the Common snapping-beetle, as this also is of much 
 more frequent occurrence in the garden than any other species of 
 Elater. This garden wireworm grows to an inch in length and is 
 particularly distinguished from other wireworms by having three 
 obtuse teeth at the end of its body, the middle one of which is 
 more projecting and prominent than the lateral ones. A dorsal 
 view of this worm is given in the cut, Fig. 14. 
 
 It is of a cylindrical form, moderately 
 flattened, its surface smoothly polished 
 and shining, with a strongly impressed 
 line along the middle of the back and a 
 few fine bristles placed in a transverse 
 
 row upon the hind patt of each segment. 
 
 Fig. 14. Common wireworm. It is taniished yellow> of a deopcr fcmt 
 
 than usual, one segment at each end being much darker, of a liver brown hue, and the 
 mouth black. The last sogment is noarly twice as long as broad, its anterior half smooth, 
 with two impressed lines above, diverging forward, and an impressed lino upon each side of 
 tho back. Its posterior half narrowing and bluntly rounded at the tip, its upper side 
 flattened, rough, with a wido shallow groove in tho middle. The hind odgo with three 
 angular projections or obtuse tooth, and forward of these, on each side, another very 
 slight and more obtuse projection. The younger and half grown worms of a much paler 
 color. 
 
 Iu its perfect state tho Common snapping-beetle is slightly over a half inch in length, 
 different specimens varying in their dimensions from less than fivo to nearly six tenths of 
 an inch. It is a long, narrow bootle, about four times as long as wide, its wing-oovers 
 tapering from their base, almost imperceptibly at first, and more strongly as they approach 
 their tips, whioh are bluntly rounded. It is glossy and of a dark chestnut or blackish 
 hiown color, tho preserved specimens frequently showing in places obsoure chostnut clouds 
 
 [Aa.J 34 
 
530 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 WIREWORMS. ABOUND IN LOW, DAMP AND PEATY GROUNDS. 
 
 upon ft blackish ground. The antennae, feelers and legs tiro paler, of a dull yellowish or 
 reddish brown. The surface above and beneath is coated over with fine, short, incumbent 
 hairs of an ash gray color. Tho head is slightly convex, with close and confluent punc¬ 
 tures, its anterior edge rounded. Tho antenna) if turned back will reach tho base of 
 the wing-covers. Their first joint is largest, the second is smallest and only half as long 
 as the third; tho fourth and following joints aro compressed, triangular, widening from 
 their bases to their tips, where they are cut off transversely, thus giving them a resem¬ 
 blance to tho teeth of a saw; the last joint is shaped like the head of a spear with tho 
 base outward. Tho thorax is convex, scarcoly longer than wide, its opposite sides parallel 
 at base and then curving regularly inward to the anterior angles; the surface with 
 numerous, deep punctures, which become moro denso and confluent towards the outer 
 sides; a shallow impressed line along the middle, which does not reaojh tho anterior edge; 
 basal angles prolonged backward and slightly outward into stout spines, which are blunt at 
 their tips, and have two elevated lines on their upper surface, the inner line boing very slender 
 and minute, their outer sido showing a deep groove between two elovated lines; a short, 
 impressed line on tho hind edge of tho thorax. Scutel broad oval, almost oircular, its 
 surface closely punctured. Wing-covers with rows of deep punctures, the intervening 
 spaces flat and with very minuto punctures; suture sometimes palor, roddish brown. 
 Underside unicolor with the upper end with similar glossiness, punctures and pubesconse. 
 Legs dull reddish brown, at least on their inner sides; feet distinctly five-jointed, tho first 
 joint double the length of the following ones, tho fourth joint smallest, tho fifth more 
 slender and longest, and ending in a pair of olaws, which are toothed like a comb along 
 their undersides. 
 
 With the expectation that I shall be able to ascertain the beetles 
 by which are produced some of the other more common kinds of 
 wireworms which we meet with in the soil, I defer to another 
 occasion a further description of our species. It remains for us to 
 review the different kinds of vegetation which falls a prey to the 
 wireworms, and tho remedies which have been resorted to and 
 recommended for opposing them. 
 
 Wireworms arc liable to occur everywhere in the soil, there 
 being no situation, probably, in which they may not at times be 
 found. But some situations are moro favorable to them than 
 others. The low, moist, cold grounds adjacent to marshes and 
 streams of water, are situations in which they uniformly appear to 
 be most numerous. Those low grounds especially which are of a 
 peaty quality, of a black color, and abounding in vegetable mat¬ 
 ter, appear to be most thronged with these worms. Says S. 
 Brown, of North Wilmington, Mass., in the Boston Cultivator, 
 July 27, 18G1 : “ Last September I plowed a piece of bound-out 
 pasture ground. A part of it was a clay colored, sandy loam, the 
 rest a damp, black soil. In May it was again plowed, manured 
 in tho hill, and planted with corn. Tho wireworms destroyed 
 every grain planted in the black soil, and left that planted on the 
 light colored soil unmolested.” And one of Mr. Curtis’s inform¬ 
 ants states that on the lower parts of fields bordering on marshes, 
 
8TATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 531 
 
 WIREWOBHS. GRASS LANDS THEIR RESIDENCE. 
 
 ■where the land is springy and friable, barley, turnips and beets 
 have generally fallen a sacrifice to wireworms, and such laud is 
 most subject to their attacks. 
 
 In all other situations than low, damp grounds, it is where lands 
 have remained in grass a number of years that wireworms are 
 liable to become greatly, multiplied. Says a correspondent of the 
 Cultivator, 1861, p. 284 : “We seldom see a field badly troubled 
 with them, that has not lain to grass some years. * * * The 
 
 only way to prevent their infesting our farms, so far as I know, is 
 to break up and seed down often, never allowing land that has 
 been infested with them, or that which may be supposed to be 
 well adapted for them to work in, to lay to grass longer than one 
 or two years.” 
 
 There are but few crops, moreover, that they will not attack, 
 although there arc particular vegetables to which they undoubtedly 
 give a preference. But this may be owing, at least iu part, to the 
 larvae of different species not having exactly the same tastes. 
 
 The plants which wireworms are known to attack, or at least 
 are recorded sis attacking, are grass, Indian corn, wheat, rye, bar¬ 
 ley, oats, potatoes, turnips, mangel-wurzel, cabbages, carrots, beets, 
 onions, lettuces, rape, hops, strawberries, irises, pinks, carnations, 
 dahlias, lobelias, and numerous other garden flowers. 
 
 Grass appears of all kinds of vegetation to be that which is 
 most attractive and palatable to wireworms. They abound alike 
 iu the roots of the coarsest sedge and other wild grasses on the 
 borders of marshes, and in those of our most delicate pasture 
 grasses, the June and Kentucky blue grass. As has been already 
 mentioned, I have met with them boring into the bulbous roots of 
 the Timothy, and sending out a swarm of Elaters from the fibrous 
 roots of the quack grass. They resort alike to the scanty carpet¬ 
 ing of dry, rocky hills, and the luxuriant growth of rich interval 
 meadows. In short, as Mr. Curtis observes, it may be received as 
 an axiom, that wherever grass will grow, the wireworms may be 
 found, for the roots of the various species all afford sufficient 
 nourishment for their support. Pasture and meadow lauds, con¬ 
 sequently, are always stocked with them. And it hence follows 
 that these lauds when newly broken up often swarm with them, 
 whereby the crops that we attempt to grow on these lands fall a 
 prey to this pest. 
 
 Indian corn being usually the first thing planted on lands newly 
 
532 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OP NEW YORK 
 
 WIREWORMS. IN CORN, WHEAT, BARLEY, OATS. 
 
 broken up from grass, is the crop which is oftenest destroyed by 
 wireworms. And this is a casuality of such frequent occurrence 
 and of which our farmers are so fearful, especially if the weather 
 after corn-planting is cold, wet and "backward, that it is a common 
 practise to occasionally uncover some of. the hills, to ascertain the 
 condition of the seed. And when making such examination noth¬ 
 ing excites so much apprehension as the discovery of one kernel 
 and another in the condition represented in the annexed Fig. 16. 
 
 »-• The wireworm has become quite generally 
 
 known, in this country, more, probably, from 
 its being seen thus bored into kernels of newly 
 planted corn, than from all the other situa- 
 TO . .. , tions in which it occurs. These wireworms 
 
 ing corn. being found more or less numerous in the 
 
 corn-hills furnish a criterion from which a judgment is formed as 
 to the destiny of the crop. Thirty-six of these worms are reported 
 as having occurred in one hill of corn, in Erie county (Rural New 
 Yorker, 1857, p. 246.) An equal or greater number has probably 
 been counted in some other instances. In a cornfield badly 
 infested with wireworms, I noticed they were of two kinds, some 
 having the end of the body as represented Fig. 10, e, others being 
 similar to g. 
 
 Wheat is sometimes greatly injured by the attacks of wire- 
 worms. Their presence is indicated by the dying of the lower 
 leaves, and when the worm has eaten through the root the whole 
 plant withers and falls to the ground. Mr. Curtis observes that 
 their attacks are said to be continued through the entire winter; 
 but this, he thinks, is doubtful; for during severe frosts, they 
 descend into the soil, like the larva of the cockchafer, aud of our 
 American May-beetle, retiring deeper and deeper as the cold 
 increases. Early in the year they make ample amends for their 
 fast, if they really do cease feeding during the winter, by the 
 vigor with which they then attack the growing grain. 
 
 Barley is frequently greatly injured, particularly when the spring 
 months are cold and dry, the young plants changing from a 
 healthy green to a sickly yellow where these worms are at work 
 upon the roots. 
 
 Oats are generally the crop which in England suffers most 
 severely, being there sown upon land newly broken up. The 
 danger, it is observed, is greater, the longer the land has pre- 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 533 
 
 WIREWORMS. IN POTATOES, CABBAGES, TURNIPS, FLOWERS. 
 
 viously been kept in grass. The ravages of these worms are 
 sometimes so great that the farmer is compelled to immediately 
 lay tko land down again to pasture, to very great disadvantage, it 
 being evident that where the wireworms are so numerous, no grain 
 crop can be profitably grown. 
 
 Potatoes also suffer greatly, and it is observed that in some dis¬ 
 tricts the crop is severely injured, whilst in others where the wire- 
 worms are equally numerous upon the turnips, it escapes. Sliced 
 potatoes are said to be far more liable to be injured than tubers 
 which are planted whole. 
 
 Wireworms are sometimes found in a closed cavity deep in the 
 interior of ripened and stored potatoes. The walls of the cavity 
 are of a dark brown color and of a loose, spongy and porous tex¬ 
 ture. In these instances it is probable that the worm bored into 
 the small young potato, -which continuing to grow, the track by 
 which it entered became closed and wholly obliterated. It is the 
 common wireworm of the garden, described on a preceding page, 
 which I have met with in these cavities. 
 
 Mr. Hope states (Trans. Entom. Soc., London, vol. iii, p. 154) 
 that the hops in Kent and other counties of England, have been 
 repeatedly injured by the wireworm. 
 
 Cabbages are liable to be destroyed by them. When this crop 
 is gathered in autumn, I have often noticed wireworms among the 
 roots, sometimes with their bodies sunk half their length therein. 
 
 The turnip appears to be the most infested by these worms of 
 any root crop. They are present in it the whole year round, 
 though it is to the young plants that they do the most serious 
 injury. When suffering from the attack of this worm the plants 
 have a sickly aspect, with the outer leaves yellow, aud on drawing 
 them up out from the ground, the skin is discovered to be gnawed 
 and one, two, three or more wireworms are invariably found 
 upon or around it. They sever the young root, from half an inch 
 to an inch below the base of the leaves, and often gnaw and con¬ 
 sume it higher up. In Europe, where the turnip is a much more 
 important crop than it is with us, the damage which is frequently 
 caused by these wireworms is immense. 
 
 The roots of pinks, carnations, picotees, aud several other culti¬ 
 vated flowers are much preyed upon by these worms. They attack 
 the pink and carnation at the bottom of the stem, near the root, 
 
534 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 WIREWORMS. THEIR HABITS. REMEDIES. 
 
 and pierce it with holes in every direction, the only indication of 
 their presence being the dying of the plant. 
 
 Mr. Curtis observes that, as the wire-worms will not voluntarily 
 leave the field in which they were hatched, until they have arrived 
 at their perfect state and become beetles, it is impossible by any 
 change of crops to remedy the evil, unless we could discover some 
 vegetable which they absolutely dislike—or, by plowing,' harrow¬ 
 ing and keeping the soil perfectly free from weeds or plants of 
 every kind, especially the grasses, they might be starved out. 
 Whether they can fast for a long period is very doubtful, for it is 
 principally in their perfect state that insects can live without food 
 for an extraordinary space of time. Some importance, however, 
 must be attached to the generally received opinion that it is in all 
 probability whilst the surface of the field is undisturbed that the 
 eggs are deposited. Consequently the crops that follow pasture 
 land when broken up, are most likely to fall a sacrifice, for several 
 succeeding years; and it will be the same when clover ground is 
 plowed up; whereas, when the ground is occupied with potatoes, 
 corn, and similar crops, no eggs, or very few, are laid in the field; 
 but many of those which had been deposited from one to four 
 years previously in the grass are hatching one after another, and 
 the larvae are gradually increasing in size and appetite, and conse¬ 
 quently becoming daily more mischievous. If a grain crop follow 
 potatoes in a field infested by wireworms, it will be liable to suffer 
 greatly. Bjerkander says, “ In the spring and autumn they have 
 good appetites, and I have often observed that a single worm has 
 bitten from eight, twelve, to twenty stalks in one place; and if 
 one destroys so much, what may not thousands do ?” And it will 
 be almost useless to resow the ground where a crop has been des¬ 
 troyed by wireworms, unless the soil be first freed from them by 
 repeated plowings, when poultry, birds, and the frosts of winter 
 may have lessened their numbers; and tho farmer must remember 
 that the wireworms cannot possibly increase in number unless fresh 
 eggs be laid by the snapping-beotles, and of this, there can bo no 
 danger from the end of September to the end of March. 
 
 With regard to the best modes of culture for keeping the wire- 
 worm in check, Mr. Salisbuiy, in his Hints to Proprietors of 
 Orchards, page 109, gives the following sensible advice: It is an 
 insect much complained of by farmers whenever they turn up 
 land that has been cultivated with clover or grass, and it in gen- 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 535 
 
 WIREWORMS. TRAPPED BT POTATOES, APPLES, AC. HAND-PICKING. 
 
 eral does great injury to the grain crop which succeeds. It should 
 he noticed that clover or other plants of such description, give 
 protection to this insect; it is bred in the roots of these plants, and 
 the land is so well stocked with it, that it attacks the grain and 
 other succeeding crops very much to their injury. Land of this 
 description is therefore unfit for grain immediately on breaking up. 
 Turnips or potatoes are not so liable to injury from this insect; 
 but the best preventive is probably a summer fallow, and burning 
 the rubbish on the land before cropping, by which means the eggs 
 which are laid in the stalks arc destroyed, and the live worms die 
 for want of nourishment. Soot and lime will also kill this destruc¬ 
 tive worm. Before breaking up old lays, it should always be a 
 point with the farmer to examine the then existing crop, and 
 observe if any of these insects are in the roots and stalks, and if 
 so, to apply the above as a preventive previous to sowing a crop 
 of grain in the laud. 
 
 As the wireworms are fond of the potato, it was long since 
 recommended by Sir Joseph Banks to employ slices of this tuber 
 as a trap with which to catch them. Several contributors to the 
 Gardener’s Chronicle concur in this as being the best mode of 
 freeing the garden at least, from this troublesome visitor. One of 
 these merits to be here transcribed. Mr. Adan says (vol. iii, p. 
 301): “ I send you an account of destroying the wireworm, which 
 I have adopted for some years, my ground being full of them, so 
 that I could neither grow sweet-williams, picotees, bulbs, lettuces, 
 nor indeed any succulent plant, without their boring, running up 
 and eating the hearts out. Near these plants I now place half a 
 potato, with the eyes cut out to prevent its growing, and run a 
 pointed stick through the middle of it, and peg it into the ground, 
 covering it over with about one inch of loam, and in a day or two 
 I have pulled out by the tail from fifteen to twenty of them from 
 one slice ot potato.” It is recommended by some persons to lay 
 the slices of potato on the surface, although there are others who 
 consider that they may be buried two or three inches deep. 
 Slices of turnip, cabbage, beet, parsnip, carrot, apple, and young 
 lettuce plants, it is reported will answer the purpose equally well 
 as the potato. 
 
 Many think highly of hand-picking, its effects being certain, 
 and being done by children is not expensive. In Kirby and 
 Spence’s Entomology, p. 104, it is stated that Mr. G. Pearce of 
 
536 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 WIBEWORMS. PLANTS THAT RETEL THEM. WOAD. 
 
 Pennanc Gorau, in November 1838, saved an acre and a half of 
 turnips sown to replace 'wheat destroyed by the wireworm, and 
 attacked by hosts ot these larvaj, by setting boys to collect them, 
 who, at the rate of 1> pence per 100, gathered 18,000; as many 
 as titty worms having been taken from one turnip. Thus, at the 
 expense of only XI, 2s. 6d., an acre and a half of turnips, worth 
 X5 to X7 or more, was saved; while, as the boys could each col¬ 
 lect GOO per day, thirty days’ employment was given to them at 
 9d per day, which they would not otherwise have had. Mr. Cur¬ 
 tis states that Mr. Eley of Hounslow, gave him the following 
 statements regarding three acres of drilled wheat infested by wire- 
 worms, and which were hand-picked by women iu March, 184G. 
 The dead plants were dug up with square-pointed knives, and the 
 wireworms picked from the roots into small jugs; at the end of 
 every two rows they were emptied into a large jar, from which 
 escape was impossible. The total quantity taken and destroyed 
 in this manner, from the three acres alone, was more than 60,000; 
 the expense of collecting them was trifling, being not more than 
 10d pei 1,000, at which price the women could earn good w r ages. 
 The ground jvas gone over two or three times, and the worms 
 were counted every night. And in June, 1845, he had five acres 
 of Swedish turnips very much affected by these wireworms. A 
 woman was set to dig the plants that were dead or dying, and to 
 pick up the worms; she was seventeen days at one shilling per 
 day, and collected 41,600 worms. It is added that the wireworms 
 are much easier caught from the turnips than from the wheat; as 
 many as twenty-five in several instances have been found attack¬ 
 ing a single turnip. 
 
 It is supposed there are some particular kinds of vegetation 
 which are distasteful and repulsive to the wireworms, and on 
 which they are unable to feed and sustain themselves, and conse¬ 
 quently if a crop of this kind be grown the -worms will all vanish, 
 perishing from hunger or escaping into the adjoining fields, and 
 hereby the ground can be prepared for succeeding crops which 
 will be uninjured. 
 
 In Europe, woad, a plant heretofore in extensive use by dyers for 
 coloring purposes, has attracted much notice, as being of this kind. 
 Respecting it, Mr. Curtis says, I learn from Hr. Roy, that, on 
 breaking up damp meadow and pasture land in Lincolnshire, if it 
 be sown with woad instead of corn, tho wireworm will be got rid 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 537 
 
 WIREW0RM8. PLANTS THAT REI>EL THEM. WHITE MUSTARD. 
 
 of. It may he repeated two years, after which splendid crops of 
 oats and potatoes may be obtained from the land. 
 
 From the testimony w r e have respecting white mustard, this 
 would appear to be a crop which effectually secures the succeed¬ 
 ing crops of wheat or other grain against these insects. Mr. Tal¬ 
 lent’s account of his experiments with this plant, read before the 
 Northamptonshire Farming Society, and published in the Country 
 Times newspaper, September, 1831, and copied from thence into 
 several publications, is so interesting and satisfactory that I here 
 repeat it: “ White mustard seed will protect the grain from the 
 wireworm, and this fact I have demonstrated perfectly to my own 
 conviction. I first tried the experiment on half an acre, in the 
 centre of a fifty acre field of fallow, which was much subject to the 
 wireworm. The mustard seed being gathered, tho whole field 
 was fallowed for wheat, and the half acre that had been previously 
 cropped with mustard seed was wholly exempt from the wire- 
 worm; the remainder of tho field was much injured. Not only 
 was the half acre thus preserved, but in the spring it was deci¬ 
 dedly the most advanced part of the crop, and the prosperous 
 appearance which it presented, caused me to repeat the experi¬ 
 ment, by sowing three acres more of mustard seed in the worst 
 part of a field of forty-five acres, also much infested with the wire- 
 worm. The remainder of the field was sown with early peas, 
 which, with the mustard seed, was cleared in the same week. 
 The land was then plowed for wheat ; and I had the pleasure of 
 noticing these three acres to be quite free from tho worm, and 
 much superior in other respects to the other part of the field, 
 which suffered greatly. Thus encouraged by these results, I 
 sowed the next year a whole field of forty-two acres, which had 
 never repaid me for nineteen years, in consequence of nearly 
 every crop being destroyed by the wireworm; and I am warranted 
 in stating that not a single wireworm could be fouud the follow- 
 iug year, and the crop of wheat throughout, which was reaped 
 last harvest, was superior to any I had grown for twenty-one 
 years. I am, therefore, under a strong persuasion that the wire- 
 worm may be successfully repelled and eradicated by carefully 
 destroying all weeds and roots, and drilling white mustard seed, 
 and keeping the ground clean by hoeing.” 
 
 Mr. Loudon is of the opinion (Gardener’s Chronicle, vol. vii., p. 
 675), that the wireworm cannot cat tho roots of the mustard, most 
 
538 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 WIREWORMS. PLANTS THAT REPEL THEM. BUCKWHEAT. 
 
 probably from their acridity, and there being no other roots iu 
 the soil for them to live on, and no weeds or other plants beino- 
 permitted to grow during the season but the mustard, the insects 
 necessarily die of famine. 
 
 In this country, attention has been much directed to buckwheat, 
 as being a crop which cleanses the ground in which it is grown 
 from these vermin. It is remarked in the Cultivator (1859, p. 
 107), that this grain seems quite offensive to the wireworm, and 
 growing close and thick, it leaves nothing for them to feed upon, 
 and thus starves them out. Hon. A. B. Dickenson, in his address 
 before the Courtland County Agricultural Society, in the year 
 1855, said: “I have heard it stated that five bushels of salt to the 
 acre, or one hundred bushels of lime, would destroy wireworms. 
 I have tried both; and have sowed ten bushels of salt to the acre, 
 and they only laughed at my folly. I tried one hundred bushels 
 of lime, as recommended, and they fattened on my bounty. I 
 have only proved one remedy for the rascals, and that is to break 
 the sod and sow it to buckwheat; plow late and as often as possi¬ 
 ble in the fall, and then sow it to peas in the spring; with the like 
 plowing next fall, they will not disturb any crop the next season.” 
 It is scarcely necessary to cite other notices of this remedy. Ob¬ 
 jections are made to it as being an inferior, uncertain crop, which 
 leaves much of its seed in the ground, growing to the injury of 
 the succeeding crops. And the experience of A. G. Pcrcey, as 
 reported in the Rural New Yorker, (vol. xiii, p.^6), casts doubts 
 upon its efficacy. He states that having had two acres of corn, 
 growing in a low spot in an old meadow, totally destroyed by 
 wireworms, he sowed the ground the last of Juno to buckwheat 
 and a strip of corn, to notice if the latter would be more eaten 
 than the former. And the worms appeared to relish the buck¬ 
 wheat quite as well as the corn, destroying between a quarter and 
 a half of each of these grains. Winter wheat was sown upon this 
 ground the following autumn, and was almost all destroyed. Oats 
 were sown upon it the next spring and a heavy crop was obtained, 
 uninjured by the worms. It merits to be noticed that this was 
 the third year that the ground had been under the plow, thus in¬ 
 dicating that the worms had all completed their growth and had 
 left the soil the two previous years. 
 
 Bjerkander made several experiments, to ascertain by what 
 means the wireworms could be destroyed. He placed soveral 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 539 
 
 WIREWORMS. REMEDIES. PALL PLOWING OF LAND. 
 
 worms in tea-cups, filled with different substances, and found 
 the result to be as follows: Amongst garlic, the worms lived 
 nine days; in water, four days; among leaves of the spruce fir, 
 fourteen hours; leaves of the fir, ten hours; leaves of Ledum 
 palustre, nine hours; leaves of the Dutch myrtle or sweet gale, 
 Myrica gale, two hours. From these results, he thinks “it ought 
 to be tried how useful it might be, in winter and summer, to mix 
 in the heaps of manure fir leaves, Ledum palustre and Myrica gale, 
 of which vegetables the dung would smell, which might probably 
 be disagreeable to the vermin; and if they did not die in conse¬ 
 quence of it, they might, perhaps, leave the fields.” 
 
 The late Judge Delafield in his Agricultural Survey of Seneca 
 County (Transactions New York State Agricultural Society for 
 1850, p. 523), closes a brief account of the wire-worm with the 
 statement that exposure to the frosts of winter will destroy them; 
 thererore autumn plowing is essential. Upon this measure it is 
 remarked editorally in the Country Gentleman, and in the Culti¬ 
 vator, 1859, p. 107, that by fall plowing the winter arrangements 
 of these worms are disturbed, and their lives finished by the ex¬ 
 treme cold. A repetition of this course for a few years will lessen 
 their numbers materially. To fit sward land which was infested 
 with wireworms, for corn, we should manure and then plow imme¬ 
 diately before planting. By this means the worms would be 
 buried out of the way, and supplied with plenty of food in the 
 roots of the grass, so that they would not injure the corn to any 
 extent; such has been the experience of many farmers. For any 
 crop suited to green sward, the same would be a good course; but 
 beyond corn and potatoes, there are few crops which succeed well, 
 aud hence most would do better if the sward were plowed late in 
 the fall. Land planted to corn as above, should invariably be 
 plowed in autumn for the next crop, or the product would be likely 
 to be destroyed or largely injured by this pest. An efiectual 
 method to rid the land of wireworm is to plow very late in the 
 fall, and work thoroughly the next season, until time to sow buck¬ 
 wheat, which if sowed the next year also — following the same plan 
 of fall plowing and culture — will totally eradicate them, giving at 
 the same time two valuable crops. The Rural New Yorker (1866, 
 p. 357) also directs to fall plow late, sow two barrels of salt per 
 acre, and manure well the next spring; and your chances will bo 
 good for a paying crop. On the other hand, a correspondent 
 
540 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 WIRE-WORMS. REMEDIES. DRAINING. RAPE-CAKE. 
 
 states in the Cultivator, 1861, p. 284, that fall plowing has fro- 
 quently failed. “ One instance of this was a ten acre lot adjoining 
 my land, that was plowed very late, and if I am not mistaken” 
 finished in December, and freezing up very soon after. The next 
 spiing it was planted to corn, and the whole destroyed, except 
 about one acre in one corner that run up on a sandy and gravelly 
 l idge. This lot had lain in grass six years. The cultivated grasses 
 to which it had been seeded having run out and been followed by 
 June and wire grass, it was undoubtedly in a very favorable con¬ 
 dition for the wireworm. It was also the kind of land, a rich, loose, 
 dark colored soil, containing considerable vegetable matter, which is 
 most liable to be infested with them.” And Silas Brown, of North 
 Wilmington, Mass., in the Boston Cultivator, July 27, 1861, says: 
 “ 1 made a S reat mistake in plowing my land the last fall, as I not 
 only lost the labor of the fall plowing, but brought a greedy set of 
 worms to the surface to devour the seed put in by the spring plow¬ 
 ing. Land designed for corn, and that is subject to wireworms, 
 ought never to bo plowed in the fall previous to planting, as theso 
 insects natuially incline to the surface, where they make an attack 
 upon the seed as soon as planted. After many trials of fall plow¬ 
 ing, on different kinds of soil, I am wholly in favor of spring 
 plowing tor coin. The planting ought to be done as soon as pos¬ 
 sible after the ground is plowed, before the worms have time to 
 shilt their places from the roots of the grass to the planted seed.” 
 
 Diaining, by changing a moist, cold soil into one that is more 
 di y> and genial to the crops we cultivate, cannot but have 
 
 a most beneficial effect in breaking up favorite haunts of the wire- 
 worms and diminishing their numbers. Instances, however, have 
 been reported, both at home and abroad, in which the worms were 
 increased by this measure. This, we think, could only have been 
 from some accidental cause and of but temporary duration. It is 
 so universally remarked that these worms are the most numerous 
 and destructive in cold, damp soils, the benefits which will result 
 from draining cannot be doubted. 
 
 Compacting the ground, after sowing, by heavily rolling it, or 
 driving sheep over it, is a regular practice with some farmers in 
 England and Germany, to preserve the crop from wire-worms. 
 
 Lord Albemarle recommends that rape-cake should be used as 
 a manure, powdered and sown over the field. He says, if it docs 
 not destroy the insects it at least saves the crop from their attacks. 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 541 
 
 WIREWORMS. REMEDIES. MANURES. GUANO. BIRDS. 
 
 The wire worms are said to be more fond of this than of any other 
 food and will not trouble any crop of plants if they are supplied 
 with it. J. H. Churnock, of Lennoxville, Canada East, gave a 
 very interesting communication in the Country Gentlemen and 
 Cultivator (1865, p. 77), in relation to this substance. He directs 
 to break the rape cake into small lumps about a half inch thick 
 and spread them over the ground, to the amount of three hundred 
 weight per acre, and plow them in before sowing. These lumps 
 he says will be found afterwards to be filled with worms in all 
 stages from repletion to death and decay. And besides being 
 such a perfect vermifuge it is a powerful fertilizer. If the worms 
 are so fond of this substance as is stated, it is entitled to more 
 general attention than it is receiving. 
 
 The benefits of highly manuring and promoting a rapid, vigor¬ 
 ous growth of the crop are admitted on all hands. Manure, it is 
 stated in the Cultivator (1859, page 107,) is well known as one ot 
 the best remedies for the wireworm. Some farmers adopt the 
 following mode of applying it. The land for spring crops is 
 plowed very late in autumn, the later the better, so that the cold 
 may effectually chill them ; and during winter manure is applied 
 to the land, with three or four bushels of salt, and if practicable, 
 twenty or thirty bushels of ashes. The two latter may be applied 
 early in spring, and if the manure is made into compost with turf, 
 loam, and sand the previous autumn, with the salt and ashes 
 added at that time, and the compost applied early the following 
 spring, it will succeed well. 
 
 Hog manure is stated by D. Thomson, of Adams Basin, N. Y., 
 to be an entire preventive of the wireworms from injuring the 
 crops. Ho reports in the Rural New Yorker (vol. vi, p. 133,) 
 that the part of a field in which hog manure was scattered and 
 plowed in, yielded a good crop, when that of the unmanured part 
 of the same field was destroyed. And dropped in the hill in cer¬ 
 tain rows, these rows were unaffected, when the adjoining un¬ 
 manured rows were entirely cut off. 
 
 Guano, it is stated iu the same periodical (1862, page 29,) ap¬ 
 plied to the crop when it is planted, is the best preventive of their 
 attack. It is found to be very offensive to the worms, and either 
 destroys them or drives them away. 
 
 It remains for us, in conclusion, to mention the birds as being 
 our best friends to assist us in destroying the wireworms. Tko 
 
542 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 WIREWORMS. CROWS AND ROOKS DEVOUR IMMENSE NUMBERS. 
 
 robin is very fond of these worms. The blackbirds and thrushes 
 are constantly hunting the grass for them and other larvae and 
 pupae. But the bird before all others for his efficiency in this 
 work is the crow, in this country, and his brother, the rook, in 
 Europe. Wireworms and their progenitors the suapping-beetlcs 
 are the favorite food and the principal sustenance of these birds. 
 And some idea of the importance and value of their services may 
 be obtained from the following exceedingly interesting statement 
 of Mr. T. G. Clithero, in the Magazine of Natural History, vol. 
 vi, p. 142: “In the neighborhood of my native place, in the county 
 of York, is a rookery, belonging to W. Vavasour, Esq., of Weston, 
 in Wharfdale, in which it is estimated that there are 10,000 rooks- 
 and one pound of food a week is a very moderate allowance for 
 each bird, and that nine-tenths of their food consist of worms 
 insects, and their larvae; for although they do considerable damage 
 to the fields for a few weeks in seed-time and a few weeks in har¬ 
 vest, particularly in backward seasons, yet a very large proportion 
 of their food, even at these seasons, consists of insects and worms, 
 which (if we except a few acorns and walnuts in autumn) compose 
 at all other times the whole of their subsistence. Here, then, if 
 my data be correct, there is the enormous quantity of 468,000 
 pounds, or 209 tons of worms, insects, and their lame, destroyed 
 by the rooks of a single rookery in one yeax-. To evei-y one who 
 knows how very destructive to vegetation are the lame of the 
 tribes of insects, as well as worms, fed upon by i-ooks, some slight 
 idea may be formed of the devastation which i-ooks are the means 
 of preventing.” 
 
 It is stated iu the Rural New Yorker (1862, p. 29,) that the 
 ciow can distinguish by the eye what no fai-mer can—evei-y plant 
 which has a worm at its rdot; and that to obtain these insects it 
 will frequently tear up in a short time lai-ge patches of turnips. 
 We should incline to doubt the statement that it can accurately 
 distinguish evei-y plaut which has a wirewortn infesting its root, 
 but we see the same statement is made of the rook also. Mr. 
 Curtis informs us that, to pick the worms fi-om the gi-owiug ci-ops 
 is the occupation of the rook when he is seen gi-avely surveying a 
 turnip or corn crop, and with astonishing sagacity selecting those 
 plants only which have a few yellow leaves outside—the sui-e indi¬ 
 cation of the presence of the wireworm and other insects. He states 
 that a gentleman iu Norfolk, who well understands this subject, says: 
 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
 
 543 
 
 •WIREWORMS. FED TO YOUNG CROWS. 
 
 11 The rooks convey the first tidings of the presence of this formid¬ 
 able enemy by hovering over a field in flocks, and actually pulling 
 up the turnips by the roots to search for them, and I cannot but 
 believe that their sagacity directs them to the infested plants, 
 which are distinguished by their drooping leaves and dark un¬ 
 healthy aspect.” An equally observant friend in Surrey, says: 
 
 “ The rooks are accused of doing injury by pulling up the wheat, 
 but I, as well as others here, believe that they pull up the attack¬ 
 ed plants to get the wireworms, and do not touch the healthy 
 plants.” Another informant states that during a period when the 
 wireworms were abundant the rooks were busily occupied amongst 
 the barley, and where it looked sickly they had drawn the earth 
 away from the roots to find the wireworms, and where they had 
 been “ working the earth ” none of these worms could afterwards 
 be found. But a still stronger and incontrovertible evidence in 
 their favor is the fact, that in the rooks which have been shot, a 
 few grains of corn only were found in their stomachs but abundance 
 of wireworms and other insects. 
 
 But for an occasional word in tho statements above quoted, it 
 would be thought it was the crow of this country to which refer¬ 
 ence was being made. That it is the worms that they are in 
 pursuit of and not tho corn, in the plants they scratch and pull 
 up, has been conclusively ascertained. These wireworms and 
 their parents, the snapping-beetles, appear to constitute the piin- 
 cipal nourishment of the crow. He is educated into a relish for 
 them from his infancy. His taste for them is acquired in the nest. 
 
 I am informed by E. B. Ashton, ot White Creek, N. Y., that in 
 breaking up a crow's nest in "which the birds weie unfledged 
 squads with only pin-feathers started out upon their skin, he found 
 their stomachs literally stuffed and distended with Elaters, each 
 bird having between seventy or eighty of these beetles in its crop, 
 mixed up with a few plant bugs. This fact shows tho valuable 
 service which tho crow does us in destroying these pests. Each 
 of the young before leaving tho nest, has, fed to it by the old 
 birds, some thousands, probably, of these snapping-beetles. 
 
 We close this subject for the present, expecting to again resume 
 it when we shall be able to present an account ot the particular 
 beetles from which some ot the other kinds of our American 
 wireworms are produced, in addition to the two which we have 
 herewith described. 
 
544 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
 
 COUNTY ASSOCIATIONS. 
 
 Albany. 
 
 To Col. B. P. Johnson, Sec’y JV. Y. Slate Agricultural Society: 
 
 ^ The twelfth annual Fair of the Albany County Agricultural 
 Society was held on the Washington Parade Ground, in the city 
 of Albany. The Fair was a success beyond any ever before held 
 in this county. At the annual meeting, held on the 30th of Feb¬ 
 ruary, 1866, Mr. Jacob Messenger was elected President; Mr. 
 Jacob Simmons, Vice-President; Mr. J. M. Bailey, Secretary, and 
 Mr. John J. Mull, Treasurer. During the month of January last, 
 J. M. Bailey resigned, and the present Secretary was elected to 
 till the vacancy. The officers of the society being supported by 
 an excellent board of managers, determined to hold a Fair which 
 would be a credit to themselves and an honor to the county. This 
 they believe was accomplished, though not without a great deal 
 of hard work. The lack of interest felt for the success and wel¬ 
 fare of the society by so many prominent citizens, both in the city 
 and in the country, was the greatest difficulty the officers had to 
 encounter ; and it was only after repeated efforts that this indiffer¬ 
 ence was overcome. The officers, believing it essential that the 
 interest of both the city and county should bo more practically 
 united than they had previously been, called a public meeting at 
 the City Hall. This meeting was largely attended by many 
 piominent men of the county. The enthusiasm that was mani¬ 
 fested and the interest that was awakened at this meeting seemed 
 to infuse a new life into the society, and from that time there was 
 an inteiest manifested in the success of the then coming Fair that 
 the most sanguine hardly hoped for. At an adjourned meeting, 
 an auxiliary association, “The Albany City Merchants and Manu¬ 
 facturers Association,” w r as formed by the citizens of Albany, 
 with Mr. Wm. J. Scott as President. This association devoted 
 itself more exclusively to the mercantile and manufacturing depart¬ 
 ment. J oo much praise cannot bo given to Mr. Scott and his 
 associates for the energetic manner in which they thus aided the 
 officers in their labors and contributed to the success of the Fair. 
 Mr. Wm. C. Schuyler w'as assigned the museum department, 
 
State A gricvltural Society. 
 
 889 
 
 TWELFTH REPORT 
 
 ON THE 
 
 NOXIOUS, BENEFICIAL AND OTHER INSECTS, 
 
 Of the State of New York. 
 
 BY ASA FITCH, M. D. 
 
 Buffalo Tree-hopper, Ceresa bubalus, Fabricius. (Homoptera, 
 
 Membracidte.) 
 
 Wounding raspberry stalks, grape vines, and apple twigs, in autumn, by pierc¬ 
 ing them with numerous holes placed regularly in a straight row some two inches 
 in length or more; a beech-nut shaped tree-hopper of a grass-green color, and having 
 anteriorly on each side a short sharp point projecting horizontally outwards and 
 resembling the horns of a bull or buffalo. 
 
 A figure of this insect and a brief general notice of it was given 
 in my Third Report (Transactions 1856, page 335). Important 
 additional facts in relation to it have since been obtained, whereby 
 I mn now able to present a full account of its habits and trans¬ 
 formations. Some of these facts have already been communicated 
 to the public in an article in the American Agriculturist, June, 1862 
 (vol. xxi, p. 172). 
 
 In the winter and spring a peculiar kind of crack or scar is 
 sometimes observed on the twigs of the apple, cherry, willow and 
 other trees, extending lengthwise of the twig, from half an inch to 
 three inches in length. It occurs on twigs which are nearly or 
 quite a quarter of an inch in thickness, and two or more of these 
 scars are sometimes seen at different points along the same twig. 
 Their surface is raised slightly above the level of the bark and has 
 a rough, cankered appearance, with a deep crack along the middle, 
 in which crack a row of small holes is more or less distinctly to 
 he seen, extending the whole length of the scar. Upon splitting 
 the twig it is discovered that these holes are borod.downward into 
 or quite through its pith, in an oblique or slanting direction, each 
 hole being somewhat bent or curved, and occupied by the egg of 
 an insect. 
 
890 
 
 Annual Report of New York 
 
 BUFFALO TREE-HOPFER. ITS EGOS. IN A ROW OF HOLB8. 
 
 These eggs are shining, yellowish-white, cylindrical, with rounded 
 ends, and about four times as long as thick, their length being a 
 little more than the tenth of an inch, and exactly filling the holes 
 for about two-thirds of their length. 
 
 If a twig be paired off with a knife upon the side opposite to 
 the scar and crack, until the ends of the eggs are come upon, these 
 are there observed to be arranged in two rows, although the holes 
 in the bark are in a single row. And in splitting a twig in two to 
 expose the holes, if it be done accurately, half the eggs will remain 
 in one piece, and half, alternately with these, will be in the other 
 piece. This curious arrangement is evidently caused by the artistic 
 manner in which the ovipositor is inserted into the twig. Instead 
 of sinking this implement inward through the exact centre of the 
 pith the insect gives it a direction slightly to one side, first to the 
 right, next to the left, then again to the right, thus alternately 
 changing with each hole she successively perforates. Hereby the 
 eggs have more space between them than they would have were 
 they deposited in a single row. I conjecture it is to enable the 
 eggs to swell and increase in size without crowding against each 
 other, that they are thus arranged. Although it is quite an anomaly 
 for an egg to grow and enlarge, the fact is well ascertained that 
 the eggs of some of the saw-flies which are deposited in the soft 
 and spongy pith of plants do swell and become larger befoie they 
 hatch than they are when first laid. And the eggs of this tree- 
 hopper have such a plump appearance, and fill the holes so com¬ 
 pactly that it would seem they must have been smaller to admit 
 of their being crowded into a space so contracted. 
 
 These same scars occur also in grape vines. But it is in the 
 stalks of the raspberry that they arc most common and occasion 
 the most damage. They are met with in the stalks of the wild 
 black raspberry or thimble berry as it is sometimes called (Rubus 
 occidenlalis), and of the red raspberry also (R. strigosus ); and 
 they are liable to be quite numerous in the cultivated garden rasp¬ 
 berry (R. Idaius). In the Rural Neiu Yorker , May 11, 1867 (vol. 
 xviii, p. 151), Dr. F. H. Guiwits of Clinton, Michigan, states that 
 “Almost every cane of my raspberries, both black and red, has 
 been pierced by some insect depredator, with small perforations 
 the size of a pm, in each of which, in the pith of the cane, 1^ find 
 an egg about an eighth of an inch long, of a whitish color. These 
 perforations occur in rows and very close together. The rows are 
 
State Agricultural Society. 
 
 891 
 
 ITS HABIT8. MODE OP PIERCING TWIGS. 
 
 from half an inch to half a foot long, and sometimes several rows 
 on a cane. Above these nests the cane is dead. The most of them 
 are as much as two feet from the ground. The prospects of my 
 berry crop are diminished at least one-half in consequence of this.” 
 
 In a black raspberry stalk I count eighty-one punctures in a row 
 three inches and a fourth in length, indicating that this number of 
 eggs was laid by one of these tree-hoppers at one time and with¬ 
 out any remission of its work. The number of holes in a row one 
 inch in length I find to be from twenty-five to twenty-seven. 
 
 In the year 1858 the apple trees at Akron, Ohio, and its vicinity, 
 were extensively injured by these wounds upon their twigs. The 
 malady attracted the notice of H. W. Howe, Counsellor at Law, of 
 that place, who forwarded to me specimens of the wounded twigs, 
 and some correspondence hereupon followed between us. Upon 
 being informed how much of a novelty these 'wounds were, and 
 that the insect making them was unknown, he devoted particular 
 attention to this subject, and at length was so fortunate as to detect 
 the culprit in the very act of piercing these holes, and specimens 
 of it were thereupon sent to me. It is thus to Esq. Howe that we 
 are indebted for knowing what insect it is which causes these wounds, 
 and the manner in which it makes them. 
 
 This insect begins to be seen soon after the middle of July, each 
 year, and remains till the end of the season. It is so common 
 throughout the Northern States and Canada, and has such a pecu¬ 
 liar form that every observing person lias probably at some time 
 noticed it. It is from three to four-tenths of an inch long, of a 
 light grass-green color faintly freckled with whitish dots, and is 
 three-sided, like a beech-nut in shape. At its forward end, jutting 
 out horizontally upon each side is a short sharp-pointed process, 
 these two projecting points looking like a pair of horns, giving it 
 some resemblance to a bull or buffalo, from which circumstance it 
 has received its name. It may frequently be seen on the small 
 limbs of the apple tree, the locust and other trees in our orchards 
 and yards, standing with its head towards the base of the limb. 
 It there remains perfectly motionless and quiescent. But if the 
 finger approaches it, with a sudden strong spring it darts away 
 with such velocity that the eye is seldom able to follow it or even 
 catch a glimpse of the direction in which it has thrown itself. 
 
 The piercer, lancet or ovipositor,.the instrument with which this 
 tree-hopper perforates the holes in the stalks of the raspberry and 
 
892 
 
 Annual Report of New York 
 
 BUFFALO TREK-HOPPER. ITS LARVA. SUCKS THE SAP OF PLANTS. 
 
 the twigs of trees, closes into its sheath much like the blade of a 
 pocket knife in its handle. It is plainly to he seen thus closed and 
 lodged in a groove on the underside of the body at its hinder part. 
 To perforate a hole, Esq. Howe informs me this piercer is held 
 obliquely forward and downward, like a knife blade a quarter 
 opened. Being in this position and its point pressing against the 
 bark, it is by a forward movement of its body that the insect thrusts 
 it downward through the bark and soft wood and into the pith. 
 An egg is then passed through this implement down into the hole 
 it has made, and it is thereupon withdrawn and placed in position 
 for making another hole. The wounds which it thus makes are 
 scarcely perceptible at first, but become more and more conspicu¬ 
 ous with age. It was the last of September when Esq. Howe dis¬ 
 covered the insect at this work, and some of the wounds in the 
 twigs he judged from their appearance had been made a month 
 earlier. 
 
 The eggs remain in the pith of the stalks or twigs where they 
 are deposited, through the winter and spring, hatching the fore 
 part of June. They do not produce worms, but small active larvre 
 which' resemble the parent insects in their shape. 
 
 The lance, when I have first noticed them, about the 20th of 
 June, were one-tenth of an inch long, 0.0(3 high and about 0.03 
 wide. They are of a compressed triangular form, of a leaf-green 
 color, and a soft fleshy texture, with two rows of long spines along 
 the back, eleven in each row. These spines are soft and flexible, 
 and bearded with fine bristles. Two arc placed upon the summit 
 of each segment except the head and the tip. They project 
 upward and curve outward, except the forward pair which are 
 curved strongly forward over the head, and the hind pairs which 
 are inclined backward. The head and legs and the lower edges of 
 the body are bearded with fine bristles. The last segment is a 
 cylindrical tube equalling in its length the three or four segments 
 forward of it. This tube has a pair of small spines at its tip on 
 the upper side and is bearded with fine bristles along its underside. 
 
 These larvae station themselves upon the succident stalks of 
 plants, at the axils of the leaves, where they so much resemble the 
 young buds which start out at this point, that it is only on looking 
 particularly that they are detected. They stand there motionless, 
 with their beaks inserted into the stalk, sucking its juices, which 
 constitute the nourishment of this insect both in its larva and its 
 
State Agricultural Society. 
 
 893 
 
 REMBDIBS. YELLOW-LINED AND RED-LINBD LEAF-HOFPBRS. 
 
 perfect states. They are hereby pernicious to the vegetation on 
 which they occcur, as well as by wounding it to insert their eggs. 
 The juices of the dahlia appear to be especially palatable to them, 
 for they infest this much more than any other of our cultivated 
 plants, and unless resisted they are liable to become gathered 
 upon this plant in such numbers as to occasion it much injury. 
 
 In seasons when these leaf-hoppers are noticed as being so com¬ 
 mon upon our fruit trees and shrubs as to excite apprehensions 
 that they will be detrimental, it will be well to frequently shake 
 and jar the vegetation on which they abound, in order to frighten 
 these insects away; for they are so shy and timorous that I think 
 few of them will remain where they find they are liable to be thus 
 disturbed, but will fly away to the fields and forests where is vege¬ 
 tation that will accommodate them as perfectly as does that of our 
 orchards and gardens. When young, small and destitute of wings 
 for flight they are less agile than when they are full grown, and 
 are more easily captured; and it will be well, the latter part of 
 June, to occasionally look over the dahlias and other cultivated 
 plants on which any of these young ones are discovered, and pick 
 off and destroy them, in company with the young of the Yellow- 
 lined Leaf-hopper, which, as stated on a subsequent page, frequently 
 occur upon these same plants. 
 
 Yellow-lined Leaf-hoiter, Gypona flavilineata, Fitch. (Ilomop- 
 tera, Tettigoniidte.) 
 
 Puncturing the leaves of the dahlia and extracting their juices in July and 
 August, a flattened oval pale green leaf-hopper, about 0.40 long, with eight faint 
 yellow stripes upon its thorax, the middle ones prolonged upon the head and 
 scutel. 
 
 Red-lined Leaf-hoiter, Gypona octolineata, Say. 
 
 An insect similar to the preceding in size, form and habits, hut having tho stripes 
 upon its thorax bright red and also the veins of its wing covers. 
 
 These two insects will best be considered in connection, being 
 
 . 7 O 
 
 so ultimately related that they have been regarded as only varieties 
 of one species, although to the eyo they differ conspicuously in 
 their color, and the ono is common whilst the other is quite rare. 
 
 They wore first noticed by Mr. Say, who in the year 1825 pub¬ 
 lished a description of tho Red-lined species in the Journal of the 
 Academy of National Sciences, vol. iv., page 340, where he also 
 refers to the yellow-lined species as being a variety of the same 
 
894 
 
 Annual Report of New York 
 
 TBLLOW AND RED-LINED LEAP-HOPPERS. THEIR CLOSE RELATIONSHIP 
 
 insect. He had before him but a single specimen of the former 
 and probably a few only of the latter. In 1851 when my Catalogue 
 of the Homopterous Insects in the Stale Cabinet of Natural His¬ 
 tory was published I had met with only two of the Red-lined spe¬ 
 cies but had gathered as many as I desired of the others. Their 
 colors were so widely different and were so constant in every 
 instance—the yellow-lined ones being of both sexes, and no part of 
 any one of the multitude of examples which I inspected presenting 
 any tinge of red to indicate to me that the two colors might gradu¬ 
 ally pass into each other—that I did not hesitate to regard them 
 as being specifically distinct, and treated them accordingly. But as 
 Mr. Say indicates no doubt of his correctness, I could not divest 
 myself of the suspicion that he had seen some instance in which the 
 stripes were partly red and partly yellow, or so colored otherwise 
 as to be intermediate between the two extremes. Years passed 
 away, and I continued to collect numbers of the Yellow-lined insects 
 without meeting with any example to shake my confidence in the 
 correctness of the view I had taken. Upon meeting with the lar¬ 
 vae and pupae of this species on the dahlia, the query occurred to 
 my mind, whether, if an individual that was young and growing 
 were to sustain itself a portion of the time upon tho brilliant red 
 flower leaves of this plant, it might not acquire a red color thereby, 
 and thus grow to be the Red-lined instead of remaining the Yellow- 
 lined species. And I was revolving it in my thoughts how I could 
 test this by experiment, when, in August 1865, I was taken quite 
 by surprise in meeting upon the dahlia with what appeared to be 
 one of these Yellow-lined Leaf-hoppers having the basal half of its 
 thorax pale w'ith the stripes upon it crimson and the inner margin 
 of its wing covers also tinged with this color. Thus, after I had 
 been gathering and inspecting these insects upwards of twenty 
 years, a specimen such as I was in pursuit of presented itself to 
 me, seeming to be intermediate between tho two species in ques¬ 
 tion, having its stripes partly red and partly yellow. I had all 
 along suspected that Mr. Say had seen a specimen similar to this, 
 which had led him to regard the Yellow-lined examples as a mere 
 variety, and I hereupon supposed that I was probably in error in 
 elevating them to the rank of a distinct species. A few weeks 
 afterwards, a second sjiecimen similarly colored presented itself to 
 me, and now, three years later, a third one comes to hand. And 
 upon noticing that these three examples were nearly alike, tho 
 
State Agricultural Society. 
 
 895 
 
 P0IRT8 OP DIPPBRBNCE BETWEEN THESE TWO 8PECIE8. 
 
 same parts taking on the red color in each instance and thus indi¬ 
 cating this coloring to be constant, it began to appear as though 
 these were a third species instead of a connecting link between 
 two remote varieties. I thereupon resolved to give this matter a 
 thorough re-examination, to determine the true relations of these 
 respective individuals to each other. During nearly a score of 
 years another specimen of the Red-lined species has come to me, 
 whereby I have three examples of it before me for comparison, 
 and quite a number of the Yellow-lined species. I first remark 
 that several of the latter are of a larger size than either of the 
 former, and that each of the partly red examples are small, though 
 some Yellow-lined males are equally small. And I next notice the 
 important fact that the partly red examples are each one males, 
 and those which are wholly red are females, and from my notes I 
 learn that the red specimen in Dr. Harris’s collection is also a 
 female. It thus appears that this remarkable difference in their 
 colors is sexual. Mr. Say, however, states that the specimen from 
 which he drew his description was a male. But I am constrained 
 to suspect he was in an error. In females which are newly dis¬ 
 closed from the pupa, and before the ovipositor has been pro¬ 
 truded for use, the tip of the abdomen is small and undeveloped, 
 whereby they at first glance appear to be males, and in such cases 
 it is only on a close examination of good specimens that the sex 
 can be accurately determined. Further observations will, I think, 
 establish it as a fact that the Red-lined specimens are all females 
 and those that are partly red are their males, as some other spe¬ 
 cies of this family present equally remarkable differences in the 
 colors of the two sexes. 
 
 On coming next to particularly examine and compare the several 
 specimens, I discover such differences in some of the details of their 
 structure, their colors and also their habits, as conclusively show 
 the yellow-lined ones to be a distinct species from those which are 
 partly and wholly lined with red. Tho latter have the whole sur¬ 
 face of their wing covers netted with veins and veiulets, whilst the 
 former have them thus netted only at their tips, the longitudinal 
 veins on the disk and base of the wing covers being unconnected by 
 short transverse veinlets, save in the middle cell, which is crossed 
 by three or four of these veinlets, the corresponding cell in the red- 
 lined species always having a larger number than this. On the 
 head of the yellow-lined species the two middle stripes aro parallel 
 
896 
 
 Annual Report of New York 
 
 YELLOW AND RED -LINED LEAF-HOPPERS. TDK LATTER ENTER OUR DWELLINGS 
 
 and equidistant from each other their whole length, whilst in the 
 red-lined species they converge and are united together through 
 the anterior half of their length. The eyelets or ocelli are placed 
 within the outer sides of these stripes in the former species, whilst 
 in the latter they are wholly outside of the outer edges of these 
 stripes. Other differences which are less conspicuous it is unneces¬ 
 sary to mention. One point, however, in which they differ in their 
 habits merits to be stated. Notwithstanding the Yellow-lined Leaf- 
 hopper is so very much more common and so frequently inhabits 
 the vegetation around our dwellings, I have never known an instance 
 in which it has been attracted by the light of the lamp to enter 
 open doors or windows upon summer evenings; whilst of the six 
 specimens, male and female, of the Eed-lined Leaf-hopper which I 
 have in hand, four were taken within doors, either alighted around 
 a lamp in the evening, or upon the closed windows by day, these 
 latter having doubtlessly entered the lighted rooms in the evening 
 and flew to the windows to escape when daylight arrived. 
 
 I may here remark further, with regard to these pretty rose red 
 insects, which we are liable to meet with within our dwellings, and 
 which look as though they might be thus colored from being stained 
 with blood, that they are extremely agile, darting with such velo¬ 
 city as almost to be imperceptible; and without any rustling of ils 
 wings or other noise to indicate its approach, one of them drops in 
 the glare of the lamplight upon the papers close beside our hand, 
 so suddenly and silently that, seeing it where it had not been a 
 moment before, it seems like a spectre that has supernatural ly 
 arisen there. 
 
 The history of one of the specimens in my hands is so singular 
 and interesting that it is well entitled to be narrated. It was 
 brought to me by a physician from a neighboring town who gave 
 me the following account: A patient under his care, a young lady, 
 vomiting in a clean white washbowl, suddenly noticed this bright 
 red insect in the bowl, upon the matter vomited, and she and her 
 attendants were certain that she had thrown it from her stomach. 
 He wished to know it this was possible, and if an insect like this 
 had ever before been seen. I was able to immediately show him 
 another specimen exactly like the one he brought, and to assure 
 him that this latter had never been touched by the digestive juices 
 of the stomach, or it would have been soiled and its bright colors 
 faded thereby; it had not even been wetted, or its thin delicate 
 
State Agricultural Society. 
 
 897 
 
 Til KIR GEOGRAPHICAL BANGS. LARVA AND PUPA DE8CRIBED. 
 
 wings would have been wrinkled and matted together like a wet 
 dishcloth. The insect was undoubtedly present in the sick room, 
 and being probably attracted by the white glistening surface of the 
 washbowl, it darted towards it and dropped into it so suddenly 
 that it was not perceived until it had alighted. 
 
 This Red-lined Leaf-hopper is so rare and so seldom seen that 
 these few facts in relation to its habits become the more valuable. 
 As to the extent of territory which it inhabits we only know that 
 Dr. Harris met with it in Eastern Massachusetts, and Mr. Say cap¬ 
 tured the specimen from which he described the species in Missouri, 
 and appears never to have found it in Pennsylvania. 
 
 The Yellow-lined Leaf-IIopper is a rather common insect in New 
 York and New England, and specimens sent me by correspondents 
 show that its geographical range extends west to Kansas and south 
 into Arkansas, and very probably it exceeds these limits. It occurs 
 in a variety of situations, being met with in gardens, meadows and 
 forests, nourishing itself on the juices of nearly all kinds of plants 
 and trees without manifesting a preference for any particular species 
 of vegetation, unless it be the dahlia, on which I every year detect 
 a number of them and their young. In addition to this plant I 
 have noted it as occurring upon asters and other cultivated plants, 
 and on the leaves of oaks, walnuts, the beech, maple, birch, willow, 
 and on the dogwood and some other shrubs. 
 
 The larvae and pupae precede the perfect insects in their appear¬ 
 ance. They begin to be observed in June, and are met with in 
 much the same variety of situations as the mature insects, which 
 they resemble in form and also in their motions and habits, except 
 that they are incapable of flying. The larva is like the pupa in 
 most respects, but is smaller and more pale, even translucent and 
 watery in some examples, and the bristle of its antennas is longer 
 than the body, tapering, and very slender towards its tip. 
 
 The plums are a fourth smaller than their parents and have the same flattened 
 oval form. They are of a light bluish green color and are clothed above with short 
 white hairs with a fringe of longer ones around the sides of the hind body. A 
 pale stripe extends from the front of the head along the middle of the back to the 
 end of the body; and the segments are margined with confluent spots of grass 
 greon and pale yellow. Beneath, the hind body shows a palo yellow stripe along 
 each side. The legs arc pale green, with the feet watery whitish. The bristle of 
 the antennas is brown and nearly as long as the body. 
 
 The Yellow-linkd Leaf-hoppeu in its mature state varies in length from 0.115 
 to 0.45, the smallest individuals being males and the largest ones females. Its 
 
 |Aq.] 57 
 
898 
 
 Annual Report of New Yore 
 
 VELLOW-LIEBD LEAF-HOPPER DESCRIBED. RED-LIHED LEAF-HOPPER DESCRIBED. 
 
 body is of a nearly regular oval form, but when tho wing covers are fully closed it 
 is more tapering posteriorly and more pointed at its tip than in front. It is strongly 
 flattened, and more convex across the closed wing-covers than in front. The sur¬ 
 face is smooth and slightly glossy. It is of a very pale green color, fading when 
 long preserved to very pale dull yellowish, the underside being paler. The head 
 is flat, semicircular in front, concave at the base, narrower than the thorax, more 
 than twice as broad as long, with a slender impressed line in the middle. The 
 ocelli arc nearly as distant from each other as from the eyes. Six stripes of a pale 
 yellow color extend longitudinally from the base to the anterior edge. These 
 become faded and indistinct in most of the preserved specimens. The two middle 
 stripes are parallel to each other and have tho ocelli inserted in their outer sides. 
 The outer stripes occupy the inner sides of the orbits of the eyes. The antennas 
 are pale yellow, their bristle brown and equalling the thorax in length. The 
 thorax is nearly flat, its surface finely striated transversely, and occupied by eight 
 parallel longitudinal stripes of pale yellow, which are sometimes as wide as the 
 intervals between them, sometimes much narrower. Thcscutel has the six middle 
 stripes of the thorax prolonged across it, the outer ones merely forming a triangu¬ 
 lar spot upon its outer angles. It is crossed by an arched suture slightly back of 
 the middle, which hasits ends turned abruptly backward. The t oing covers are 
 destitute of transverse veinlets except at their tips and in the middle one of the 
 longitudinal cells. 
 
 The Red-lined Leap-hopper has the body shaped the same as in tho foregoing 
 species and 0.43 long in the female. This sex has the head red and more or less 
 striped and spotted with yellowish white. A narrow triangular spot of this color 
 is placed on the middle of the base, extending half the length of the head and 
 ending in a very narrow acute point. A second spot is placed behind the ocellus, 
 reaching from its orbit to the base, commonly with its outer anterior angle prolonged 
 outward and forward in an oblique streak reaching half way to the outer edge 
 forward of the eye; this spot being also sometimes extended forward, passing the 
 inner side of the ocellus and reaching nearly to the anterior edge. A third spot is 
 placed also on the base equidistant between the second spot and the eye. It is 
 small and triangular, extending nearly to the outer end of tho oblique streak. 
 The face is sometimes pale yellow with the upper border red; at other times it is 
 pale red more or less clouded with pale ycllow r . The antennas are commonly red, 
 their bristle black, long, slender, tapering, nearly half the length of tho body. 
 The thorax is yellowish white with the posterior half of its surface stained with 
 red in the middle. It is finely striated transversely and is crossed lengthwise 
 with eight bright rose red stripes which arc commonly very distinct and narrower 
 than the intervals between them, but varying in different specimens. The two 
 middle stripes are the most regular and smooth, often slightly thicker at their 
 anterior ends and nearer approached than they are towards the base. The second 
 stripe is uneven and somewhat dislocated in its middle, ending abruptly without 
 attaining the anterior edge, its forward part bent inward and almost touching the 
 middle stripe and in one instance uniting with it. The two remaining stripes 
 united at both their ends and sometimes through their whole length, tho outer one 
 broader and placed but slightly inside of the outer edge. Tho scutel has the 
 impressed suture across its middle strongly curved and the ends not abruptly 
 turned backward as they are in the males; its color is red, with a yellowish white 
 stripe in tho middle which ends at the curved suture, and on each side of this is ft 
 
State Agricultural Society. 
 
 899 
 
 MALES OF RED-LINED LEAF-HOPPER DESCRIBED. 
 
 slender stripe of the same color, which is widened at its hind end and reaches the 
 margin at the end of the curved suture; this stripe being often obliterated and 
 only its posterior end remaining in form of a triangular marginal spot; on the 
 hind part is a curved transverse yellowish line, its ends joining those of the curved 
 suture, and with it inclosing a transverse red spot of a regular oval form, the sur¬ 
 face of which is finely striated transversely. The xving covers are salt white, with 
 the veins and veinlcts red, and a red stripe on the outer border extending two- 
 thirds of the length, edged with a white line upon its outer side. The wings are 
 salt white with very fine slender red veins. On the underside the abdomen is pale 
 yellow, sometimes having stains of red along the sides. The ovipositor or egg 
 tube is brown and at its tip black. The legs are pale red, the hind pair long and 
 slender with their thighs pale yellow. 
 
 The males of this Red-lined Leaf-hopper are smaller than their 
 mates, measuring only 0.35 in length, and, as the reader is aware 
 from what has already been stated, they differ remarkably from 
 the other sex in color, being of a greenish instead of a rosy red 
 hue, with the stripes of the thorax and the veins of the wing covers 
 deeper green or olive, only the base of the thorax and the inner 
 edge of the wing covers being colored as they are in the female. 
 
 The ground color of the males corresponds with that of the other sex, they 
 being very pale green or greenish gray, above and beneath. The head has the 
 yellow stripes wholly obliterated, except the basal ends of the two middle ones. 
 The eyes and ocelli are frequently of a vivid crimson color in the living insect. The 
 thorax has a largo spot on its basal half as in the female, but of a different color, 
 it being ochrcy yellow or sometimes pale gray. This spot varies greatly in size, 
 sometimes extending to the middle of the thorax, and sometimes but half this 
 distance, and embraces the ends of four and sometimes six of the longitudinal 
 stripes. And where these stripes pass upon this spot they lose their yellow color 
 and become red as in the female, but of a deeper tint of crimson than they are in 
 that sex. Forward of this spot and upon each side of it these stripes totally dis¬ 
 appear, except the two middle ones, which aro very faint watery green in the living 
 insect and dull olive in preserved specimens. The scutel has two red spots on its 
 base, at the ends of the two middle stripes of the thorax. Its outor angles aro 
 opposite the end of the third stripe, and a triangular spot commonly occupies these 
 angles, which spot is red when the end of the third stripe is red, but when tho 
 ends of only four of the thoracic stripes are red this spot is of a dull ochrey yellow 
 color. In one of the specimens before me this spot is larger, occupying all that 
 portion of the scutel which is back of the end of the second stripe of the thorax. 
 In another specimen it is small, and in tho third example before me these spots 
 and the two between them are wanting. The wing covers vary in the extent of 
 the red color on their inner margins. In one instance only a narrow space adjoin¬ 
 ing the scutel is faintly tinged with red, and at the tip the slender marginal vein 
 and the veinlcts which join it are deep crimson. In the two other instances now 
 under my eye the tips and a broad stripe extending the whole length of the inner 
 margin is gray with the veins and veinlets in this stripe bright red. The remain- 
 Uig veins and veinlcts and a stripe along the outer margin are olive. 
 
900 
 
 Annual Report of New York 
 
 LEAP-HOPPERS. REMEDIES. FLOWBRT PRIMROSE-MOTH. ITS NAME. 
 
 Upon our choice flowering plants we can illy brook these insects 
 even in limited numbers, knowing that each one of them is daily 
 wounding and bleeding the leaves and thus robbing the plants of 
 some of their vigor and thriftiness. They are most easily captured 
 and killed when they are young and unable to escape from us by 
 flight. Therefore, any cultivated plant on which we frequently 
 see these leaf-hoppers should be inspected about the middle of 
 June, to ascertain if a brood of young insects is growing up on it, 
 and if they are found to be present the whole plant should care¬ 
 fully be looked over and every young hopper that is seen should 
 be picked off and destroyed. The vigorous growth of the plant 
 will be much promoted by thus relieving it from these parasites 
 which are living at its expense. 
 
 Flowery Primrose-moth, Alaria florida, Guen&e. (Lepidoptera, 
 
 Noctuidie.) 
 
 Eating a hole in the flower buds of the Evening Primrose (( 'Enothera ), and thus 
 cutting the petals asunder; a pale green 16-footcd worm with three deeper green 
 stripes, and on top of its neck two dull cherry red spots; its pupa state passed 
 under ground; the next year, in July, producing a light yellow moth with bright 
 rose red fore wings, having a broad light yellow hind border, its width 1.25. 
 
 A rare and most beautiful moth, found by Mr. Edward Double¬ 
 day in his collecting tour through our State in the year 1837, was 
 in 1852 figured and described by M. Guenee, in the Suites a Buffon, 
 Lepidopteres , vol. vi, p. 171. He found it to be intimately related 
 to another elegant moth somewhat smaller in size, which had long 
 been known to the world from the fine figure of it contained in 
 Smith and Abbott’s Lepidopterous Insects of Georgia , where it 
 received the name Phalaina ( Noctua ) Gaurce , this name being given 
 it from the plant on which its larva feeds, the Gaura biennis, the 
 stalks of which are represented as being sometimes stripped bare 
 of their leaves by this larva. These two moths are so similar to 
 each other, and so different from the other species nearest related 
 to them, that M. Guen6e associates them together in a new genus, 
 which he names lihodophora, i. e., rose-bearing or having a rose 
 color, and he terms our New York species the. lihodophora Jlorida, 
 the flowery or elegant rose-bearer. M. Guen6e was evidently 
 unaware of the fact that the Georgia insect had already been made 
 the type of a new genus, named Alaria by Mr. Westwood, from 
 whose manuscripts this name was published in 1841, by Mr. 
 
State Agricultural Society. 
 
 901 
 
 ITS BARITT. LARYA FEBDS ON EVENING PRIMROSE. 
 
 Duncan, in editing the volume on Exotic Moths in Jardine’s Natu¬ 
 ralist’s Library (Entomological series, vol. vii, p. 200.) This name, 
 which appears to have been also suggested by the wings being so 
 prettily colored, having been first published, seems entitled to stand 
 as the designation of the genus. Alaria Jlorida will thus be the 
 correct scientific name of our New York insect. 
 
 Upon my becoming acquainted with this moth through the figure 
 and description of M. Guen6e, I was much surprised that I had 
 never met with a specimen of it. It was not till the summer of 
 1858 that I first saw it in nature, an individual being then brought 
 me by Wallace Freeman, jr., from Adams, Mass., where it had 
 entered an open window in the evening, attracted by the light of 
 the lamp. Four years later, a specimen in like manner entered 
 mv own dwelling, flying rapidly and wildly around the lamp for a 
 half minute, and frequently striking against the table, until falling 
 upon a spot where it was shaded from the dazzling glare of the 
 light, it there rested quietly until I obtained the implements for 
 securing it. Finally, a flowering plant which I have recently intro¬ 
 duced into my garden has been invaded by a worm which I dis¬ 
 cover to be the larva of this lovely moth. A brood of these larva} 
 has appeared upon this plant each of the two seasons it has now 
 (1867) been blooming in my grounds, furnishing me with specimens 
 of the moth, and enabling me to trace its history and transforma¬ 
 tions. From these facts it appears that though this insect is so 
 rare that a collector may not meet with it once in a lifetime, if cir¬ 
 cumstances como to favor it, it may suddenly become common, 
 temporarily, in particular localities. 
 
 The Evening Primrose, Oenothera biennis , which florists by culti¬ 
 vation have improved into such a large and very splendid flower, 
 is liable to have its petals amputated when they are upon the point 
 of expanding from the full grown buds, and all the beauty of its 
 flowers hereby destroyed, by a green sixteen-footed worm, which 
 is readily known by a peculiar mark, it having two dull cherry red 
 spots or blotches upon the top of its neck. 
 
 In that magnificent variety of the CEuothera, the yrandijlora 
 Lamarkiana of our florists’ catalogues, the stalk sends out a num¬ 
 ber of lateral branches, each bearing a long raceme of flowers at its 
 end, the raceme elongating and continuing to grow a succession of 
 flowers from July to the end of the season. Thrifty plants usually 
 grow in a regular pyramidal form to a height of four or fivo feet, 
 
902 
 
 Annual Report of New York 
 
 FLOWERY PRIMROSE-MOTH. HABITS OF THE LARVA. 
 
 and each of the branches puts forth about four new flowers daily, 
 arraying the plant in such a mass of bloom as renders it an orna¬ 
 ment of stately splendor. These worms occur evenly distributed, 
 one upon each branch, the flower buds growing thereon each daj r , 
 supplying them with the exact amount of sustenance which they 
 require. Thus each bud as they mature from day to day is visited 
 in its turn. When it first begins to attract notice tho worm is 
 about half the length of the elongated bud, up which it crawls from 
 the stalk, till the whole of its body is standing upon the bud, thus 
 bringing its head about opposite the middle of the bud. It then 
 commences gnawing into the bud, boring a round hole therein of 
 sufficient size to admit its head, which it sinks downward, farther 
 and farther, eating through the folded mass of petals, nearly or 
 quite cutting them asunder, and severing also the stamens and 
 pistil. Thus when the flower comes to burst forth from its bud at 
 the close of the day, it is but half its normal size, and presents a most 
 rueful aspect with the outer ends of its petals gnawed and ragged, 
 and all the beauty of their natural appearance destroyed. The 
 worm having finished its meal withdraws its neck and head from 
 the hole and moves a short distance downwards, and there stands 
 motionless for a time, for its food to digest, its body being so simi¬ 
 lar in size and color to the long tube forming the base of the flower 
 bud that it is liable to escape observation unless the search for it is 
 sharp. When it has rested awhile it crawls farther downward till 
 it comes to the branch, or till it can reach the next bud of the 
 branch, up which it mounts and makes another meal. One bud 
 would amply suffice for its nourishment twenty-four hours if it 
 would continue to feed upon it till it had wholly consumed tho 
 petals and stamens, which are rolled compactly together within it. 
 But, instead of this it adopts the most destructive course it can 
 pursue, forsaking tho bud as soon as it has perforated it sufficiently 
 to cut its petals asunder. Being so needlessly wasteful in its pro¬ 
 pensities we feel less compunction in destroying it than we other¬ 
 wise should, knowing what a beautiful thing it finally becomes. 
 
 Sometimes the mutilation is less complete, either from the worm 
 being smaller in size or interrupted in its operations. And the 
 flower thus comes to present, usually, a very curious appearance. 
 The worm eating through the four petals when they are closely 
 folded together, when they come to expand each is commonly cut 
 in the same manner; a large roundish hole, it may bo, is taken 
 
State Agricultural Society. 
 
 903 
 
 LARVA DESCRIBED. LIVES SEPARATE AND ALONE. 
 
 out of tho centre of each petal, the holes all being of the same 
 size and shape, the work appearing at first glance to have been 
 done artificially and in a most dextrous manner. 
 
 The larva is cylindrical, tapering slightly at each end, and grows to one inch 
 in length, when crawling elongating itself to 1.15, and is 0.18 thick. It is clothed 
 with line, shortish, scattered hairs which are placed symmetrically. Its ground 
 color is pale green, of a yellowish or apple green tint when full grown, but usually 
 pea green when it is smaller. Along the middle of its back is a stripe of a deeper 
 grass green color, and a similar one upon each side of the back. These three stripes 
 extend from the neck to the middle of the penultimate segment. Each of tho 
 lateral stripes has a dull cherry red spot at its anterior end, placed on each side 
 of the middle of the neck or first ring, and in rare instances the anterior ends of 
 these lateral stripes are of this color for a short distance. Before it is fully grown 
 the lateral stripes are sometimes faint or wholly wanting; and low down on each 
 side is an elevated fold of the skin which forms a faint stripe of a paler color than 
 the ground. The head is a third narrower than the neck and is held obliquely 
 downward and forward. It is slightly paler than the body and is clothed with 
 fine erect hairs. 
 
 A variety of the larva occurs, of a dull pale brownish yellow color, with the 
 stripes olive or dull brownish green. In one instance a young larva 0.G0 long was 
 observed wholly destitute of the red spots upon the neck. 
 
 These worms exhale a disagreeable odor, which is particularly 
 strong and offensive when several are placed together in a closed 
 box. When they are thus confined they soon become wet with 
 perspiration, and die in one or two hours. They are slow in their 
 motions and arc very unsocial and intolerant of each other. If one 
 meets another they act very cross and spiteful, and turn away to 
 avoid each others’ vicinity. They live solitary, each one remaining 
 upon his own raceme of flowers and travelling only the few steps 
 from one flower bud to the next. And if the branch is cut off and 
 inserted in a flower pot of earth the worm persistently remains 
 upon it, even after it has ceased to flower, aud refuses to forsake it 
 until the cravings of hunger oblige him to wander away and seek 
 sustenance elsewhere. He then spins a silken thread from his 
 mouth, perhaps as a clue to guide him back to his own branch 
 again should he be unsuccessful in finding a new residence; for he 
 does not appear to spin this thread ordinarily in passing from one 
 flower bud to another, nor does he usually suspend himself by a 
 thread when knocked or falling from the place where he is stand¬ 
 ing. One of theso worms which I placed in a glass jar in which 
 was a young bug which I was rearing—one of the Reduvius group, 
 which subsists upon and destroys other insects and their larvae— 
 
904 
 
 Annual Report of New York 
 
 FLOWERY PRIMROSE-MOTH. LARVA. WINTER RETREAT UNDERGROUND. 
 
 was not immediately attacked by the bug, it having been recently 
 fed. I he worm thereupon with its threads wove a close web over 
 itself in a corner of the jar, whereby the next day the bug was 
 unable to get at it to devour it. 
 
 It was the middle of September when I first discovered these 
 worms, they being then grown to three-fourths of an inch in length. 
 The next year they made their advent in full force nearly two 
 months earlier. Thus they are liable to be present among the 
 flower beds at all times from the middle of July till the end of 
 September—the parent moths not coming forth simultaneously to 
 deposit their eggs, but appearing one after another, for a period of 
 at least six weeks, in July and the fore part of August, whereby it 
 comes to pass that small young worms and those that are grown to 
 their full size are seen upon the plants at the same time. 
 
 When the worm is done feeding it crawls down the stalk to the 
 ground and there buries itself to pass its pupa state, underneath 
 the plant on which it has been fed. Thus the whole distance 
 which it customarily travels, from the time it hatches from the egg 
 until it enters its pupa state scarcely exceeds four or six feet. The 
 instinct to bury itself immediately upon its coming to the ground 
 is so stiong that its only care seems to be to avoid encroaching 
 upon the places of sepulture of others that have preceded it in 
 descending from the same plant. Upon reaching an unoccupied 
 spot it hastens to inter itself. Even if it chances to be upon one of 
 the liard trodden walks of the garden, it does not go further, to 
 seek for a softer spot, but at great labor bores a cylindrical hole 
 of sufficient size to admit its body, directly downwards, where the 
 earth is so firmly compacted that we would suppose it quite impos¬ 
 sible for a soft worm like this to penetrate it. 
 
 It remains underground through the autumn, winter and spring, 
 coming out in its perfect form the following summer. As already 
 intimated, the first moths begin to be seen abroad at the commence¬ 
 ment of July, and others continue to come forth till the middle of 
 August. These moths may be met with during the day time, rest¬ 
 ing openly exposed among the wilted flowers of the CEnothera. 
 Although they are classed with a group of moths that are day-fliers, 
 
 I have never seen one of them take wing by day. They appear to 
 fly but little. It is probable that the narrowness of their wings 
 incapacitates them from flying so readily and freely as do their kin- 
 died. A moth which was standing upon a flower stalk of the 
 
State Agricultural Societt. 
 
 905 
 
 HABITS OF TIIK MOTH. MOTH DESCRIBED. 
 
 primrose, upon my attempting to impale it dropped itself to the 
 ground without so much as opening its wings to tty, and merely 
 sought to crawl under some covert there for concealment, freely 
 mounting upon my hand when placed in its way, and appearing 
 very dull in its motions and as though it were drowsy and stupefied 
 under the influenc of some narcotic. 
 
 The two sexes are remarkably alike in size, in color and in the 
 structure of their antennae. The only particular in which they 
 perceptibly differ is in the termination of the body, which in the 
 female tapers to a simple point whilst in the male it is furnished 
 with large flattened valves which are fringed and densely coated 
 over with hairs. The female probably drops her eggs singly here 
 and there upon the flower buds of the primrose. 
 
 This motii has a slender body, the dried specimens both of the male and female 
 most commonly measuring 0.C0 in length, and 1.30 in width across the extended 
 wings. The head is bluntly rounded in front and is smoothly clad with hairy 
 scales which are usually white, but in some examples pale red. The antennae 
 when turned backwards surpass the thorax in length, and are thread-like, being 
 scarcely thicker towards their bases than at their tips. In both sexes very short 
 minute hairs project along their undersides. They are of a white color with the 
 underside pale orange. The palpi or feelers project horizontally forward, their 
 tips slightly surpassing the front. They are covered with rose red hairs which 
 are smoothly pressed upon the surface, with the very small apical joint visibly 
 protruding at their tips. The spiral tongue about equals the antennae in length 
 and slightly surpasses them in thickness towards its base when viewed in front. 
 The thorax is densely covered with white hairs, their ends forming an even, smooth 
 surface. The collar is usually of a delicate rose red color, but in some specimens 
 white. The fore breast is bright rose red. The abdomen is rather slender, coni¬ 
 cal, projecting farther back than the extended hind wings, and in the males ends 
 in large flattened valves which are fringed and densely coated over with straw- 
 colored hairs. Its surface is smoothly covered with short white scales, those on 
 the hind edges of the segments being straw yellow. The underside is pale red, 
 except at the tip. The legs arc rose red and on their underside white, the thighs 
 having each a tuft of long white hairs underneath. The anterior shanks are short 
 with a strong brown claw at their tips and two or three spines above, in a row 
 with it, and on the opposite side a row of several brown spines. The middle and 
 hind shanks are rather long and slender, with a pair of long spurs at their tips, 
 and the hind ones with a second pair placed above those at the tip. The fore 
 icings are narrow, being 0.58 long and but half as broad in their widest part. They 
 are straight on their outer or costal side, rounded at their tips, their hind edge 
 from thence straight to the middle, where it is slightly rounded and again becomes 
 straight till it approaches the inner angle, the inner edge being also straight two- 
 thirds of its length. These wings are of a delicate bright rose red color, with the 
 axilla white, and the hind border pale bright yellow, this last color varying in its 
 width, in different specimens occupying from a third to less than a fourth of the 
 
906 
 
 Annual Report of New York 
 
 FLOWERY P Kill ROSE-MOTH. SHALL WE DESTROY IT? 
 
 wing. The red portion is slightly wavy on its hind edge, usually having two 
 round notches, the outer one a little outside of the middle and distant from the 
 outer side of the wing, tho other more than half way from this to the inner side. 
 And commonly upon this red portion faint clouds of a paler color are perceptible, 
 but vague and indefinite. Frequently, however, a very faint, grayish band may 
 be discerned, extending from tho middle of the inner side obliquely across the 
 wing, parallel with and a little forward of the hind edge of the red portion. And 
 in some specimens this grayish band is perfectly distinct, and forward of it the 
 central portion of the wing between the two principal veins (the intercostal area) 
 is of the same grayish color, and in this paler space appears a small round spot, 
 and back of it upon the anterior edge of the grayish band a squarish transverse 
 spot, of the same rose red color as the ground, their edges indefinite, these spots 
 appearing to represent tho two stigmas common to the wings of this family of 
 moths. The hind wings are white tinged with yellow. The underside of both 
 pairs is pale yellowish with the outer sides pale rose red. 
 
 When an insect of such beauty as is this moth appears in the 
 grounds around our dwellings, rivalling in the delicacy and ele¬ 
 gance of its colors the finest flowers which we cultivate, remaining 
 at rest where it is openly exposed during the day as if to invite us 
 to approach and inspect and admire it, the question arises whether 
 we shall war upon and destroy it, or allow it to remain undisturbed 
 as being an ornament which will interest and delight every one 
 who beholds it. If unmolested it will probably continue for some 
 years wherever it makes its appearance, until an uncongenial season 
 arrives or parasites multiply to destroy and suppress it. But to 
 have one of our finest flowers every year mutilated and divested 
 of all their beauty by the broods of ugly looking worms which 
 these moths produce is scarcely to be endured, even though these 
 worms are so similar to the flower-buds on which the)' stand as to 
 be unobserved except upon a close inspection. When I first discov¬ 
 ered these worms and became aware of the pernicious work in 
 which they were engaged, I waged a war of extermination upon 
 them — with pincers detaching from the plants every one I could 
 find, dropping it to the ground in the hard beaten path and draw¬ 
 ing the sole of my boot over it. With my closest scrutiny several 
 worms were overlooked, and were searched out and destroyed upon 
 the following days. But when I came to know that these worms 
 would grow into these elegant moths, they found more favor in 
 my sight. I then allowed a number of them to get their growth 
 and leave the plants before I began to search for and destroy them. 
 It was in my mind to check this moth from becoming greatly mul¬ 
 tiplied, but to cherish and preserve it in moderate numbers in the 
 
State Agricultural Society. 
 
 907 
 
 A KINDRED 8PECIES DESCRIBED; THE VOLUPIA MOTH 
 
 grounds around me; and I had it in view to grow one or two plants 
 of the evening primrose in some obscure corner of my garden for 
 the exclusive accommodation of these worms, and remove to them 
 or destroy the worms that came upon the plants in other parts of 
 the grounds. But as these pages are going to the press (1868) I 
 am able to state that the insect has this year entirely disappeared, 
 although quite a number of the larvae interred themselves the 
 previous season. Whether it was aware that a largo portion of 
 its numbers was being destroyed and that the situation was there¬ 
 fore an unsafe one for it to remain in, or whether the unusual 
 severity of the last winter’s cold or some other atmospherical 
 change has caused it to perish, I am unable to say. And whether 
 it will be possible for us to keep these beautiful moths about our 
 gardens aud yards in such moderate numbers as not to be a nuisance 
 to us remains to bo ascertained. 
 
 For several years a specimen of a third species pertaining to 
 this interesting and lovely genus, has been in my cabinet, vicing 
 in the richness of its colors with the two species already known. 
 It was captured in the Indian Territory west of Arkansas by my 
 valued friend William S. Robertson. It measures one inch in 
 width across its extended wings, and is of a bright ochre yellow 
 color, with its fore wings deep crimson and crossed by two curved 
 and zigzag white lines. 
 
 The anterior white line or hand crosses the fore wings slightly forward of their 
 middle, and to the eye resembles a figure 3 rudely marked upon the wing, it being 
 composed of successive curves and angular points jutting forward upon each of 
 the three principal longitudinal veins. It is slender, ragged and uneven through 
 most of its course, but is widened abruptly at the outer fourth of its length, 
 where it is also stained with tarnished yellow, and continues broad from this 
 point to the outer margin. The posterior band begins on the inner margin near 
 its hind end, and at a third of its length approaches quito near the anterior band. 
 It then turns toward the tip of the wing, this middle portion being a'sleiulcr, 
 smooth, zigzag line, jutting backward in a row of very slender and acute angular 
 points upon the veins, to the number of five or six. Finally, towards its outer 
 end it bends more forward and attains the outer margin at right angles with it, 
 ending thereon half way between the outer end of the anterior band and the tip. 
 Between this band and the hind edge is a sprinkling of white scales forming a faint 
 cloud-like subterminal band. The hind wings are white, their outer posterior 
 half pale red, as is also the fringe. The underside of both pairs is dull sombre 
 crimson with oidy a small portion of the base and inner side whitish. The abdo¬ 
 men is leaden gray on the back and pale red on the sides and beneath. 
 
 The rich lively color of the wings of this moth, appearing as 
 though they were deeply dyed in the ruby wine, brings to mind as 
 
908 
 
 Annual Report of New York 
 
 OHIO CURRANT 8AW-PLY. LARVA. IT8 HABITS. 
 
 its namesake the goddess of pleasure, represented as a beautiful 
 young woman elegantly dressed and adorned. I have therefor* 
 termed it the Alaria Volupia. 
 
 Omo Currant Saw-fly, Pristophora rufipes ? St. Far<reau. 
 
 (Ilymenoptera, Tenthredinidas.) 
 
 Eating the leaves of the currant and the gooseberry in July, clusters of small, 
 cylindrical, pea-green worms with blackish heads; growing to three-eighths of an 
 inch in length, and then entering the ground and enclosing themselves in cocoons 
 the size and shape of kernels of wheat, and producing a black, four-winged fly 
 with light brown legs. 
 
 This insect made its appearance in such numbers as to attract 
 notice about ten years since, in the vicinity of Cleveland, Ohio. 
 Our knowledge of it is obtained from a very intelligent account, 
 published in the Ohio Farmet' of July 24th, 1858 (vol. vii, p. 233), 
 from the pen, we suppose, of Dr. J. P. Kirtland. It was about 
 five years previous to that date, that the writer says he first became 
 aware of the presence of this new enemy, from noticing particular 
 places among the currant bushes, where the leaves had been much 
 eaten, evidently by broods of worms, although none of the worms 
 could then be found, they having, no doubt, completed their 
 growth and gone into the ground to repose during their pupa state. 
 And it was not until the year then current that he had succeeded 
 in finding these worms at their work upon the leaves, whereby he 
 had enjoyed a good opportunity to watch their transformations and 
 obtain a satisfactoiy knowledge of their history. 
 
 The worms are described as being of a pea-green color, with th* 
 head brownish black. The segments of the body are slightly 
 wrinkled, and along each side is a row of protuberances, or warts, 
 of the same color as the body. Like the larvm of most of the 
 saw-flies they have twenty feet, six being placed upon the breast 
 or underside of the three first rings, twelve upon the abdominal 
 segments, and two at the tip or hind end of the body. 
 
 These worms live together in clusters and eat the leaves, com¬ 
 mencing at the edge and devouring all except the coarse veins. 
 As they move about they spin a very light web from leaf to leaf. 
 When young they are difficult to perceive, being so small in size. 
 They often take shelter in the axils of the leaves, and will also 
 drop themselves to the ground when disturbed, spinniug a fine 
 thread of silk as they descend, in the same manner as the measure 
 
State Agricultural Society. 
 
 909 
 
 CURRANT-WORM AND SAW-FLY. 
 
 worms. They feed upon the leaves of the cultivated gooseberries 
 as well as those of the red currant, and seemed to be most fond 
 of Houghton’s seedling gooseberry, from the small plants of which 
 they had entirely stripped the leaves. 
 
 How long these worms are engaged in feeding and obtaining 
 their growth is not stated. They are about three-eighths of an 
 inch in length when fully grown, and the head is then lighter 
 colored than when younger. They then forsake the bushes and 
 crawl into the ground, where they enclose themselves in brown 
 oval cocoons, which are about the size and shape of kernels of 
 wheat. They remain in these cocoons only about a week, in the 
 summer season, but the last or autumnal brood lies in the ground 
 in its pupa state through the winter. In coming out, the insect 
 bursts or gnaws off the end of the cocoon, and leaves it lying in the 
 form of a lid. 
 
 In its perfect state it is described as being 0.20 in length and 0.42 
 in width across its extended wings. The head, thorax and abdo¬ 
 men are black, and the legs light brown. The wings are hyaline, 
 with the stigma and veins brownish. The surface of the wings 
 is covered with minute hairs standing erect at a considerable dis¬ 
 tance apart. 
 
 In size and the color of its body and limbs, it appears to be iden¬ 
 tical with the European Pristophorci rufipes of St. Fargeau, but the 
 information which is furnished us is too limited to enable us to 
 decisively pronounce the two insects to be the same. 
 
 The writer says that air-slacked lime sprinkled over the leaves 
 will destroy these worms, as will also a mixture of whale oil soap 
 and water. Tobacco water also has the same effect. But all these 
 remedies require to be thoroughly applied. Hellebore powder, 
 as mentioned under the next species, will doubtless be the most 
 efficacious and economical remedy for this species also. 
 
 Currant-worm and Saw-fly, Ncmatus tnmaculatus , St. Fargeau. 
 
 (Hymenoptera, Tenthrediuidre.) 
 
 Stripping bare of their leaves the currant and gooseberry bushes throughout the 
 season, but most numerous in June and in August; flocks of pale green twenty- 
 footed worms with numerous black dots, a black head, and the neck and last ring 
 of the body yellow, three-fourths of an inch long; passing its pupa stato under¬ 
 ground and producing a yellow four-winged fly having three large black spots on 
 its thorax often united into one. 
 
 An insect which of all others is most interesting to the inliabi- 
 
910 
 
 Annual Report of New York 
 
 CURRANT-WORM. A EUROPEAN INSECT. ITS FOREIGN HISTORY. 
 
 tants of a large portion of the State at the present time is the new 
 worm upon the currant hushes. Introduced upon this side of the 
 Atlantic about twelve years ago, it has been multiplying and 
 extending itself over the country in all directions, and within two 
 or three years past has arrived in numerous localities in the northern, 
 eastern and southern sections of the State, showing itself such a 
 formidable destroyer as to attract much public attention, and eveiy 
 item of information relating to its past history, its habits and reme¬ 
 dies is sought for with avidity. 
 
 This currant worm has been known many years to European 
 gardeners and men of science, as being the very worst of all the 
 enemies by which the gooseberry and currant are attacked. It 
 would appear to have made its advent there at a recent date. So 
 multiplied and destructive as it has been in Europe in our day, it 
 is remarkable that it was wholly unknown there a century ago. 
 It was not till the year 1823 that it was first noticed and described, 
 by a French entomologist, Count Le Pelletier de Saint Fargeau, in 
 his treatise upon the saw-flies ( Monographia Tenthredinum, page 
 69,) who named it the Three-spotted Saw-fly, Nematus trimaculatus, 
 in allusion to the three black spots on its thorax. Nematus Ribesii, 
 Tentkredo Grossulariae , and Tenthredo ventneosa are also names 
 which have been given it by different writers. The gooseberry is 
 much more largely and the currant much less cultivated in Europe 
 than in this country, and consequently this insect in Great Britain 
 is popularly named the gooseberry saw-fly, and its larva, which, 
 wherever it is known in our country is called the currant worm is 
 there termed the gooseberry caterpillar. 
 
 For several years, about twenty-five and thirty years ago, this 
 insect became multiplied to an unusual extent and was very destruc¬ 
 tive, at least in England, and was much noticed in the Horticultu¬ 
 ral and Scientific publications of those days. In the year 1841 its 
 ravages appear to have been most severe, transcending everything 
 that had been previously experienced. In the Gardener's Chronicle 
 of that year, page 597, C. Lawrence says, “ I never recollect any 
 season in which this pest made such determined and repeated 
 attacks upon the gooseberry and currant trees. I have always 
 found hand-picking the only sure mode of arresting their'progrcss, 
 but this season that was unavailing; for after employing many 
 persons to pick off and destroy the caterpillars and looking over 
 the trees to see that the work was effectually done, in the course 
 
State Agricultural Society. 
 
 911 
 
 AN EFFECTUAL REMEDY CALLED FOR. HELLEBORE MOST EFFICACIOUS. 
 
 of a week I found the grubs as thick as ever. I had the picking 
 repeated, with the same result. I could not think w lie nee they 
 came, knowing they did not come, as my old gardener would have 
 it, from the blighty air. On examining the leaves carefully from 
 the edge of which the mature caterpillar had been picked, I observed 
 a numerous progeny, on the under surface, of very minute cater¬ 
 pillars, hardly visible from being exactly the color of the leaf. I 
 then had every leaf lucked, on which a caterpillar was found, into 
 a basket and burned them, and suffered no further inconvenience. 
 I therefore recommend to pick and destroy every leaf on which a 
 caterpillar is found.” Mr. L. seems to suppose the minute young 
 worms were the progeny of the mature worms which had been 
 picked from the leaves and destroyed—an idea almost as crude as 
 that of his ancient gardener, who supposed they were generated 
 by “ the blighty air.” 
 
 An anonymous correspondent (page 501) says his gooseberries 
 in the spring were much infested with the caterpillars. He tried 
 various ways to destroy them. Fresh slacked lime throwed over 
 the trees had no effect whatever, and to see if quicklime would 
 kill them or not, he covered some of them with it, but they soon 
 were seen creeping out of the lime and making their escape. At 
 last he had recourse to hand-picking, and by perseverance destroyed 
 all the caterpillars in his small garden, and thought he had thus 
 done with them, for this year at least. But he had that morning 
 discovered to his surprise that his trees were again covered with 
 the destructive things, and that the leaves were also lined with 
 eggs, the same as in the spring. He says, “Various remedies 
 have been proposed for their destruction, none of which, I think, 
 are effectual, except hand-picking, which in large gardens would 
 be a tedious operation, and my object is, to induco some of vour 
 more experienced correspondents to attend to this subject, and find 
 out, if possible, some ready mode of destroying the caterpillar, or 
 of otherwise preserving the trees from its destructive ravages.” 
 To this the editors of the Chronicle add—“We most sincerely 
 desire to hear of some Effectual remedy for this pest.” 
 
 This call brought a number of responses, certifying to the effi¬ 
 cacy of White Hellebore (Veratrum album). II. Groom (page 533) 
 directs to make a strong decoction of the root, adding a handful of 
 green tops of elder, and syringe the bushes with this when cold. 
 He supposes the decoction drying on the leaves poisons the cater- 
 
912 
 
 Annual Report of New York 
 
 CUBBAHT-WOBM. HB. COnTIS’S VALUABLE ACCOUST Off IT. 
 
 pillars. K. Lymburn states that he has for some years used helle¬ 
 bore and found it very effectual. In his district it is quite gene¬ 
 rally used. lie says, he some years ago had a valuable lot of 
 plants which were like to be altogether destroyed. He kept a 
 man picking off the caterpillars eight days, with great expense and 
 little execution. He had tried quicklime, potash and soda without 
 effect; and tobacco juice is apt to kill the foliage. He then tried 
 hellebore, and a half pound of the powder completely cured all his 
 bushes. A man held up the branches to expose the underside of 
 the leaves, whilst he dusted them with the forefinger and thumb, 
 wherever a caterpillar was to be seen. The powder must be dry, 
 and if it is not it should be toasted before the fire. It disperses 
 into a cloud, and wherever a particle reaches a caterpillar it col¬ 
 lapses as if stabbed, and in an hour or two nothing but the skin is 
 left. Some dust it up from below with a puff, sending it upon all 
 the bushes, which is less trouble but a waste of the powder. Some 
 dust it from above with a dredge box, but it does not reach the 
 caterpillars so readily in this way. A great many prefer an infu¬ 
 sion of the powder in water, which is said to be very efficient. 
 Disappointments have arisen from the powder having lost its pun¬ 
 gency by being long kept and damp, which may be known by its 
 making only a faint impression on the nostrils. It will then do no 
 good. 
 
 The editors thank several others for communications to the same 
 effect. The following year other attestations of the value of tins 
 remedy appear, and the editors say (page 381), “There is no 
 longer any doubt respecting the efficacy of genuine hellebore 
 powder in destroying this pest.” 
 
 In 1841 also appears in the Gardener's Chronicle , page 548, a most 
 valuable paper upon this Gooseberry and Currant Saw-fly from 
 the able pen of Mr. Curtis, it forming No. 14 of the “Kuricola” 
 series of Entomological articles which lie communicated to the 
 public through that periodical. It is accompanied with an excel¬ 
 lent wood cut illustration showing the eggs along the veins of the 
 leaves, the larva feeding, the cocoon, and the fly magnified. And 
 we cannot do the reader a better service than to here extract a 
 portion of this important paper. 
 
 Mr. Curtis introduces the subject by observing that “ Most of 
 the Ilymenoptera or Flies with four transparent wings are benefi¬ 
 cial to man, the immense family of Ichneumons, the minute Diplo- 
 
State Agricultural Society. 
 
 913 
 
 HABITS OF THE FLIES AND THEIR LARVAE* 
 
 lepidse, and the powerful Sand-wasps being all parasitical animals, 
 which by depositing their eggs in the bodies or upon the skins of 
 the larvae of noxious insects, keep them within certain limits; 
 otherwise it is doubtful whether any crop would reward our toils. 
 Such, however, is not the character of the Saw-flies, or Tcnthredos 
 as they are termed by Linnaeus; for there are few insects that 
 prove more fatal, when favored by congenial seasons. It is only a 
 few years since whole districts of turnips were completely con¬ 
 sumed by Abhalia spinarum. Our beautiful Rose-trees are subject 
 to the attacks of five different species, and amongst them Itylotoma 
 Rosce which skeletonizes the leaves; then our Plum, Cherry and 
 Pear trees have the upper cuticle and parenchyma so completely 
 rubbed off by the shiny, slug-like larvai of Tenthredo Ccrasi, that 
 the crops, especially of Pears, are often materially injured. Our 
 Raspberry bushes also are subject to the invasion of another spe¬ 
 cies; and the extensive devastations of the Gooseberry Saw-fly are 
 fresh in the memory of every cultivator.” 
 
 After describing the fly, he says, “The flies emerge unheeded 
 from their tombs the beginning of April, and the female soon 
 deposits her eggs close to the sides of the principal nervures on 
 the underside of the leaves, which is very remarkable, for all the 
 females of this extensive family are furnished with an instrument 
 called the saw, for the purpose of cutting into the leaves and stalks, 
 and introducing the eggs between the cuticles or under the bark.” 
 Although it may be “very remarkable” that these flies do not 
 employ their saws for sinking their eggs into the texture of the 
 leaves, it is by no means unusual, our Rose Saw-fly and several 
 other species merely dropping or very slightly gluing their eggs 
 to the surface of the leaves. 
 
 “ In about a week the larva; hatch, and commence feeding on the 
 leaves on which they are stationed, and soon riddle them full of 
 small holes; thus they go on, feeding and changing their succes¬ 
 sive skins as they increase in size, until they are three-fourths of an 
 inch long, when they are seen scattered around the edges of a 
 partly demolished leaf, holding by their fore legs, with their tails 
 turned up, or tying on one side. 
 
 “There seems to be a succession of broods, from the early spring 
 until October occasionally; but the greatest numbers are congre¬ 
 gated in May and the beginning of June, when, I understand 
 they have caused twenty to thirty pounds of damage in a market 
 
 IAg.i 58 
 
914 
 
 Annual Report of New York 
 
 CURRANT-WORM• REMEDIES PROPOSED BT MR. CURTIS. 
 
 garden near London in one season; but in the neighborhood of 
 Blandford last year, the second attack of the Gooseberry bushes in 
 July and August was, if possible, more devastating than the first. 
 Having defoliated a bush, leaving nothing of the foliage excepting 
 the footstalk and sometimes a portion of the main rib, and being 
 arrived at maturity, they cast their skins again and then lose all 
 their black spots, becoming of a uniform pale green with two little 
 black dots on the head, the spaces behind it and towards the tail 
 retaining the yellow tint. After resting awhile they, descend into 
 the earth, and spin a yellow-brown cocoon, formed of silk and 
 gluten of so thick a texture that it is impervious. From these the 
 summer broods of flies come up in less than three weeks, but the 
 autumnal ones remain in them, curled up in the larva state, until 
 the following spring, when they change to pupae, in time to pro¬ 
 duce flies as the currant and gooseberry trees are coming into 
 leaf. 
 
 “ There are two modes of proceeding to rid our gardens of this 
 terrible scourge: to catch the Hies, or search for the eggs and cut 
 off the infested leaves, is scarcely practicable; our plan is, there¬ 
 fore, to look for the caterpillars; for small as they are at first, they 
 are easily detected by the perforated leaves; and when half grown 
 they are visible enough, and after that period they commit the 
 greatest havoc, having inordinate appetites, and scarcely ceasing 
 from their gluttony except when their jackets become so tight that 
 they are obliged to change. Hand-picking is, therefore, attended 
 with great success in small gardens, but in plantations it is easiei 
 to sprinkle strong lime-water, as it is termed, over the leaves, which 
 will destroy the caterpillar; or syringe the bushes well, and then 
 dust them with quick lime, having previously laid a good quantity 
 round the stem to prevent their re-ascending the bush; it is said 
 also that water heated to 140° Fahrenheit, and thrown forcibly 
 upon the bushes, through the rose of an engine or watering-pot, 
 will kill the larvae, without injuring the tendercst leaves on the 
 bushes. The other method alluded to is, to destroy the pupae; 
 and this seems to be best effected by scraping away the earth from 
 the roots early in the spring, and drawing it into a deep trench 
 between the bushes, covering it over and tramping it well down. 
 If boiling hot water be used, either in autumn or spring, to kill 
 the pupa;, it should be put upon the earth when it is quite dry; 
 the soil must be lifted two inches, and returned as soon as the 
 
State Agricultural Society. 
 
 915 
 
 HOW INTRODUCED INTO THIS COUNTRY. FIRST SEEN IN CANADA? 
 
 water is poured in, that as the heat passes off it may destroy the 
 animals encased in their shells.” 
 
 Mr. Curtis evidently had not noticed the then recently published 
 statements of the efficacy of white hellebore as a remedy for this 
 pest, or he would not have failed to allude to it. 
 
 For many years past we meet with no allusions to this saw-fly in 
 the foreign periodicals, whence we infer it has so far ceased its 
 ravages that it no longer attracts public notice. 
 
 We now come to the advent of this formidable scourge in our 
 own country. As the worm goes into the ground early in autumn 
 to lie dormant in its cocoon through the winter, it was undoubt¬ 
 edly in this state that it was brought across the Atlantic. Some 
 European gardener in transmitting, probably, some choice foreign 
 variety of the gooseberry to some one of the Eochester nursery¬ 
 men, we suppose, took up roots which chanced to have some of 
 these cocoons lying in the balls of earth around them — he being 
 little aware of the calamity he was thereby inflicting upon us and 
 upon our country through all coming time. 
 
 • According to the published accounts these worms were seen on 
 the currant bushes around Rochester, certainly in the year 1857, 
 and perhaps one or two years earlier. We have indications, how¬ 
 ever, that these worms were on the currant bushes in Canada West 
 previous to their appearance in the vicinity of Rochester. In the 
 Genesee Farmer of February 1857 (vol. 18, p. 67) is the following 
 communication: “I would beg to call your attention to a green 
 worm, which proves very destructive to our currant bushes in this 
 section. It makes its appearance early in June. In the first place 
 it is very small; it eats the leaves, and in about a month the bushes 
 are completely stripped of their leaves, at which time the worms 
 are about an inch in length. If you or any of your readers, would 
 be so kind as to inform us how to prevent the ravages of this 
 destructive little worm, you would no doubt confer a great favor 
 on many of your readers in this community. — D. C. Houseberger. — 
 Rain ham Center, C. W.” From the few points here given us — a 
 green worm, appearing early in June, and in a month stripping the 
 currant bushes bare of their leaves, and growing to about an inch 
 in length — it would seem that the worm referred to could be no 
 olher than this which we have under consideration, and that this 
 worm therefore was defoliating the currant bushes some sixty 
 niiles west of Buffalo in the year 1856, and perhaps earlier. The 
 
916 
 
 Annual Report of New York 
 
 CURRANT-WORM. APPEARS IN ROCHESTER. 
 
 editor states that there is no such enemy upon the currant bushes 
 in the vicinity of Rochester, and that the description given of the 
 appearance and habits of this worm is so general that we are unable 
 to definitely decide what it is. He suggests that it may be the 
 larva of the saw-fly so destructive to the gooseberry and currant in 
 some parts of Great Britain, which might readily reach this country 
 with the large quantities of these plants which are annually 
 imported; and he presents Louden’s description of this insect, 
 desiring his correspondent to study closely the habits of this 
 enemy and communicate the result of his investigations. But we 
 meet with nothing subsequently published to give us more light 
 respecting this Canada worm. 
 
 The first notice referring explicitly to this worm as au inhabitant 
 of our country, we believe, appeared in the Rural New Yorker of 
 July 24, 1858 (vol. ix, p. 239). To show that it was a new enemy, 
 quite different from the yellow measure worm, the larva of the 
 American Currant Moth, a description and illustrations of the latter 
 were given in the issue of the preceding week, stated to be derived 
 from our paper upon this moth, which appeared in the Transactions 
 of the State Agricultural Society for the year 1849. A cut, figur¬ 
 ing the worms, the cocoon and the fly accompanies the description 
 given of them. The first announcement in this country of this 
 dreadful pest will be perused with interest, although it repeats 
 some things which have already been stated. It is headed “ The 
 Gooseberry caterpillar,” and reads as follows: “In our last we 
 gave a description of the American Currant Moth, and now we 
 present another enemy of our currant and gooseberry bushes, and 
 one which proved the past season even more numerous and destruc¬ 
 tive than the former. IIow long since this insect was first seen in 
 the country, or whether it is a native or an emigrant, wo cannot 
 say. But of the fact of its having taken almost entire possession 
 of our currant bushes, and of its very close resemblance to the 
 Gooseberry Saw-fly. of Europe, there can be no doubt. 
 
 “The flies emerge from their winter quarters in the ground the 
 latter part of April or early in May, and soon after the female 
 begins to deposit her eggs on the underside of the newly expanded 
 leaves, choosing the sides of the veins or nervures as a fitting place. 
 With the saw-like appendage, for which the family is remarkable, 
 the female commences cutting into the leaves, and in the opening 
 deposits her egg. The larva is hatched in about a week, and com- 
 
State Agricultural Society. 
 
 917 
 
 FIRST PUBLISHED NOTICE AND DESCRIPTION OF IT. 
 
 mences feeding on the leaf, increasing in size and frequently chang¬ 
 ing its skin, till it is about three-quarters of an inch in length. It 
 is now of a dull pale-green color, the first thoracic segment being 
 deep yellow, the penultimate being also of the same color; the feet, 
 tail and head are black, and each segment is dotted black also, 
 some having as many as twenty-four spots arranged in lines down 
 the back, while those on the sides are more irregular, with one 
 large one at the base of each foot. They have six pectoral, sharp, 
 horny feet; the fourth segment appears destitute of feet, but the 
 six following are each furnished with a pair of legs, which assist 
 them in walking; they have also a pair of feet at the extremity of 
 the last segment. 
 
 “ In the fly state it assumes an ochreous color; the body is orange, 
 sometimes bright; the wings are iridescent, and, when expanded, 
 are about two-thirds of an inch in length; the antennas are almost 
 as long as the body, bristly, brownish above, and nine-jointed; the 
 crown of the head and eyes are black, as are also three large con¬ 
 fluent spots in the centre of the trunk, and also a large patch on 
 the breast or sternum. 
 
 “The broods of caterpillars appeal* in succession occasionally 
 from March till October, but in greatest numbers in June. Some¬ 
 times they severely attack the gooseberry in July and August, and 
 after denuding the bushes of their foliage, they descend into the 
 earth, spinning themselves a yellowish cocoon of an elliptical form, 
 and remain in their pupa state till the following spring. Those of 
 the earlier summer brood descend in like manner but in the course 
 of three weeks, or less, undergo their transformation, and again 
 appear as perfect flies. 
 
 “ Syringing the bushes, on the first appearance of the caterpil¬ 
 lars, until the foliage is well wetted, and then dusting them all 
 over with powdered caustic lime, is effective. The operation 
 should be performed at least two or three times to secure their 
 destruction, and the earlier it is done the better. Watering with 
 lime-water has much the same effect, and covering the ground 
 under the bushes with fresh tanner’s bark is also advantageous. 
 The most radical cure, however, is to remove the soil under the 
 bushes to the depth of three inches, and to dig pits two feet deep 
 and bury the soil in them, substituting that taken from the pits for 
 that which has been removed. Water heated to 140 degrees and 
 applied by the syringe or garden engine, has been found destruc- 
 
918 
 
 Annual Report of New York 
 
 CURRANT-WORM. OTHER EARLY NOTICE8 OP IT. 
 
 tive to the caterpillars, while the foliage has sustained no injury. 
 The practice of striking the stem of the bush suddenly with a mal¬ 
 let, so as to cause the caterpillars to fall to the ground, where they 
 may be bruised to death with the back of the spade or trodden 
 under foot, is sometimes attended with much injury to the stem 
 and bark of the tree. If the insects are not too numerous a good 
 deal can be done by hand-picking.” 
 
 Thus, on its first appearance, this worm was so plainly announced 
 and shown to be a new and different species from the measure 
 worm of the currant moth, that some of the correspondents of the 
 agricultural periodicals are scarcely excusable for having after¬ 
 wards confounded them together. 
 
 The next notice of this insect appeared in the same newspaper, 
 May 28th of the following year, saying “ It is only two years since 
 our attention was first attracted to this insect. How long ago it 
 was first seen in the country, we catfnot say.” And the descrip¬ 
 tion given the preceding year is repeated. This statement, with 
 that of the Genesee Fanner —that there was no such insect in that 
 vicinity in February 1857—strongly indicates the spring of 1857 
 as the time of its first appearance in Rochester. 
 
 The Rural New Yorker of August 4th, 1860 (vol. xi, p. 247), in 
 a general article upon the currant, its varieties, mode of culture, 
 &c., speaks as follows of this insect: “The currant is subject to no 
 enemies or diseases of particular importance, except the Currant 
 Caterpillar , which for four or five years past has caused great 
 trouble and anxiety to the growers of this fruit, and a partial or 
 total loss of the crop, and in some cases of the plants. This insect 
 is supposed to be the same as that which is known in England as 
 the grub of the Goosebei'ry Saw-fly. It is thought to have been 
 imported from Europe with gooseberry plants. Rochester seems 
 to be the centre of its operations, and in many places fifteen or 
 twenty miles distant it is unknown. Mr. Hoag, of Lockport, 
 stated at the last meeting of the Fruit Growers’ Society, that he 
 saw a few on his plants, for the first time, the present season. 
 Their spread would no doubt be checked, if every one, on its first 
 appearance, would make a diligent effort for this purpose; but 
 where ft becomes numerous it is, to say the least, very difficult to 
 save the plants from destruction. They commenco their ravages 
 soon after the young leaves appear, and as a new brood of insects 
 appear every two or three weeks, the cultivator generally becomes 
 
State Agricultural Society. 
 
 919 
 
 ITS PROGRESS IN EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND SIXTY TO SIXTY-TWO. 
 
 discouraged, and retires from the contest. In England they 
 destroy, we believe, only the leaves of the gooseberry, but in this 
 country, where gooseberries are scarce, they commence at the few 
 gooseberries that may be within their reach, and then attack the 
 currants, seldom leaving while a leaf remains. The black currants 
 they do not relish.” And a description follows, similar to what 
 has been given above, of the fly, its larva, and the remedies for 
 destroying them. 
 
 II. Hubbard, editor of the Chenango Union , informs the Rural 
 New Yorker (vol. xii, p. 199) that in the spring of this year, 1860, 
 he purchased several new varieties of gooseberry from a Rochester 
 nursery, and planted them in his garden at Norwich, N. Y. They 
 grew well, until one day in the month of June, to his astonishment 
 he noticed they were nearly stripped of their leaves. On a closer 
 examination he found the cause to be the Saw-fly worm, which ho 
 had never seen before, although he had always cultivated goose¬ 
 berries. They before fall defoliated his old bushos also, every 
 remedy which he tried being of no avail. 
 
 In the same periodical, June 8th, 1861 (vol. xii, p. 183), a Can¬ 
 andaigua subscriber states that large numbers of small, green 
 worms, had lately appeared on his currant and gooseberry bushes, 
 making great havoc with the foliage. The editor observes, that 
 he has been fighting this same worm for several years, and with 
 very little success. He is a foreigner, doubtless imported from 
 Europe with currant or gooseberry plants, but is more at home 
 here and thrives better than in his native land. He adds that it is 
 no doubt the same as the Gooseberry Saw-fly of Europe. In 
 another notice of this insect, a fortnight later, the editor states, 
 “ White hellebore, powdered and dusted on the leaves, or blown 
 on with bellows, is recommended by English gardeners, and has 
 proved successful here.” It is reported, in a meeting of the Fruit 
 Grower’s Convention of Western New York, that Mr. Harris of 
 the Genesee Fanner , first suggested hellebore as a remedy for this 
 worm. — ( Country Gentleman, vol. 25, p. 413.) 
 
 In 1862, a correspondent of the Rural New Yorkei', at Erie, Pa., 
 states (vol. xiii, p. 183), that the worm had been in that place one 
 or two years. Dr. Sylvester, of Lyons, N. Y., says (p. 115), that 
 he first saw the worm there in 1860. At Fulton, N. Y., C. S. Rust 
 {Country Gentleman, vol. xxx, p. 94), reports that it appeared this 
 year, completely destroying the foliage first of the gooseberry and 
 
920 
 
 Annual Report of New Yore 
 
 CURRANT-WORM. REACHES UTICA IN S1XTT-THREE. 
 
 then of the currant bushes. As wc have no accounts of it else¬ 
 where in that part of the State at this time, it was probably 
 brought direct to Fulton in plants obtained from Rochester. 
 
 The editor of the Rural New Yorker , this year reports (p. 199), 
 that he had uprooted and burned all his bushes, and now having 
 planted a few new ones, they are growing thriftily, and the fly 
 does not come near them, it having been starved out or emigrated 
 to better quarters. H. H. Doolittle, however, says (vol. xv, p. 
 119), he finds that cuttings and one year old plants are not attacked, 
 though when they become older than this they enjoy no such 
 immunity. 
 
 When attending the Slate Fair this year, at Rochester, October 
 2d, I had a very interesting visit to the Mount Hope Nurseries of 
 Messrs. Ellvvanger & Barry, and inquiring with respect to this 
 currant worm, was informed by Mr. Barry that it had this year 
 appeared in their grounds for the first time. A numerous brood 
 of the worms, in June, had totally defoliated the bushes at the sin¬ 
 gle point which they occupied. They then disappeared until a 
 short time before, when, what was evidently the progeny of the 
 previous brood had spread themselves over a much greater extent 
 of the bushes. He supposed they were then still present, but upon 
 repairing to the spot, not a worm could we find, although they had 
 been immensely numerous there only a few days before. The rue¬ 
 ful aspect of the bushes stripped quite bare of their leaves attested 
 what greedy cormorants these worms are. 
 
 In 1863 the worm made its appearance at Utica and other points 
 in Oneida county, as I learn from several sources, coming like an 
 invading army, thronging the bushes, and through the entire season 
 keeping them so completely defoliated, in this and the following 
 years, that they were mostly killed, and the few surviving plants 
 were so weak and puny as to be valueless. Mr. J. Dagwcll 
 informed me he had about a hundred currant and gooseberry 
 bushes, and soon after these worms came upon them, his whole 
 family one day turned out with cups in hand, and in an hour or 
 two picked a bushel of worms, without getting all that were on 
 the bushes. In 1866, residents of Utica informed me they had 
 not seen a currant that year, so universally were the bushes ruined 
 in and around t hat city. 
 
 At Watertown, Mr. W. Ives informs me, this insect made its 
 appearance this year, and kept the bushes so destitute of leaves in 
 
State Agricultural Society. 
 
 921 
 
 REACHES ALBANY, R JUNE BECK, SARATOGA 
 
 most of tile gardens, that in three years they were nearly or quite 
 dead. He says the worms appear to be more numerous on low 
 interval lands and along streams of water, than they are in elevated, 
 airy situations upon the hills. 
 
 In Albany also, this insect arrived this year, wholly defoliating 
 the currant and Gooseberry bushes in many of the gardens. 
 
 In 1864, I visited Albany the hist of May, to see this worm and 
 its works. In most of the gardens which it had invaded last year 
 it was equally, and, if possible, more destructive this year, and had 
 now spread itself into many gardens in which it had not been seen 
 before. From specimens taken to my own residence, I obtained 
 the Hies, from which I saw that the Rochester editors were in all 
 probability correct in regarding this as being the European Goose¬ 
 berry caterpillar; but I had not in my hands at that time such full 
 descriptions of that insect and its habits as that I felt perfectly 
 assured of their identity. 
 
 In 1865 it reached Rhinebcck, making its appearance in the gar¬ 
 den of Hon. E. W. Heermance. He informs me it was just as the 
 currants were about commencing to turn red that a whole swarm of 
 most voracious worms were discovered upon a particular bush, eating 
 it naked of its leaves. Some lime and ashes were dusted over the 
 bush, and the worms immediately vanished, and he congratulated 
 himself that he had so easily got rid of these disagreeable visitors. 
 But lhe worms, without doubt, had then got their growth and were 
 on the point of leaving the bush and going into the ground, and 
 the alkaline powdering did nothing towards driving them away; 
 for in three or four weeks after, the same worms appeared again, 
 and were now scattered in thousands upon every currrant and 
 gooseberry bush in his garden—being so numerous that he was 
 disheartened from attempting to subdue them, and in a few days 
 th' y had everywhere stripped the bushes bare. He has not heard 
 of their being in any other garden in his vicinity. 
 
 In Albany it was not so destructive as in the two preceding 
 years, nor had it spread itself into the country around in force, 
 except it might be in gome particular gardens, whilst in others not 
 one of these worms had yet been seen. 
 
 In 1866 it first appeared in numerous plaees in Washington and 
 Saratoga counties. It did not come suddenly in full strength, but 
 insidiously in limited numbers, lurking low down between and 
 underneath the bushes, where it was seldom seen until it had been 
 
922 
 
 Annual Report of New York 
 
 CCRRAMT-WORM. REMAIKB LATER IN DAMP THAN IK DRY SITCATIONSi 
 
 present some time, and was then accidentally found. I first discov¬ 
 ered it in my own garden on the 18th of June. Being engaged in 
 weeding under a currant bush, I noticed that the leaves had been 
 cleanly eaten from a twig which was hid from view underneath the 
 foliage. Surprised and wondering what currant insect there was 
 that could have done this, in looking further I espied a cluster of 
 worms occupying the leaves of two other twigs contiguous to this 
 one, from one to a half dozen worms standing upon the underside 
 of each leaf. It required but a slight inspection to assure me they 
 were the larvm of this Currant saw-fly about two-thirds grown. 
 Hereupon examining all my bushes I found a spot denuded of 
 leaves and indicating that a small flock of worms had been feeding 
 there and had probably got their growth and gone into the ground. 
 Another defoliated place was found, where were eleven mature 
 worms, mostly scattered one upon a leaf, the remainder of this 
 flock having no doubt buried themselves. These defoliated spots 
 were in hidden situations and of such small extent that probably 
 one fly produced them, dividing her eggs into separate parcels for 
 the better concealment and security of her young, instead of depos¬ 
 iting her whole stock in one place. A currant bush growing alone 
 in my yard was also found to have about a third of its foliage 
 consumed, and thirty-one worms were counted, scattered every¬ 
 where over it, one or two upon a leaf, some of them small, others 
 mature, and others no doubt had finished feeding and buried them¬ 
 selves. No worms as yet occurred upon my gooseberries, these 
 furnishing no places for them to feed in such perfect concealment 
 as they found upon the currants. Every leaf upon which a worm 
 was detected was picked and dropped into pots of earth to be fed, 
 that I might observe their further growth and transformations. 
 From this time onwards, none of these larvse were seen upon my 
 bushes, until the middle of August, when, around the same places 
 where they had previously occurred, were found a number of them 
 half and two-thirds grown, scattered and but one or two upon a 
 leaf. The annual fall of the leaves from the currant bushes was 
 then taking place, whereby no considerable number of larvse could 
 find sustenance upon them. I think in moist situations and soils 
 of clay loam the currant and gooseberry retain their leaves to a 
 much later period than they do when growing in more elevated, 
 dry, gravelly loam, thus enabling the autumnal broods of these 
 
State Aqricvltural Society. 
 
 923 
 
 PENETRATES FORESTS. FEEDS ON WILD GOOSEBERRIES 
 
 larvce to continue feeding much later in the former than in the 
 latter situations. 
 
 In 1857 the flies did not appear in such force in my garden as I 
 expected. The spring was wet and backward, and I did not search 
 my bushes until the beginning of June, when I discovered worms 
 upon them in numerous places, some of them already grown nearly 
 to their full size. Through this season, whenever a worm was dis¬ 
 covered the leaves around it were promptly dusted with hellebore; 
 and the bushes continued in full leaf through the season, no very 
 manifest defoliation being perceptible in any place. Through this 
 section of the State, this year, in particular gardens the currant 
 bushes were wholly denuded of their leaves. In many other gar¬ 
 dens these worms were known to be present in numbers more or 
 less formidable and threatening; whilst in many others it had not 
 as yet been seen. Numerous inquiries were addressed to me, in 
 reference to this insect. A summary statement of its history, hab¬ 
 its and transformations, which I wrote in reply to oue of these cor¬ 
 respondents, in which was also set forth iu the most decided terms 
 the efficacy of hellebore as a remedy, was published in the Sara¬ 
 tovian newspaper of June 20lh, and was copied into several of the 
 other local newspapers, whereby this remedy was much resorted 
 to, and with the most satisfactory results. 
 
 The insect continued to advance, appearing this year in many 
 localities beyond those which it reached the preceding year. I am 
 informed by Dr. Gile, of Poultney, Vt., that it arrived in that place 
 this summer, and that in a hunting excursion in the wilds of 
 Northern New York, at Indian Lake, Hamilton county, in the forest 
 fifteen miles distant from any other settlement, he saw the currant 
 bushes covered with these worms, and twenty miles beyond this, at 
 Jessup’s settlement, he noticed these same worms thronging a bush 
 of wild gooseberry, which was probably the Ribes hirtellum. 
 Although it is reported that it does not feed upon the wild black 
 currant, R. flondum, there is no doubt but that it relishes the seve¬ 
 ral species of our native gooseberries, R. laenstre , Cynosbati , hirtel¬ 
 lum et rotundifolium, one or more of which are growing every where 
 iu our woodlands, and it will consequently be able to advance 
 through an unbroken wilderness sis readily as through districts that 
 are cleared and cultivated. 
 
 In the historical account which has now been given of the intro¬ 
 duction and progress of this insect in our country, many of the 
 
924 Annual Report of New York 
 
 CURRANT-WORM. THE EGOS. THE YOUNG LARVJ5. 
 
 facts relating to its habits and economy have incidentally been 
 stated which it will be unnecessary to particularly repeat now, 
 when we come next to treat upon its transformations and describe 
 the different forms in which it appears. 
 
 The flies break forth from the cocoons and emerge from the 
 ground, in our State, the latter part of April. The exact date of 
 their beginning to appear will vary in different years, as the season 
 is early or late, and will be a week or more earlier in the Southern 
 than in the northern sections of the State. Everywhere some of 
 them will come forth in season for the sexes to pair and the females 
 to commence the deposit of their eggs just as the leaves of the 
 gooseberry and currant are bursting from their buds and beginning 
 to unfold. 
 
 The eggs are placed on the underside of the leaves. Mr. Curtis 
 states they are placed close by the side of the larger veins. Those 
 which I have observed have mostly been glued lengthwise along 
 the summit of the ridges formed by the larger veins. They are 
 shining, watery-white and translucent, of a short cylindrical form 
 with rounded ends. Before hatching they become more opake, 
 and swell and increase in thickness but not in length. They hatch 
 in six or seven days, in summer, but in the cool weather of early 
 spring the period is probably longer. 
 
 The young larvae when they come out from the egg shells are 
 watery-whitish and translucent, six times as long as thick, and one 
 tenth of an inch in length. Their bodies are cylindric with tho 
 heads thicker, more shiny and pale dirty yellowish-brown, with 
 three conspicuous pairs of feet placed on the breast. When they 
 begin to eat, their bodies immediately acquire a green tint and their 
 heads become smoky. They, on leaving the egg, distribute them¬ 
 selves over the disk of tho leaf, avoiding its margin, and each one 
 eats a small round hole through the leaf, whereby it becomes rid¬ 
 dled with these holes. They continue eating the edge of the hole, 
 enlarging it, and as soon as it is sufficiently large to receive them 
 they stand in it, with their backs strongly bent. They move back¬ 
 wards as they continue to eat, each one along the edge of its hole, 
 enlarging it more and more, till the holes meet and become con¬ 
 fluent and oblong, occupying the spaces between the veins, and 
 being of different sizes, with two, three or more worms now eating 
 along the edges of each hole, until it extends to the outer margin 
 of the leaf, thus taking all or nearly all of the parenchyma of the 
 
State Agricultural Society. 
 
 925 
 
 THEIR GROWTH. CAST SKINS. LARVA DESCRIBED. 
 
 leaf and leaving only the veins. They drop a multitude of little 
 black grains upon the leaves below them, which enable us fre¬ 
 quently to discover broods of these worms which would otherwise 
 escape our search. 
 
 When one leaf is consumed they migrate to another. And as 
 they increase in size, so often as their skins become uncomfortably 
 tight, they cast them off and come out in a new dress. These evacu¬ 
 ated skins are frequently seen, having their tips hooked around a 
 leaf-stalk or the margin of a leaf, with the head end hanging down- 
 ward, looking as though the worm in wriggling out of it had drop¬ 
 ped itself to the ground. They are a shrivelled and distorted mass, 
 the skin being of a flesh-red color wherever it is seen in the inter¬ 
 stices between the shining black warts, which occupy most of the 
 surface, the black bristles and black anterior legs projecting out in 
 every direction—the black, shining head, similarly bristled, appear¬ 
 ing at one end of the mass, split asunder into two segments. 
 
 As they increase in size they become more voracious, and were a 
 whole brood to continue together, one leaf would not suffice to feed 
 them an hour. They, therefore, separate, and as they approach 
 maturity become more subdivided and scattered around the spot 
 which they occupy, until commonly only one, two or three are 
 found on a leaf, which they commence eating at its tip, consuming 
 it more and more as they progress towards its base. They con¬ 
 tinue to increase in size with each successive change of their skins, 
 until they attain three-fourths of an inch in length. 
 
 The Larva when nearly or quite mature is about six times as long as thick, and 
 of a cylindrical form, very slightly tapering towards its tip, which is usually held 
 in a curved position, either downward, upward, or to one side. It is shining and 
 greasy-looking, of a pale bluish green color with the neck and the segment next 
 to the last pale greenish yellow. It is ornamented with numerous elevated pol¬ 
 ished black dots, each one of which gives out a short black bristle. These dots 
 arc symmetrically placed in rows running both lengthwise and crosswise of the 
 body, there being along the back twenty-four dots in each row. Each abdominal 
 segment has three transverse rows, with four dots in the first, six in the second 
 and ten in the third, with an additional dot between the lower ends of the second 
 and third rows, and another much larger one below the ends of the first and second 
 rows, this last dot having two others below it, on the base of the prolegs. On tho 
 thoracic segments the dots are fewer in number and differently arranged. The 
 extreme tip of the body is tinged with yellow, with a black spot on its upper side, 
 and two short horn-like processes. The head is .black, highly polished and stud¬ 
 ded over with bristles. On the underside are three pairs of true legs, anteriorly, 
 on the breast, which taper to a sharp point and are black and shining. With 
 these the larva clings to the leaf when it is feeding. They occupy the three first 
 
926 
 
 Annual Report of New York 
 
 CURRANT-WORM. THE PLIES DESCRIBED. 
 
 rings, and the fourth ring is destitute of legs, but on each of the six rings follow- 
 ing it and also at the tip is a pair of short, thick, fleshy, retractile prolegs, of a 
 pale color, which the larva protrudes to aid it when crawling. 
 
 When they are done feeding they cast their skins again, and then 
 become very much changed in appearance from what they have pre¬ 
 viously been, all vestiges of the shining black dots having vanished, 
 and the worm being now of a very pale pea-green color, almost 
 white, with the neck and the penultimate segment sulphur yellow, 
 and the head pale like the body, with a small black dot upon each 
 side. When it has come out thus colored it crawls slightly away 
 from its cast-off skin, and then remains at rest and motionless about 
 five or six hours. It then crawls down the currant stalk and goes 
 into the ground, burying itself slightly under the surface. It here 
 incloses itself in a yellowish cocoon of a very dense membranous 
 texture and a regular oval form, in which it changes to a pupa, and 
 lies reposing for about a fortnight. In two instances in which I 
 particularly observed the dates, it being in the month of June, the 
 flies came forth, one on the twelfth the other on the fourteenth day 
 after the worm entered the ground. 
 
 The fliks are 0.38 long to the end of the abdomen and wings, but in the pre¬ 
 served specimen the abdomen shrinks and the body measures but about 0.30 to its 
 tip. They are 0.70 in width across the extended wings. The head is black and 
 shining, very slightly clothed with short gray pubescence. The edges of the 
 orbits of the eyes are distinctly of a dull whitish color in the living specimen, but 
 after death this color fades and becomes imperceptible. There is also a dull white 
 spot between the antennae. The mouth is more clear dull white, the jaws or man¬ 
 dibles being black, except at their bases. The antennae arc black, their under¬ 
 sides dull brown; they are three-fourths the length of the body, slightly more 
 slender towards their tips, nine-jointed, the two first joints small, the third joint 
 slightly if at all longer than the fourth, the remaining ones successively slightly 
 diminishing in length and thickness. The thorax is palo yellow, shining, and 
 clothed like the head and antennae with short gray pubescence. It has on the 
 back three large black spots occupying the elevations of the lobes, which spots are 
 usually more or less confluent, and back of these are smaller black transverse 
 spots. Beneath, the middle of the breast is black, a black spot anteriorly occupies 
 the collar, and on each side is a triangular black spot, placed obliquely, below the 
 wing sockets. On the last segment are two elevated dull white dots. The abdo¬ 
 men is bright wax-yellow, fading after death to pale lurid brown ; its base above 
 is smoky. The loings are hyaline, slightly smoky ; the veins and the thickened 
 outer edge of the upper pair ending in a callous spot called the stigma, are black, 
 the inner side of the stigma sometimes having a pale tinge. The upper wings have 
 one marginal and four submarginal cells; the first submarginal cell is quadrangular 
 and nearly equilateral, its inner anterior side longest; the second cell is elongated 
 hexangular, twice as broad anteriorly as posteriorly, the two veinlets at its ante- 
 
State Agricultural Society. 
 
 927 
 
 WORM IS HOT POISONOUS. 
 
 rior end equal or the inner one slightly longer than the outer, receiving two recur¬ 
 rent veins, the hind one but little forward of the hind end, and having a brown 
 dot back of the centre and slightly nearer the inner than the outer bouudary; the 
 third cell is small, quadrangular and twice as long as broad, usually widening 
 backward, joined by no recurrent vcinlet; the fqurth cell as long as the second 
 and double its width, its hind end twice or thrice the width of its anterior end, 
 sometimes incomplete, the vein on its inner side being more or less atrophied. The 
 legs arc dull white, the hind pair having the feet and tips of the shanks black. 
 Several of the parts which are black in the living insect fade to brown in preserved 
 specimens. 
 
 In many neighborhoods it is a mooted subject whether the fruit 
 which ripens on bushes which have been thronged by these worms 
 is not poisonous and unsafe to bo gathered and used. Rumor is 
 ever ready to report that in the next town one or two children 
 have died from eating these currants. Meeting a man who desired 
 to know my opinion upon this subject, I was told ho had heard a 
 strenuous advocate of this poison theory, relating in a public place 
 that he had my authority for saying that such currants were 
 poisoned and ought never to be used. This illustrates how unscru¬ 
 pulous men are apt to become when excited by controversy. Those 
 who are so prejudiced against using these currants ought never to 
 taste a worm-eaten apple, for assuredly a worm crawling around 
 inside of a fruit and feeding upon it will be much more apt to 
 impart poison to it than one which merely walks over or rubs 
 against its smooth outer surface. When the bushes are stripped 
 bare of their leaves, the fruit which ripens on them will not be so 
 plump and perfect, it will be slightly wilted and shrunken, and 
 possibly such fruit may not be quite so healthy as that which is 
 perfectly grown—though an apple which is slightly wilted from 
 being worm-eaten is more palatable and also more digestible than 
 one which is fresh and sound. But that such currants are “ poison¬ 
 ous,” in any sense of the term, I am confident is erroneous. I 
 bind upon the skin of my arm a worm which has just now been 
 killed by hellebore. At the end of six hours I have not felt the 
 slightest smarting or irritation of the part; and on removing the 
 worm the skin is not at all reddened, as it would be were there 
 any acrid or vesicatory property pertaining to this larva as there 
 is to several other insects and their larva}. And we have no evi¬ 
 dence that any poisonous quality whatever, pertains to these worms. 
 
 A most important topic is yet remaining to complete our account 
 of this terrible pest to the gardener, namely, a notice of the most 
 
928 
 
 Annual Report of New York 
 
 CURRANT-WORM. REMEDIES. WHITE HELLEBORE. 
 
 important remedies for destroying it and saving the currant and 
 gooseberry bushes from its ravages. 
 
 The remedy which transcends all others in its efficacy for destroy¬ 
 ing the larva of the Currant Saw-fly, is the root of the white helle¬ 
 bore, Veratrum album , either dried and ground into an impalpable 
 powder, or a decoction made by boiling it in water and when cold 
 sprinkling the leaves therewith from a watering pot. Words fail 
 us for suitably expressing the value of this substance. In the 
 whole round of remedies for injurious insects we know of no other 
 one that is so efficacious, we know of no other one that possesses 
 such virtue for destroying any insect as does this substance for 
 destroying this larva. It is a sovereign cure for the evil. It is a 
 specific. It operates like a charm. Easy of application and cer¬ 
 tain in its effects, it is all that can be desired. The larva does not 
 require to eat it. It kills the moment it touches. In the words of 
 B. Lymburn, “ wherever a particle, reaches a caterpillar, it collapses 
 as if stabbed,” yes, as if stabbed to the heart. Every one who 
 notices this powder as it falls upon a worm will confirm the literal 
 truth of this statement. The worm is instantly convulsed with a 
 death spasm, rolls off the leaf and drops lifeless to the ground. It 
 is “ a spectacle wonderful to behold.” But it standing on the 
 underside of a leaf where the powder does not touch it, when it 
 afterwards comes to eat a particle of it, its doom is sealed with 
 equal certainty. 
 
 In addition to the statements of the efficacy of this remedy, which 
 have incidentally been made in the foregoing pages, a few others 
 may here be presented. 
 
 D. G. had 3,000 gooseberry trees so covered with caterpillars 
 that in a few days not a leaf would be left. He got six pounds of 
 the white hellebore powder, and dusted the plants over from a large 
 pepper box, and it completely killed all the caterpillars upon them. 
 ( Gardener's Chronicle, 1842, p. 365.) 
 
 The Ithaca Journal says: “ We luiow from repeated experiments 
 that powdered hellebore sprinkled on the bushes in quite limited 
 quantities, will clear the worms in double quick time. We have 
 succeeded in completely eradicating them from ours, and have the 
 promise of a superb crop .” — (Rural New Yorker, vol. xv, p. 207.) 
 
 S. Edwards Todd, of Auburn, states that he has found that pul¬ 
 verized white hellebore will effectually destroy ever 1 ' worm in less 
 
State Agricultural Society. 
 
 929 
 
 ITS QBEAT EFFICACY. ITS QUALITY HOW TESTED. 
 
 than an hour, without injuring either the fruit or the bushes. 
 (Country Gentleman , vol. xxiii, p. 383.) 
 
 W. B. Smith, of Syracuse, says he has effectually destined these 
 worms on a plantation of half an acre, by dusting white hellebore 
 over the leaves. It was not necessary to cover all the leaves nor 
 to apply it on the under side, as the first mouthful which any one 
 took, killed it. The powder is retained by the rough surface of 
 the leaves but is quickly washed from the glossy surface of the 
 fruit .—(Country Gentleman , vol. xxvii, p. 110.) 
 
 Numerous other published statements to the same purport with 
 the preceding might be presented, but it is unnecessary. Within 
 the circle of my acquaintance, every one who has used this remedy 
 expresses himself as being perfectly satisfied and delighted with 
 its operation, except in a single instance. One friend informs me 
 he could not perceive that it had any effect. And in the Gardener’s 
 Chronicle , 1842, p. 349, a correspondent states that he completely 
 covered several larvae with hellebore powder, and confined them 
 under a wineglass on paper strewed with this powder, several 
 hours, and they appeared to experience no inconvenience whatever. 
 It does not admit of a doubt that in both of these instances a worth¬ 
 less article was used. If it really was hellebore which these two 
 persons received from the druggists, it was so old and had been 
 lying so long in the drawers of the shops that it had entirely lost 
 its properties. The purchaser should assure himself that the article 
 which he obtains is genuine, as this is so readily ascertained. Hel¬ 
 lebore is such a powerful sternutatory that it has long been in use 
 as the basis of those snuffs which are designed to excite violent and 
 continued sneezing, and the smallest pinch of its powder, brought 
 Deal- the nostrils, by the tingling sensation it produces in them will 
 sufficiently attest its genuineness. And in dusting it over the 
 bushes, one soon learns to stand where any slight breeze which 
 may be in the air will not waft any of the finer particles to his own 
 face. It is ground into such an exceedingly fine light powder that 
 it can only be used with economy when the atmosphere is nearly 
 or quite still, .so large a portion of it is wafted away and wasted if 
 any wind is blowiug. 
 
 Much the most convenient mode of dusting this powder far 
 down between the bushes or elsewhere that a worm occurs, I find 
 is to put about a gill of it into a small bag made of very fine 
 muslin, and tie the mouth of this bag around a stick about eighteen 
 
 IAu.] 59 
 
930 
 
 Annual Report of New York 
 
 CURRANT-WORM. REMEDIES. GREEN HELLEBORE. HAND-PICKING. LIMB. 
 
 inches long. Using the stick as a handle, the bag can readily be 
 passed in among the bushes to any point where a worm is seen, 
 and a slight shake being given, it sifts the powder out upon the 
 very leaves on which we desire to dust it. The slightest quantity 
 distributed over the upper side of a leaf is equally as effective as a 
 thick coating would be. 
 
 The green hellebore, Veratrum viride , of our country, a plant 
 growing everywhere in our moist meadows, and commonly called 
 “ poke,” with its large leaves prettily plaited lengthwise, and so 
 compacted together as to give it some resemblance to a cabbage, is 
 so closely like the white hellebore of Europe that botanists are not 
 fully agreed that the two are really distinct species. The root of 
 our American plant will undoubtedly be as efficacious for destroy¬ 
 ing this currant worm as is the imported hellebore. But this latter 
 is so readily obtained from the druggists at such a moderate price, 
 and comes to us ground to such £ tine dust, and ready for imme¬ 
 diate use, that we have no occasion for resorting to the latter. But 
 if in any place the white hellebore cannot be had, our American 
 plant is everywhere at hand; and a decoction of its roots sprinkled 
 upon the bushes from a watering pot, will undoubtedly be found to 
 be perfectly effective. 
 
 Next to this remedy, the most effectual one for subduing this 
 insect and saving the currant and gooseberry bushes from its 
 ravages, appears from the experience of many persons to be the 
 slow and tedious process of hand-picking. Some have recom¬ 
 mended gathering the flies when they first issue from the ground in 
 the spring. Robert Gray, of Dristwich, states in the Gardener's 
 Chronicle , 1855, p. 281, that he spent an hour or two in the morn¬ 
 ing for a few days and caught several hundred flies, thus lessening 
 their numbers so that but few eggs wero afterwards found on the 
 leaves. And R. Varden, of Seaford Grange, writes (p. 317) that 
 through the middle of April (the flies coming forth there somewhat 
 earlier than they do here in New York) his men before breakfast 
 tapped the bushes with a stick, when the flies would generally dart 
 to the ground and could be easily secured, thus sometimes getting 
 nearly a pint of them, their bodies full of eggs. There cannot be 
 a doubt this is a very advantageous step to take. 
 
 Slacked lime sifted upon the leaves two or three times a week 
 seems to be the next most successful remedy for destroying the 
 worms, but the testimony as to its efficacy is quite conflicting. 
 
State Agricultural Society. 
 
 931 
 
 COAL ASHES. ROAD DUST. OTHER REMEDIES. 
 
 An item has lately gone the rounds of the newspapers, stating 
 that “Robert J. Swan, of Geneva, keeps his currant bushes entirely 
 free from currant worms by the use of coal ashes. Cover the 
 ground about each bush four or five inches deep for a distance of 
 two feet on each side. The mechanical sharpness of the ashes pre¬ 
 vents the soft lame from rising through them.” I think this may 
 be a valuable measure. It is not probable that the fly on hatching 
 would be able to make its way up though such a depth of these 
 ashes, or that the larva will bury itself in them to form its cocoon. 
 
 e doubt whether the insect will remain where it is so much dis¬ 
 commoded. 
 
 I. H. Robinson, of Rochester, finds that frequently sifting coal 
 ashes over the bushes when the dew is on, prevents the ravages of 
 these worms. {Rural New Yorker, vol.' xiv, p. 255.) And of a 
 similar purport is the following: 
 
 If road dust or the tine dust from any dried clods is sprinkled on 
 infested bushes, the caterpillars will soon disappear, says a corres¬ 
 pondent of the Gardener's Chronicle, 1842, p. 520. And in the 
 Rural New Yorker, vol. xvi, p. 183, H. Stanton, Jr., of Syracuse, 
 states that fine dry road dust sprinkled and thrown up under the 
 bushes wherever the worms appear will destroy them and com¬ 
 pletely stop their ravages. He tried it the preceding year with 
 perfect success. We cannot think any inert powder like dust or 
 coal ashes will be of any avail except to put the worms to the 
 inconvenience of traveling away to leaves that are clean. 
 
 Whale oil soap, two pounds dissolved in a. few gallons of hot 
 water, aud sufficient water added thereto to make fifteeu gallons, is 
 reported by R. N. Parke, of Waterloo, N. Y., to destroy these 
 worms upon a few applications. ( Rural New Yorker, vol. xii, p. 
 199). This has been extensively used, some being satisfied with 
 it, others finding little or no benefit from it. 
 
 Quite a number of other articles — sulphur, sulphur fumes, salt, 
 soot, wood ashes, strong soap suds, decoction of foxglove, tobacco 
 water, copperas water, &c. — have been brought to notice by one 
 and another, in the public prints, as remedies for these currant 
 worms, but have failed to gain any public confidence in their 
 efficacy. 
 
 As none of the foreign accounts which we have seen allude to 
 any parasitic enemy of this Currant Saw-fly, it seemed quite improb¬ 
 able that it would in this country meet with any such enemy, to 
 
932 Annual Report of New York 
 
 CURRANT-WORM* EGGS DESTROYED BY A PARASITE. 
 
 lighten from us the task of combatting it and diminishing its devas¬ 
 tations. But our valued friend J. A. Lintner, of Schoharie, greets 
 us with the erlad tidings that he has discovered we have such a foe 
 to this formidable scourge. An egg parasite of this saw-fly inhab¬ 
 its our State, an exceedingly minute Hymeuopterous insect, which 
 inserts its eggs into those of the saw-fly, that its young may subsist 
 upon and consume the contents of those eggs. This diminutive 
 little fly has probably existed hitherto upon the eggs of some one 
 of our American saw-flies similar in size to those of the Currant 
 Saw-fly; and it has now discovered that the eggs of this newly 
 arrived foreigner are equally well adapted to its wants. And so 
 multiplied has this little friend of the gardener become, that in 
 Utica Mr. Lintner finds that among fifty eggs of a saw-fly upon a 
 currant leaf, there will not be more than four or five that will 
 hatch currant worms, all the rest being occupied by the little mag¬ 
 got, the young of this parasite. At Schoharie, also, where the 
 saw-fly has arrived more recently than at Utica, he finds this para¬ 
 site is now beginning to appear. Everywhere this little creature is 
 no doubt following upon the tracks of the saw-fly, and within a 
 very few years after the one arrives in any placo the other will be 
 there also, and will speedily become so multiplied as to quell and 
 extinguish it. This is a most important discovery, and renders it 
 quite probable that in this country this currant worm can never be 
 but a temporary evil. Whenever circumstances favor it and enable 
 it to multiply and become numerous in any section of our country, 
 this little enemy, its mortal foe, will speedily be there to subdue 
 and stamp it down. Thus nicely are the works of nature balanced, 
 and no creature is permitted to usurp a place in her domain which 
 does not belong to ' 
 
THIRTEENTH REPORT 
 
 ON THE NOXIOUS, BENEFICIAL AND OTHER INSECTS OF THE 
 STATE OF NEW YORK. 
 
 By Asa Fitch, M. D., Entomologist op the Society. 
 
 [Copyright secured to the author.] 
 
 Bean aphis, Aphis liumicis, Linn. (Ilomoptera. Aphidse.) 
 
 Crowded together in clusters upon the top of the stalks and under side of the 
 leaves of the English bean, the poppy, dahlia, and several other plants, a small black 
 plant-louse with pale shanks, the pupae with a row of mealy white spots along each 
 side of the hack. 
 
 This aphis is one of the most pernicious insects of the group to 
 which it pertains. So much notice has been attracted to it in England 
 thalt in different sections it has there obtained the names of the black 
 dolphin, the collier, and the black fly. It is liable to suddenly become 
 excessively numerous, and when thus multiplied it falls upon plants 
 other than those which it ordinarily infests, and plants which are 
 widely dissimilar in their nature and not at all akin. And it is also 
 liable to suddenly vanish and totally disappear. We are informed by 
 Mr. Curtis (Farm Insects, p. 387) that, “ During the summer of 1S47 
 the prodigious swarms of this aphis which suddenly covered the young 
 shoots and under sides of the leaves of almost every plant, so that the 
 surface was blackened by them, was unprecedented, as far as can be 
 ascertained, and it excited the attention of the public generally. 
 
 * * * They died in closely packed groups, with their beaks 
 thrust into the leaves, and their wings erect; and possibly were either 
 , poisoned by feeding on juices not adapted to their constitutions, or 
 they might have been held fast by the drying of the leaves in which 
 their rostrums were imbedded. * * None were observed the fol¬ 
 lowing year.” He also states (p. 68) that in the year 1854 this aphis 
 was excessively abundant, everywhere in England. In a communica¬ 
 tion to the Gardener’s Chronicle, the last of August in that year (p. 
 550), he reports that about the beginning of that month there were 
 myriads of this species in the neighborhood ot London, and on the 
 
493 
 
 Annual Report of New York 
 
 evening of August 1st they were seen in prodigious numbers near 
 Ilighgate, and soon covered the plants in the gardens, causing con¬ 
 siderable mischief to the dahlia buds. They died, however, in two 
 or three days, after some very heavy showers occurred. He further 
 states that they had done great injury to the turnip crops in York¬ 
 shire. A letter from Mr. Lister, with specimens, informed him that 
 hundreds of acres of late sown turnips were almost destroyed by these 
 flies. Mr. L. had five acres which were quite destroyed, and several 
 more that were much injured. 
 
 Hitherto it has been the current opinion of naturalists that every 
 plant had its own parasites — one or more species of plant-lice living 
 upon it and unable to subsist upon any other member of the vegetable 
 kingdom. Linnaeus hence supposed it was unnecessary to give any 
 descriptions of these insects, deeming that the several species were 
 amply distinguished by simply naming the plants to which they 
 respectively pertained. But the more accurate researches of the 
 present day have greatly modified this view, and have shown that the 
 same species of aphis is liable to occur upon different plants which are 
 related to eacli other, and which pertain to the same botanical genus, or 
 even to different genera of the same Natural Order. And some 
 species occur which are still more ubiquitous, sustaining tliemsqjves 
 upon plants which are quite dissimilar, and which pertain to different 
 Orders. Thus the species of these parasites are now known to he 
 much less numerous than has hitherto been supposed, many of them 
 having received several names in consequence of their occurring upon 
 different plants. We have a notable instance of this in the aphis now 
 under consideration. Establishing itself and subsisting as it does 
 upon quite a number of plants and trees which are more or less dis¬ 
 similar in their nature, it has confidently been regarded as a distinct 
 species on each of these plants and trees, and has thus received a cor¬ 
 responding number of names. But when we come to fully study the 
 characters and marks which this aphis presents in each of the stages 
 of its development, the exact form and size and colors of the different 
 parts of its body and of each of its several members, the position of < 
 the veins in its wings, and especially the peculiar row of flocculent 
 snow-white spots along each side of the back of its pupa, the size and 
 shape and situation of each of these spots, we are furnished with such 
 an assemblage of diagnostics as enables us to clearly recognize this spe¬ 
 cies on whatever plant we meet with it. And, finding them to be 
 identical in such a multitude of particulars, we shall not be able to 
 persuade ourselves they are different species, however dissimilar the 
 
State Agricultural Society. 
 
 497 
 
 vegetation may be on which they occur to our notice. Mr. Francis 
 Walker, who has investigated this family of insects so thoroughly, in 
 his several notices of the present species (Annals of Natural History, 
 2d series, vol. 5, pp. 17, 73; Zoologist, vol. 6, p. 2247, and Appen¬ 
 dix of vol. 7; and List of Ilomopterous Insects in the British 
 Museum, p. 981), has shown what a number of names have been given 
 it by different authors. And I make one addition to the list which 
 he has given. 
 
 It was first named Aphis Rumicis or the dock plant-louse, by 
 Linnaeus, in his I auna ol Sweden, published in 1746. lie merely 
 states in connection with this name that it is the aphis of the Rumex 
 Lapathum. 
 
 Aphis Craccce, the next name it received, was first given by Lin¬ 
 naeus in the tenth edition of his System of Nature, vol. 1, p. 452, pub¬ 
 lished in 1758, as being the aphis of the tufted vetch, Vida Cracca. 
 
 Aphis Atriplids, the aphis of the garden orache, Atriplex horten- 
 sis, was the third name given by Linnaeus, in 1761, in the second 
 edition of his Fauna of Sweden. 
 
 Aphis Fabcs, the aphis of the bean, Faba vulgaris , appeared ia 
 1763, in Scopoli’s Entomology of Carniola, p. 139. 
 
 Aphis Genistas , the aphis of the dyer’s broom, Genista tinctoria,, 
 appeared in the same work with the preceding. 
 
 Aphis Acetosce, the aphis of the field sorrel, Rumex Acetosa , was _ 
 a fourth name given to this insect by Linnaeus, in the twelfth edition 
 of his System of Nature, vol. 2, p. 734, published in 1765. 
 
 Aphis Aparines , the aphis of the bedstraw, Galium Aparine, was 
 the next name given, by Fabricius, in his Systema Entomologia, p. 
 735, which appeared in 1775. 
 
 Aphis Euonymi, the aphis of the spindle tree or burning bush, 
 Euonymus Europteus , appeared also in the same work, p. 736. 
 
 Aphis Rapaveris , the aphis of the poppy, Papaver somniferum , 
 appeared in Fabricius’s Genera of Insects, p. 303, published in 1777. 
 
 Aphis hortensis , on the tops of the garden orache, was published 
 by Fabricius in his Species of Insects, vol. 2, p. 387, which appeared 
 in 1781. He subsequently abandoned this name, becoming assured 
 it was the same insect with A. Atriplids. 
 
 Aphis Vidas was proposed in the same work, p. 390, as a substi¬ 
 tute for the Lin mean name A phis Craccce. 
 
 Aphis Chenopodii, the aphis of the pigweed, Chenopodium album, 
 was published in 1800 by Schrank, in his Fauna Boica, vol. 2, p 
 109. V 
 
 Aq. 
 
 63 
 
498 
 
 Aniwal Report of New York 
 
 Aphis Thlaspeos, tlie aphis of the shepherds’ purse, Thlaspi Bursa- 
 pastoris, appeared in the same work, p. 118. And also Aphis Galii 
 scabri , which Mr. Walker supposes to he this same species. 
 
 Aphis armata, a species named by Ilausmann, was published in 
 1802, in Illiger’s Magazine, vol. 1, p. 439. 
 
 Aphis Laburni, the aphis of the Laburnum vulgare , we next have, 
 named by Kaltenbach in his Monograph of the plant-lice, p. 85. 
 And the Aphis Galii and the Aphis Euphorbias of the same author 
 Mr. Walker thinks are probably this species also. 
 
 Aphis Dahlia ?, the dahlia plant-louse, described by Mosley in the 
 Gardeners’ Chronicle, in 1841, p. 628, is the last name which this 
 insect has received to our knowledge. 
 
 We come next to notice the different kinds of vegetation which 
 are attacked by this aphis, and the effects produced by its attacks, 
 which are sometimes very curious. Those who have been accustomed 
 to regard the aphides as being each a species pertaining to a particu¬ 
 lar plant or to plants which are closely related and very similar to 
 each other, will be astonished with the number and still more with 
 the great dissimilarity of the plants and trees on which this black 
 aphis of the bean establishes itself and rears its broods of young. 
 
 The plant to which this insect is most injurious and which has 
 caused it to be so much noticed, is the English or Windsor bean, one 
 of its coarser varieties being also called the horse bean—the Vista 
 Faba of Linnseus, Faba vulgaris of the botanists of the present day. 
 In our own country this bean is less cultivated now than formerly, the 
 bush and the pole beans, Phaseolus vulgaris and nanus being so much 
 preferred to it. Watson (American Home Garden, p. 117), assigns 
 as one of the causes of its being so little cultivated : “ If but a slight 
 drought comes upon the plants in their growth, the black aphis will 
 eat them up.” But in European husbandry this bean is extensively 
 grown and is a common field crop, which is frequently injured and 
 sometimes destroyed by this insect. Dickson (Practical Agriculture, 
 vol. 2, p. 597), says: “ In such summers as are dry, beans are liable 
 to be much injured by the attacks of the black fly, or what is often 
 termed the dolphin, the whole field in particular cases being in danger 
 of being destroyed in the course of a few days. It is mostly on the 
 tops of the plants that the insect first appears.” Mr. Curtis (Farm 
 Insects, p. 355), says : “ Their first appearance is very sudden, and 
 their increase so prodigious, that crops suffer severely from their 
 visits. In 1833 the beans were almost totally destroyed by them in 
 Yorkshire. In 1841 they were abundant in my garden near the 
 
499 
 
 State Agricultvhal Society. * 
 
 Eegent’s Park; but in 1842 I never saw one on the spot, yet the 
 beans around Sandgate in tbe same year were very much injured by 
 them. He further states that, having once established themselves 
 upon the bean-tops, they breed at a rate which would be incredible, 
 if it were not well attested, often making the bean-stalks as black as 
 soot. 1 hey exhaust the plants by sucking the sap, so that when they 
 abound, it is in vain to calculate upon a good crop, if they be not 
 speedily arrested. The remedy practiced by all good cultivators, we 
 are told, is, to cut off the tops of the plants with a scythe or other 
 sharp implement, on the very first appearance of the insects upon 
 them. Mr. Curtis adds to this, that these severed tops should be 
 gathered into a heap upon one side of the field, and burned, or should 
 be buried in a pit and trampled upon, for if they are left in the field 
 many of the insects will crawl from them and regain the living plants. 
 Put it stiikes me that if the tops of the plants are merely cut off the 
 favorite nesting places of the insects are destroyed, so that it will be 
 unable to settle and thrive and multiply upon the plants in its cus¬ 
 tomary manner. 
 
 Seveial other plants of the same natural order, Leguminos.e, to 
 which the bean pertains, are liable to be infested by this black aphis, 
 namely, the tufted vetch and the dyer’s broom, already mentioned 
 on a preceding page, the Spanish broom Spartium junceum, and the 
 black bean Dolichos Catiang. On the Laburnum also, L. vulgare, 
 large families of this insect occur, their punctures curling and distort¬ 
 ing the leaves of this tree in a remarkable manner. 
 
 In the order Polygonacf^e, the dock, as already stated, was the plant 
 on which Linnaeus first observed this aphis, and from which it has 
 thereby obtained its scientific name. It occurs on the Itumex acutus 
 and other species, and will no doubt be met with on these plants in 
 this country. It also infests the two common species of field sorrel 
 in Europe, and I have seen the stalks of th <s,Bumex Acetosella, the 
 common field sorrel or “ red top ” of this country covered with it. 
 
 I suppose this to be also the aphis which sometimes invades our buek- 
 " heat, Polygonum Fagopyrum Linn., Fagopyrum esculentum of 
 our present botanists, completely covering particular stalks of this 
 grain and so exhausting them of their juices that none of their ker¬ 
 nels probably become filled. I have not been able to meet with this 
 buckwheat aphis in my own vicinity, and only know it from speci¬ 
 mens and statements received from correspondents. And the insects 
 of this family are so soft and tender and so diminutive withal, that in 
 i)ing the} lose their colors and become so shriveled and distorted 
 
500 
 
 • Axxual Report op New York 
 
 that, in most instances, it is impossible to identify their species trow 
 preserved specimens. The middle ot September, I860, a letter from- 
 the late Robert Howell, of Nichols, Tioga county, stated that in that 
 vicinity many of the stalks of buckwheat were then covered with 
 aphides, which were of different sizes, some of them baling wings. 
 Among the specimens inclosed in this letter was one ot the winged 
 lice, which closely coincides with dried specimens of the bean aphis. 
 Yet its body, black when it came to hand, might have been green 
 when it was alive. And it is only an inspection of living specimens 
 that can assure us whether this buckwheat aphis really is identical 
 . with the species now under consideration. 
 
 In the order Papaveraceas, this aphis infests the opium poppy, as 
 
 already noticed on a preceding page. 
 
 To some of the plants of the order Chenopodiace.e it appears to be 
 most strongly attached. Upon that common weed in our gardens 
 and plowed fields, the pigweed, Chenopodium album, it has occurred 
 to my notice very much oftener, than on any other plant. Duiing 
 the latter part of the season a slight search anywhere will usually 
 reveal some of these weeds infested with this aphis. The insects 
 occur crowded compactly together and covering all the upper part of 
 the stalks, and smaller clusters are located below, in and around the 
 axils of the branches. Four different kinds of lice will be noticed in 
 these clusters, namely, larvae or young lice, wingless females, pup® 
 and winged females. One or two ants are quite constantly in attend¬ 
 ance upon each flock. When frosty nights arrive, wingless females 
 cease to be developed, and the colonies then come to be composed ot 
 pupm and winged females, with very few young lice; and the ants 
 then cease to be seen. The autumn rains diminish their numbers, 
 but flocks continue to be noticed on some of the more sheltered plants 
 till about the beginning of November, when the driving winds and 
 storms of rain and sleet kill and wash them away. Wherever the 
 orache potherb, Atriplex hortensis, is cultivated, it also is quite liable 
 to be infested with these elfs. Mr. Curtis states that when this aphis 
 became so immensely multiplied in July, 1847, the under side ot the 
 leaves of the beet were literally covered and black with the winge 
 females, sticking in closely packed phalanges, and in that position 
 they died within a few days, without killing any of the plants. 
 
 The order Crucifers furnishes another common weed in our 
 gardens, namely, the shepherd’s purse Thlaspi ( Capsella ), Bursa- 
 pastoris. Next to the pigweed, I have most frequently met with tins 
 insect upon this plant ; and it is interesting to observe that it was on 
 
State Agricultural Society. 
 
 501 
 
 these same plants that this aphis attracted the particular notice of the 
 Bavarian naturalist Selirank, seventy years ago. The stalks of this 
 ■weed and the under side of its leaves may frequently be seen toward 
 the close of the summer, coated over and black with these lice ; ants 
 also, being usually present with them. The turnip too, is sometimes 
 attacked and greatly injured by them. The statement of Mr. Lister, 
 that in 1854, hundreds of acres of turnips, in Yorkshire, England, 
 were almost totally ruined by them, has been given on a previous 
 page. 
 
 In the order Rcbiace^e, the bedstraw or cleavers, Galium Aparine 
 and other species, is sometimes seen with flocks of these black lice 
 crowded together in places upon the slender stems. Many years ago, 
 upon the sweet, liquorice-flavored leaves of the Galium. Circcezans , 
 I met with an interesting aphis, an account of which may appropri¬ 
 ately be introduced in this connection. It occupied the under side 
 of the leaves, and by its punctures it caused each side of the leaf to 
 turn backward, until it became doubled together, resembling a pod, 
 with tire aphides inclosed inside, as if to represent the seeds in those 
 pods. This was in the middle of June. Later in the season, when 
 the leaves became older and more firm and rigid they, perhaps, will 
 cease to double together in this manner. The pupae were but four- 
 hundreths of an inch in length, of a dirty, yellowish-white color, 
 with the wing-scales, the honey-tubes and the feet black. The 
 winged lice were slightly over one-tenth of an inch in length, and 
 black with the abdomen bright grass-green, the legs pale, with the 
 feet and honey-tubes black. I had ticketed these specimens Aphis 
 Oircezandis, a name which the species may appropriately retain, 
 should further researches show it to be undescribed. From my notes 
 taken at the time I met with this insect and from a re-examination 
 of the specimens of it in my cabinet I have drawn up the following 
 description : 
 
 'Aphis Ciraezandis, winged female. — Length 0.12 to the end of the wings; head 
 and thorax black ; abdomen grass-green; honey-tubes black, short, equaling but 
 half the distance from them to the tip. Legs pallid; feet black; knees, at least the 
 hind pair, dusky. Wings hyaline; stigma opake, salt-white; veins dark-brown, rib- 
 vein white, third vein nbortive at base a very short distance. 
 
 Wing veins .— Second vein slightly curved, twice as distant from the first vein at tip 
 as at base, base slightly nearer the first vein than the third, tip about a third farther 
 from the first vein than from the third. Third vein nearly or quite a fourth farther 
 from the second vein at tip than at base, tip slightly more distant from the second 
 vein than from the first fork. First fork at tip thrice as far from the third vein as 
 from the second fork. Second fork very short, its tip much nearer the first fork than 
 
502 
 
 Annual Report of New York 
 
 the fourth vein. Fourth vein curved, its tip a third nearer to the second fork than to 
 the tip of the rib vein. 
 
 Variety a. Second vein equidistant between the first vein and the third at base and 
 also at tip. 
 
 Variety b. Third vein at tip equidistant between the second vein and the first fork. 
 Second fork at tip equidistant between the first fork and the fourth vein. 
 
 Variety c. Third vein emitting a branch, half way from the base of the first fork 
 to the tip, the branch curved, approaching the first fork and then receding from it, 
 not attaining the margin. 
 
 Iu the order Umbellifer.e, the Eryngium campestre is said by 
 Fonscolomb to be attached by the bean aphis. The parsnip, Mr. 
 Curtis states, was attacked in July 1847, in the same manner as the 
 beet, noticed above; the under side of the leaves were crowded and 
 black with the winged lice. But, as they all perished within a few 
 days, none of the plants were killed by them. 
 
 In the order Convolvulace^e, we are informed by Mr. Curtis that 
 the underside of the leaves of the convolvuli became covered with 
 these lice, at the time of their visitation in 1847. 
 
 In the order Solanace^e, on the leaves and young shoots of the 
 potato, this aphis settles itself, in toe force at times, Mr. Curtis says; 
 but lie has never seen it on this plant in such numbers as to injure 
 the produce. 
 
 In the order Compositad, the dahlia is liable to have its young shoots 
 invaded and the flower buds blasted by this insect. Among the plants 
 mentioned by Fonscolomb (Annales Soc. Entom. de France, vol. 10, 
 page 163), as being the residence of this aphis are the following 
 members of this order: the burdock, the Canada thistle, the large 
 common thistle, the star thistle Centaurea Calcitrapa, the yellow 
 vegetable oyster Tragopogon pratense , the chamomile and marigold. 
 He also thinks this is the species which he has observed upon the 
 young shoots of the succory. 
 
 In the order Gramine.-e, Mr. Walker describes a variety of this 
 aphis which occurs upon the manna grass Poa ( Glyceria) Jluitans, 
 common in the wet grounds of Europe and this country. 
 
 Finally, in the order Celastrace/e, an aphis has infested a thrifty 
 young burning bush or spindle tree, Euonyrnus Americanus, growing 
 in my yard, whereby I have enjoyed a most favorable opportunity for 
 studying it and observing its habits the whole season through. It is 
 clearly the species named Aphis Euonymi, by Fabrieius, which lie 
 obtained upon the Euonyrnus Europceus, a small tree or shrub inti¬ 
 mately related to our American spindle trees. And it is also the 
 Aphis Rumicis, the insect now under consideration. I speak with 
 
State Agricultural Society. 
 
 503 
 
 full assurance upon this point. A comparison of this aphis upon the 
 burning bush with that upon the pigweed shows these insects to be 
 identical in every particular, in each of the stages of their develop¬ 
 ment. Although Mr. Walker ranks them as distinct species, it will 
 be seen that the description which he gives of Aphis Euonymi (List 
 of Homopt. Ins. in British Musuem, p. 987) is the same, almost word 
 for word, with that of Aphis Rumicis (ibid., p. 983). 
 
 Further researches will no doubt detect this aphis upon several 
 other plants and trees in addition to those named above. The list 
 now given, however, amply suffices to show how numerous are the 
 kinds and how dissimilar are the qualities of the vegetation on which 
 it feeds. It seems almost increditable that the same aphis should 
 nourish itself with equal readiness upon the sharp acid juice of the 
 sorrel, the milky and powerfully narcotic poppy, the intensely bitter 
 chamomile, and the bland, insipid pigweed, thistle, manna grass, and 
 other plants. It renders the suggestion of Mr. Curtis, in a quotation 
 upon a preceding page, altogether improbable, that it in some cases 
 is poisoned by feeding on juices not adapted to its constitution. 
 
 It was the middle of May that I first noticed this black aphis upon 
 the burning bush. My attention was attracted to a singular phenom¬ 
 enon which the leaves of this shrub presented. Toward the end of 
 almost every limb one or more of the leaves was curiously doubled 
 backward, forming a four-sided follicle or little bag or box, each having 
 a family of these black plant-lice inclosed therein. This folding of 
 the leaves in this uniform and remarkable manner had been produced 
 by the lice stationing themselves upon the midvein on the under side 
 of the leaf, and inserting their sharp beaks into it and sucking out its 
 juices, causing it to contract in such a manner as to form three folds 
 or plications, extending obliquely across the leaf in the form of an 
 italic capital letter W, and dividing the leaf, which is of a regular 
 elliptic form, twice as long as wide, into four equal triangular parts. 
 And being bent backward to a right angle at each of the three folds 
 brought the edges of the leaf evenly together, making a four-sided 
 box, in the form of a three-sided pyramid, with its base constituting 
 the fourth side. These leaves were thus folded together in such an 
 exact, such an artistic manner, as to make them quite a curiosity. If 
 a piece of paper is cut into an elliptic shape and folded together into 
 four equal triangular parts, it will be seen on opening it apart that 
 the edges will come together with much exactness, to form a closed 
 four-sided box, and will thus illustrate the operations of these 
 insects. 
 
Annual Report of Ne ft York 
 
 504 
 
 Thus each family constructs of one of the leaves a house, a four¬ 
 sided room, for its residence, in which it dwells wholly hid from 
 view, sheltered from the rains, and secure from molestation by birds 
 or other enemies. Although there were several thousands of these 
 black lice upon the bush, their presence would not be suspected ; not 
 one of them being anywhere visible, so effectually had they secreted 
 themselves in their domicils. 
 
 Occupying the cavity of each of these folded leaves were a multi¬ 
 tude of young lice, a number of pupae, several wingless females, and 
 usually two or three winged females which had newly acquired their 
 wings. No winged lice except those that were newly hatched were 
 met with. And the pupae being so plenty, it was evident that it was 
 their habit on acquiring wings to withdraw from the maternal roof 
 and fly away to establish themselves elsewhere. Ants also, usually 
 two in number, were in the cavity of each leaf. 
 
 Aware that these lice would probably very soon become so multi¬ 
 plied as to arrest the growth of the bush and make it puny and 
 feeble, as they were so protected that no remedy applied to the leaves 
 would reach them, I picked off the folded leaves, dropped them 
 together on the ground, and trampled to death the vermin they con¬ 
 tained, leaving only a few infested leaves from which to learn their 
 further history. 
 
 Supposing them checked from increasing to become injurious, it 
 was the first of June when I again went to inspect this bush and its 
 parasites. The rapidity with which the few I had left up>on the bush 
 had multiplied, was astonishing. They no longer attempted to hide 
 themselves by closing the leaves around them. The green succulent 
 ends of the limbs, along their under sides, were crowded with these 
 black lice, covering them about half way around, leaving the upper 
 side vacant. The young leaves at the ends of these limbs were cor¬ 
 rugated together and contracted into little tufts. The larger leaves 
 growing farther down upon the limbs, had the midveins on their 
 under sides occupied by numbers of the lice; and several of these 
 leaves were either rolled or coiled and distorted; but none of them 
 were now drawn regularly together to form a closed box or bag, as 
 they were a fortnight before. Others of the leaves being older and 
 of a more firm and rigid texture, were not at all wrinkled or dis¬ 
 torted by the cluster of lice on their midveins. All the lice were 
 fixed and stationary in one or the other of the two situations now 
 mentioned, the under side of the young green twigs at the ends of the 
 limbs, and the mid veins on the under side of the leaves. 
 
State Agricultural Society. 
 
 505 
 
 The upper surface of the leaves growing below the places where 
 clusters of these insects were located, became speckled with a white 
 substance, which was usually in dots of different sizes; this being the 
 honey dew ejected by the insects and falling and drying upon these 
 lower leaves. And an aphis might sometimes be seen with a small 
 mass of this same white substance adhering to the tip of one of its 
 honey tubes, evidently formed by excreted honey dew which had 
 evaporated upon the end of the tube. 
 
 Of the immense number of lice upon this bush at this time, nearly 
 all were found to be pupae, varying considerable in their size. Only 
 Here and there could a small young louse be found, hid or partly hid 
 under these pupae. Wingless females were rare, and were usually alone 
 on the midvoin of a leaf, or with two or three young around them. 
 Scattered among the pupae were winged lice, all of them newly 
 hatched. It is evident that these winged individuals all leave the 
 bush soon after acquiring their wings. 
 
 As it was mostly pupae that were on the bush at this time, and 
 these were flying away as fast as they obtained wings, it is probable 
 that within a week the hush would have been evacuated of every¬ 
 thing except the few small young lice and wingless females. But so 
 thronged and overburdened with these vermin as it then was, it 
 seemed to call for instant relief. I therefore prepared a basin of 
 strong soap suds, and, with a sponge wetted therein, I wiped the lice 
 from the under side of a multitude of the leaves. To cleanse all the 
 infested leaves in this manner was a task too formidable to be 
 attempted. Where I could do so, I bent the twigs and the mass of 
 wrinkled leaves at their ends, downward, and immersed them in the 
 solution of soap in the basin. In other instances I let a streamlet 
 from the sponge fall upon the tips of the twigs and run down along 
 their under sides, so as to wet all the lice that were clustered there. 
 
 Upon examining the results of this treatment the next day, I found 
 multitudes of the lice were killed thereby and were hanging to the 
 twigs, suspended by their beaks inserted therein. Others had been 
 dislodged by the streamlets, and were washed together in small 
 masses which had lodged along the limbs. But it was only those that 
 had been wetted that were killed. Many were lurking in the corru¬ 
 gated leaves at the ends of the twigs to which the soap solution did 
 not penetrate. From these and other places where they had remained 
 dry they were now coming, and were beginning to reoccupy the washed 
 twigs. I had hoped that wetting the twigs and leaves with such a 
 strong solution of soap would perhaps so infuse their surfaces with 
 [Ag.] 64 
 
506 Annual Report of New York 
 
 alkali that the lice would for a while be repelled from again locating 
 themselves thereon; hut I now saw it had no such effect. 
 
 After the check they had now received they did not again multiply 
 to throng this bush oppressively. They continued to infest it, however, 
 till the close of the season. The green new twigs that put forth at 
 the end of the limbs soon grew to be too hard and woody to be 
 adapted to their wants, and it was only on the under side of the 
 leaves that they were met with during the summer and autumn. 
 And the leaves were then become so firm and rigid that their punc¬ 
 tures ceased to wrinkle or have any other perceptible effect upon 
 them. 
 
 The center of the under side of the leaf is the point where these 
 lice are usually stationed. Here most commonly but one or two, but 
 sometimes six or even nine or twelve small young lice were located 
 —foundlings, forsaken by their parents — the winged females being 
 accustomed to alight upon a leaf and give birth to one or two young, 
 and then fly away, but in some instances remaining until ten or twelve 
 young are deposited. Sometimes two winged females are found on 
 the same leaf. Much the larger portion of the young lice appear to 
 be the offspring of winged parents. As they have occurred to my 
 observation, wingless females are much less numerous than winged 
 ones in this species. They are met with on the leaves with their pro¬ 
 geny huddled closely around them. I suspect, however, that they do 
 not place all their young upon one leaf; after a number have been 
 deposited I think they leave them and wander away to another leaf. 
 I once saw a wingless female travel quite a distance from a leaf on 
 which were four young lice, but I had no assurance that these were 
 her offspring. 
 
 In several other species of plant-lice which I have observed, the 
 wingless females are twice as prolific as the winged ones. In each 
 of these species the wingless females uniformly give birth to four 
 young and the winged ones to two, in twenty-four hours. In this 
 bean aphis the wingless appear to be little, if any more, prolific than 
 the winged females. In June I imprisoned a wingless female and 
 also two winged ones, during two nights and one day, at the end of 
 which time I found three young lice with the wingless female, and 
 five with the winged ones. But they will probably be found to be 
 more prolific than they were in this instance. 
 
 Mr. Curtis (Farm Insects, p. 356), says : “ Where the eggs are laid 
 remains a mystery. It cannot be upon the beans, and as the apterous 
 specimens are the precursors of the winged ones, they are not able to 
 
State Agricultural Society. 
 
 507 
 
 transport themselves in the first instance.” As the wingless females 
 are not able to transport themselves, it is evident that it must he by- 
 winged females that the first lice are placed upon the bean and most 
 other plants. And there being an abundant supply of food for them 
 on the bean tops, whereby they have no occasion for migrating else¬ 
 where, the first generations mature into wingless females. But when 
 the bean or other plant becomes overstocked and so crowded that there 
 are no accommodations for any further numbers thereon, it is winged 
 females that are developed, which will be able to fly away and find 
 food and situations for their young elsewhere. I thus infer, from 
 having found them all growing into winged females so early in the 
 season as the first of June, upon the burning bush when it had 
 become fully occupied. 
 
 Where the eggs are laid and how this insect is carried through the 
 winter has hitherto been a mystery, as Mr. Curtis observes. Upon 
 this important point I am able to shed some light. When examining 
 a pigweed on which were some clusters of these black lice the latter 
 part of October, I discovered a smooth shining egg, of a dull green 
 color, adhering to a dry and crinkled dead leaf, and another crowded 
 into a crevice of another dead leaf. These eggs had no doubt been 
 quite recently placed in these situations. Later in the season I 
 examined several other infested weeds, but was unable to find any 
 eggs upon them. In November, meeting with a weed that was 
 thronged with pupae, I transplanted it into a flower pot and brought 
 it in doors, to ascertain whether on maturing and having no other 
 place to lay their eggs, they would stock this plant with them. But 
 on acquiring wings they all flew away without making any deposit 
 thereon. It was therefore evident that the two eggs which I found, 
 were only placed on the dead leaves by accident, and that these insects 
 do not lay their eggs upon the plants which they inhabit, or at least 
 upon those which decay at the end of the year. 
 
 It has heretofore been shown in these Reports that the aphides do 
 not perish on being frozen and that, in some instances at least, they 
 survive the rigors of winter and return to life with the return of 
 spi ing. And on noticing such numbers of these winged lice coming 
 forth on the very verge of winter, and so late in the season that the 
 inclement weather would scarcely admit of their then making a 
 deposit ot their eggs, I have been impressed with the belief that a 
 portion of these flies would gain coverts where they would gradually 
 become torpid from the advancing cold of the season and would be 
 protected from injury during the winter, whereby with the return of 
 
508 
 
 Annual Report of New York 
 
 spring they would revive and complete the work which they had been 
 prevented from accomplishing in the autumn. I am thus led to think 
 that this insect is carried through the winter both in its perfect state 
 and in its egg state. 
 
 Since the preceding paragraphs were written I have been so for¬ 
 tunate as to discover the winter quarters of this insect, whereby the 
 place and manner in which it is carried through this period of the 
 year is no longer a mystery. And the opinion which I have above 
 expressed, that many of the mature insects live through the winter, 
 receives full continuation. 
 
 Upon a mild day in December, on examining with a magnifying 
 glass the bark and twigs of the burning bush which had been infested 
 with this aphis during the preceding summer, I meet with its eggs in 
 abundance. The new buds of this bush are at this time from an 
 eighth to nearly a quarter of an inch long and are growing appressed 
 to the bark. And it is in the crevice along each side of these buds, 
 between them and the bark, that the female aphis places her eggs. 
 Sometimes but one or two, at other times several eggs occur along 
 one or both sides of a bud. They are so minute that, notwithstand¬ 
 ing their sparkling black color, the eye is scarcely able to perceive 
 them, except in places where several are clustered together. They 
 lie loosely in the crevice, not fastened by any gummy substance. The 
 buds have perhaps swollen somewhat since they were placed here, 
 whereby they are more firmly held in their places. Their shells, or 
 rather the soft membrane by which they are covered, is very weak 
 and tender, so that to raise one of them out of the crevice with the 
 point of a needle, requires to be done carefully, else it will be ruptured, 
 a dirty watery fluid coming therefrom. 
 
 A discovery still more interesting was made in this examination. 
 Here and there crowded under these buds a wingless aphis nearly full 
 grown, was found, lying motionless and torpid with the cold. One 
 of these occurred openly exposed upon the smooth bark. Apparently 
 when it was wandering about in search of a suitable crevice into 
 which to crowd and secrete itself, it had been overtaken by the 
 increasing cold and became so chilled it was unable to move itself 
 any farther, and instinctively fastened the hooks of its feet into the 
 surface of the bark to hold itself securely thereto, as it sank to sleep. 
 In that exposed situation the winter’s storms of driving snow and 
 sleet would probably have dislodged it, and it would have fallen to 
 the ground and perished. But most of these aphides would undoubt 
 edly remain secure and safe in their hiding places, through the winter, 
 
State Agricultural Society. 
 
 509 
 
 and with the warmth of spring will awake and return to life, and 
 by giving birth to young will start the species for another year’s 
 operations. 
 
 Upon the cutting off of some of the twigs which they occupied 
 and bringing them in doors, the warmth of the room immediately 
 awakened them and they commenced walking about. They are 
 prone to leave the twigs and wander away, and the following morning 
 they had all disappeared. As they each showed the end' of an ovi¬ 
 positor protruding from the tip of their bodies like a short tail, I 
 suppose them to be adult females, contracted from their normal size 
 by their exposure to the cold. As they differ from the summer 
 broods in several particulars, a description of this winter variety of 
 the females is herewith presented. 
 
 It only remains for us to describe this insect in the different forms 
 in which it occurs to our view. As has already been stated, upon 
 particularly noticing a swarm of these plant lice it will be seen that 
 specimens of four different kinds occur among them, as follows: 1st, 
 young lice, which are distinguished by their smaller size; 2d, wingless 
 females, these being the largest individuals which are destitute of 
 wings; 3d, pupae, which are readily recognized by their snow-white 
 spots; 4th, winged females, including all the specimens with wings. 
 In addition to these, is the egg state, in which the insect passes the 
 winter, the eggs hatching young lice, which, on growing to maturity, 
 produce living .young instead of eggs. And the young lice grow up, 
 some into wingless females, others into pupae, and these change into 
 the winged females. I have never met with a male. Winged speci¬ 
 mens which, from their smaller size or other dissimilarities, I have 
 thought, might perhaps be males, on being observed, have invariably 
 been found to produce young. 
 
 The eggs are of a dull green color when newly laid, but by 
 exposure to the light and air they gradually change till they become 
 jet black. They are so minute that when placed upon white paper 
 the eye merely discerns them to be black atoms that have more length 
 than thickness. With a magnifying glass they are found to be 
 smooth and very glossy and shining, of a regular oval form and 
 rounded at the ends, and twice as long as thick. They measure two 
 hundretlis of an inch in length. 
 
 The LAitvas or young lice vary in size and form with their age, at 
 first having the opposite sides of the body parallel and the antenuse 
 and legs short and clumsy. When they are grown to 0.03 or 0.04 in 
 length they have become oval, but rather more full back of the mid- 
 
510 
 
 Annual Report of New York 
 
 die than forward of it, and are bluntly rounded at each end with the 
 tip slightly angular. The antennae are from a third to half as long as 
 the body, and the legs are of corresponding length. The honey tubes 
 are merely elevated angular points. These young lice are of a dull 
 black color, with the antennae and legs pale, the tips of the antennae, 
 the feet, knees and hind thighs usually varying from smoky to black. 
 
 A variety has the body of a grayish or lurid green color, but com¬ 
 monly changing to black as it approaches maturity. These green 
 larvae are more common in the early part of the season. And on 
 some kinds of plants most of the young lice are of this variety. 
 
 The pupa varies remarkably. When the insect first attains this 
 form it is smaller and destitute of some of the most prominent char¬ 
 acters which it subsequently presents. It is but 0.07 long, sometimes 
 only 0.06 in length, and is of a dull sooty black color, its legs and 
 antennae very obscurely varied with pallid, the abdomen without any 
 mealy-white spots, and the thorax not swollen nor abruptly widened. 
 Indeed, it is only recognized as being a pupa at this time by the wing- 
 scales on each side of the base of the abdomen, these being small and 
 of a dull greenish color. The basal half of the thorax begins to become 
 perceptibly swollen and to take on a dull green color, and white spots 
 on each side of the back become more and more distinct, and it gradu¬ 
 ally thus acquires its complete pupa form and characters. 
 
 In its perfect pupa state it is 0.08 long, sometimes slightly over this, and is oval 
 ■with the opposite sides nearly parallel, the anterior end bluntly rounded and the 
 opposite end tapered to an obtuse attenuated point. It is slightly flattened and con¬ 
 vex both on the back and the under side. The head is nearly cubical, rather more 
 ■wide than long, separated from the body by a transverse deeply impressed line, the 
 eyes projecting in form of a rounded protuberance on each side at base and occupy¬ 
 ing more than half the length. It is sooty black, sometimes dark dull green, often 
 with the vertex slightly dusted over with a white mealy powder, imparting to it a 
 grayish tinge. The antennae are half as long as the body, more slender toward their 
 tips, black, with a dull pale tinge toward their bases, which is sometimes scarcely 
 perceptible, sometimes very distinct, and sometimes the whole of these organs are 
 pale with only their tips black. The thorax is composed of two very distinct and 
 dissimilar parts; the anterior part small, transverse, no wider than the head, 
 sooty black, often dusted like the head with a white mealy powder; the posterior 
 part large, twice as broad as the anteriox', abruptly widened, transverse, having a 
 peculiar swollen and blistered appearance, and being of a dull lurid greenish color, 
 the shoulders rounded, an obtuse longitudinal impression on each side of the back 
 dividing this part into three lobes, the lateral ones sometimes paler than the middle; 
 the wing-sheaths appearing as oval scales, one on each side, projecting backward, , 
 appressed to each side of the abdomen and reaching about half its length, but being 
 sometimes more sometimes less developed, black, often pale toward their bases. The 
 abdomen forming about half of the total length, its tip tapering to an acute and often 
 an acuminate point, color sooty or coal black, sutures marked by transverse impressed 
 
State Agricultural Society. 
 
 511 
 
 lines, honey-tubes short, reaching but half way to the tip, black; second segment 
 with a downy or pruinose white spot on each side of the middle of the back; three 
 next segments each with a short pruinose white band on each side of the back, the 
 upper ends of these bands in a line with the spots on the second segment, the first 
 and second bands contracted or almost interrupted in the middle; sixth segment 
 often with two small faint white dots between the honey-tube3; sevent h and eighth 
 segments each with two conspicuous pruinose white spots placed at the corners of an 
 imaginary square and in line with the upper ends of the white bands. The kgs are 
 pale, usually dull and obscure, with the feet black, and also the ends of the shanks, the 
 knees and the hind and sometimes the middle thighs. 
 
 The wingless females are sooty black and from 0.08 to 0.10 long and two-tliirds 
 as wide, their bodies egg-shaped, or including the head pear-shaped, the head and 
 first segment of the thorax being narrow, their opposite sides parallel, their length 
 and width, when taken together about equal, the head being cut off transversely in 
 front. The antennae are little more than half the length of the body, yellowish-white, 
 dusky or black toward their tips, and their two short basal joints black. They are 
 slender and tapering, seven-jointed, the two first joints short and thick, third joint 
 longest; sixth shorter than fourth or fifth ; seventh slender and double the length of 
 the sixth. Beak black, held under the breast when not in use, its end reaching the 
 middle pair of legs. Abdomen frequently showing pruinose whitish dots, more or 
 less distinct, along each side of the back ; honey-tubes short, scarcely half as long as 
 the distance from their bases to the tip ; tail-like ovipositor protruded frequently to 
 half the length of the honey-tubes. Fore legs pale, yellowish-white ; knees, tips of 
 shanks and feet black. Middle legs the same, with the thighs black or smoky. Hind 
 legs black, their shanks pale, except at the tips. 
 
 The WINGED females are black and glossy, and measure 0.08 to the end of the 
 body and 0.16 to the tips of the closed wings. Their antennae are half the length of 
 the body, more slender toward their tips, black, with the basal part usually more or 
 less pale. They are seven-jointed, the basal joint thickest and short, more broad than 
 long, broadest at base and narrowing thence to its apex ; second joint similar in 
 length, but less thick, somewhat globular, and twice the thickness of the following 
 joints; third joint longest of all, and rather thicker than the following; fourth but 
 little shorter than the third; fifth little shorter than the fourth ; sixth shortest of all, 
 except the two first, of similar thickness to the two preceding joints ; seventh joint 
 long and slender, double the length and half the thickness of the sixth; these joints 
 varying, sometimes in the same specimen. Abdomen plump oval, without spots, 
 along each side an elevated ridge and a row of punctures; honey-tubes short, equaling 
 but half the distance to the tip; ovipositor protruding sometimes half the the length of 
 the honey-tubes. Legs black ; shanks pale whitish, their tips black; fore thighs 
 pale, rarely smoky; middle thighs smoky or black. Wings clear, hyaline and glassy; 
 veins slender, black or brown, third vein abortive at its base a slight distance; rib 
 vein pale or white; stigma opake, white, somewhat dusky; second vein rather more 
 than twice as far from the first vein at its tip as it is at its base; third vein much 
 farther from the second at its tip than at its base, farther from the second at base 
 than the second is from the first, its tip a little nearer the first fork than the second 
 vein ; first fork at its tip nearer to the second fork than to the third vein; second fork 
 at tip equidistant between the first fork and the fourth vein ; fourth vein curved, its 
 tip much nearer to the second fork than to the tip of the rib vein. Lower wings little 
 more than half the length of the upper pair ; second vein very little farther from the 
 first at tip than it is at base, its lip equidistant between the first and the tip of the 
 lib vein. 
 
512 
 
 Annual Report of New York 
 
 Variety a. Second vein at base equidistant between the first and third veins. Com¬ 
 mon in Europe, very rare in America. 
 
 Var. b. Third vein at tip equidistant between the first fork and second vein. 
 
 Var. c. First fork at tip twice as far from the third vein as from the second fork. 
 
 Var. d. First fork at tip equidistant between the third vein and the second fork. 
 Common in Europe, but not found as yet in America. 
 
 Var. e. Second fork at tip nearer to the fourth vein than to the first fork 
 
 It will be observed that I have described the veins of the wings as 
 they are given by Mr. Walker in a paragraph which he designates as 
 being a variety of this species. But on the different plants and shrubs 
 of this country upon which this aphis has occurred to my observation 
 the venation of the wings has uniformly been atter this formula; and 
 I have never seen what Mr. Walker regards as the normal venation, 
 except in the European specimens of this species in my cabinet. The 
 separate items of this formula, however, have been met with in par¬ 
 ticular specimens, all except the one which I have above designated 
 as Var. d. 
 
 The wingless female when hibernated to pass the winter season 
 differs in several of its characters from its appearance at other periods 
 of the year, as will be seen from the following description : 
 
 Variety, Hibernated wingless female. Length 0.065. Of an elliptic form, 
 broadest across the middle, tapering at tip to an acute point, and bluntly rounded at the 
 forward end; flattened on the back and moderately convex, clothed throughout with 
 scattered hairs. Color dull black, not at all glossy; back of the honey-tubes having 
 a tinge of gray. Head more broad than long, nearly hemispheric in its form. Beak 
 more thick than the forward shanks, its end reaching to the middle pair of legs, its 
 color pale yellowish white. Antennie not half the length of the body, very slender, 
 not half the thickness of the legs, more slender toward their tips, habitually held 
 curved to a semicircle, with their tips applied to the surface; pale, with the outer 
 two-thirds of their length dull black; seven-jointed, the two first joints small, thick 
 and short, the third joint longest, the sixth shorter than those next it, the seventh 
 long and slender, double the length of the sixth ; these organs variable in the details 
 of their structure, the two sides frequently differing in the same individual. Thorax 
 widening backward, an impressed line across its middle marking the suture whereby 
 the back is divided into two segments. Abdomen with faint transverse impressed 
 lines visible in places, imperfectly marking the sutures; each side elevated into a 
 rounded ridge, with a row of punctures commonly visible in the groove along the 
 inner side of this ridge. Honey-tubes short, their length less than half the distance 
 from them to the tip. End of the ovipositor slightly protruded and resembling a 
 short tail little longer than thick. Legs pale, glossy, dirty yellowish white varying to 
 dirty olive their whole length; four forward shanks more slender than their thighs; 
 hind shanks thicker and longer than the hind thighs. Feet extremely slender and 
 snort, blackish; when highly magnified found to be a third the thickness of the 
 anterior shanks, and appearing to be formed of a single joint which is four times as 
 long as thick, slightly narrowed at its base and at its tip furnished with a pair of 
 hooks. 
 
 
State Agricultural Soote-i-t. 513 
 
 Black-lined Plant-bug, Phytocoris lineatus, Pal). (Hemiptera. 
 
 Capsid*.) 
 
 In June, freckling with rusty yellow spots the leaves of the currant, weigelia and 
 other shrubs, and withering by their punctures the flower-buds of the dahlia, rose 
 and other plants; an oblong bright lemon yellow bug three-tenths of an inch in 
 length and marked with four black stripes. 
 
 The latter part of May and in June, two or three contiguous leaves 
 of the currant, the weigelia and several other shrubs and plants may 
 frequently be noticed with several small blackish spots, looking very 
 much as though they had been spattered with drops of pale ink which 
 has become dried upon them. It is usually some of the more tender 
 young leaves at or near the ends of the stalks which are thus freckled. 
 The spots which appear earliest in the season are small, mere dots of 
 an irregular roundish form. Those which are made at a later date 
 are longer, nearly or quite one-tenth of an inch across. When the 
 leaf is held up between the eye and the light these spots are found to 
 be semi-transparent, and a close inspection shows that they arc caused 
 by the opalce green pulp or parenchyma of the leaf having been 
 removed, only a slight stain of green remaining on the transparent 
 skin of the upper side of the leaf. 
 
 When they are two or three days old these spots become changed 
 to a yellow or brownish yellow color, the leaves then appearing as 
 though they were struck with rust (parasitic fungi of the genus Uredo 
 or _ Ecidium) or some similar disease. They are now much more 
 conspicuous and more apt to be noticed than when they first appear. 
 And those parts of the leaf where they are most dense, after some 
 days become dead, dry and brittle; and in the end, by the winds 
 rustling the leaves together and violence from other causes, these 
 dead portions become broken away, making ragged holes in the leaves 
 or notches in their sides. 
 
 Newly made blackish spots continue to appear, day after day, inter¬ 
 spersed among the yellow ones where they are not dense, or upon the 
 contiguous leaves one after another, until frequently several leaves 
 become thus freckled. On searching for the cause of this mischief, 
 upon the under side of a leaf on which the blackish spots occur, there 
 "’dl usually be found a small glossy bug of a tawny yellow and black 
 color, in the fore part of June, or later in the season a larger pale 
 \ cl low bug striped with black. It quietly resides upon the under 
 side of the leaf where it is hid from view, nourishing itself by insert- 
 >ug the point of its sharp needle-like beak into the leaf and sucking 
 the soft juicy pulp from each cell which it punctures, thus producing 
 
 [Ag.] 65 
 
514 
 
 Annual Report of New York 
 
 the spots, which appear alike upon the upper and under surfaces of 
 the leaf. It would be thought there were one or more insects upon 
 each leaf, to make such a multitude of these discolored spots, hut 
 ordinarily, though three, four or more leaves in a place are affected, 
 only one insect is found, rendering it evident that he has passed from 
 one leaf to another and that all the mischief has been done by him 
 alone. Each leaf is punctured some hundreds of times, the spots 
 being in places so close together that they run into each other, though 
 over most of the surface they are slightly separated. 
 
 Some years these bugs become much more numerous than usual, 
 and then, instead of being scattered about singly, they become gre¬ 
 garious, gathering together in flocks upon particular plants or masses 
 of vegetation, injuring by their punctures nearly all the leaves and 
 quite destroying many of them. 
 
 But its attacks are not limited to the leaves. It is prone to also 
 foil upon the flower buds of some of our choicest flowering plants. 
 To these it is most pernicious, causing the buds to wither and die. It 
 is in this way that this bug does the greatest damage. Its punctures 
 are so fatal to the flower buds and they perish so speedily that many 
 persons suppose the buds to be poisoned by its stings. 
 
 The dahlia (Dahlia variabilis and coccinea in all their varieties) 
 appears to be the plant to which this bug is most strongly attached, 
 and to which it does the greatest injury. Upon the dahlias in my 
 own grounds some of them have frequently occurred ; but whenever 
 one has been noticed it has been picked off and destroyed if it did 
 not elude capture ; and as they have never been numerous with me I 
 am unable to speak from personal observation of the manner in which 
 this plant is injured by them. In the year 1858, I learned from A. 
 F. Chatfield, the florist in Albany, that upon all his dahlia plants that 
 year, when the first flower bud put out these bugs assembled upon 
 it, puncturing and poisoning it so that it withered. Two or three 
 new flower stalks would then shoot forth from the base of this one, 
 the buds on which would be attacked and destroyed in the same man¬ 
 ner. Others would then put out from the bases of these, to share the 
 same fate. Thus it went on, the whole season through. An enormously 
 broad mass of leaves and stalks, fully three feet in diameter, thus 
 grew from each of the dahlia roots in his garden, without a single 
 flower from all the multitude of flower buds which had thus been 
 developed. D. F. Heffron, of Utica, informed me that in the sum¬ 
 mer of 1864, these prettily striped yellow bugs so infested his dahlias 
 .that only three or four little imperfect flowers were produced. And 
 
State Agricultural Societt. 
 
 515 
 
 in all the gardens in and around Iltica that year, the flower buds 
 were so universally killed by this insect that no dahlias were there 
 to be had. Other instances, of similar purport, might be cited; these, 
 however, amply suffice to show how extremely pernicious this bug is 
 liable to be, to this favorite flowering plant. 
 
 Upon the rose I have met with this insect, puncturing the flower 
 buds and causing them to perish. Other plants which put forth their 
 flowers in June and July it will no doubt be found to attack in the 
 same manner. 
 
 On passing along a row of currant bushes, in the month of June, 
 two or three contiguous leaves will here and there be noticed, freckled 
 with yellow spots, and having one of these bugs secreted upon their 
 under side. But I have never known them to invade the currant in 
 sufficient force to occasion any appreciable injury. 
 
 To the weigelia it appears to be much more attached and more 
 pernicious, sometimes ruining the foliage of this beautiful flowering 
 shrub. This present season (1870), a weigelia growing in the Ever¬ 
 green Cemetery, Salem, N. Y., so early as the second week in June, 
 was so thronged with these bugs that scarcely a leaf remained which 
 was not freckled with rusty yellow spots, and many of them were 
 wholly destroyed. At the end of the month nearly all of these 
 insects had been obliged to leave this shrub, its foliage being dry and 
 dead to such an extent that they were no longer able to nourish 
 themselves thereon. A few yards distant was another of these shrubs 
 which remained green and thrifty, with very few of its leaves dis¬ 
 colored with spots from the punctures of this bug. Why did one of 
 these shrubs remain unharmed when the other was so badly injured? 
 The only cause to which I could impute this difference, was, that the 
 former was growing in the shade of other bushes and trees, whilst the 
 latter was openly exposed to the sun. And it would hence appear 
 that vegetation which is growing in the sunshine is much more 
 liable to be injured by this bug than in shaded situations. 
 
 On the bittersweet or henbane, Solanum Dulcamara , I have also 
 known it to occur in such numbers as to destroy a portion of the 
 leaves. On this shrub the spots are of a grey color, which its punc¬ 
 tures produce on the leaves. I once found it quite numerous upon a 
 Patch of tansy. In one or more instances I have also met with it, 
 freckling with its punctures the leaves of the plantain, soapwort, 
 snapdragon, sumach and burning bush. 
 
 Upon the green succulent ends of thrifty stalks of the raspberry 
 1 have sometimes noticed blackish spots, identical in their appearance 
 
Annual Report of New York 
 
 516 
 
 ■with those made upon leaves by this hug. These spots, in some 
 instances, have extended along the stalk the length of a foot or more. 
 No insect has been present when I have discovered these spots, but I 
 have supposed they were caused by the punctures ot this bug. 
 
 Though I have not met with it in its winter quarters, it is evidently 
 in its perfect state, that it passes this period of the year, secreted 
 probably among fallen leaves, or under pieces of boards lying on the 
 ground, in crevices, and other situations where it will remain dry. 
 Coming forth upon the opening of spring, it no doubt lays its eggs 
 upon the young stalks of the dahlia and other vegetation on which 
 the immature bugs afterward appear. These, during the larva state, 
 are so small and their punctures are so slight that they are not noticed. 
 It is not till they have grown into their pupa state the latter part of 
 May, that their wounds begin to freckle the leaves so plainly with 
 spots that they attract observation. The bug is then about three- 
 twentieths of an inch in length and of a flattened o\al fonn and a 
 shining tawny yellow color, the hue of beeswax, varied in places 
 with black, white and lemon yellow. Its size, colors and several 
 other characters are so dissimilar to those of the adult insect that we 
 give a full description of it. 
 
 The pupa is 0.15 long and half as wide, flattened and of a regular oval form, its 
 sides evenly arched, its surface smooth and shining, of a bright tawny yellow color. 
 The head is rather small, broader than the anterior end of the thorax, transverse, oval. 
 Viewed in front it is triangular, its lower angle with an elevated polished coal 
 black nose, ending in a tapering four-jointed trunk which is held backward under 
 the breast, reaching nearly to the base of the middle pair of legs, and is of a pale 
 watery color with its tip black. The eyes occupy each side of the head and are 
 smallish, protuberant, egg-shaped, black-brown. The antenna: are two-thirds the 
 length of the body, clothed with fine short inclined hairs, tapering, four-jointed, black; 
 the basal joint pale, shortest and thickest; second joint longest, nearly thrice the 
 length of the first; fourth joint scarcely half the length of third. The thorax is thrice 
 as broad as long and strongly narrowed from its base to its apex, its hind angles 
 rounded, each side raised into a thin outer edge; its color tawny yellow faintly 
 bordered with white on the anterior edge and with a faint white stripe in the middle, 
 its basal third white with a large black spot on each side of the middle and a small 
 oblong spot on the outer angle, this latter being sometimes diminished to a short 
 blackline. The abdomen is tawny yellow with a faint lemon yellow line along the 
 middle and two rows of faint yellow dots on each side and two large black dots at 
 the tip. On the under side it is tawny yellow with a black spot at the tip which is 
 notched or forked at its anterior end. In the males the abdomen is orange red, am 
 on each segment is a broad black band occupying the anterior half of its length and 
 ending at the outer row of pale yellow dots. The wing-sloeaths reach half the length 
 of the abdomen and are black and polished, with a broad lemon yellow stripe 
 between them, and a white stripe on the middle of each, which docs not reach the 
 tip. 'l'he lege are obscure watery whitish, with two dusky bands near the tips o i - 
 thighs, the hind thighs having also a black stripe on their front side at the base. 
 
State Agricultural Society. 
 
 517 
 
 One after another of these bugs changes from its pupa to its per¬ 
 fect state upon different days in the fore part of June. Among a 
 large number found on the eleventli day of this month, only one was 
 remaining in its pupa state. With this change they are abruptly 
 increased to double their previous size, now measuring a quarter of an 
 inch in length to the end of the body and three-tenths of an inch to 
 the tips of the wing covers. Their colors are also more bright and 
 different from those of the pupae. It is a pretty insect, being, when 
 newly captured, of a bright grass green or apple green color, with the 
 head and neck orange and four stripes on the thorax and wing covers 
 jet black. In drying, specimens lose their green color and become 
 bright lemon yellow. The females are much more numerous than 
 the males, and their colors incline to be paler and their stripes and 
 other black markings smaller. 
 
 This bug is of an oval form much more than twice as long as wide, flattened, mode¬ 
 rately convex both on the back and the under side, with the surface on the upper 
 side smooth and shining and destitute of any hairiness. 
 
 The head is small, more broad than the anterior end of the thorax, but scarcely half 
 as wide as its broadest part, four times as broad as long. Viewed in front it is trian¬ 
 gular. In the male it is orange red, in the female orange yellow. The nose is repre¬ 
 sented by an elevated oblong black spot, to the lower end of which the beak or trunk 
 is joined. This reaches slightly beyond the base of the first pair of legs. It is taper¬ 
 ing, four-jointed, orange yellow, the first joint black in front, the second joint black 
 on the sides, and the liist half of the fourth joint black. The eyes occupy the outer 
 corners of the head, and are smallish, protuberant, oval, and blackish brown. The 
 antennae almost equal the body in length. They are slender, tapering, bearded with 
 fine, short, inclined hairs, black, with their basal part pale yellow. They are four- 
 jointed, the first joint thickest and slightly longer than the width of the head, thicker 
 toward its tip, its surface glossy and uneven; second joint more slender than the first 
 and double its length, scarcely thicker iu and beyond its middle than toward its 
 base ; third and fourth joints quite slender and thread-like, the third rather longer 
 than the first, the fourth but half the length of the third. 
 
 The thorax is more broad than long, its sides straight and strongly converging, its 
 base twice as broad as its apex, the basal edge straight in the middle and curving 
 forward on each side with the outer corners bluntly rounded ; the apex margined by 
 a roundly elevated line of a lemon yellow color, the surface convex and inclining 
 obliquely downward and forward. Across its anterior third it is roundly elevated, 
 smooth and polished, and of the same color as the head, this elevation having on its 
 anterior face near the middle two shallow punctures, and commonly a similar punc¬ 
 ture on each shoulder; and in the middle of its bind edge is a slight depression in 
 which two shallow punctures close together may usually be seen. The remainder of 
 the surface is minutely punctured and lemon yellow, with four black stripes, which 
 are larger in the males, the middle ones often as broad as long, more broad than tho 
 space between them, widening backward and almost twice as broad at their hind as 
 at their fore ends, with their hind ends slenderly separated from the hind edge; the 
 outer stripes slender and more than four times as long as broad, separated from the 
 outer edge by a slender yellow line, and the space between them and tho inner stripes 
 
518 
 
 Annual Report of New York 
 
 nearly as wide as that between the latter. The scutel is large, triangular, lemon 
 yellow, sometimes orange in the males, its outer angles black, this color thus con¬ 
 necting the middle stripes of the thorax with those of the wing covers. 
 
 The wing covers at their base equal the thorax in width, and become slightly wider 
 across their middle. They are of a leathery texture with the hind ends thin and 
 membranous. The leathery portion is bright lemon yellow, minutely and irregu¬ 
 larly punctured, ending in a triangular piece which is separated by a transverse suture. 
 On each wing cover are two black stripes, continuous with those upon the thorax. 
 Outer stripe commencing as a slender point on the anterior end of the outer margin, 
 gradually widening and receding nearly half its width from the margin as it extends 
 backward, its rounded hind end commonly touching the transverse suture, and beyond 
 this is a large black dot, upon the triangular piece slightly forward of its center. The 
 inner stripe is usually broader than it is on the thorax, as is also the space between it 
 and the outer stripe, whilst between it aud its fellow the space is narrower here than 
 on the thorax and scutel. The membranous ends of the wing covers are black and 
 united with the hind ends of the middle stripes, and the outer end of their curved 
 vein is pale yellowish in the females. The wings arc smoky black and translucent, 
 with opake black veins. 
 
 The under side is orange yellow, in the male red, aud without spots or marks in 
 some specimens whilst others have a black dot on each side of the breast, a black 
 spot on the end of the body, and sometimes forward of this spot is a short band on 
 each segment. 
 
 The legs arc long and slender, the hind pair much longer than the others and their 
 thighs thicker. They arc dull yellowish white, translucent and glossy. The thighs 
 are long, cylindrical and bearded with fine short hairs and along their under sides a 
 few longer ones. Toward their tips are two black bands which are sometimes united 
 more or less, the upper band commonly broader, and on the four forward legs both 
 bands extending but half way around. The trochanters or small smooth lobes on the 
 base of the thighs are frequently black, and the fore thighs sometimes have an oblong 
 black spot or cloud immediately below the trochanters. Hind thighs usually with a 
 black line on their outer side, extending their whole length above the bands. The 
 shanks arc a third longer and much more slender than the thighs, cylindrical, bearded 
 with small black spines, their tips black and a short black line on their outer side 
 below the knee. The feet are more slender than the shanks and are three-jointed, 
 the two first joints little longer than thick, the last joint nearly as long as both the 
 preceding, and black except at its base, with a pair of brown claws at its tip. 
 
 Varieties, a. The outer black stripe on the thorax wanting. 
 
 b. The black dot at the end of the outer stripe on the wing covers wanting. 
 
 c. The black bands above the knees wholly wanting, or replaced by one or two 
 dots on the outer and inner sides of the hind pair. 
 
 These bugs are extremely shy and constantly on the alert to 
 escape notice. When approached they quickly and adroitly slip 
 around the edge of the leaf to its opposite side, where they will 
 be hid from view. Thus on coming to a mass of shrubbery on 
 which there are hundreds of them, their presence will not be 
 suspected, not one of them being anywhere visible. But upon bend¬ 
 ing a stalk aside so as to bring the other surface of its leaves into 
 view, here and there one of them will be seen, standing quietly on its 
 
State Agricultural Societt. 
 
 519 
 
 leaf with a look of perfect innocence and as if unconscious of any 
 guile or deceit; yet watching its opportunity to do so unobserved, it 
 again expertly dodges around to the back side of the leaf. If the 
 hand approaches to seize it, it quickly drops itself down among the 
 foliage beneath. Or if one hand is held under the leaf, whereby it 
 in dropping falls into it and the fingers are closed upon it, ere one is 
 aware, it slips out at some opening between them and falls among 
 the leaves or into the grass. It does not incline to take wing except 
 as a dernier resort. By its long, stout hind legs it is adapted for 
 skipping; and its mode of progression is quite singular. It walks 
 briskly a few steps and then gives a skip, throwing itself two or 
 three inches, and it then pauses and looks around, apparently to see 
 if anything has noticed and is following it. It then walks a few steps 
 further and gives another skip and again stops and looks back ; being 
 evidently aware that when it is moving it is much more liable to be 
 seen by some enemy then when it is standing still. 
 
 These bugs which we meet with grown to maturity and paired in 
 the middle of June, lay a crop of eggs from which another generation 
 completes its growth before the end of the season. Thus there are 
 two generations annually. 
 
 This insect having only a single strongly curved vein in the 
 membranous ends of its wing covers, and the two last joints of its 
 long four-jointed antennae very slender, will pertain to the family 
 Capsid in the order Hemiftera. And as the second joint of its 
 antennae is cylindrical and not thickened toward its tip, and the 
 fourth joint is notably shorter than the third it will belong to the 
 genus Phytocoris. 
 
 It is undoubtedly the species which Mr. Say describes under the 
 name Capsus A-vittatus at page 20 of his pamphlet on the Hete- 
 ropterous Hemiptera, published at Mew Harmony, la., 1832, and 
 republished in Trans. N. Y. State Ag. Soc. for 1857, p. 784. We 
 notice his description is taken from a female specimen, and is errone¬ 
 ous in saying that the black dot at the end of the exterior stripe is 
 annulated or inclosed in a ring of a different color, lie also says the 
 lateral stripes on the thorax are marginal. But the thorax shows a 
 yellow edge along the outer side of these stripes; they, therefore, in 
 strictness, are not marginal but sub-marginal. 
 
 Mr. Say closes his observations on this species with the query, Can 
 this be Lygaens lineatus, F. Syst. Rhyng., p. 234? This is an 
 important point to be determined. Fabricius, in the work cited, 
 defines the lineatus to be ferruginous, or in other words, rusty yellow 
 
520 
 
 Annual Report of New York 
 
 or tawny, the thorax and wing covers yellow, lined with black, and 
 inhabiting North America. This coincides so closely with our insect 
 that we know not why Mr. Say doubted its being this species, unless 
 it be that the black marks are too broad to be termed lines. But was 
 not Mr. Say aware that Fabricius is by no means exact in limiting 
 this term to slender marks? And in this insect the outer mark 
 through most of its length is frequently so slender as to be a line 
 rather than a vitta or stripe. For a more particular description of 
 the lineatus Fabricius refers to a previous work of his, the supple¬ 
 mentary volume of his Entomologia Systematica, p. 541, where he 
 first named this species. We there meet with a description quite as 
 full and exact as that given by Mr. Say, and to the same purport in 
 almost every respect. We notice two or three phrases, however, 
 which might render it doubtful whether our insect is the species 
 referred to. We are told the lineatus is the exact size of the camjpes- 
 tns. Specimens of the latter in my collection, received from Prof. 
 Boheman of Sweden, are smaller than our insect. But Zetterstedt, 
 Ins. Lapp., p. 273, and others, have remarked, what is also very 
 obvious from the characters assigned to the canijpestris by Fabricius, 
 that his insect can scarcely be the same with that to which Linnaeus 
 gave this name. It is therefore uncertain what species it is to which 
 Fabricius refers. Again, we are told the scutel is black at its base. 
 This is not strictly correct; it is black only on each side of its base 
 and not in the middle. Such slight inaccuracies as this, however, are 
 not uncommon in the old authors. In this case, moreover, the base 
 of the scutel may have been obscured by the manner in which the 
 specimen was pinned. 
 
 We come, finally, to notice a much more important discrepancy. 
 This occurs in the opening of the description, the first clause of which, 
 translated, reads: “ Head black, antennae ferruginous.” To coincide 
 with our insect this should be, “head ferruginous, antennae black.” 
 As the remainder of the description so accurately applies to our insect, 
 the query at once suggests itself, is there not here a clerical error? In 
 copying this first clause have not the terms been inadvertently trans¬ 
 posed ? We of course are obliged to take the description as it stands, 
 unless we have satisfactory evidence that it is erroneous. But how is it 
 possible for us to know if there is such an error as we have suggested ? 
 (fbviously a reference to the specimen from which Fabricius drew this 
 description would conclusively settle this point. We are informed he 
 met with this and some half dozen other North American insects 
 
State Agricultural Society. 
 
 521 
 
 which were new to him, in the collection of Mr. Ilerschel.* W e 
 know not whether those specimens are still preserved, whereby it 
 will be possible to conclusively determine the point in question. 1*8 
 there any other mode in which it is possible for us to obtain light 
 upon this subject ? We observe that in the phrase “ head ferrugin¬ 
 ous antennae black,” the terms head and black impress the mind more 
 strongly than the terms antennae and ferruginous, and thus there is a 
 tendency to bring them together. We also observe that this great 
 master of our science, Fabricius, was by no means so careful and exact 
 that we can confide in the descriptions he has left us as being always 
 accurate and free from errors. Of this inadvertency we are at present 
 forcibly reminded, from a fruitless endeavor to ascertain the correct 
 orthography of the person’s name in whose collection he met with 
 this insect. Upon glancing through the Ent. Syst. suppl. and the 
 Syst. Eleut. we meet with this name in sixteen instances, and find it 
 given as Hirshel, Hirshell, Ilirschel, Herschel and Ilersehell, it occur¬ 
 ring five times under the first and five times under the fourth form. 
 And now, when we come to attentively consider the characters 
 which are assigned to Uneatus , we shall discover them to be so con¬ 
 tradictory as to render it evident there is an error in the description. 
 As already stated, the species is first briefly defined as ferruginous, 
 with the thorax and wing covers yellow lined with black. We are 
 next informed that the head is black. Thus we are told that the head 
 is black, the thorax and wing covers yellow, and yet the predominant 
 color is ferruginous. The latter statement is obviously inconsistent 
 with the former. We find further, that the only parts mentioned as 
 being ferruginous are the antennae, the anterior part of the thorax and 
 the body on its under side. If we paint a specimen of our insect 
 with the head black and the antennae rusty yellow, whereby it fully 
 meets the details of this description, the ferruginous anterior border 
 of the thorax becomes so inconspicuous that it is only noticed upon a 
 
 * Wo notice that one of these is named Cicindela obscura. This species of Fabricius appears to 
 have been overlooked by recent writers. From the short definition of it in the Syst. Eleut. 1, 238, 
 Mr. Say supposed it to be the species which is now currently known as the G. modesta of Beauvois. 
 But the original description, Ent. Syst. suppl. p. 61, informs us that the obscura corresponds in size 
 with C. Qennanica. Specimens of the latter iixsect now before me are much smaller than the 
 modesta. We are also told that of the two white marginal points, the anterior one is on the base of 
 the wing covers, whereas in modesta it is on the outer margin near the base. Thus the species 
 which Mr. Say describes as the oteetira is clearly a different insect from that to which Fabricius gave 
 this name. What is stated of the latter as to size, color, position of the white points and the lnnulo 
 at the tip, coincides with none of our Cicindelas except some varieties of the punctulata of Olivier. 
 This species is described by Fabricius in this same connection,under the name tnicans , of which he 
 remarks, it is exactly the size of obscura , of which it is perhaps a mere variety. It thus becomes 
 quite evident that the obscura of Fabricius is nothing but one of tho bluck varieties of punctulata 
 in which the white points on tho wing covers are mostly effaced. 
 
 [Au.] 66 
 
522 
 
 Annual Report of New York 
 
 close inspection, and I think no one in describing such a specimen 
 would give its ground color as ferruginous; it would be termed yellow 
 or black. The thorax and wing covers being yellow it is evident the 
 head with the under side must be ferruginous to render this the pre¬ 
 dominant color. 
 
 Finally, when we further take into consideration the facts that this 
 is a common species throughout the United States, and that it is a 
 pretty insect, which an amateur collector would take special pains to 
 secure, it is altogether improbable it would he overlooked and another 
 insect be found almost identical with it but so extremely rare that it 
 has never been met with in our day. 
 
 In view of all the circumstances, therefore, we think it cannot be 
 doubted that this is the insect which Fabricious had in his view. 
 
 We have been induced to state thus fully the grounds on which we 
 are led to adopt the Fabrician name for this insect, deeming they 
 will settle a subject which would otherwise remain in doubt. From 
 this discussion the general reader will perceive how embarrassing it is 
 and what an amount of research is often required, to determine the 
 legitimate scientific names in natural history. 
 
 As respects remedies for this bug, the probable efficacy of shading 
 infested plants and shrubs from the sun has already been mentioned. 
 Hand-picking is the only other measure which we have to notice. 
 Most of these bugs will elude capture by dropping from the leaves 
 and secreting themselves among the vegetation on the surface of the 
 ground. But, so timorous and shy as they are, if they are daily 
 searched for and routed from their quarters, it is probable they will 
 soon forsake the situations in which they find they are so frequently 
 disturbed. 
 
 Lilac Measure-worm, Priocycla Armataria , H. Schceffer. (Lepidop- 
 
 tera. Geometridse.) 
 
 In September, eating the leaves of the lilac by night, anil by day hanging from the 
 twigs with their heads downward ; a slender humpy ten-footed dark brown worm over 
 an inch long, with three bright yellow spots on each side of the hind part of the body ; 
 passing the winter in a cocoon under fallen leaves and rubbish, from which the last 
 of June comes a pale rusty brown moth, with scalloped wings, an inch and a quarter 
 across when oxtended, both pairs having a dark tawny yellow band across their 
 middle, and their underside bright orange, crossed by a blackish brown line. 
 
 An interesting insect of our State, a delicate miller or moth, pei- 
 taining to the Ennomos group, in the family Geometridte, which had 
 escaped observation until our own day, is found on examination to be 
 so different from all the species akin to it, that it constitutes the type 
 
State Agricultural Society. 
 
 523 
 
 of a distinct genus, of which genus itself is as yet the only known 
 member. Occupying a position of such prominence, it becomes 
 important to know the measure-worm from which this moth is pro¬ 
 duced, wherefrom to acertain the characteristics of the caterpillar or 
 larva state of this genus. I find this measure-worm to be of a peculiar 
 type, differing prominently in its structure and other characters from 
 all the larvae which are known in the genera related to it. It thus, 
 equally with the perfect insect, justifies the separation of this species 
 as a distinct genus. The singular habits of this worm, moreover, will 
 render an account of it interesting alike to the general reader and 
 the student in science. 
 
 We meet with this measure-worm feeding upon the leaves of the 
 lilac. But as it is a native insect of our continent and the lilac was 
 introduced here from abroad, it will undoubtedly occur upon the 
 ash or some other one or more of our indiginous trees or shrubs 
 which are nearly related to the lilac. 
 
 In the first period of their lives the small young worms are of a 
 slender cylindrical form, and of a dark liver brown color, with shin¬ 
 ing black heads, which are of the same thickness as the body. The 
 mouth is white, and on the body are four white bands, which with a 
 magnifying glass are found to be composed of short white lines placed 
 upon the sutures side by side and lengthwise of the body. They 
 have three pairs of legs placed upon the breast, a pair of thick pro¬ 
 legs at the end of the body and a second pair a little forward of these 
 last; and on each side of the back the three or four middle segments 
 each show a small tooth-like protuberance projecting horizontally 
 outward. 
 
 The young worms eat small holes through the leaves, mostly along 
 each side of the mid-vein. And when not engaged in feeding they 
 all station themselves upon the underside of two or throe contiguous 
 leaves, where, clinging with their hind feet, the hang downward iu 
 a grotesque posture, having the middle of their bodies bent into a 
 half circle with the two ends remaining straight. They continue for 
 hours stiff and motionless in this position, hanging downward per¬ 
 pendicularly, witli here and there one it may be, holding itself in 
 an oblique direction. They do not feed upon rainy days, and then 
 remain in this posture, fastened to the under surface of the leaves 
 the whole day through. 
 
 When they are grown to a larger size and have shed their skins 
 they are considerably changed in their appearance. They are then 
 of a sooty brown color with three very bright yellow spots on each 
 
524 
 
 Annual Report of .Yew York 
 
 side of the hind part of the body, these spots being such a peculiar 
 mark and showing so conspicuously upon the dark ground color of 
 the body that the eye notices them much more than any other 
 character pertaining to these vorms. Some spots and lines of a 
 whitish color are seen here and there, and the surface is also observed 
 to be uneven, from little conical humps which project out at different 
 points, four of these in a row on each side of the back being the most 
 conspicuous. It will also be noticed that they vary in color, some 
 being less dark than others. Even the same specimen frequently 
 varies in a short time in its hue and in the distinctness of its whitish 
 markings. 
 
 A more full description of these worms here follows: 
 
 The larva grows to nearly an inch and a quarter in length, and is slender and 
 nearly cylindrical, with short bristles scattered over its surface. It varies in color 
 from umber brown to dark sooty brown, with ash gray and cream yellow markings. 
 In the middle of its body on each side of the back are four obtuse, conical humps, 
 placed on the fourth and three following rings, the two middle ones being larger. 
 These dorsal humps project horizontally outward, rendering the back flattish and 
 imparting to it a serrated appearance along each side. Beneath upon each side are 
 humps which are more obtuse, resembling retracted prolegs, each of these ventral 
 humps frequently having a sooty black cloud upon its anterior side. Upon the last 
 segment are two conical tubercles, then- tips often black and yielding a short bristle. 
 Upon the outer base of these tubercles is a small oval spot or short streak of a cream 
 yellow color; and posteriorly along each side of the back is a row of small, cream 
 yellow dots, one on each segment, the last dot being quite near the hind end of the 
 small oval spot. On the back of the fourth and following rings are similar dots 
 placed near each other, upon the anterior bases of the dorsal humps. And along the 
 middle of the back is a row of ash gray marks having the form of an inverted letter 
 V, their hind ends terminating at the cream-colored dots; the two anterior of these 
 marks, occupying the top of the fifth and sixth rings, being more expanded, irregular 
 and cloud-like. Each of the four prolegs has an ash gray or pale reddish stripe upon 
 its outer face. The stripe upon the anterior pair of prolcgs is prolonged obliquely 
 upward and forward, into an irregular triangular spot of a bright cream yellow color. 
 And upon the two segments next forward of this are similar spots, but successively 
 smaller, the anterior one being usually a mere cluster of small spots and dots irregu¬ 
 larly connected together. Beneath, along the middle is an ash gray line, faintly 
 margined on each side with darker sooty brown, this line not being prolonged upon 
 the breast nor reaching the tip. On each side of the neck immediately below the 
 breathing pores is a slender, irregular whitish line. The head has the same color 
 with the body and is frequently mottled more or less with ash gray. 
 
 After the young worms have changed their skins and taken on 
 the markings above described, they become much altered in their 
 habits. They now cat the whole of the leaf instead of nibbling small 
 holes through it. And one of the first things we observe respecting 
 its feeding, is, that whilst it is a common habit of the leaf-eating 
 caterpillars and other larvae to take only the more tender parts of the 
 
» 
 
 State Agricultural Society. 525 
 
 leaf and pass by the coarse woody midvein and the coarser veins 
 which branch from it, although the leaves of the lilac are so firm and 
 leathery in their texture, this measure-worm consumes the entire leaf, 
 including the midvein and its branches, leaving only a stump of the 
 green leaf-stem. 
 
 We notice it as another singular habit of this worm, that, whilst 
 most other worms endeavor to hide themselves from view, and do 
 their work as much as possible where their operations are concealed 
 and least liable to attract observation, this worm selects the most 
 exposed situation it can find and places itself where it will be 
 conspicuously in view. The whole company of these worms move 
 away from their first location and take up their residence together, 
 upon one of the most projecting branches of the lilac bush. Here, 
 feeding in the night time and remaining at rest during the day, the}' 
 begin at the outer end of the limb and wholly strip it of its leaves, 
 advancing farther and farther along from night to night. But 
 instead of remaining to repose during the day where they have last 
 been feeding, and where the foliage would aid in secreting them 
 from view, they crawl back to that part of the branch which has 
 been entirely denuded of its leaves, and where they will be most 
 openly exposed, and there suspend themselves, clinging with their 
 hind feet to the stumpy leaf-stalks and the small twigs, and hanging 
 perpendicularly with their heads downward. And they now present 
 a very singular and interesting instance of that imitation of other 
 objects which is so common among the creatures of this class. 
 
 This faculty of mimicking other things, with which so many insects 
 are endowed, is certainly one of the most curious and wonderful phe¬ 
 nomena in nature ; this habit which they have, some in their larva, 
 others in their perfect state, to place themselves in such situations 
 and form themselves into such shapes as to appear like some other 
 object in nature, to which they in reality have no relationship, no 
 affinity whatever, and an object, frequently, which no one of their race 
 has ever seen and cannot therefore be supposed to know that any such 
 object has ever existed. The design of this counterfeiting of other 
 objects undoubtedly is to protect them from being noticed and des¬ 
 troyed by their greatest enemies, the birds. This is evident from the 
 fact that the object which is imitated is always something to which 
 birds will have a repugnance or to which they will be wholly indiffer¬ 
 ent. Among the multitude of things which are mimicked we never 
 meet with a berry, a seed-pod or any other object which will be 
 attractive to a bird. And it is truly one of the most beautiful arrange 
 
52u Annual Report of New York 
 
 merits of nature, whereby creatures which have no means of defense, 
 usually no power to spring or fly or other resort whereby to escape 
 from their enemies, are able to take on such an appearance as will 
 cause them to be overlooked and passed by unharmed. But for this 
 they would soon be exterminated. 
 
 It is most frequently some of the common parts or appendages of 
 shrubs and trees which are imitated. Different kinds of small insects 
 are accustomed to station themselves in the axils at the base of the 
 leaf-stalks, where they appear like the buds growing at these points. 
 The larvae of the different lappet-moths so closely resemble the bark 
 of the trees on which they respectively feed, as to be quite invisible 
 when they are at rest. Many of the measure-worms have a habit 
 which most persons have noticed. Fixing themselves to a limb by 
 their hind pair of feet, they hold their bodies outward therefrom, 
 straight and stiff, remaining motionless in this position for many 
 hours, their slender cylindrical form and dull colors giving them a 
 most perfect resemblance to a dead twig branching from the limb. 
 Without adverting to other instances of this mimicry we return to 
 this lilac measure-worm, and remark that in its young state, when 
 suspended from the under side of a leaf with the middle of its body 
 bent into a semi-circle, it is sui generis in its appearance, looking like 
 no other object in nature with which I am acquainted, and the cluster 
 not in the least resembling an assemblage of worms. But when it is 
 grown to a larger size and the whole family is hanging suspended 
 from the twigs of a leafless limb, they present a counterfeit which is 
 so perfect and striking that it is at once recognized. They then 
 have the exact aspect of the brown aments or unopened staminate 
 flowers of the alder, the poplar and other analogous trees which put 
 forth their flowers in early spring when the limbs are destitute of 
 leaves. Whoever is familiar with the appearance of these pendant 
 tassels as they occur upon the alders growing along our streams of 
 water will at a first glance be struck with the close resemblance of 
 these lilac worms to them. The similitude will be noticed in all their 
 details ; their 6ize, their form, their position, their brown color, the 
 projecting teeth along the sides of their backs appearing as the ends 
 of the opening scales of the aments, and to crown all, the three bright 
 yellow spots upon each side of the worms are a perfect counterfeit of 
 some of the yellow anthers of the flowers beginning to protrude from 
 between the scales. And we further observe that a portion of the 
 aments of the alder grow in pairs, and in a company of these worms 
 hanging from the twigs and leaf-stalks, here and there two will he 
 
State Agricultvral Society. 
 
 527 
 
 seen suspended from the end of the same stalk or from the opposite 
 sides of a twig. In thus imitating these tassels of the immature 
 flowers of the alder so perfectly in such a number of particulars, what 
 a remarkable display of instinct does this worm present! 
 
 If the bush in which they are suspended be jarred or they are 
 otherwise alarmed they draw themselves upward, bending their 
 bodies into angular shapes. 
 
 The worms continue to feed six or eight weeks, coming to their 
 full size about the middle of September. They then descend from 
 the bush and crawl under fallen leaves or other rubbish, and there 
 spin around themselves a network of threads with open meshes, to 
 the outer surface of which, small pebbles, loose lumps of dirt and 
 fragments of leaves are fastened ; and in this slight cocoon it takes on 
 its pupa form. 
 
 The pupa is closely invested by the cocoon, which is oval, half an 
 inch long and 0.20 thick. The pupa is chestnut red, its rings densely 
 and confluently punctured, all the posterior ones having a broad smooth 
 hind border. The wing-sheaths are minutely wrinkled and rugose 
 from short, irregular, strongly impressed lines, those around the 
 border being more even, parallel and at right angles to the edge. 
 The tip terminates in two slender black thorn-like spines, which are 
 hooked at their ends. 
 
 The insect lies dormant, inclosed in its cocoon during nine months 
 of the year. It begins to come abroad in its perfect form upon the 
 last days of June, new individuals continuing to hatch and come 
 forth until the middle of July. Upon the same night on which they 
 issue from their cocoons the sexes pair, and the female deposits her 
 eggs upon the following day. They are probably laid in a cluster, 
 glued upon the under side of a leaf of the lilac. Seventy-live eggs 
 were counted that had been deposited by one female. 
 
 The eggs are smooth and glossy, of a short, cylindrical form, 
 with rounded ends. They are 0.025 long and two-thirds as thick. 
 They vary remarkably in their color, being at first pale bluish or yel¬ 
 lowish green and changing in a day or two to pale reddish. This 
 color gradually deepens to coral red, bright and shining. They then 
 grow darker, and just before hatching are deep liver brown. They 
 hatch two weeks after they are laid. The evacuated shells are white 
 and translucent. 
 
 The moth or miller varies in width across its extended wings from 1.25 to 1.35, the 
 larger specimens being females. The head is more than twice as broad as long, the 
 large, protuberant eyes occupying each side and constituting more than half its total 
 width. It Is covered with rusty, yellowish scales. The palpi or feelers project out 
 
528 
 
 Annual Report of New York 
 
 from the flattened front and are held apart. They are straight and strongly com¬ 
 pressed, with loose scales at the base, those of the second joint being smoothly 
 appressed to its surface; third joint distinct but small, little longer than thick, cylin- 
 dric-conic, its apex bluntly rounded. The spiral trunk is more than half the length 
 of the antennae. The antennas arc more than half the length of the body, and of a 
 wood brown color. In the males they are pectinated, having two rows of longish 
 branches which are directed downward and are curved, their tips approaching each 
 other and ending in a fine short bristle. These branches are minutely ciliated and 
 gradually diminish in length, the ten last joints being merely toothed like a saw, each 
 tooth tipped with a fine bristle. In the female these organs are simple, thread-like, 
 more slender toward their tips, with two rows of fine bristles along the under side. 
 The thorax is broad oval, but little longer than thick, and is clothed with scales, and 
 along each side with hairs of a rusty yellowish color. The abdomen is cylindric, 
 reaching the inner angle of the wings in the dried specimen, longer when alive. It 
 is pale brown, often with a dark brown band on the hind edge of each segment. It 
 is narrowed at its tip and ends in a circular fringe of brown hairs inside of which, in 
 the males, are two valves which are clothed with white scales. The wings are some¬ 
 what broad, measuring in a male 0.58 by 0.32 and the hind pair 0.50 by 0.34; they 
 are scalloped on their hind edge with six rounded sinuses in each, those of the hind 
 pair being more deep. They have a silky gloss and are grayish yellow or fawn 
 colored, commonly freckled more or less with short transverse brown lines. The 
 fore wings have the outer or costal edge straight with the ends gently curved, and the 
 hind edge somewhat oblique and forming an obtusely rounded angle near the mid¬ 
 dle, the outer third of its length being straight or sometimes slightly concave. The 
 costal margin is gray, tinged with green when alive, this color being much wider from 
 the middle nearly to the tip, and much freckled with short transverse blackish lines. 
 Forward of the middle a straight nut brown band crosses the wing obliquely, the 
 outer end of which is faint and bent forward. Crossing the wing beyond its middle 
 are two blackish lines, nearly parallel with the brown band and with each other, 
 about four times their width apart, the hind one often a little bent outside of its mid¬ 
 dle, making the intervening space wider at this point, and then approaching the for¬ 
 ward line and uniting with it on the costa. The space between these lines dark rusty 
 yellow, appearing to the eye a broad dark colored band crossing the wing and con¬ 
 tinuous with a similar band on the hind wings. A cloud of sky blue scales bordering 
 this band on the hind side of its inner end. A black spot on the inner angle, and a 
 dark rusty yellow spot on the hind edge slightly inside of the tip. The hind wings 
 have a broad rusty yellow band across their middle, continuous with that of the fore 
 wings, but the blackish line on its anterior edge is faint or wholly disappears, whilst 
 that on its hind edge is slightly thicker and more distinct than on the fore wings, and 
 is bordered on its hind side by sky blue scales, which are more sparse toward the outer 
 side of the wing, or wholly vanish. To these scales succeeds a second rusty yellow 
 band, which becomes darker toward its hind edge. This band widens from its inner 
 end to the middle, and from thence continues broad to its outer end ; but frequently 
 its outer half is faint, being tinged with lilac red, which color occupies the remaining 
 portion of the wing, back of this band, except a large patch of rusty yellow on the 
 hind edge at its outer end ; and two or three lunules of rusty yellow surmount the 
 notches which are next inside of this patch, the inner lunule being much more broad 
 and conspicuous; and following it is a black lunule surmounting the inner notch of 
 the series. The fringe is short and gray intermixed with scales of sky blue, with a 
 brown line across its middle and another at its base. The underside is bright orange, 
 the costal margin of the fore wings gray. Both pairs are crossed in the middle by a 
 
State Agricultural Society. 
 
 529 
 
 single very distinct nut brown line, which, upon the fore wings, is a little thicker and 
 slightly flexuous and is bordered on its hind side with lilac gray, which color some¬ 
 times shows a faint slender brown line along its hind edge, parallel with the preceding 
 one. Back of the line across their middle the hind wings and the inner part of the 
 fore wings are lilac grayish with the hind border orange. The legs are rather short, 
 the thighs varying in color from orange to pale violet yellowish; the shanks and 
 feet are gray-green in the live insect, fading to gray in the dried specimens, freckled 
 sparsely with black atoms, their exterior side being blackish. The hind shanks are 
 longer and much thicker than the thighs, and have two pairs of long stout spurs. 
 The feet are distinctly five-jointed, the joints cylindric and successively shorter and 
 diminishing in thickness. 
 
 The colors and markings of some specimens vary from the description above given. 
 The fore wings sometimes have all their surface back of the band darker, of a red¬ 
 dish lilac color, thus corresponding with the hind wings. In the female specimen 
 before me the blackish lines crossing the wings are widened to double their thickness 
 in the males and are of a paler or brown color with their edges indistinct. The 
 female figured by Herrich Schaffer appears to have had the second line on the fore 
 wings wholly effaced. 
 
 This is a rare insect and it is probably impossible for it to become 
 so multiplied as to occasion any material injury. Should there be a 
 few clusters of its larvae upon the lilacs in a particular neighborhood, 
 notwithstanding the manner in which they disguise themselves, some 
 bird would discover their real character, and they thereupon would all 
 be speedily found and destroyed. I placed a cluster of eggs which were 
 beginning to hatch, in contact with a leaf of a lilac bush. The infant 
 worms thereupon were watched day after day for about a week, when 
 they all abruptly disappeared. Some bird had undoubtedly discovered 
 and destroyed them. I regretted the loss but little, thinking that as 
 some fifty worms in the flock of the previous summer had matured 
 and buried themselves in my grounds, one or more broods from them 
 would in all probability soon appear upon some of the lilac bushes 
 in the yard. But I was disappointed. They nowhere showed them¬ 
 selves. The birds had probably learned the disguise which they 
 assumed; this disguise thereupon ceased to be a safeguard, and the 
 whole progeny from the previous year’s flock of worms was destroyed 
 it is most likely when but a few days old. 
 
 These facts indicate by what a very precarious tenure it is that 
 this species holds itself in existence. Wherever a few families of its 
 young show themselves, they are discovered by the birds and are 
 immediately exterminated. Thus it seems to be only in a locality 
 here and there, where the birds from not seeing any of these worms for 
 some years, have forgotten the mask which they put on, that a flock 
 of them is able to elude their inveterate foes and grow up to maturity. 
 And thus a season will sometimes arrive when a vigilant collector 
 [Ag.] 67 
 
580 
 
 Annual 11eport of New York 
 
 will obtain a few specimens of this moth, and it will then vanish and 
 he will meet with it no more. 
 
 Johnson’s Pkiocycla, P. Johnsonaria , new species. 
 
 It has been remarked above that the insect treated upon is the type 
 of a distinct genus, of which genus it is the only member as yet 
 known. Whilst I am engaged in preparing the foregoing account, 
 there comes to me, through the open door of my study, attracted by 
 the light of the lamp, a moth whose scalloped wings and other 
 characters at once show it to be intimately related to the one under 
 consideration, a second species pertaining to the same genus. It was 
 upon the 28th of June that this specimen presented itself to me, the 
 same date on which the moth of the preceding species began to come 
 forth from the pupae in my cages. Anxious to obtain other speci¬ 
 mens of this variety, I, on several of the following evenings, went 
 with a lighted lamp to different parts of the grounds around my 
 residence, but without any success. 
 
 I dedicate this interesting discovery to the memory of the late 
 Secretary of our State Agricultural Society, lion. B. P. Johnson, 
 whose efficient aid, rendered on numerous occasions, has much 
 assisted me in these investigations of our noxious insects. 
 
 This species may be briefly defined as follows : Yellowish brown; 
 fore wings with a subcentral black dot and crossed obliquely by 
 two distant blackish lines; hind wings with a faint brown band 
 and a blackish line; under side pale lemon yellow, posteriorly 
 grayish brown, with numerous brown freckles and a blackish band 
 and line crossing both wings. Width of the male 1.35. 
 
 Tlie Zieacl is tarnished gray, and is flattened in front. The palpi are blackish 
 along their under side; their third joint small, twice as long as thick, almost 
 cylindric, slightly diminishing in thickness toward the tip, which is obtusely 
 pointed. The antennae are more than half the length of the body and pecti¬ 
 nated in the male, the stalk being gray and its branches pale brown and iden¬ 
 tical in their details with those of the preceding species, the last ten or twelve 
 joints being destitute of branches and merely toothed along their under side. 
 The thorax is tarnished gray. The abdomen is yellowish brown, unicolor with the 
 wings, with a row of dusky brown spots along each side. Beneath it is gray, 
 freckled with pale brown spots and dots. Its tip is on a line with the inner 
 angles of the hind wings. The wings are moderately broad, the fore pair measur¬ 
 ing 0.63 by 0.32, and the hind pair 0.51 by 0.37. The fore wings have their 
 costal edge straight, with but a slight short curve at each end; the hind edge 
 oblique and convexly rounded, with the outer third of its length straight, this edge 
 being slightly scalloped, with shallow sinuses and short broad lobes, which are 
 rounded and not at all angular. They are of an umber brown color, the basal two- 
 thirds of then length tinged with dull yellow; the costal margin dark grayish, 
 
State Agricultural Society. 
 
 531 
 
 freckled with black. Forward of the middle a very distinct blackish brown line 
 ■extends obliquely across these wings, which is gently curved, and near its outer end 
 is abruptly bent forward at a right angle, and is slightly thicker at this end. Beyond 
 the middle is a similar line, parallel with the first, and near its outer end slightly 
 waved and perceptibly thickened, this line‘separating the yellowish brown anterior 
 from the darker brown posterior part of the wing. Between these two lines, outside 
 of the center of the wing, is an oval transverse black dot, formed of elevated scales. 
 A faint dusky streak extends from a little inside of this dot to the inner margin, 
 nearly parallel with the bluish brown lines. Beyond the posterior line the dark 
 ground color is freckled with a few black atoms. Half way between this line and 
 the hind edge is a small blackishspot near the inner margin, and a blackish transverse 
 streak toward the outer margin, the hind edge of which is darker and more distinctly 
 defined. Back of this streak a coffee brown cloud, having a silky grayish reflection, 
 occupies the tip of the wing. The hind wings have their hind edge strongly rounded, 
 forming almost a half circle, and deeply scalloped, both the projecting lobes and the 
 intervening incisions being rounded. Their ground color is the same with that of 
 the fore wings, but their fore part is less tinged with yellowish, and is sprinkled with 
 a few black atoms. Forward of their middle they are crossed by a straight faint 
 dusky brown band, which is continuous with the dusky streak inside of the black dot 
 •of the fore wing9. Parallel with this band and crossing the wings a little beyond 
 their middle is a very distinct blackish brown line, nearly straight, and in line with 
 the blackish spot near the inner angle of the fore wings, all the space back of this 
 line being a shade darker and without spots or clouds. The fringe is short, toward 
 the tips of the fore wings very short, and is concolor with the wings, on the under 
 side showing a darker brown line at its base. On the under side both pairs of the 
 wings are alike in their colors and marks, the basal part being dull pale lemon yel¬ 
 low, and the hind part darker, dull pale brown, the two colors separated by a slender 
 gently waved blackish brown band which is placed slightly back of the middle, and is 
 ■curved and parallel with the hind margin, and forward of this is a broader brown 
 band with its edges indefinite, Crossing the wings straight and oblique on the upper, 
 curved on the lower pair, its outer end not attaining the costal edge, its inner end on 
 the hind wings much narrowed, the subcentral black dot of the fore wings appearing 
 as a short black streak upon the hind edge of this band, and a black crescent also on 
 its hind edge in the middle of the hind wings. Both pairs are much freckled with 
 brown and blackish dots and short transverse lines. The fore wings have their innor 
 border broadly stained with brownish gray, and also show a blackish transverse 
 cloud forward of their tips and a smaller one on their inner angles. The leg* are 
 gray with a tinge of tarnished yellow, and are freckled with numerous brown dots. 
 The tips of the anterior shanks are black, and the hind shanks are a third longer and 
 beyond their middle a third thicker than the thighs. 
 
 White Butterfly, Pterin oleracea, Harris. (Lepidoptera. Papi- 
 
 lionidte.) 
 
 Eating holes in the leaves of the cabbage, turnip and radish, a nearly cylindrical 
 pale green worm having a darker streak along the middle of its back, and grow'ing to 
 over an inch in length, its pupa naked, angular, white or pale, suspended by a thread 
 around its middle, under a board or similarly dry situation and producing a white 
 unspotted butterfly about two inches wide. 
 
 One of the most interesting of our garden insects is the White 
 Butterfly as it is currently named, which in July and August is daily 
 
532 
 
 Annual Report of New York 
 
 6een living about the garden. It pertains to a group which has been 
 termed the Brassicaoece or Cabbage Butterflies, from the fondness- 
 which those of their larvae whose habits have been observed, nearly 
 all manifest, for feeding upon the different plants which pertain to- 
 the genus Brassioa, the cabbage, cauliflower, kale, and turnip, though 
 they readily nourish themselves also upon any of the other species of 
 the natural order Crucifera, the mustard, radish, horse-radish, nastur- 
 tion, water-cress, etc., to which order of plants most of the species- 
 appear to be confined. They are also termed the Garden-white But¬ 
 terflies, from the places they frequent and their being so uniformly of 
 a white color. This group is quite extensive, the species being dis¬ 
 tributed over most parts of the world. They are especially numer¬ 
 ous in the tropical countries of the eastern hemisphere, whilst here 
 upon the American continent their numbers are very few. This 
 White Butterfly is our only native species in the central and northern 
 sections of New York, its geographical range being known to extend 
 west to Lake Superior and north to Labrador and the sixty-fifth 
 degree of latitude. Originally subsisting upon some one or more of 
 our wild plants of the order Crucifera, it has now become accustomed 
 to lay under contribution for its support our cultivated plants of this 
 order, particularly the cabbage and the turnip; and these plants being 
 grown so extensively in all our gardens furnish it an abundant supply 
 of nourishment, whereby its numbers are now greatly increased. I 
 think I am safe in saying that within the sphere of my own observa¬ 
 tion these butterflies of late years are ten fold more numerous than 
 they were forty years ago. Complaints of their injuries are getting 
 to be frequent, and they are threatening to become a formidable evil. 
 
 The White Butterfly comes out of the pupa shell in which it reposes 
 through the winter, and begins to be seen along road sides and in the 
 meadows on the first coming on of warm weather. Pupae which I 
 had kept in a stove warmed room through the winter, gave out the 
 butterflies on the twenty-seventh day of April, and it is only ten or 
 twelve days later than this that they come out when they are in the 
 outdoor atmosphere. Several years I have noted them as being first 
 seen on the eighth and other years on the ninth day of May. One 
 year only have I seen them abroad earlier than this, on the sixth day 
 of the month. It is along road sides and in the meadows that they 
 mostly occur at the commencement of the season. 
 
 The sexes pair and the female commences laying her eggs imme¬ 
 diately on issuing from the pupa state. At this early period in 
 the season there are no garden plants sufficiently grown for it to resort 
 
State Agricultural Society. 
 
 533 
 
 to them; and it being a native insect of our country we know its 
 natural food must be some one or more of our indigenous plants, 
 on which it wholly subsisted before the cabbage and our other culti¬ 
 vated vegetables were introduced upon this continent. I find it is 
 nourished upon the water-cress or yellow rocket, the Barharea vul¬ 
 garis, much more extensively than upon any other plant, wild or 
 cultivated. Our botanists have usually regarded this as a native plant 
 •of this country; but as it is also a European plant some have sup¬ 
 posed it was probably originally introduced here from abroad. It 
 occurs in such abundance in our moist lowland meadows and also in 
 dry gravelly upland soils that it has every appearance of being a 
 native plant. And this insect feeding upon it in such numbers as it 
 does, is a further indication that it is an indigenous plant. It, more 
 than any other member of the vegetable kingdom, appears to be the 
 natural food-plant of this butterfly. 
 
 This plant starts into growth so early in the spring that its radical 
 leaves become sufficiently expanded to meet the wants of this butter¬ 
 fly when it first makes its appearance. And it is principally upon 
 this plant that the first generation of each year is reared. It, how¬ 
 ever, is no doubt able to sustain itself upon several other wild plants 
 of the order Crucifer®. And later in the season, when the cabbages, 
 turnips and radishes in our gardens are sufficiently grown to be 
 adapted to its wants, it begins to bestow its eggs upon them. It some¬ 
 times invades the cabbage when the plants are only six or eight 
 inches high with but five or six leaves put forth upon them. 
 
 When engaged in depositing its eggs it dies very slowly just above 
 the tops of the plants, alighting upon a leaf here and there; and so 
 intent is it upon the work in which it is engaged that it will some¬ 
 times come quite near a person, without manifesting any fear, or 
 quickening its flight to move away. 
 
 Alighting, it stands upon the edge of the leaf, and bending its 
 body downward it touches the tip to the under surface of the leaf, 
 planting an egg thereon, placing it from an eighth to a quarter of an 
 inch inward from the edge of the leaf. From one to three eggs, 
 placed slightly apart from each other, are thus glued to the underside 
 of the leaf, when it again takes wing and searches out another leaf 
 such as it desires. 
 
 The eggs are nearly one-twentieth of an inch in length and twice 
 as long as thick. They are shaped like a sugar-loaf, being cylindrical, 
 with the base cut oft' transversely and the opposite end gradually 
 tapered to about a third of the thickness and then abruptly and 
 
534 
 
 Annual Report of New York 
 
 bluntly rounded. They are beautifully sculptured, being ribbedt 
 lengthwise and closely and very minutely striated transversely. The 
 number of the ribs or elevated ridges is fifteen. The eggs are of a 
 very pale greenish white color and the ribs clearer whi ,e. They are 
 slightly glued to the underside of the leaf by a gummy substance 
 which is soluble in water, whereby they would probably be washed 
 off the leaf by the rains, were they not placed on the underside where 
 the wet will not reach them. 
 
 The eggs which are laid in May hatch in about ten days, and later 
 in the season, when the weather becomes warmer, they probably hatch 
 in a shorter time. Some authors state that the worms of this genus, 
 in hatching, burst open the egg shell. This is not so, at least of this 
 species. The worm begins to feed when it is inside of the shell. 
 When it first wakens to life it commences opening and closing its 
 jaws. These, being in contact with the inner surface of the shell, 
 scratch upon and erode it, its ribbed uneven surface aiding to expedite 
 this operation. At length a small opening is hereby made in the shell. 
 The edges of this opening are then eaten away, more and more, 
 until a hole is made, sufficiently large for the worm to crawl out. 
 And after making its exit, the worm continues to nibble at this open¬ 
 ing, until it has eaten the whole of the shell. 
 
 When it first issues from the shell it is a minute cylindrical worm 
 of a glossy, watery-white color, thinly clothed with fine shortish hairs. 
 It clings to the leaf with the thick fleshy legs at the hind part of its 
 body, throwing its head suddenly and spitefully from side to side 
 when anything molests it. The first worms coming out as they do in 
 May, are liable to encounter some frosty nights and cold chilly days, 
 during which they remain clinging to the leaf, torpid and motionless, 
 awaiting the return of a more genial atmosphere to warm them again 
 into activity. 
 
 The infant worm, having consumed the egg-shell, begins to feed 
 upon the green leaf, and immediately thereupon its body begins to 
 acquire a green color. It eats small round holes through the leaf 
 when it is young, larger and less regular ones as it advances in size 
 and approaches maturity. It feeds mostly by night and remains at 
 rest during the day, frequently standing in the groove made by the mid- 
 vein on the upper side of the cabbage and turnip leaves, with its head 
 downward, toward the base of the leaf. But if there is a fold in the 
 margin or any other covert where it will be more hid from view, it 
 conceals itself therein. It resorts to the same place upon the leaf day 
 after day, spinning and fastening to the surface mu exceedingly fine 
 
State Aqricvltvral Society. 
 
 585 
 
 web of silken threads to give it a more secure foothold. It moves 
 about but little, crawling very slowly, with its mouth to the surface 
 on which it is crawling, placing there a silken thread to aid it in 
 clinging. It seldom quits the leaf on which it is placed, if this is of 
 sufficient size to fully feed it. 
 
 This worm grows to nearly or quite an inch and quarter in length 
 and 0.15 in thickness. It is slightly thickest in its middle and more 
 tapered toward its hind than its fore end. It is divided by transverse 
 constrictions into thirteen segments including the head, the two last 
 segments being less distinctly separated. It is of a pale green color, 
 similar to that of the leaves of the cabbage and Swedish turnip, and 
 along the middle of the back is a darker line. The whole upper 
 part of the body above the breathing pores is dusted over with minute 
 black atoms, the coarser ones of which are arranged in transverse 
 rows, and the surface is clothed with numerous tine, short white hairs. 
 Its head is of a flattened globular form, of the same width as the neck 
 and is held vertically. It is of the same pale green color as the body, 
 with little, if any, glossiness, and is thinly covered with fine white 
 hairs. Low down on each side is a row of four black dots, and the six 
 or seven minute teeth with which each of the jaws are furnished, are 
 also black. 
 
 When it has done feeding it remains at rest upon the leaf about 
 twenty-four hours. It then crawls away from the plant and wanders 
 about until it finds a suitable situation in Avhich to repose during its 
 pupa state, the underside of fence-rails, of stones in a wall, ot 
 limbs of trees, or some similar spot where it will be dry and sheltered 
 from the rain. They appear to be particularly careful to place them¬ 
 selves where no wet will reach them. Thus I have once met with a 
 number that on leaving the garden had crawled under the portico of 
 the contiguous dwelling, and had there placed themselves along the 
 lower edges of the clapboards to remain through the winter where 
 persons were passing quite close to them every hour ot the day. 
 
 The very curious operations of these cabbage butterflies in passing 
 from the larva to the pupa state, the spiffing of a loop or girdle of silk 
 threads around their bodies to hold them in a particular position, 
 and the drawing of their bodies out from the old skin in such an 
 artistic manner as to have the girt remain around them, were long 
 ago stated so accurately by the philosopher Reaumur, that I am able 
 to add but little to the account he has given. Observers will frequetly 
 be disappointed of the opportunities they expect for examining these 
 phenomena, as they take place more frequently by night than by day. 
 
536 
 
 Annual Report of New York 
 
 Having found such a situation as it requires the larva determines in 
 what position it will place itself to remain during its pupa state, for 
 there is much diversity in our white butterfly in this respect, it being 
 sometimes suspended upon the underside of a horizontal or an inclined 
 surface, and at other times against the side of a vertical surface; and 
 •it is held in a variety of positions, horizontal, oblique, or almost per¬ 
 pendicularly upward or downward, usually with its back but some¬ 
 times with its right or its left side downward. 
 
 Having selected the spot it will occupy and the position in which 
 it will suspend itself, it requires a loop to be made around its body to 
 hold it in this position. To give its feet the secure foothold they 
 will require while this loop is constructing it first spreads a slight 
 carpeting of silk threads upon the surface on which it is to stand, 
 forming also at its lower end a thick mass or little hillock of these 
 threads. It then fastens the hooks of its hind feet securely into this 
 mass of threads, aud clinging to the carpeted surface with its middle 
 legs, its body is so very soft and flexible that it is able to bend and 
 turn its head backward touching either side or the top of the back at 
 a point one-third of the distance from the hind to the fore end. And 
 with its head thus turned backward it fastens to the surface at one 
 side of its body a thread of silk which it spins from its mouth. It 
 then carries its head up over its back and down upon the opposite 
 side of the body, where the mouth fastens the other end of the thread, 
 thus forming a loop around its body holding it to the surface on which 
 it is standing. This single thread, however, is exceeding fine and 
 possessed of but little strength. The worm therefore carries its 
 mouth back again by the same route, to the opposite side, thus spin¬ 
 ning a second thread, with its end fastened at the same point where the 
 first one was commenced. And it thus continues to move its mouth 
 from one side to the other, until it has formed a skein of threads of 
 sufficient size and strength to securely sustain the weight of its body. 
 Reaumur states the number of threads in the loop to be about fifty. 
 But in our American species there is no uniformity in this loop, it 
 being in some instances not a fourth the size that it is in others. If 
 the larva gains some secluded corner where it will experience no 
 molestation, it does not trouble itself to spin but a few threads to 
 form this loop. 
 
 I he most laborious part of this work, and that which occupies the 
 principal part of the time that this loop is being constructed, is the 
 fastening of the ends of the threads to the surface on each side of the 
 Worm. As the tension upon the threads is almost directly upward 
 
State Agricultural Society. 
 
 537 
 
 it lias a strong tendency to tear them from their attachment, and the 
 worm shows particular care in fastening the ends securely, applying 
 its mouth to the surface at numerous points to glue the thread 
 thereto, whereby a dense web comes to be formed upon the surface 
 around each end of the loop. The- worm, moreover, moves its body 
 from side to side with each thread that is spun. When a thread is 
 about being fastened upon the right side, to give the mouth the requi¬ 
 site room for attaching it* to the surface, the body is crowded to the 
 left, as far as the threads already spun will admit, thus putting these 
 threads on the stretch, whereby the worm will ascertain if it is fasten¬ 
 ing them sufficiently secure. 
 
 Having completed its skein of threads the larva straightens itself, 
 and it is then noticed that about two-thirds of its length is forward of 
 the skein. It now becomes quiet and motionless, but its body gradu¬ 
 ally contracts in length, whereby at the end of an hour or two its 
 anterior part is found to be but half as long as it previouly was, the 
 skein now girting it around its middle. It has also undergone a 
 sensible change in its form, that portion which is forward of the girt 
 being thicker and cylindrical whilst that which is back ot it is gently 
 tapered. 
 
 The larva remains in this position, with its hind feet fastened into 
 the little hillock of silk threads at the end of its body and the loop 
 around its middle, from twenty to thirty hours. Then, with some 
 writhings and contortions a cleft is opened in the skin on the upper 
 side of its neck, which crack soon extends along the middle of the 
 head and the fore part of the back, forming an oriiiee of sufficient size 
 to allow the body to pass out through it, and when the head is also 
 disengaged it rests upon the old skin of the larva. The pupa now 
 by contracting and elongating itself rapidly crowds the skin back¬ 
 ward crumpling it together underneath its body, until only the 
 conical hind part remains upon the pupa. Being securclyffield by the 
 loop of silk which is now around it, the pupa readily withdraws the 
 tapering hind end of its body from the remainder of the larva skin, 
 and the tip of its body being furnished underside with a number of 
 minute hooks, it pushes these backward beyond the shriveled 
 remains of the larva skin, and fastens them into the little wad of silk 
 threads to which the larva skin is also attached by the minute hooks 
 of the hind feet. This larva skin being now a crumpled mass of 
 membrane and hairs, discommodes the pupa by being crowded as it 
 is under and around the hind end of its body. In order to remove it 
 therefore, the end of its body being bent into a curve at this time 
 Ag. 68 
 
588 
 
 Annual Report of New York 
 
 and fastened at its tij>, it moves this part of its body around and 
 around, in a rotary manner as it were, thus crowding against the pellet 
 of old skin, dislodging it from its former place, and gradually breaking 
 it off from its connection with the little bundle of silk threads. It 
 continues this motion some little space of time to accomplish this 
 purpose, over a halt minute I should judge it to have been, in the 
 instance which I witnessed. At length the crumpled mass, having 
 become rolled into a little wad no larger'than a kernel of allspice, 
 becomes entirely detached and falls to the ground. 
 
 As yet the pupa retains the shape of the larva, being thickest 
 anteriorly and gradually tapered to the tip, without any angular pro¬ 
 jections upon the back, only the horn at the anterior end and the wing 
 sheaths having their pupa development. But the protuberance upon 
 the back of the thorax case soon begins to appear, and shortly after 
 this a slight angular projection becomes perceptible upon each side 
 of the middle of the back. These gradually become more prominent, 
 and in a short time the whole surface becomes molded into its normal 
 pupa form. 
 
 The chrysalis or pupa of this as of many other butterflies has such 
 a singular form that persons not versed in entomological science will 
 deem its back to be its under side. It is what is technically termed a 
 naked, suspended, angular pupa; that is, it is not inclosed in a cocoon 
 or other covering; it hangs suspended in a loop, and its surface presents 
 angular processes and projecting points. Along its under side it is 
 smooth and nearly straight from end to end, but its back is much bulged 
 and uneven, with angular ridges and projections. It is of a white or 
 yellowish -white color, frequently with stains of brown on some parts 
 of the surface, and with numerous black dots of different sizes, the 
 most of which are placed symmetrically. 
 
 The top a is about 0.70 long, 0.15 wide and 0.24 high. It is divided into twelve 
 segments, the sutures between most of them being quito conspicuous. The first 
 segment or head case is prolonged forward into a prominent conical point which is 
 curved gently upward and is bluntly rounded at its tip. Near its base on the upper 
 side are two small projecting points which are usually black. From each of these an 
 elevated line extends obliquely backward and inward to the anterior end of a promi¬ 
 nent keel-like ridge along the middle of the occiput which is the anterior end of the 
 prominent dorsal ridge, and is of a black color. The second segment or thorax case 
 is elevated in the middle of the back into a very prominent stongly compressed nose¬ 
 like ridge, which is rounded at the summit and descends backward in a straight or 
 nearly straight line, a slight notch usually occuring toward its end, made by the suture 
 between this and the third segment. The third segment is short, the ridge upon its 
 middle is black, and it frequently shows four dots in a transverse row on its anterior 
 part, the outer dots being longer. The fourth segment is equally or more short than 
 
State Agricultural Society. 
 
 539 
 
 its predecessor and is recognized by some slight transverse lines or wrinkles upon its 
 surface and by the loop of silk which passes across its middle. It frequently has 
 six or eight black dots placed symmetrically and in positions similar to those upon 
 the following segments. The fifth or first abdominal segment has a slight elevated 
 line upon its middle which in some instances wholly disappears. Upon each side of 
 the back this segment is elevated into a prominent ridge, beginning upon the anterior 
 margin and gradually ascending to the hind margin, with a broad shallow notch in 
 its middle and frequently a brown spot upon its anterior ends. The sixth segment 
 upon each side continues the elevated ridge of the preceding segment, at its anterior 
 cornel's jutting abruptly upward and forming a prominent angulai point, nliich 
 inclines outward, overhanging and protecting the wing sheaths, the inner edges of 
 which overlie the base of these ridges on their outer sides. The angular apex of each 
 ridge is frequently stained with brown or black. From this point the ridge descends 
 backward in a straight line, ending at the hind edge of the following segment, and a 
 raised line is continued from thence along each side of the back to the tip. Along 
 its middle the sixth segment has a slighly raised line, which on the following seg¬ 
 ments becomes more elevated, forming an acute angular line along the middle' of the 
 back, and on the last segment dividing into two straight diverging forks which 
 extend to the tip, their ends there uniting with the ends of the lateral dorsal lines. 
 On the back of these segments are usually twelve black dots, placed symmetrically, 
 one on each side of the center of each segment; two others further out and back, 
 one before the other; a fourth one still farther out and upon a transverse line with 
 the first; a fifth obliquely forward and outward from the last, and the sixth one 
 larger than the others, on the anterior corner of each segment. On the under side 
 these segments frequently show a row of small blackish spots along the middle, the 
 spots being often faint and more or less obliterated, and on each side three longitudinal 
 rows of black dots, the second row being formed of a large and a small dot upon 
 each segment. The veins of the wing sheaths are also finely dotted, with a series of 
 larger dots alternating with the tips of the veins. 
 
 The pupa remains cpiiet and motionless, with the tip of its body 
 fastened in the little mass of silken threads and the loop passing around 
 it and holding it suspended in a horizontal or oblique position, for a 
 period of eight to twelve days in summer, and seven months in 
 the winter, it entering this state the beginning of October and con¬ 
 tinuing in it till the following May. The ridge along the forepart of 
 the back of the pupa then cracks apart and the inclosed butterfly 
 withdraws itself from its pupa case, and stands beside it for a few 
 hours for the several parts of its body to dry and acquire their requisite 
 solidity and strength, when it flies away in search of its mate. Thus, 
 while the winter brood is over half a year in completing its trans¬ 
 formations, the summer broods reach maturity in from four to six 
 weeks, the period appearing to vary as the weather is more or less 
 warm and dry. 
 
 The BCTTP.nvLY varies from 0.00 to 0.70 in length and from 1.80 to 2.15 in width 
 across its spread wings. Its body is black and clothed "with hairs or in some places 
 with scales. The head is thickly covered with shortish hairs, which are black and 
 
540 
 
 Annual Report of New York 
 
 white above, white on the underside, and on the face white with two vertical rows 
 of black. Palpi straight and held projecting obliquely forward and upward, covered 
 with white scales, the last joint black with its sides white. Eyes in the live insect 
 greenish white with rows of movable blackish dots, the central one being coal black; 
 in preserved specimens brown or brownish gray. ‘Spiral trunk equaling the antenna 
 in length. Antennae black above, white beneath, and alternated with these colors 
 along the sides, the knobs at their ends compressed and widening outward, with the 
 tips bluntly rounded and pale tawny yellowish. The thorax is black and clothed 
 with soft hairs of a leaden white color. Breast covered with white hairs. The 
 abdomen is black on the back, at base with hairs similar to the thorax. On the sides 
 and beneath covered with appressed white scales. The legs are pale brown, the thighs 
 hlack, more or less covered with white scales and on the underside with white hairs. 
 The wings are milk white above and beneath, and without spots. They arc dusted 
 with black scales at their base, sometimes very slightly or not at all on the hind pair, 
 but commonly more broadly, these scales extending along the outer margin frequently 
 nearly a third of its length and in rare instances the entire length. The tips sometimes 
 show similar black scales along the veins. On the under side the hind wings always 
 have a stain of ochre yellow at the base of their outer margin. The fringes are short 
 and white. 
 
 J he under side of the hind wings are subject to some variations in 
 color which it is important to notice. Instead of being white they 
 are of a pale sulphur or cream color, the tips of the fore wings also 
 participating in this hue. Boisduval regarded these as a distinct spe¬ 
 cies, which he named Pieris cruciferarum, a name indicating them 
 to be connected with the cruciferous family of plants. Another 
 variety has the veins here broadly marked with dusky or blackish. It 
 was from specimens with the wings thus striped that Dr. Harris drew 
 up his description of the species. Still other specimens occur with 
 the under side of these wings pale yellow, as in cruciferaruvi, and 
 with the veins dusky as in the preceding variety; and these have been 
 treated as a distinct species by Mr. Kirby, under the name Pontia 
 casta , the chaste or unspotted Pontia. These varieties occur asso¬ 
 ciated together, and that they are mere varieties and not distinct 
 species I am assured, from having met with them paired with each 
 other. 
 
 Dr. Harris, in Agassis’ Lake Superior, says: “ Specimens of the 
 females have been seen, thougji rarely, with one or two dusky spots 
 on the upper side oi the fore wings.” I have never met with a speci¬ 
 men showing these spots, and from the indefinite manner in which 
 Dr. II. speaks it is evident he was unacquainted with examples of this 
 kind. Specimens have been presented for my inspection as being 
 this variety, having a faint dusky spot slightly beyond the center of 
 the tore wings and a similar duskiness on their tips, and also a dusky 
 6pot on the margin of the hind wings. I have recently obtained 
 
State Agricultural Society. 
 
 541 
 
 specimens marked identically in tliis manner, and others having a 
 second spot on the fore wings, more faint and small, placed inside ot 
 the sub-central one, which I know to be males and females of P. 
 Ilapce. And we should expect hybrids of this species and oleracea 
 would be marked in this faint manner. But it will be truly remark¬ 
 able if genuine specimens of oleracea vary to present faint spots placed 
 as they are either in Rapce or Protodice. 
 
 This is currently termed the White Butterfly, which name dis¬ 
 tinguishes it with sufficient clearness from all the other butterflies of 
 the region in which it abounds. It was first scientifically named and 
 described by Dr. Harris, in the Hew England Farmer, 1829, vol. 7, 
 p. 402, Pontia oleracea or the pot-herb Pontia being the designa¬ 
 tion he bestowed upon it; and under this name lie noticed it more or 
 less fully in his subsequent publications; his discourse before the 
 Mass. Horticult. Soc., 1832, p. 7; his report to the Legislature on the 
 Insects of Mass, injurious to vegetation, 1841, p. 213 ; his paper on 
 Lepidoptera, in Agassis Lake Superior, 1850, p. 386, where a figure 
 of it is also given ; his Treatise on the Insects of Hew England, 1852, 
 p. 233, and Flint’s edition of this treatise, 1S62, p. 269. Boisduval 
 inserts it under the name Pieris oleracea , in his Species General des 
 Lepidopteres, 1836, vol. 1, p. 518, and on the next page describes 
 Pieris cruciferarum as a distinct species, as we have noticed above. 
 Mr. Kirby in his Fauna of Horth America, published 1837, p. 2S8, 
 alludes to Pontia oleracea by name in connection with his supposed 
 species Pontia casta. 
 
 It will be noticed that these authors disagree as to the generic name 
 of this butterfly. Whilst Dr. Harris and Mr. Ivirby term it a Pontia 
 Boisduval calls it a Pieris. The question thus arises, which of these 
 names are we to adopt as being the correct name for our insect? This 
 is a difficult point to determine, as will appear from a brief notice of 
 the manner in which these names were introduced into the science 
 and the posture in which this subject stands. 
 
 These white butterflies pertain to a section of the old genus Papilio, 
 which Linnseus fancifully designated Danai Candidi or the White 
 Greeks. The Bavarian naturalist, Schrank, in the second volume of 
 his Fauna, which was published in 1802, elevated this section to the 
 rank of a distinct genus, to which he gave the name Pieris. Fabricius, 
 at his death, left a manuscript revision of the order Lepidoptera, 
 which it is to be regretted has never been published. A short abstract 
 of the genera proposed in this manuscript was given by Illiger, in 
 his Entomological Magazine, in the year 1807, the Danai Candidi 
 
542 
 
 Annual Report of New York 
 
 of Linnaeus being divided into two genera, namely, Pontia contain¬ 
 ing the white and Colias the yellow butterflies. Naturalists have 
 since been greatly at variance as to whether Pier is or Pontia should 
 be the name of the genus containing these white butterflies; and 
 since they have more recently come to be further divided into smaller 
 genera, the utmost confusion has arisen, as to the groups to which 
 these names have been applied. Thus Stephens, Curtis and other 
 British authors have given the name Pier is to what are termed the 
 black-veined whites and Pontia to the garden whites. Boisduval, 
 following French precedents, unites these and other genera of the 
 British writers into an extensive genus containing 170 species bearing 
 the name Pieris , whilst some half dozen species from countries bor¬ 
 dering upon the Indian Ocean constitute his genus Pontia. Ochsen- 
 heirnei, a leading German authority, includes these garden whites in 
 quite an extensive genus to which he gives the name Pontia, thus 
 differing diametrically from the French authors iii the insects to 
 which this name is to be applied. We thus have in this as in a num¬ 
 ber of other instances, some even of the most common and best 
 known insects, presented to us under two or three different generic 
 names, by our best authorities in the British, the French and the 
 German schools. Under such embarrassing circumstances how are 
 we to determine which name should be employed ? In many of these 
 cases our rules for regulating these names are not so fully agreed 
 upon and established as to make our way clear. Upon one point, 
 however, there is a general concurrence, to wit, that the name which 
 is first proposed and published for a S 2 iecies or genus must be adopted, 
 and all names which are subsequently given to the same species or 
 genus must be rejected as spurious and mere synonyms. This rule 
 is our only release from the embarrassment of the present case. The 
 name Pieris having been proposed anterior to that of Pontia, it is 
 entitled to be retained. Originally both the white and yellow but¬ 
 terflies were included under this name. But entomologists have all 
 concurred in giving the name Colias to the latter, as proposed by 
 Fabricius. The white butterflies, moreover, were the typical species 
 of the original group. Thus the name Pieris rightfully belongs to 
 them. And it would obviously be unfair to Schrank to supersede the 
 name he presented, by one which was subsequently proposed. We 
 thus find the name Pieris presenting stronger claims for being 
 retained than the name Pontia. And authors are now coming to 
 concur pretty generally in adopting this name. 
 
State Agricultural Society. 
 
 543 
 
 Cabbage Worm, or Turnip Butterfly, Pier is Papce, Linn. 
 
 (Lepidoptera. Papilionidae.) 
 
 Bating the leaves of the cabbage and turnip, and often gnawing into the compact 
 heads of the former; a cylindrical green worm with a pale yellow line along the 
 middle of its back and a row of yellow dots along each side, growing to over an inch 
 in length; its pupa, naked, angular, gray, freckled with black dots, held in a loop 
 on tluT under side of rails, boards, etc., and producing a white butterfly about two 
 inches wide, its wings with black spots. 
 
 Since the preceding account of our native white butterfly, Pieris 
 oleracea. was written, a closely similar but much more destructive 
 cabbage butterfly has invaded our State, and has suddenly become so 
 excessively multiplied and numerous, that it is no exaggeration to 
 say it is now threatening to annihilate the cabbage crop. A new 
 insect enemy of such importance has, of course, received my particu¬ 
 lar attention, and the present volume of Transactions having been 
 delayed in its issue, I am enabled herewith to present, from the 
 observations I have made, a history ot this insect and its transforma¬ 
 tions, which will be found more full and exact than any account which 
 has before appeared, correcting some errors of previous observers, aaid 
 containing several new and interesting facts in the habits and 
 economy of this important accession to the insect fauna of our 
 country. 
 
 During the fore part of the year 1870, our white butterfly made its 
 appearance in the usual manner. One or more of them might be seen 
 almost every day flying about our gardens and yards. On the second 
 day of August four white butterflies were hovering about and alight¬ 
 ing around me in my garden, when one of them was noticed with 
 much surprise as having a round black spot near the middle ot its 
 fore wings. Conjecturing it to be the spotted variety of our white 
 butterfly, and anxious to secure the specimen, I hastened to obtain a 
 net for its capture ; but on being approached, to my great regret it 
 flew wildly away. Next day, however, two similar specimens were 
 noticed and captured, and on examination were discovered to be the 
 European Pieris Papas. And on the following days these spotted 
 butterflies occurred more aud more common, whilst our white butter¬ 
 fly immediately vanished, not one of them being seen either in the 
 gardens or the meadows. And this foreigner became more and 
 more abundant till the close of the season, doing immense injury to 
 the cabbage crop in all our gardens, greatly surpassing every other 
 insect depredator upon this vegetable which we have previously 
 known in our country. Around the city of New York and in New 
 Jersey it began to attract public notice about the middle ol Julv 
 
544 
 
 Annual Report of New York 
 
 two or three weeks earlier than its appearance through the eastern 
 and northern sections of the State. 
 
 lliis insect is a native of the eastern continent, and from time 
 immemorial has been well known in all the countries of Europe, as 
 being in its larva state a cabbage worm of all others the most 
 obnoxious, it is so prone to attack the inner leaves of this vegetable 
 eating its way into the heads and secreting itself therein. Du pou¬ 
 ch el informs us that in consequence of this habit of penetrating into 
 the interior of the plants on which it feeds, it in France is named the 
 Ver du canir, i. e. the Heart-worm. The butterflies are very com¬ 
 mon everywhere, in the gardens and meadows, beginning to appear 
 the last days of April and continuing till the end of the season. 
 
 It was brought to this country in some vessel which discharged its 
 cargo at Quebec. Mr. Riley, in his second report on the Noxious 
 Insects of Missouri, p. 108, suggests it was probably introduced into 
 this country in its egg state, upon a batch of refuse cabbage leaves 
 which were thrown from some vessel, where, after hatching, the 
 young larva managed to And suitable food close by. But the insect 
 does not remain in its egg state the length of time required for such 
 a voyage. The eggs, however, hatching on shipboard, the worms 
 from them would readily sustain themselves on the leaves, and on 
 reaching port where fresh vegetables could be obtained, the few 
 wilted and decaying cabbages remaining would be thrown away, with 
 some of these worms lurking among their leaves, whereby their race 
 was probably started upon our continent. 
 
 It was in the year 1859 that this butterfly was first taken in 
 Quebec, and Mr. J. G. Bowles, in a paper in the Canadian Naturalist 
 for August, 1864, estimates that it had not then extended more 
 than forty miles from Quebec in different directions. In 1866 
 it was captured in the northern parts of Vermont and New Hamp¬ 
 shire, and in 1868 they had reached Lake Winnepesaugee, in the 
 center of the latter State. Last year they were reported as having 
 been taken at Bangor and other places in Maine, and also in New 
 Jersey. The present year (1870), probably favored by the protracted 
 drouth, they have suddenly overspread a large portion of the middle 
 and western States, and have everywhere become so multiplied as to 
 nearly ruin the cabbage crop in most of the gardens. 
 
 The eggs are placed indifferently anywhere upon the under side 
 of the leaves, and somtimes one may be seen on the leaf stalk, on 
 the edge of the leaf, or on its upper surface. They are but slightly 
 attached to the leaf, separating therefrom if gently pressed against. 
 
State Agricultural Society. 
 
 545 
 
 They are so very small that the eye does not notice them unless the 
 attention is turned toward them. They are then readily perceived, 
 being much paler than the leaf of the cabbage or the Swedish 
 turnip. To the eye they appear like little pale yellow grains pro¬ 
 jecting out from the surface of tire leaf, more high than thick. A 
 seed of Timothy grass laid upon the leaf beside one of these eggs is 
 found to be three or four times larger than the egg. They are white 
 when newly laid and acquire a yellow tinge afterward. 
 
 When examined with a magnifying glass, they are found to be 
 cylindrical and shaped like a sugar loaf, with the end which is glued 
 to the leaf cut squarely off and the opposite end tapered to a point 
 with a small portion of the apex cut squarly oli. Their surface is 
 glossy and beautifully sculptured, being fluted or ribbed lengthwise, 
 with intervening grooves, and transversely it is closely and evenly 
 striated with exceedingly line impressed lines. One of these eggs, of 
 which I carefully count the number of the ribs, has twelve only. 
 The length is 0.045, and it is about four times as long as thick. 
 
 The eggs hatch in about a week after they are laid, the inclosed 
 worm eating an opening through the shell of sufficient size to enable 
 it to crawl out therefrom. The evacuated egg shell is whitish and 
 translucent, the elevated ribs appearing as slender opaque white lines. 
 A worm which I watched as it came out of the shell measured 0.065 
 in length. It was glossy and pale, tinged slightly with yellowish. 
 Its body was slightly tapered from before backward, its sutures 
 marked by transverse constricted lines, the intervening segments 
 being roundly elevated. The head was a little thicker than the body 
 and clothed with fine black hairs, the body having finer whitish 
 hairs. 
 
 The first act of the worm is to eat the shell of the egg from which 
 it has been hatched. It first gnaws an opening on one side from the 
 top nearly to the base, and then very slowly nibbles the sides of this 
 opening, and the base of the shell, until it is so cleanly consumed 
 that no indications of the spot where it was placed remain. In the 
 instance observed, the worm was occupied five hours in eating its 
 shell. When this is accomplished it remains at rest for a few hours. 
 
 Its second act is to weave a mat or carpet to give it a more secure 
 foothold upon the leaf. Applying its month to the surface of the 
 leaf and moving it from side to side, it spins therefrom a thread of 
 silk of most extreme fineness, which it fastens to the surface, crossing 
 it in every direction, until it forms a thin film, which to the eye 
 appears like a small glossy spot, very visible in a particular reflection 
 [Ag.] 09 
 
546 
 
 Annual Report of New York 
 
 of the light, looking as though the leaf had there been lightly 
 touched with varnish. If nothing occurs to drive it therefrom, this 
 spot becomes its residence for a few days. And wherever it takes up 
 its abode subsequently, it constructs a similar mat, into the threads 
 of which it can catch the minute hooks of its feet, to render its stand¬ 
 ing more secure than it is upon the naked surface of the leaves. 
 
 It next begins to feed upon the leaf, some six or twelve hours after 
 it lias finished eating the egg shell. At some point slightly outside 
 of the edge of the mat on which it is standing, it eats a round hole, 
 the size of a small pin head, into which it gradually sinks its head, 
 deeper and deeper, until it passes through the parenchyma of the 
 leaf to the skin of its upper surface. As yet it is so small that the 
 eye only perceives it to be a minute cylindrical pale yellow worm, 
 usually lying straight and motionless on the leaf. But as it feeds on 
 the green pulp of the leaf, its body acquires a green color and slowly 
 increases in size, growing about one-thirtieth of an inch in length 
 daily. 
 
 Foreign authors state that in getting its growth this cabbage worm 
 molts or casts its skin “ several times.” I can say with perfect confi¬ 
 dence, it is only three times that it molts. When it first comes from 
 the shell it is extremely soft and its skin admits of much distention 
 before it constricts the worm to such a degree that it requires to 
 throw it off. It is not till it has grown to double its first size and is 
 0.12 to 0.15 long that it casts off its skin the first time. It then 
 feeds and grows till it has again doubled its size and is 0.25 to 0.30 
 long, when it molts a second time. It again doubles its size and 
 becomes about 0.50 long, when it makes its third molt; and the skin 
 which it then acquires it retains till it reaches maturity, throwing it 
 off only when changing into its pupa form. This is the uniform 
 course of these worms, as I have observed in a number of instances. 
 The only aberrations I have noticed in these moltiugs are, that one 
 of them is sometimes deferred till the worm is much larger; yet this 
 does not appear to affect the other moltings of the same worm, for 
 these occur as usual. Thus, in one instance the second molting did 
 not take place until the worm was 0.38 long; yet the third occurred 
 when it was 0.53. In another instance the second molting took place 
 when the worm was 0.30 long, yet the third was deferred until it 
 was 0.64. 
 
 When the worm is about to change its skin it ceases to feed and 
 crawls to a part of the leaf where it will not be liable to be disturbed, 
 commonly placiug itself on the upper side of the leaf, frequently in a 
 
State Agricultural Society. 
 
 547 
 
 groove formed by one of the larger veins, but quite often on the even 
 surface of the leaf. Having selected the spot it will occupy, it spins 
 and weaves a carpet of threads on which to stand securely, it being 
 of the utmost importance to have its hind feet firmly fastened. It 
 stations itself on this carpet, standing witli its head downward toward 
 the base of the leaf. It remains in this position twelve or sometimes 
 twenty-four hours, awaiting its change, sometimes bending its body 
 slightly for a short time and then straightening itself again, raising its 
 head for a moment and then lowering it, or giving a sudden shrug or 
 jerk of its body, especially if anything intrudes upon it. 
 
 The worm at this time presents some alterations in its form and 
 appearance. The most conspicuous of these changes is in the neck or 
 second segment, which is stretched out to double its ordinary length, 
 its anterior part being smooth and shining and strongly narrowing to 
 the base of the head. This smooth glossiness of the neck is a cha¬ 
 racter by which we always know when one of these worms is about 
 to molt. On each side of the neck are six small black dots, four of 
 them placed in a curved row which extends obliquely downward 
 and forward, and the other two are back of these. The head is trans¬ 
 lucent and colorless, with a green cloudiness at its base. On the 
 throat is a smooth protuberance as long as wide, its end rounded and 
 feebly translucent. 
 
 After standing nearly motionless for several hours some slight 
 distortions and writhings of the worm begin to be perceptible. The 
 fore part of the body at times becomes distended and cylindrical and 
 the hind part is less thick and tapering; anon the fore part becomes 
 shrunken and the middle is distended; these phenomena being 
 evidently produced by the movements of the worm pent up within 
 the skin, contracting and elongating itself, and pressing now against 
 one part and then against another. At length, as if it had become 
 impatient witli this long dalliance and delay, a more vigorous and 
 determined pressure upon the anterior end is evident; slight tremors 
 and twitchings of the fibers upon the top and side of the neck are 
 6een, and soon the skin all around the suture at the base of the head 
 parts asunder, the head is pushed forward and with a gentle wriggling 
 the large new head is crowded out from the open end of the skin, 
 with the old head, which is now an empty shell, adhering to and 
 covering its mouth like a muzzle. And continuing to wriggle and 
 squirm and elongate itself, the three first rings and their feet are 
 slipped out from the old skin, which is crowded back, constricting the 
 remainder of the body, the liberated anterior portion being bulged 
 
548 
 
 Annual Report of New York 
 
 out broader than the confined part, and very soft and bright green. 
 The hooka of the hind feet being securely fastened in the threads of 
 tlie carpet on which the worm stands, it now with its liberated anterior 
 feet dra ws itself slowly and gently forward, with some slight writhings, 
 thus freeing more of the body from the old skin. And now at the tip 
 of the body a portion of the 6kin is seen to be evacuated, the end of 
 the body being slipped forward out of it, and only the gray membrane 
 remains there. This membrane is so thin and soft that it sinks down 
 flat upon the leaf, as the end of the body is drawn out of it farther 
 and farther by the worm continuing to crawl forward. In two 
 minutes from the time the skin is first rent open around the neck, 
 the body becomes wholly released from it. The skull of the old head, 
 however, still remains upon the mouth of the worm, clinging thereto 
 with much tenacity. To loosen and detach it the worm repeatedly 
 rubs and presses it against an elevated vein of the leaf or any other 
 projection it finds, persevering in its efforts until it at length succeeds, 
 two minutes more being usually spent in releasing the mouth from 
 this encumbrance. 
 
 It then rests, standing on the leaf with the skull of the old head in 
 front of it, and the cast skin behind it. The latter is about half the 
 length of its body, and is a flattened gray film, notched at its hind 
 end, rounded in front and turned upward along each side. The worm 
 remains at rest commonly about an hour. It then steps forward 
 to the old skull and crowding against it with its head rolls it off 
 from the leaf. It next turns around and walking back to the cast 
 skin commences eating it, wholly consuming it in about five 
 minutes. After this it again rests an hour or more. It then wanders 
 away and goes to feeding on the leaves. 
 
 These cabbage worms have a different aspect when they are 
 approaching maturity from that which they present during the earlier 
 stages of their life. When young their skin is glossy and shining, 
 and they are then more slender and their form cylindrical. This 
 glossiness entirely disappears later in life, and the surface has a pecu¬ 
 liar, somewhat velvety appearance, and the body becomes relatively 
 thicker, with a more robust look, and perceptibly tapers from the 
 middle toward each end. 
 
 When fully matured, these worms are quite uniformly an inch and 
 one-tenth in length; but specimens one-tenth of an inch longer are 
 sometimes met with. They are usually one-tenth of an inch shorter, 
 or more, when they are at rest than when crawling. 
 
State Agricultural Society. 
 
 549 
 
 Their color is pale grass green, varying in the depth of its shade 
 in different specimens, but always darker green than the pale leaves 
 of the cabbage and turnip. They are commonly, but not always 
 paler beneath. And they are particularly distinguished by a pale 
 yellow line on the back, and a row* of small yellow spots along each 
 side. 
 
 When examined with a magnifying glass, tbe suriace of these worms is found to 
 be everywhere bearded with fine short whitish hairs, those upon the back shorter, 
 and in the young worms black and interspersed with small stiff bristles. These 
 hairs arise from numerous minute black elevated points, with which the surface is 
 everywhere studded, the larger points being arranged in transverse rows, a row 
 upon each of the elevated ridges into which the segments are divided by impressed, 
 slender, transverse lines. In addition to these black points, a few pale dots or minute 
 warts are more or less perceptible, one appearing on each side of the middle of the 
 back, on the second elevated ridge of each segment, another lower down on each 
 side, upon the fifth ridge, and some others below these. But on each of the three 
 first rings these pale dots are arranged in a single transverse row, on the first elevated 
 ridge, three dots on each side, placed equidistant from each other. Along the mid¬ 
 dle of the back is a pale yellow line, which is sometimes very faint, or visible only 
 on tlie anterior rings. Low down on each side is a row of dots of a brighter yellow 
 color than the line on the back, one on each segment, placed a little back of the 
 breathing pore, and usually more or less united with the yellow ring around the 
 breathing pore. The breathing pores are small, broad oval, dull white, inclosed 
 in a black ring, which is bordered with yellow, this border being more broad on 
 the fore side and sometimes wanting on the hind side. The head is spheroidal, and 
 as broad as the neck, green and clothed with hairs. The legs and prolegs have the 
 same green color as the body. 
 
 The most curious feat performed by this insect is the fabricating 
 of a little girt or loop in such a manner that it will be around the 
 body of the pupa to hold it suspended in an inclined or horizontal 
 position. It devolves upon the larva to make this girt and place it 
 around its own body in such a manner that when its skin is thrown 
 off to enable the pupa to appear, the girt will not be displaced but 
 will encircle the pupa in the required manner, as the latter is desti¬ 
 tute of any mouth, feet or other members to enable it to make this 
 girt or to adjust it in the proper position around its body. The pro¬ 
 cess to be gone through with is quite similar to that of suspending the 
 arm in a sling fastened around the neck and then drawing the coat 
 sleeve from oil the arm without drawing the sling off with it. 
 
 When the worm has become full fed it remains at rest some 
 twenty-four hours. It then wanders about until it finds a suitable 
 place in which to repose during its pupa state, the under side of a 
 rail, a board lying partly elevated from the ground, or other situa¬ 
 tion where wet will not penetrate to it. And placing itself in the 
 spot it intends to occupy, it again rests for some hours, 
 
550 AmmAZ. Report of New York 
 
 It then prepares to construct the girt for holding the pupa. For 
 doing this work it requires to have a secure foothold, for it must not 
 make a misstep and fall as it sometimes does when it is wandering 
 around. It accordingly proceeds to cover the spot it has selected with 
 a carpet of silken threads. It appears to be the constant habit of 
 these worms to place such a carpet wherever they tarry for a day or 
 more, although 1 do not see this fact noticed by any writer. And 
 being now grown to a larger sfce, with a more arduous labor to per¬ 
 form, a more densely woven and substantial fabric is constructed 
 than on previous occasions. The worm finishes this work by spin¬ 
 ning upon the lower part of the mat a little round wad or hillock of 
 threads, which is frequently of a conical form and pointed at its apex. 
 
 The worm is industriously occupied one or two hours in construct¬ 
 ing this carpet and the little wad at its lower end. As soon as this 
 work is finished it turns around with its head upward, and straighten¬ 
 ing itself on the mat, it moves the tip end of its body around, until 
 it finds the little elevated wad. This it grasps between the hind pair 
 of its feet, securely fastening their hooks into it. And with the feet 
 along the middle of its body it also clings to the mat. It thus stands 
 perfectly secure from falliug, with the feet at the fore part of its body 
 disengaged. 
 
 Without any pause in its work it now proceeds to spin the girt 
 around its body. This curious operation it will be difficult to describe so 
 clearly as to make it easily comprehended by the reader. The worm 
 has no sooner fastened its hind pairs of feet to the mat of threads it 
 has spun and straightened itself, than it begins to bend the fore part 
 of its body around, bringing its head backward to near the middle of 
 one side or the other. Put thus upon the stretch, the anterior half 
 of the body becomes lengthened and more slender than the hind 
 part, and so very pliant and flexible that the worm is able to double 
 it together in every direction. 
 
 And now turning its head backward to one side, it applies its mouth 
 to the surface on which it is standing, near the anterior pair of thick 
 fleshy prolegs, sometimes in a line with these legs, sometimes a little 
 back of them. It there fastens the end of a thread of silk which it 
 spins froip its mouth. It now requires to turn over, in order to carry 
 this thread over its back and fasten it on the opposite side of its body. 
 It accomplishes this in a very peculiar and truly remarkable manner. 
 Releasing its anterior feet from their hold and keeping its body doubled 
 together, it is able to carry its head and the double part of its body 
 up over its back and down upon the opposite side, all this time keep- 
 
State Agricultural Society. 
 
 551 
 
 ing tlie crown of the head and top of the neck inward, face to face 
 with the body, whilst the mouth, the breast and anterior legs face 
 outward. It here fastens the other end of the thread, applying its 
 mouth to the surface at several different points to render the attach¬ 
 ment secure, a minute or more being occupied in turning from one 
 side to the other and fastening the thread. It then turns back again, 
 spinning a second thread in contact with the first, and fastening its 
 end at the same point where the first thread was commenced. 
 
 It does not spin this thread from the forward extremity of its head. 
 Its mouth is turned downward toward its breast, so far that the 
 threads which have been spun pass across the throat and shoulders of 
 the worm when it is turning over, the neck as well as the middle of 
 the body being inclosed in the girt, whereby both the head and the 
 posterior half of the worm are upon the hind side of the girt, and 
 the remainder of the body, doubled into a half circle, is upon the 
 fore side. 
 
 In this manner the worm carries its mouth from one side of the 
 body to the other, each time adding another thread to the girt, until 
 it has formed a skein of threads of sufficient strength to hold its body 
 securely suspended. A much stronger girt is probably formed to 
 hold the pupa through the winter than to sustain it only a week or 
 two in the summer. Reaumur supposes there are about fifty threads 
 in the girt, he having observed thirty-eight spun, and about a dozen 
 had been spun before he began the count. In one instance which I 
 observed, the worm placed but twenty-one threads in its girt, and was 
 occupied twenty minutes irf spinning and fastening this number. In 
 another instance thirty threads were spun, the worm being engaged 
 thirty-five minutes in the work. And both these girts were for win¬ 
 ter pupae. These facts render it evident that the number of threads 
 in the girts is extremely variable. 
 
 When the girt is finished the worm requires to withdraw its head 
 and neck from it. This is quite a nice operation ; for if it should 
 draw its head directly forward out of the loop, it would incur a risk 
 of separating and drawing apart the threads in the bundle, and would 
 probably break asunder some of the threads thus separated. To avoid 
 any such casualty the worm first retracts its head into its neck as far 
 as it can, and then bends it inward, crowding it against and under 
 the side of the body, farther and farther, until the girt slips off from 
 it. This curious expedient will be better understood by the reader 
 from a familiar illustration. If he holds the fore finger of one hand 
 straight and hooks the fore finger of the other hand around it, to free 
 
552 
 
 Annual Report of New York 
 
 the straight finger, he can draw it directly out from the hook, or ne 
 can bend it together, farther and farther, until it slips out. It is in a 
 manner analogous to this latter that the worm slips its head and neck 
 out from the girt without any risk of breaking the threads or parting 
 them asunder. 
 
 Immediately upon the release of its head it usually bends and brings 
 its mouth to one end of the girt, placing numerous short threads there, 
 to fasten it more securely. It then strengthens the other end in the 
 same manner. And now having nothing more to do, it straightens 
 and composes itself to rest. Its body lies quite loose in the girt. 
 But it now contracts and soon becomes so thickened as to fill the girt. 
 Retaining the same form, color and marks that it has previously had, 
 except that it is one-fourtli of an inch shorter, it remains at rest in the 
 loop, sometimes only eighteen or twenty but usually thirty hours 
 before changing to its pupa form. 
 
 Why does this insect take such care to construct this loop and sub¬ 
 ject itself to the arduous labor which its fabrication requires ? It is 
 not at all essential that the pupa should be suspended in this manner. 
 Quite a number of pupae that were gathered in autumn from the 
 under side of the railing of my garden fence, were dropped promis¬ 
 cuously into a cup, in which they laid neglected, in doors, through 
 the winter, the cup being occasionally inspected and shaken, rolling 
 its contents about from side to side. And now, at the end of four 
 months, nine butterflies have come from these pupai within the past 
 two days, and I judge half of them will hatch. If they had been 
 carefully detached and gently laid upon seme dry, soft bedding, with 
 their backs downward, without being further disturbed, I make no 
 doubt they would all have lived and completed their transformations. 
 It thus appears that the loop has no further design than to hold the 
 pupa securely in a dry, clean, airy situation. 
 
 When the change to the pupa form approaches, the body becomes 
 thicker anteriorly and its color lades to dull yellowish green. The 
 breathing pores appear as small black dots, each inclosed in an elliptic 
 dull yellow spot; and slightly above them a new mark, a dull white 
 line becomes quite distinct, extending from a little forward of the 
 loop backward nearly to the tip. Dull pale purplish stains appear 
 upon the skin, this color sometimes forming a wavy streak on each 
 side of the back of the second and third rings. The second ring 
 becomes still more distended by the pressure from within, stretching 
 it to double the length of the rings next it on each side. The suture 
 between the head and the first rjng is ever and anon put upon the 
 
State Agricultural Society. 
 
 553 
 
 stretch, and in its upper part a slender silvery line is at times visible; 
 and subsequently the skin here parts asunder and the glossy green 
 surface of the pupa becomes perceptible in this cleft, which opens 
 when the parts are put upon the stretch and closes when the pressure 
 beneath relaxes. 
 
 And now all forward of the' loop becomes strongly pressed upon 
 from within and is much distorted and its color changed to very dark 
 purplish, dingy and livid. This steady, strong pressure from within 
 continues ten or fifteen minutes. At length the skin on top of the 
 second ring suddenly parts asunder its whole length and the glossy 
 surface of the pupa is crowded strongly upward in this elliptic open¬ 
 ing. At the same time the top of the head opens apart; and at this 
 moment there is a strong constriction forming a narrow belt around 
 the neck; but with the outward pressure before and behind it, 
 this first ring now parts asunder, and the whole anterior part of the 
 pupa rises out of the opened larva skin, which slips downward from 
 off this fore end of the pupa, the edge of the old skin at this moment 
 extending from the back a little forward of the loop, diagonally for¬ 
 ward and downward upon each side. The skin is next to he slipped 
 backward out of the loop. This is accomplished by the pupa con¬ 
 tracting and elongating its body a few times and simultaneously 
 wriggling itself from side to side. These motions crowd the very 
 thin film of skin rapidly backward, out from the loop and onward 
 toward the tip. Back of the loop the pupa bulges out as it is 
 released, little by little, from the constriction of the larva skin, and 
 this abrupt enlargement pushes against and aids to crowd the skin 
 backward, step by step, each time the pupa elongates itself. It is 
 principally by a vermicular motion, a succession of contractions and 
 elongations, that the abdomen of the pupa appears to crawl out from 
 the larva skin, the process resembling an earth worm ( Lumbricus) 
 crawling out from its hole in the ground. The skin as it is crowded 
 back becomes wrinkled into little plaits and folds. It is pushed back 
 farther and farther, until it finally forms a crumpled soft gray mass 
 of thin membrane and hairs around the tip of the body. 
 
 The last act of this metamorphosis is very curious. The pupa is 
 held only by the loop around its middle and the tip of its body 
 imbedded in the crumpled larva skin which remains fastened to the 
 little hillock of threads by the hooks which belonged to the hind feet. 
 The pupa now, by contracting, draws the end of its body out of the 
 crumpled mass of skin, and is thereupon held in place by the loop 
 alone. Its body ends in a pair of soft pincers, and it is wonderful to 
 [Ac..] VO 
 
554 
 
 Annual Report of New York 
 
 observe how dexterously as soon as these pincers are drawn out from 
 the mass of old skin they pass back over this mass, and then bending 
 inward vigorously push the mass forward and briskly feel around its 
 farther side, till they tind the little hillock of threads and instantly 
 grasp it firmly. But the crumpled mass of skin and hairs crowds 
 against and discommodes the hind part of the body. And how can 
 the pupa relieve itself from this discomfort, having no mouth, no 
 feet, wherewith to dislodge the mass and move it aside ? The 
 expedient to which it resorts is most singular and admirable. 
 Immediately as the curved tip fastens to the little hillock of 
 silken threads a brisk circular motion of the body commences, like 
 that of a pestle carried around and around in a mortar; not a semi¬ 
 circular motion, as some authors have stated. Hereby the old skin 
 is pressed against at every turn and is gradually broken from its 
 attachments and finally drops to the ground. 
 
 The change now described takes place with great rapidity. Reau- 
 mur terms it the affair of a moment. From the opening of the skin on 
 the back of the neck till the detachment and fall of the crumpled mass 
 of old skin, it has been five minutes, in two instances in which I have 
 noticed the time. 
 
 It will be observed by those who are versed in what has been pub¬ 
 lished on this subject, that my recital of the manner in which the 
 pupa releases the hind part of its body, from the larva skin is quite 
 different from that of Reaumur, our principal authority on this sub¬ 
 ject hitherto. The observations of this distinguished philosopher and 
 naturalist are so accurate and he describes them with such clearness 
 that they have justly been universally confided in. And probably 
 no one since his day has investigated this metamorphosis of the turnip 
 butterfly, from deeming his history of it to comprise all the facts 
 and to be perfectly authentic. 
 
 According to Reaumur’s account, when the larva skin has been 
 pushed back so far as to cover only about one-third of the length of 
 the pupa, the insect ceases to shorten and lengthen itself, it being 
 more convenient for it to directly withdraw the extremity of the 
 pupa, and then push it back along the outside of the empty larva 
 skin till it reaches the little cone or hillock of silk threads, into which 
 it fixes the minute hooks at the extremity of the tail. We have 
 already seen it is the habit of the larva when molting to draw the 
 hind part of its body out of the old skin, in much the same manner 
 that is stated of the pupa, accomplishing this by means of its three 
 anterior pairs of feet. But the pupa having no feet or other external 
 
State Agricultural Society. 555 
 
 members, I know not bow it can draw the end of its body out of the 
 larva skin, except by shortening it, although Reaumur says it has 
 ceased to shorten and lengthen itself. And several considerations 
 seem to render it wholly impossible for the pupa to release the end 
 of its body in the manner stated. Hanging as it does closely girt 
 about by a loop around its middld, its body cannot be moved forward 
 a third of its length without breaking the loop. The loop it should 
 be observed is more or less imbedded in and glued to the surface, 
 whereby the releasing of the bind end from the larva skin in the 
 manner stated must be effected wholly by the half of the bod}’ back 
 of the loop. This half of the body is three-eighths of an inch long, 
 with two-thirds of this length covered by the larva skin with its tip 
 fastened to the little hillock of silk threads; being thus situated I 
 know not how it can draw itself out of the larva skin except this 
 half of the body shortens itself to one-third of its length, and this it 
 is obviously incapable of doing. But it is unnecessary to pursue this 
 subject further. Suffice it to say that with Reaumur’s statement 
 in my thoughts and my attention fixed upon what was taking place, 
 I have distinctly seen the vermicular motion continue, the body con¬ 
 tracting and lengthening alternately and crowding the larva skin back¬ 
 ward, further and further, until all the segments of the body except 
 the last were released. And how Reaumur came to fall into the error 
 it thus appears he has done is unaccountable to me. 
 
 The pup;e are three-quarters of an inch long, and about one-fourth 
 as thick. They are quite rough and uneven anteriorly, with pro¬ 
 jecting ridges and angular points on the back, and the head pro¬ 
 longed into a tapering horn. In their color they are variable as the 
 chameleon, the same pupa sometimes changing to a wholly different 
 color in twenty-four hours. Is their color influenced by that of the 
 surface on which they are placed ? A worm which I confined in a 
 stone jar, which was dark-brown inside, girt itself to this surface, and 
 changed to'one of the darkest colored pupae I have seen. They are 
 frequently green, or bluish-green when they have newly entered the 
 pupa state, but this color fades after a time. Others are flesh-colored. 
 Others are brown, often of a pale umber tint. Their most common 
 color is gray, usually pale or ash gray, and they are freckled with 
 numerous black dots. When the time is near for them to give out 
 the butterfly the wing-sheaths become bright yellow, and show also 
 the black spots of the wings, whereby we are able to ascertain the 
 sex of the butterfly some weeks previous to its birth. 
 
556 
 
 annual Report of New York 
 
 These pup® vary somewhat in their size, but are commonly 0.75 long, 0.20 broad, 
 and 0.20 high. 1 hey are divided into thirteen segments, by transverse sutures which 
 are for the most part quite distinct. On the back, which is downward as the pupa 
 reposes suspended in its loop, the first suture crosses the anterior part of the elevated 
 nose-like protuberance, frequently making a slight notch therein. The second seg¬ 
 ment or prothorax case is large and strongly elevated in the middle, forming the 
 nose-like prominence just mentioned. Often a slight notch in the hind part of this 
 prominence shows the suture between this segment and the third, which is short, 
 and the suture between it and the still shorter fourth segment is quite faint. But 
 this fourth segment is readily recognized by the loop which passes across its middle. 
 The fifth or first abdominal segment is quite distinct and equals both the preceding 
 segments in its length; and on each side it is elevated into a compressed keel-like 
 edge, the anterior part of which projects up in an obtuse angular point. The sixth 
 segment is still more elevated on each side, the edge jutting up into a sharp point or 
 angle. The following segments are plainly marked by conspicuous sutures. They 
 on the back are roof-shaped, with an elevated line along the middle, and another, 
 less prominent, along each side. On the under side these segments are rounded, 
 forming a half cone. 
 
 Its colors are too variable and evanescent to admit of an exact description. When 
 it has newly entered the pupa state it is frequently bright green, with a bright yel¬ 
 low line along the middle of the back and a white lino on each side, and some black 
 marks and numerous dots. Of these colors the last only remains, the others fading 
 away, and the pupa usually becomes dull gray, marked with black as follows: A 
 stripe on each side of the conical horn in front; a spot on the apex of the nose-like 
 prominence; a spot on the angular points on each side of the fifth and sixth scg-. 
 meuts; numerous small dots symmetrically placed, the more conspicuous ones being 
 a row along the middle of the back, placed one at the anterior edge of each abdom¬ 
 inal segment; a lateral row of smaller ones, placed on the anterior angles of the 
 same segments; four small ones in a transverse row across the middle of the sixth 
 segment, and six in a similar row on the seventh segment; numerous fine dots on 
 the veins of the wing-sheaths, and a row of larger ones alternating with the tips of 
 the veins. , 
 
 In summer this insect remains in its pupa state sometimes only a 
 week. Therefore, as it continues about a week in the egg, and the 
 larva completes its growth in a fortnight, and then reposes two or 
 three days suspended in its loop, these cabbage worms can grow up 
 to their perfect form in one month from the time the eggs are laid. 
 'I'lie duration of this chrysalis state, however, is extremely variable. 
 This is the more remarkable, as the larva is so constant in com¬ 
 pleting its growth in fourteen days. Joseph L’Admiral, long ago, 
 published the dates when five of these cabbage worms took on their 
 pupa form, and when these pupae gave out the butterflies. I have 
 completed similar observations in four instances, having several 
 others still in hand to become completed the coming season. These 
 observed instances, combined, form an interesting table, showing 
 how very irregular is the duration of the chrysalis state in this spe¬ 
 cies, no other insect within my knowledge being thus erratic. Each 
 
State Agricultural Society. 557 
 
 of my observations began in August, those of L’Admiral, in July 
 and September. 
 
 Table Showing the Duration of the Pupa State at Different 
 
 Dates. 
 
 Pupa state began. 
 
 Butterfly came out. 
 
 Pupa state lasted. 
 
 July 
 
 8 . 
 
 
 19. 
 
 . iii 
 
 days. 
 
 a 
 
 20. 
 
 
 5. 
 
 . 16 
 
 u 
 
 August 
 
 19. 
 
 
 26. 
 
 . 7 
 
 a 
 
 « 
 
 21. 
 
 
 8. 
 
 . 109 
 
 « 
 
 a 
 
 22. 
 
 
 2 . 
 
 . 11 
 
 a 
 
 « 
 
 29 . 
 
 u 
 
 7 . 
 
 . 9 
 
 a 
 
 September 
 
 4 . 
 
 a 
 
 23 . 
 
 . 19 
 
 a 
 
 << 
 
 5 . 
 
 
 28 . 
 
 . 265 
 
 a 
 
 U 
 
 16 . 
 
 
 1 . 
 
 . 197 
 
 a 
 
 Its change from the pupa to the perfect state is in no respect dif¬ 
 ferent from that of the white butterfly, narrated on a preceding 
 page. 
 
 From the other white cabbage butterflies this species is distinguished 
 by having the fore wings blackish at their tips and with a round 
 black spot in the middle slightly beyond the center, the females 
 having a smaller second spot between this one and the inner edge; 
 and both sexes having a small black spot on the outer edge of the 
 hind wings a little beyond the middle; its size also, measured from 
 tip to tip of the opened wings, being two inches, but frequently vary¬ 
 ing to a quarter of an inch smaller or larger than this, the larger 
 ones being females. 
 
 The head is coated over with straight white and black hairs of different lengths, 
 the black ones less numerous on the under side. The eyes are large, protuberant and 
 hemispberical; in the living specimen grayish green, with four rows of movable 
 black spots, the central spot being of a deeper or coal black color; in the dead speci¬ 
 men dull brown and without spots. The antenna; are 0.40 long, and composed of 
 thirty joints, Which are shorter at each end than in the middle. They are slender 
 and thread-like, with the tips enlarged into a knob of an elongated egg-shaped form 
 with the larger end outward. Their colors are prettily arranged in new and unrubbed 
 specimens, the outer and under sides being white; on the upper side a continuous 
 black line; on the inner side a row of long oval dark brown spots, one on each joint 
 extending from its base nearly to the tip; these spots separated from the black line 
 above by a slender white line, which is widened toward the apex of each joint, and 
 there sends downward a transverse band connecting this white line with the white 
 under side. The knob is flattened or spoon-shaped and black on the concave inner 
 side, white on the lower edge and outer side; the upper part of this side being 
 sprinkled with black scales which sometimes form bands of this color j the tips pale 
 yellow. The thorax is black and clothed with soft hairs of a white or bluish white 
 color. The abdomen is black and covered with white appressed scales, less densn 
 
558 
 
 Annual Report of New York 
 
 upon the back; its under side white and coated with white scales. The legs are 
 covered with white scales, and the under side of the thighs with white hairs; and theie 
 is frequently a black stripe on the thighs and one or two slender black lines on the 
 shanks and feet. The wings are white and at their bases dusted more or less with 
 black scales. The fore wings frequently have black scales sprinkled along then- 
 outer or costal border its whole length. At their tips is a large triangular 
 grayish black spot, which is longer on the outer than on the hind side, and on its 
 inner side straightish, frequently with a concavity toward its inner end. In the 
 female this spot is larger, but effaced on its inner end, whereby it has more of a 
 squarish than a triangular form. Slightly beyond the center of these wings is a large 
 black dot or round spot; and between this and the inner edge, in the female, is a 
 second spot, which is usually smaller and less regular in its form, with its edges more 
 indefinite. And in this sex is frequently a faint gray streak on the inner border of 
 these wings, extending from opposite the inner spot forward toward the base. The 
 hind wings in both sexes have a black spot on the outer margin a little back of the 
 middle, which is smaller than those on the upper wings, and its edges indefinite. On 
 the under side, the fore wings are white and sprinkled with black scales at the base 
 and along the outer border sometimes to the middle. Along the inner side of the 
 rib vein toward the base is a broad stain of yellow, more distinct in the females. 
 The tips are pale yellow; and in both sexes here are two black spots, corresponding 
 with those on the upper side in the female, but commonly smaller. The hind wings are 
 pale yellow, and dusted over witli small black scales, which are more numerous 
 toward the base; the outer edge is brighter yellow near the base; and no vestiges of 
 the black spot of the upper side are here visible in either sex. 
 
 These butterflies are liable to vary greatly in their markings, the 
 spots being larger or smaller, coal black or pale, sometimes quite 
 small and dim, and sometimes one and another of them totally dis¬ 
 appearing. In the south-eastern part of Europe, a small variety 
 occurs in which all the spots are wanting except that on the upper 
 side of the fore wings. This has been treated by Ilubner as a dis¬ 
 tinct species, under the name P. Ergane. 
 
 Another variety, also small in size and coming out earlier than the 
 others appear, having the bases of the wings black, the tips of the 
 fore pair slightly, if at all, blackish, the second spot on these wings 
 double or composed of two small dots, and the under side of the hind 
 wings very densely dusted over with black scales, was long regarded 
 as a distinct species, named P. Metro, by Stephens. Among some 
 late pupae, kept in a warm room the present winter, one has given 
 me a butterfly of this variety. 
 
 Westwood says: “Some females have the upper side dirty pale 
 buff.” I have not met with any in this country thus colored. Curtis 
 states that he has a male “ which has all the wings of a bright yel¬ 
 low color.” I possess two specimens of this kind, both as deep yel¬ 
 low, and nearly the same tint as our common yellow butterfly, CoUas 
 Philodice. These both came from larvae which, when nearly grown, 
 had been placed in boxes with some leaves on which to feed and were 
 
State Agricultural Society. 
 
 559 
 
 afterward forgotten, and completed their transformations thus closely 
 inclosed. It would hence appear that seclusion from the light tends 
 to produce this yellow variety. 
 
 This species is very common in all the countries of Europe, from 
 Lapland to the Mediterranean. Boisduval states that it also inhabits 
 Barbary, Egypt, Siberia, Asia Minor and Cashmere. 
 
 In a collection received from the late M. S. Culbertson, D. D., 
 Missionary of the Presbyterian Board at Shanghai, China, are a dozen 
 specimens which present such slight and unessential differences that 
 I cannot deem them anything else than a local variety of this species. 
 In the males the spot at tip of the fore wings is larger, extending the 
 same distance on the hind side of the wing that it does on the costal 
 side, and is darker colored from being less dusted with scales, and 
 these scales are sky blue instead of white, and are most numerous 
 along the costal side of the spot. The second spot on the under side 
 has opposite it on the upper side a few black scales forming a faint 
 cloud in most of the examples. On their under side the fore wings 
 are more broadly stained with sulphur yellow on their outer base, this 
 stain being faintly prolonged along the costa to the yellow spot at the 
 tip; and upon the inner side of this yellow stain is a faint brown or 
 smoky streak, formed by a cluster of black scales in the hind part of 
 the discoidal cell toward its outer side ; this streak being distinct and 
 quite obvious to the eye in each of these examples, yet in none of 
 my American or European specimens do I perceive any traces of it. 
 The tips of the fore wings beneath, and the surface of the hind wings 
 are pale ochre and brighter yellow than in our insects, and the hind 
 wings are less dusted with black scales, these scales being most dense 
 in the inner half of the discoidal cell, whilst the outer part of this 
 cell and all the hind half of the wing is nearly or quite destitute of 
 them. In the female the black spot on the tip of the fore win^s is 
 larger, more broad and more nearly square than in our insects. 
 
 This new insect, on this side of the Atlantic, is currently termed 
 the cabbage worm. In Europe, everywhere in company with it is 
 another very similar but larger species, which is called the cabbage 
 butterfly, its scientific name also being Pieris Brassicee; and this 
 smaller species is distinguished by the names small white butterfly, 
 small white garden butterfly, small white cabbage butterfly, and in 
 conformity with its scientific name it is also termed the turnip but¬ 
 terfly. This last we regard as its most appropriate name, its larva 
 being equally common on the leaves of the turnip and ruta-baga as on 
 those of the cabbage ; though as they do but little injury to the tur- 
 
560 
 
 Annual Report of New York 
 
 nip crop their presence upon it is noticed much less than on the cab¬ 
 bage. 
 
 It received its scientific name from Linnaeus, first in his Fauna of 
 Sweden, published in 1746, where, and in his subsequent works, he 
 termed it Papilio (Danai Gandidi) Rapoe, the last or specific name 
 being the old Latin and also the botanical name of the tuniip. And 
 by this name only it has been known to naturalists from that day to 
 this, it having escaped from becoming overloaded with synonyms 
 as are so many of the common European insects. Although a multi 
 tude of writers have noticed it, it is a pleasure to see its several vari¬ 
 eties have been mistaken and proposed as species only in two or three 
 instances. 
 
 A prominent trait of this insect, is its quiet peaceful disposition. 
 The larvae avoid any intrusion upon each other, and upon other 
 insects. Each one appears to feel it has a right to the leaf on which 
 it finds itself placed, and is reluctant to forsake it and go to another 
 leaf, as if fearful it might thereby be encroaching on the domain of 
 another. Whoever has fed these worms, in cages, will have noticed 
 that when fresh leaves are supplied to them, they do not begin to 
 feed on them until the leaf they have been eating is consumed, or 
 has become so stale and dried that it is no longer edible. The young 
 worms are particularly timorous in this respect. When a small piece 
 containing a young worm is cut out from a leaf, it soon becomes so 
 dry and hard that the worm is unable to eat it, yet it appears to feel 
 it has no right to any' other leaf than that. This dried fragment, 
 with the worm standing upon it, being placed upon a fresh leaf, the 
 worm, pressed with hunger, after awhile crawls hesitatingly to the 
 edge, and reaching off begins to feed upon the fresh leaf. But if any 
 slight jar or other motion occurs, it instantly draws back, as if it felt 
 guilty of pilfering a dinner which belonged to another, and it stealthily 
 glides to the middle of the dry fragment, seemingly to make it appear 
 that it has not been intruding outside of its own domain. 
 
 If an aphis is located on the under side of a leaf on which a worm 
 is feeding, the latter avoids encroaching upon, or in any way molest¬ 
 ing it, leaving untouched a portion of the leaf a half inch or more in 
 extent around the aphis. 
 
 When a worm is jostled or otherwise annoyed by another worm, 
 an aphis, fly or insect wandering about upon the leaf, it jerks its head 
 violently from side to side, which usually has the effect of turning 
 the intruder away. But if this resort fails, the worm stoically sub¬ 
 mits, and without further resistance allows the other to crowd against 
 
State Agricultural Society. 561 
 
 it, or mount over its back. It never attempts to bite another insect 
 or larva, however much it is molested by it. 
 
 Another trait of this cabbage worm which merits to be particularly 
 noticed, is its strong vitality, its remarkable hardiness and tenacity 
 of life. Several facts already stated show that both the larva; and the 
 pupae survive such disasters and mistreatment as would be deemed 
 fatal to them. And I may further add to what has been related, that 
 water does not appear to drown these worms, and freezing does not 
 appear to kill them. Upon a chilly day, in the middle of November, 
 meeting with a half grown worm which appeared to be so torpid with 
 cold that it was unable to crawl, I placed it in a concavity in a cab¬ 
 bage leaf which was lying upon the ground, proposing to observe it 
 further. A cold rain coming on, filled with water the hollow in the 
 leaf, in which this worm was lying, and the following night this water 
 froze to ice. Going to it the next morning, and finding the worm 
 imbedded inside the solid ice, I placed it upon a dry leaf in the sun¬ 
 shine, where the ice gradually melted, and the worm becoming dry 
 was found to be alive. Bringing it in doors, its neck was found to 
 be swollen, showing that it was preparing to cast off its old skin, and 
 would therefore remain quiescent until this was accomplished.’ It, 
 however, turned its head around whenever it was touched, and 
 the next night it changed its skin, thus showing that it survived 
 an immersion of eight or ten hours in water of icy coldness, and a 
 freezing inside of a cake of ice. 
 
 Being thus strongly tenacious of life, those offensive and poisonous 
 substances which are repulsive and fetal to many larva;, will have little 
 it any effect upon these worms. 
 
 Most fortunately, nature has provided many natural enemies to 
 these cabbage butterflies, whereby in their native haunts they are 
 constantly preyed upon and restrained from becoming unduly numer¬ 
 ous. But having newly arrived on our continent, they find they are 
 here released from their most inveterate destroyers, and are therefore 
 able to multiply without check or hindrance. Sooner or later, how¬ 
 ever, these foreign destroyers will follow them to our shores, or some 
 of our American predaceouAnsects will learn to assail and prey upon 
 
 them, whereby they will cease to be the formidable evil which they 
 now are. •' 
 
 The birds, by European writers, are- ranked as most important 
 destroyers of the larva; of this and the larger-cabbage butterfly. Mr 
 Haworth states that “small birds destroy incredible numbers of them 
 as food and should be encourged. I once observed a titmouse (/Ws 
 1Ag.| 71 
 
Annual Report of New York 
 
 562 
 
 major) take five or six large ones to its nest in a very few minutes. Tn 
 inclosed gardens, sea-gulls, with their wings cut, are of infinite ser¬ 
 vice. I had one eight years, that lived entirely all the whde upon 
 the insects, slugs and worms which he found in the garden. Poultry, 
 of any sort, will soon clear a piece of ground.” 
 
 But the most efficient enemies of these butterflies are their internal 
 parasites. These are mostly very small ichneumon flies, resembling 
 winged ants. The most common of these parasites is the Microgasier 
 glomeratus. This minute fly punctures the skin of the cabbage 
 worm in thirty to sixty places, inserting an egg in each puncture, 
 from which a maggot hatches, which feeds internally upon the worm, 
 weakening it to such an extent that it dies immediately after these 
 maggots have got their growth and issued from it. 
 
 Another important parasite is the Pteromalus puparum, which, on 
 finding a pupa which has newly entered this state, places upon its 
 surface her whole stock of eggs,'to the number of two or three hun¬ 
 dred And the exceedingly minute maggots which hatch from these 
 eggs, eat into the pupa, and there complete their growth and trans¬ 
 formations in about a fortnight, the tiny flies then coming out m a 
 swarm, hovering and dancing around the dead pupa until the sexes 
 have paired, when the females fly away to find new pupae on which 
 to place their eggs. 
 
 Another ichneumon fly is much larger, and distributes its eggs 011 c 
 to each pupa. Still, another exceedingly minute fly is reared in the 
 eggs of these butterflies. 
 
 As yet, I have met with no internal parasites infesting these larvie 
 or pupae in this country. Mr. Provansher, of Quebec, however, has 
 obtained a two-winged fly from one of the pupae, which resembles one 
 of our common flesh flies. 
 
 Other predaceous insects and arachnidans slay and feed upon these 
 -cabbage worms, and some of these slaughter such numbers that they 
 are nearly as efficient destroyers as are their parasitic enemies. “ 
 the first of September, upon a plant which had nine leaves, the largest 
 one6 being five or six inches broad, I counted seventy-one eggs. s 
 ■the plant could not sustain one-third #f this number of worms, 1 
 let these eggs remain undisturbed, to observe their subsequent ns- 
 tory. Five days afterward, there were on this plant twenty infant 
 worms, and only thirteen eggs. Thus thirty-eight eggs, more than 
 half of the previous number, had disappeared. On the under side ot 
 the leaves, in several places, small holes, two or three contiguous to 
 each other, were eaten into the pulp of the leaf, showing that young 
 
State Agricultural Society. 
 
 563 
 
 worms a day or two old had been feeding in these places. The query 
 therefore arose, what had destroyed these worms? On coming to 
 inspect the leaves more particularly the agent in this destruction was 
 quite evident. Small spiders were observed inhabiting the under 
 side of the leaves, four to eight in number upon the larger lower 
 leaves, some of them standing openly exposed upon the leaf, others 
 nestled under a slight web. They had apparently been attracted to 
 this situation to feed upon these worms, and one of them was seen a 
 few days afterward in the act of eating a small worm which it had 
 killed. By slaughtering such numbers of these worms immediately 
 after they hatch from the eggs and before they have eaten the cab¬ 
 bage leaves so as to occasion any damage to them, they render us an 
 important service. 
 
 As seen upon the cabbage leaves these spiders are one-tenth of an 
 inch m length. They are of a waxy white color, smooth and glossy 
 with two black parallel lines along the middle of the fore body, the 
 lines united at their hind end. The abdomen or hind body is globu¬ 
 lar and usually of a yellowish tinge, with a broad stripe of opake 
 milk-white along the middle of the back and a narrower one on each 
 side. They have eight small black glass-like eyes in front, placed in 
 two rows. The four middle ones are placed at the angles of a square 
 and the two outer ones on each side are united together. They will 
 thus pertain to the genus Theridion. This species does not appear 
 to have been described either by Prof. Hentz or Baron Walcknaer 
 I meet with it so common upon the under side of cabbage leaves 
 that, although it may hereafter be found equally common in other 
 situations, it may appropriately be termed the cabbage spider, Then- 
 dton Brassim. It grows to nearly double the size above stated and 
 then varies somewhat from the markings it presents when youim as 
 noticed in the following description. 
 
 I hcCABSAGB SproEii, Thendwn Bnmim, grows to 0.18 in length, and is of a waxy 
 vlnte color, with two black parallel lines along the middle of its fore body endow 
 anteriorly near the eyes, and confluent at their hind ends. The abdomen is globular 
 and in young specimens shows a stripe of opake milk-white upon the middle of the 
 
 Sr to'a nobu T°V ld °; tUat UP ° n thB bftCk being broad anteriorly and taper- 
 ng o a pomt at Us bind end, its anterior half having a waxy white line along the 
 
 lamtin? t a transverse Une of the same color crossing the stripe and slightly 
 
 stpara ing forward end from the remainder, this stripe being also three-lobed 
 
 smalle°i lobe ’ t! 6 l0ngCSt; th ° lateral stri P es also having similar but 
 sn a le. lobes on their upper side, the ends of which project into the sinuses between 
 
 mill- whTt . T 1 8triPe ' In adult spRcimcn3 the ^ole upper side is opake 
 milk-white, winch color on the sides is broken into minute dots. The under side is 
 
 waxy white, with a black dot on each side of the tip, and a third one on the base 
 
564 
 
 Annual Report of New York 
 
 The legs are long and slender, the first pair being longest and the second pair next, 
 the third being slightly shorter than the fourth pair. They are ornamented with a 
 a black band on the tips of all the shanks except the third pair. 
 
 The female incloses lier eggs in a globular ball of a white color, 
 
 two-tenths of an inch in diameter. 
 
 The Underleaf Spider, Theridion hypophyllum. Another spider, 
 a pretty little species, occurs on the under side ot the same lea\ es 
 with the preceding, and is about half as numerous. It probably 
 feeds upon the young cabbage worms, but I have no positive evidence 
 that it does so. 'Though it is no larger than the preceding species, it is 
 much more conspicuous from its bright colors. Its forebody and 
 thighs are bright cherry red, its globular abdomen is black and shin¬ 
 ing* and four punctures or impressed points are seen upon the forepart 
 of its back, at the angles of a square, whereof the hind side is longest. 
 Its legs are black or blackish, and more short and thick than in the 
 foregoing species. The chelicefs of the male are large and black. 
 
 This is a common species, and inhabits the under side ot the leaves 
 of forest trees, as well as those of garden vegetables. I have also 
 met with it repeatedly on the surface of the snow in forests, on mild 
 days in winter. On the leaves of trees, I have noticed it feeding on 
 plant lice. 
 
 This lovely little spider 1 have sometimes thought might perhaps 
 be a variety of the Theridion roscidum of Prof. Hentz. It, how¬ 
 ever, is quite constant in its colors, and I have never met with a 
 specimen having spots on the abdomen, as is called for by the descrip¬ 
 tion of that species. 
 
 These cabbage worms are also destroyed by some of the rapacious 
 burrs of the order Hemiptera, insects which are commonly recognized 
 hyUie flattened form of their bodies, and the disgusting bed-bug odor 
 which they emit. Though most of these bugs subsist upon the 
 juices of vegetables, several of the species, with their sharp needle- 
 iike beaks, pierce the larvae of other insects, and suck out the fluid 
 contents of their bodies. Some of these predaceous bugs become 
 residents of the cabbage patch, upon discovering the ample supply ot 
 food which is there presented them. One of them, in its larva, its 
 pupa or its perfect state, may occasionally be seen standing on the 
 edo-e of a cabbage leaf, with a worm hanging downward from its 
 beak, dead, flaccid and doubled together. It is occupied about six 
 hours in sucking the fluids of one of these large worms, and this 
 meal usually suffices it for forty-eight hours, after which another 
 worm becomes its victim. 
 
State Agricultural Society. 
 
 5G5 
 
 The important question remains to be considered ; how can we 
 most successfully combat this new enemy and rescue our cabbage 
 crop from the destruction which appears to be impending over ii ' 
 And the thought which first occurs in connection with this inquiry is, 
 that having received this evil from Europe we can from thence he 
 informed of its best remedies, aware that during the centuries of 
 experience they have there had with this enemy every measure for its 
 destruction which promises to be of value will no doubt have been 
 fully tested, and those which are most efficacious will have been con¬ 
 
 clusively ascertained. 
 
 And we find that about the only measure recommended by Euro¬ 
 pean writers is, searching out, capturing and destroying the insect 
 in all the different stages of its growth. Kollar says: “ The best way 
 to destroy them is picking off and killing the caterpillars, as well as 
 the pupae, the latter being found attached to adjacent trees, hedges 
 and walls.” Duponchel, in his Iconograph of Caterpillars, vol. l^p. 
 50, says the most efficacious measure for destroying them will be for 
 the gardeners to employ their idle children in capturing for the 
 slaughter all the white butterflies which are flying around their cab¬ 
 bages, as these are mostly females seeking places to lay their eggs; 
 and slaying one female before she begins to lay, we destroy one entire 
 generation of caterpillars, composed perhaps of a hundred to a hundred 
 and fifty individuals. lie also recommends searching for and destroy¬ 
 ing the eggs and the pupae. 
 
 Setting children to capturing all the butterflies that come around 
 the plat of cabbages, stimulating them to increased diligence by a 
 trifling reward for a certain number caught, I regard as the most effec¬ 
 tual mode of keeping the crop free from this enemy. They should be 
 furnished with a net, a bag made of musquito netting or some similar 
 fabric, about three feet long and eighteen inches diameter, its mouth 
 sewed to a hoop of stout wire with the ends securely fastened to a 
 handle some four feet long. With such a net the butterflies will be 
 leadily caught, as they are commonly slow in their flight. 
 
 Many of the pupae may be entrapped by placing pieces of boards 
 between the rows of cabbages, elevated two or three inches above the 
 ground, to the under side of which numbers will resort to pass this 
 stage of their lives. A half dozen boxes open at the bottom and top, 
 used for protecting hills of cucumbers from the striped yellow beetle, 
 having been left lying upon their sides three yards distant from a row 
 of ruta-bagas, were found with fifteen pupae in them, showing that 
 
566 Annual Report of State Agricultural Society. 
 
 the insect resorts to the nearest covert it can find, in which to pass its 
 
 pupa state. ' 
 
 To search the cabbage leaves over and with scissors cut asunder 
 every worm that can be found, repeating this search so often as is 
 required, is a task so formidable, that many persons, instead thereof, 
 have dusted their plants with some powder or sprinkled them with 
 some solution, hoping hereby to destroy at least a portion ot the 
 worms or banish them from the plants. But, I am informed by seve¬ 
 ral persons, that of the many substances of which they have thus 
 made trial, not one has appeared to possess any efficacy. I notice, 
 however, that my esteemed friend, Mr. Riley, states that “ white 
 hellebore will kill the worms if sprinkled on to them.” From the 
 experiments I had made with this substance on several different larvae, 
 
 I had supposed it would have no effect upon these cabbage worms. 
 Whilst it is certain and immediate death to the larvae of different spe¬ 
 cies of the saw-flies (Tenthreditoidai), the larvae of the Lepidoptera 
 appear to be unaffected by it. Even when the latter are forced to eat 
 it largely with their food, though its acridity produces purgation and 
 violent inflammation of the intestines, they always recover from tins 
 severe illness. Mr. Riley’s statement, however, being so positive, has 
 induced me to make a trial of this substance upon these worms. 
 Hellebore, which had a few weeks before killed every currant worm 
 where it had been applied, and was thus known to be a good article, 
 was dusted upon a cabbage worm till it was so coated therewith as to 
 wholly hide its green color, except on the under side ot its body. 
 And I could not discover that the worm was in the least affected 
 thereby. Crawling between the leaves in its cage, it in about three 
 days had rubbed off all this powder, being no more discommoded by 
 it, apparently, than if it had been road dust. As this and other poi¬ 
 sonous substances have no effect on these worms, it seems hopeless 
 that any remedy can be found, which, dusted upon the cabbages, will 
 destroy them without destroying the cabbages also. And we are 
 thus left to capturing the butterflies, and searching out their eggs, 
 their larvae and pupae, and destroying them one by one, as our only 
 resort for saving our cabbage crops from the ravages of this insect. 
 
Report of Entothologist. 
 
 355 
 
 0 
 
 FOURTEENTH REPORT 
 
 ON THE NOXIOUS, BENEFICIAL AND OTHER INSECTS OF THE 
 STATE OF NEW YORK. 
 
 By Asa Fitch, M. D., Entomologist of the Society. 
 
 [Copyright secured to the author.] 
 
 Scollop Shell, Scotosia undulata , Linn. (Lepidoptera. Geometridae.) 
 
 The last of July, two or more leaves of the cherry fastened evenly together around 
 their edges, and between them a pale, black-dotted measure worm, its back dull 
 greenish with four white lines, and on each side a dark green stripe; its pupa under 
 leaves on the ground through the winter, and in June producing a moth, with wings 
 all occupied with alternate blackish and whitish wavy lines. 
 
 A delicate moth, an inch and a half in width, and known to English 
 collectors as the scollop shell, from its resemblance to the ribbed shell 
 thus named, is marked in a peculiar manner, the whole surface of 
 both pairs of its wings being occupied with numerous wavy and 
 zigzag lines alternately of a pale gray and a brown or blackish color, 
 whereby it is easily recognized and remembered. It is said to be 
 met with in woods, sparingly, but almost everywhere through the 
 northern countries of Europe, and occurs abundantly in particular 
 localities of limited extent. Upon this continent I have several 
 times met with it in my own neighborhood, and it has been repeatedly 
 found in Canada and Nova Scotia, and as far north as Hudson’s Bay. 
 
 This moth has been well known in Europe for such a long period 
 it is remarkable that none of the naturalists there appear to have 
 discovered the measure worm from which it is produced, nor the 
 vegetation on which this worm feeds. Though the old authors, a 
 century ago, mentioned the sallow, Salix caprea, as being the tree 
 upon which it is reared, our modern lepidopterologists make no 
 allusion to this topic; whence it is evident the worm and its food is 
 unknown to them. 
 
 On the first days of August, last year, I noticed that a young 
 cherry tree growing in my yard had the two last leaves on the end 
 of several of the branches and shoots curiously fastened together, face 
 
•356 JfEW York State Agricultural Society. 
 
 to face, their edges evenly meeting all around ; the outer sides of the 
 leaves being also convex, thus making a cavity bet^veen them and 
 o'ivino' them the resemblance to the two valves of a clam shell; and 
 
 o o 
 
 their inner surface, which had been the upper side of the leaves, and 
 also their parenchyma, had been extensively eaten by worms residing 
 in the cavity between the leaves, there being but one worm in some 
 of these cavities and in others two or three, and sometimes as many 
 as five or six. The leaves at the end of the limbs and twigs are 
 nearly or quite alike in their size and form, and the worm, by spinning 
 from its mouth a fine silk thread and fastening it first to the edge of 
 one leaf and then to the edge of the other, by making each successive 
 thread as tight as it is able when fastening its end, manages to 
 gradually draw two leaves together, with their upper sides facing 
 each other; and when they are brought into contact, the worm, 
 standing upon the edge of the two leaves, and carrying its head from 
 side to side, fastens the thread it is spinning successively to the 
 border of one leaf and the other as it steps backward, traveling 
 around and around upon the outer edge of the leaves a multitude 
 of times. This work is done, no doubt, by night, when no bird or 
 other enemy is abroad to espy it when it is thus conspicuously 
 exposed; and it is probably employed at this work for several succes¬ 
 sive nights, adding to the threads until a thin, paper-like tissue is 
 formed over the united edges, thus wholly excluding any parasite or 
 other insect enemy from entering its habitation. The threads of this 
 tissue are placed lengthwise of the leaf and diagonally, none of them 
 appearing to be transverse. 
 
 The worm lives in security between the leaves, feeding upon their 
 pulp, until it is wholly consumed, except a slender border around the 
 outer edge of both leaves — the skin of the under side of the leaves and 
 the network of veins remaining and continuing to constitute a secure 
 wall to the house in which the worm lives. The two leaves do not 
 furnish the amount of sustenance it requires to bring it to maturity, 
 and when their pulp is consumed a third leai is similarly drawed down 
 and tied over one or the other of the two first, and then a fourth, till 
 finally six leaves are usually tied together, though only a part of the 
 last ones are eaten, portions of them remaining green. The first 
 leaves die and become brown as other leaves overlay them, and with 
 each additional leaf the nest becomes more convex and globular, till 
 finally it forms an uneven ball or a short bag. On tearing these leaves 
 apart one or more worms and a quantity of black grains, their feces, 
 are found in the cavity inside. . 
 
Report of Entomologist. 
 
 357 
 
 Those worms are slender cylindrical, and grow to nearly or quite three-fourths of 
 an inch in length. The surface of their bodies is smooth and without any raised 
 points or ridges. Like other measure worms they have only five pairs of feet, one 
 pair at the tip and another pah* a little forward of these, being thick prolegs, and 
 .hroe pairs of slender true legs upon the breast. Some short fine erect hairs are scat¬ 
 tered over the surface, arising from black dots. Aloqg the middle of the back is a 
 pale livid greenish stripe, bordered on each side by a rather thick whitish line, out¬ 
 side of which is a paler lurid greenish stripe of similar width to that on the middle 
 of the back and having in it two black dots upon each segment, and on its outer edge 
 a whitish line similar to that on its inner edge. Outside of this whitish line, along 
 each side of the back, is a very dark green stripe, of the same width with the paler 
 green ones inside of it,- and having along its outer edge a yellowish white line. 
 Below this line the sides are pale greenish yellow, with a slender yellowish white 
 stripe upon an elevated ridge of the skin, there being on each segment two black dots 
 above this stripe, the anterior dot being the breathing pore, which, more highly mag¬ 
 nified, is seen to be a minute yellow dot inclosed in a black ring. There is also a 
 black dot in this stripe and two below it, these last being usually margined with a 
 yellowish white rjng. Directly below the hind one of the dots last mentioned is 
 another black dot placed in a slender broken faint yellowish white stripe. And for¬ 
 ward of this dot is another, and below this still another, on the under side of the body. 
 On the hind end of the back is a semicircular black spot; and there is a large black 
 dot on the base of each of.the hindmost legs. These thick prolegs are glossy, and of 
 a pale yellowish and watery color. 
 
 These measure worms eompleted their growth on different days 
 early in August, and then descended to the ground, crawling under 
 dead fallen leaves and other rubbish, where they spun a few fine 
 threads like cobweb upon the ground over and around them. They 
 here cast their skins and appeared in their pupa form, usually having 
 the small slender two-parted hook at the end of their bodies fastened 
 into some of the cobweb threads. The pupa is glossy and of a bright 
 chestnut brown color, its surface minutely wrinkled and with the 
 abdominal segments coarsely punctured. It is 0.40 long and 0.12 
 thick. In this pupa state the insect remains through the winter. 
 
 In Europe these moths are stated to make their appearance the last 
 of June, and this is the time I met with them in former years. But 
 for six years past my specimens have all been captured nearly a 
 month later, on the 20th of July, or within two days of that date; 
 and seven moths reared in cages all came out upon the 18th of July 
 and the three following days. 
 
 The moths measure 1.35 to 1.50 across their extended wings. They are ash-gray, 
 varied with blackish markings and bands on the abdomen. The wings are all 
 occupied from their bases to the extremity with numerous transverse lines or stripes, 
 which are alternately ash-gray and blackish, fading to brown in specimens long 
 preserved. These lines are wavy and frequently zigzag in places, forming right 
 angles at each bend. On the fore wings, the number of blackish lines is usually 
 sixteen. In some specimens these lines are quite uniform from the base to the hind 
 
358 New York State Agricultural Society. 
 
 , -lge; but, usually, a paler trace crosses the -wings slightly beyond their middle. 
 This is caused, commonly, by two of the black liues uniting, more or less, and forming 
 ■ ■ chain-like row of marks or a series of black rings, or sometimes merely black dots, 
 these being most distinct toward the inner edge. In other instances this pale streak 
 is produced by two or three of the ash-gray lines taking on a white color, or by one 
 of the blackish lines becoming very much broken and effaced. Outside of the center 
 of the fore wings, a black dot is usually perceptible to the eye. In one specimen 
 before me, a short, brown, transverse streak on the middle of the costal edge is quite 
 conspicuous, followed by a second similar streak at one-third the distance from this 
 to the tip. The hind border of the wings is frequently tarnished brown or butternut 
 color, traversed by a wavy white line. The basal fourth ot the hind wings is gray, 
 sprinkled more or less with blackish atoms not arranged in transverse lines. These 
 wings are toothed on their hind edge. 
 
 This moth was named Plialccna (G eometrd) undulata, by Linnaeus, 
 first in the tenth edition ot his System ot Nature, published in 1 1 56, 
 where he characterizes it as having bristle-like antennae and all the 
 wings above with transverse wavy blackish streaks, and living upon 
 the Salix coprca. The specific name undulata, it scarcely needs to 
 be mentioned, has allusion to the wavy or undulated streaks upon the 
 wings. Being so distinctly marked, it has esetfped from being mis¬ 
 taken and described under different names. 
 
 The generic name Scotosia, formed from a Greek word implying 
 mist or gloominess, was first proposed by Mr. Stephens tor thiee spe¬ 
 cies of British moths, whilst he regarded this species as constituting 
 another genus. M. Guenee, however, deems the differences between 
 these insects so slight and unessential, that he unites them with 
 still other species under one genus, in which arrangement other 
 authors have since concurred. 
 
 These moths are probably nowhere so numerous as to. cause any 
 sensible injury to the cherry trees. But their larvae tying the leaves 
 together in such an artistic manner will attract notice wherever this 
 phenomenon occurs, and will excite a desire tor information respecting 
 the insect which has this curious habit. 
 
 Kaspberry Beetle and Worm, Byturus unicolor, Say. (Coleoptera. 
 
 Dermestidae.) 
 
 Adhering to the gathered fruit of the red raspberry, a very small soft tarnished 
 white worm, passing its pupa state under rubbish on the ground, and coming forth 
 the latter part of May, an oval, pale dull yellow beetle, 0.15 long, densely clothed 
 with short fine gray hairs. 
 
 Throughout our country there occurs on the fruit of the red t asp- 
 berry a small white worm, which commonly remains adhering to the 
 berry when it is gathered, lying usually on the inner side ol the 
 
Report of Entomologist. 
 
 359 
 
 cup or cavity In the berry. Hereby the fruit is rendered unfit for the 
 table or for preserving, until it has been looked over with the utmost 
 care, and the berries closely examined one by one, each berry on which 
 one of these worms is found being either thrown away or the worm 
 removed from it. This picking over of the berries to cleanse them 
 from these worms is a most irksome task, in which many hours of 
 valuable time are every year spent in most of the households in our 
 country. And notwithstanding this scrutiny, some of the worms no 
 doubt remain, and are unconsciously eaten with the berries, it being 
 impossible for the most piercing sight to detect them in every instance, 
 especially those which are young and minute. 
 
 When examined with a magnifying glass, these worms are found 
 to be plump and cylindrical, slightly tapered at each end, and nearly 
 one-fourth of an inch in length when fully grown. They are white, 
 each segment having on the back a broad, pale, tawny yellow band 
 occupying more than half its surface, and being also furnished with a 
 few short, erect, whitish hairs. The mouth is darker tawny yellow. 
 On the breast are three pairs of legs, but none on the body back of 
 these, except at the tip, which is prolonged into a single proleg of a 
 short conic form, and blunt at its end; arid on the apex of the last 
 segment, above the base of the proleg, are two minute projecting 
 points, appearing like two deep red dots. 
 
 When the worm is fully grown, it drops to the ground, probably 
 with the fall of the berry in most instances, and secreting itself under 
 any dead leaves or other rubbish which it there finds, it forms a cell in 
 the dirt, in which it changes to a hairy pupa of a pale dull yellowish 
 color, and in this situation remains at rest through the winter, and 
 till the middle of May or a little later, when it changes to its perfect 
 form, and is then a small beetle about twice as long as thick, varying 
 in its length from 0.12 to 0.15. 
 
 This beetle is of an oval form, its opposite sides almost straight and parallel, quite 
 convex above and flat on the under side.' It is throughout of a pale dull yellowish 
 color, sometimes tinged with chestnut brown, or reddish, and is covered above and 
 beneath with exceedingly fine short grayish hairs, which are appressed to the surface 
 and arise from fine close punctures, on the wing covers these hairs being finer and 
 less visible. The head is small, roundish, flattened upon the face, and held vertically, 
 sunk into the thorax to the eyes, which are rather large, black, round, and very con¬ 
 vex and protuberant. The upper lip is transverse, its edge with a slight, broad, 
 shallow notch or concavity. The antenure are short, not reaching the base of the 
 thorax when turned backward. They are thread-like, with their tips enlarged into 
 a little knob the shape of an egg reversed. They are composed of eleven joints, 
 which though distinct are compactly united. The basal joint is largest and gradually 
 widens toward its apex. The two next joints are short aud thicker than those 
 
360 New York State Agricultural Society. 
 
 ■which follow, which gradually but very slightly decrease in thickness to the three 
 last, which are enlarged into the knob, and are more broad than long, the last joint 
 being hemispheric and with the convex sido outward. The thorax is more wide 
 than long, scarcely wider across its base than its apex, convex above, and on each 
 side abruptly depressed into a thin outer edge, which is much widened at the base, 
 the basal angles being rectangular. The scutel is small, square, and rounded on its 
 hind side. The wing covers are scarcely broader than the thorax, and have slightly 
 elevated slender lines running lengthwise. The legs are of medium size, the hind 
 pair longest, the thighs thick and stout and slightly narrowed at each end, the shanks 
 gradually thicker toward their tips. The feet are more slender, their soles with 
 dense fine hairs. They are five-jointed, the middle joints very small, the fourth joint 
 minute and concealed between the lobes of the third joint; the last joint longest, 
 equaling all the preceding joints in length, with a pair of small hooks at its end 
 which are strongly curved and furnished with a prominent tooth at their base. 
 
 Lettuce Earth-louse, Rhizobius Lactucm, new species. (Iiomoptera. 
 
 Apliidse.) 
 
 On the roots of lettuce, often in,great numbers; very small oval, white and pale- 
 yellow lice, with dusky legs and antennae, their bodies dusted over with a white 
 powder. 
 
 The roots of the lettuce in our gardens are much infested by small 
 white wingless lice, which begin to appear upon them early in the 
 season, and multiply and become extremely numerous toward its close. 
 When the lettuce is becoming too advanced to be longer useful for 
 the table, and is beginning to shoot up to seed, upon uprooting it to 
 clear the ground it occupies for other uses, the lumps of earth which 
 break from around its rootlets will frequently be observed to be pro¬ 
 fusely pervaded with what appears to the eye to be a white moldiness. 
 But on examining this white substance with a magnifying glass, it is 
 found to be a white flocculent matter — a dry mealy powder — inter¬ 
 spersed with short white down-like threads. And upon the slender 
 rootlets of the lettuce will here and there be seen a small white louse, 
 with its body dusted over with the same white powder, showing that 
 the moldy appearance of the earth, which was first noticed, has been 
 produced by these lice crawling through it and rubbing off a portion 
 of the mealy coating of their bodies. 
 
 And when one of these plants is uprooted, on breaking off pieces 
 of the ball of earth adhering to the roots and rootlets, cavities will be 
 come to which are filled and crowded with a swarm of these lice, of 
 all sizes, from the newly born infants to the full grown adult females, 
 promiscuously heaped together in a confused mass, their bodies dusted 
 over with the white mealy powder above mentioned, and the hind ends 
 of many of them, and the backs also in some, coated with short floc¬ 
 culent fibres, giving them an appearance of being dressed with minute 
 
Report of Entomologist. 
 
 361 
 
 feathers. They are intolerant of the light, and when the cavity in 
 which they are inclosed is opened, exposing them to the glare of day, 
 they slowly crawl into the cracks and crevices in the hall of earth, one 
 after another, and in a short time all disappear. Here and there 
 among a cluster of these lice is seen a little white, woolly, rough, oval 
 mass. This is a dead louse covered with pruinose and other refuse 
 matter. In the cavities among the lice also occur drops of a fluid 
 resembling clear limpid water, globular, of different sizes, the surface 
 of the globules dusted over with the same white pruinose powder, 
 which keeps them from uniting together when they chance to come 
 in contact; this fluid probably being the honey dew secreted by the 
 lice. 
 
 As these small underground lice are destitute of wings, they would 
 be inferred to pertain to some of the Apterous tribes of insects. 
 But, when they are closely examined, they are found to be so very 
 similar to the plant lice, as to show the family Aphides to be their true 
 place. In this family they constitute a distinct group or sub-family, 
 to which M. Amyot has given the name Geophthiri , or earth-lice, 
 (Annales Soc. Ent. de France, 2d Series, v. 485.) They differ from 
 the plant lice in their underground residence, in their never acquiring 
 wings, though it is of late stated that in rare instances some of them 
 have been found with wings, in being destitute of honey-tubes, and in 
 being always viviparous and never produced from eggs. They were 
 formerly regarded as constituting a single species, which was named 
 Aphis radicum. But, cn coming to be examined more closely, it is 
 quite evident that they are of several species. A number of these 
 species have been named and described, constituting several distinct 
 genera. They are met with not only on the roots of different plants, 
 but also in the ground beneath stones, and in the nests of ants. And 
 ants are always found associated with them. The little brown or 
 dusky ant, Formica nigra , Linn., common in gardens, occurs in the 
 cavities containing these lettuce lice, and in the earth around them. 
 And these earth-lice are nursed and guarded by the ants, the same as 
 are the plant lice. Upon raising a stone and finding several of these 
 white earth-lice under it, the collector, after securing one of them, on 
 looking to obtain a second specimen, finds they have all disappeared, 
 having been taken away by the ants into their holes in the ground. 
 •And, as stated by Kirby and Spence, they are no doubt carried by 
 the ants and distributed upon the roots of different plants. 
 
 This species upon the roots of the lettuce appears to pertain to the 
 genus lihizohius , of Burmeister, in which the antennae have but live 
 
362 
 
 New York State Agricvltvral Society. 
 
 or six joints, the last joint being longer than those preceding it, and 
 blunt at its apex. 
 
 The young lice , measuring hut 0.02 in length, are very pale yellow, glossy and 
 watery, with the legs and antennae whitish. They are nearly thrice as long as broad, 
 somewhat flattened, their opposite sides parallel in some, in others slightly widening 
 backward and rounded at the tip. The transverse sutures are faintly perceptible. 
 The eyes appear as minute black dots, one on each side of the anterior end. The 
 antenna; are thread like, and only one-fourth the length of the body. When highly 
 magnified, they appear to be four-jointed, the joints twice as long as thick, the first 
 joint cylindrical, the two following ones thicker toward their tips, and the last one 
 slightly longer than the others, and thickest toward its base. The feet are but 
 one-jointed, half as long as the shanks, and end in a pair of hooks. 
 
 The mature lice are 0.08 long, their width less than half their length, some being 
 much more broad than others. They are oval, and of a dull white color, with tho 
 legs antenna; and beak dusky, sometimes pale smoky with their bases nearly white, 
 and in other specimens much darker and even blackish their entire length, with the 
 end of the body also slightly durfky. The beak is appressed to the breast, appearing 
 like a short dusky mark upon the skin, its tip scarcely reaching the base of the second 
 pair of legs. The antenna; arc shorter and more slender than the fore legs, thread¬ 
 like and five-jointed, the joints cylindric. The two basal joints are slightly thicker 
 than the following ones, and their length double their thickness. The third joint is 
 variable in its length, in the mature females being almost double the length of the 
 second, and but little shorter than the last joint, whilst in the narrower younger lice 
 it is little, if at all, longer than the second. The fourth joint is the shortest of all, 
 being but little longer than thick. The last joint is longest, and is bluntly rounded 
 at its end. The sutures of the body are marked by slender impressed transverse 
 lines. The feet show but one distinct joint, which is cylindrical, and four times as 
 long as thick in the hind pair, shorter in the middle and anterior pair, with two 
 hooks at the end. 
 
 The lettuce is such a thrifty, vigorous plant, that it docs not appear 
 to be perceptibly injured, however much its roots are thronged by 
 these earth lice. Other vegetation which is more delicate and feeble 
 has not a like immunity. Dr. Harris relates that upon pulling up 
 China asters which appeared to be perishing from no visible cause, he 
 found hundreds of these little white lice clustered upon the roots. Mr. 
 Newcomb, of Pittstown, N. Y., informed me a few years since that 
 little white lice gathered upon his verbenas, in some instances in such 
 numbers as to completely cover the roots, causing the plants to droop 
 and wither and turn yellowish, and when felt of they seemed loosened 
 and not set firmly in the ground. lie found tobacco-water to be an 
 effectual remedy for these insects. By watering the earth around the 
 plants freely with this decoction, he was able to promptly arrest the 
 evil, and none of his plants died, as they inevitably would have done 
 had they been neglected. 
 
 In addition to the ants, there occurred among these earth-lice 
 
Report oe Entomologist. 
 
 368 
 
 numerous small white maggots, pointed at one end and blunt at the 
 opposite end ; and, also many pupae of these maggots, the hard, outer 
 cases of these pupae being 0.15 long, and of a pale, dull yellowish 
 color, one or both ends being darker, and of a brown or reddish brown 
 hue, their head end being abruptly tapered and prolonged into a short 
 projecting point, with its end cut off transversely, and their opposite 
 end bluntly and unevenly rounded, and usually showing two small 
 projecting points, frequently with two large blackish dots above 
 them. 
 
 From some of these pupae I obtained a small yellow fly, which I 
 have frequently noticed alighted in the garden. It is closely related 
 to the Chlorops lineata, Fab., and 0. tamiopus, Meig., having the 
 antennae inserted upon a slight prominence ot the forehead, three 
 broad black stripes upon the thorax, and the lore feet black. I 
 name this fly the Garden Chlorops, and a short description v ill 
 suffice to characterize it and show that it is different from the species 
 above named. 
 
 The Garden Chlorops, U. hortensia, is 0.10 in length, and, to the end of its closed 
 wings, 0.15. It is glabrous and of a pale bright yellow color. On the thorax are 
 three black stripes, which are slightly broader toward their anterior ends. 1 he mid¬ 
 dle stripe is continued forward upon the head to the frontal prominence, narrow iug 
 to a point at its anterior end, and it extends backward only to the suture at the base 
 of the scutel. On each side of the breast is a black dot, and forward of it a short 
 black line, which narrows to a very acute point at its anterior end. The abdomen 
 is black, with a narrow yellow border at its tip; it is flattened and broad egg-shaped, 
 its length and width closely like that of the thorax. The face is white, and the last 
 joint of the antenna; black. The fore feet are black their entire length. 
 
 "Wood Tick, Ixodes Americanus, Linn. (Aptera. Acaridae.) 
 
 Common in the forests in unsettled sections of the country, and fastening itself 
 upon man and animals ; a flattened, obovate, chestnut red tick, having a white spot 
 on the end of its scutel, and a whitish ring on its knees. 
 
 The most common tick of our country, called the wood tick from 
 its inhabiting the woodlands, and not occurring in cleared and culti¬ 
 vated grounds, though formerly abundant throughout the northern 
 ' and middle States, has now become nearly or quite extinct. The 
 Swedish naturalist Kalm, in passing through the east part of our 
 State one hundred and twenty years ago, when crossing from the 
 Hudson river to Lake Champlain, speaks ol the discomfort he 
 experienced from the wood ticks with which the forests there 
 abounded. At this day, along the route he pursued, not one of these 
 insects can probably be found. Residing in that vicinity, I have 
 never met with this wood tick except in a single instance, hortv 
 
364 New York State Agricultural Society. 
 
 years ago one was found in a decaying log in the forest. But speci¬ 
 mens received from correspondents at the west and south show it to 
 be still common in the new and sparsely settled sections of our 
 country. 
 
 Its becoming thus extinct with the settlement of the country and 
 the clearing ofi of its forests, is the more remarkable, since in other 
 parts ot the world ticks which are very similiar to this abound in old 
 countries where all the tillable land is under cultivation, and even in 
 thickly populated cities. I am informed by Mrs. Culbertson, late of 
 the Presbyterian mission in China, that these insects are very common 
 in that country. She states, that in the city of Shanghae, they are 
 constantly fastening upon the dogs, sinking their heads into the skin 
 of the dog and sucking his blood until they become enormously dis¬ 
 tended, appearing like a large sized bean adhering to the skin, of a 
 shining bluish color. It is between the dog’s toes that they are most 
 prone to fasten themselves, where only the end of their bodies can 
 be seen ; and frequently the crevices between the toes are filled with 
 as many ticks as they can hold, others becoming also attached upon 
 the body at different points, distressing the dog greatly, and from pain 
 and loss of blood he languishes and becomes puny, weak and emaci¬ 
 ated, dull and spiritless, and dies if he is not relieved from his tor¬ 
 mentors'. It is the common custom, whenever it is discovered that a 
 dog is much infested, to have a servant take him and by hand pick 
 off every tick upon him. 
 
 In those sections of the country which were settled little over a 
 century ago, tradition still speaks of the annoyances which our 
 American wood ticks were, particularly when, in the heat of summer, 
 the woods were traversed for gathering berries. And the account 
 which M. Kalm gave of the habits of this insect to Baron De Geer, 
 the correctness of which is also confirmed by Eev. I. Acrelius, who had 
 been a resident of this country for several years, shows what a pest it 
 was at that period, both to man and beast. He states that these ticks 
 were found in the woods, the whole summer through, occurring there 
 on the bushes and the plants growing among the bushes, but more 
 particularly on the fallen dry leaves of the preceding year, with 
 which the ground is covered ; they are there so abundant that if one 
 sits down on the earth or on the trunk of some fallen tree, his clothes 
 and even his body soon gets covered with them; for though of a 
 slow pace, they immediately climb upon his clothing, seeking some 
 naked place on the body, on which they instantly fasten themselves 
 by introducing their trunk into the skin. Those who go into the 
 
Report of Entomologist. 
 
 365 
 
 woods barefooted soon get their feet and legs thronged with them. 
 They fasten themselves not only on man but also on animals, such as 
 horses and horned cattle, which they frequently kill by fixing them¬ 
 selves in such very great numbers on their bodies, from which they 
 suck the blood. They never inhabit the meadows or cultivated fields, 
 or cleared lands, but always live where trees are growing. They 
 pierce the skin in such a subtile manner that the person attacked does 
 not at first notice their puncture, and only perceives it when they 
 have penetrated so far that half their body is found sunk into the flesh ; 
 it is then that he feels at first a strong itching, and afterward a very 
 severe pain at the place of the puncture, where a hard swelling occurs, 
 the size of a pea or larger. It is then very difficult to get rid of the 
 tick, for in endeavoring to draw it out it breaks asunder rather than to 
 let go its hold, so that the head and trunk remain in the sore, soon 
 producing an inflammation, followed by a suppuration, whereby the 
 sore is frequently made deep and dangerous, and is accompanied with 
 a most intolerable itching. It is, therefore, by cutting the flesh all 
 around it that we must try to withdraw the tick entire from the spot 
 where it is lodged. Or it is well to make use of a small pair of 
 tweezers to draw it out, as M. Kalm states he had done with success. 
 But the tick clings so strongly that in this operation one often tears 
 out also a portion of the skin. M. Kalm states that he had seen 
 horses which had the under side of their bodies and other parts so 
 covered with these ticks, that the point of a knife could scarcely be 
 introduced between them, and from being continually sucked by 
 these cursed parasites deeply sunk into their flesh, the animals become 
 so enfeebled, and are tormented so grievously that they eventually 
 succumb and die in great misery. 
 
 Various authors have spoken of these ticks, and there has been 
 some confusion respecting them, several distinct species of this 
 country and South America having probably been included under the 
 name Americanus. But the brief characters given by Linnaeus, 
 derived from the specimens obtained in this country by Kalm, make 
 it sufficiently clear to what species this name rightfully pertains. lie 
 defines the Americanus as being obovate, reddish, with the scutel 
 and knees whitish. It is very evidently the common wood tick of this 
 country to which this description points. 
 
 The wood tick in its natural state, and not at all distended with blood, is flat as the 
 common bed bug, to which it has a resemblance. It is almost circular, being little 
 longer than wide, and is scarcely wider forward of the middle, or egg-shaped, with 
 the pointed end backward, the form technically termed obovate. Specimens are 
 
366 
 
 Sew York State Agricultural Society. 
 
 variable in size, the largest measuring nearly or quite 0.20 in length. It is of a 
 chestnut red, or sometimes yellowish color, with the abdomen commonly blackish 
 The thorax is glossy, closely punctured, with two impressed longitudinal lines, which 
 are nearly parallel, with their forward ends more deeply impressed. A large white 
 spot on the scutel is variable in its size. The abdomen is not glossy. It lias a sub- 
 margmal impressed line, and on its hind part two or three faint, longitudinal 
 impressed lines are usually perceptible. The knees, and commonly the other joints 
 of the legs are marked exteriorly with a small white crescent or a slender ring. 
 
 The ticks of our country which are most similar to this merit to 
 be noticed in connection with it. 
 
 One of these, differing in being widest back of the middle and 
 tints having an ovate form, and more largely covered with white, this 
 color having a tallow-like appearance, of which I have received speci¬ 
 mens from Virginia and from the Indian territory west of Arkansas, 
 may be named and characterized as follows: 
 
 FrvE-LmED Tick, Ixodes 5 -striatus. Ovate, rust-colored; thorax and scutel tallow 
 white with irregular rust-colored spots and punctures; abdomen with punctures and 
 five impressed longitudinal lines, the outer one on each side being sub-marginal • 
 legs paler, their joints white. Length 0.20. 
 
 Another species, which was received in company with the preced- 
 ing, liom Rev. William S. Robertson, Tullehassie, Indian territory, 
 I dedicate to its discoverer. It presents the following characters : 
 
 Robertson s Tick, Ixodes Itobertsonii. Oval, punctured, rust-colored, above 
 marbled with tallow white on the head, thorax and abdomen, with rust-colored 
 punctures; abdomen with a sub-marginal impressed line, between which and the 
 edge are deeply impressed, equi-distant, transverse lines with white interstices; 
 joints of the legs white. Length 0.16. 
 
 Torturing Tick, Ixodes cruciarius, new species. (Aptera. Acaridie.) 
 
 An oval lead-colored tick, with chestnut-brown head and legs, which sinks its 
 head into the skin of man and animals, gorging itself with blood; its wound intol¬ 
 erably painful and dangerous. 
 
 Dr. Gideon Turner, of White Creek, N". Y., has presented me with 
 a specimen ol a tick with which is connected a history of much inter- 
 rest. I regret that a full written statement of this case, which I had 
 been somewhat encouraged to expect, has never come to hand. A 
 memoiandum which I made from a verbal statement which was given 
 to me, is to the following purport: 
 
 It M r as on a morning in July, 1868, that a daughter of Dr. Turner 
 was awakened from her sleep by a most excruciating pain in one of 
 her limbs. She immediately discovered that this torment was caused 
 by an insect which, during her sleep, had almost buried itself in the 
 
Report of Entomologist. 
 
 367 
 
 ekin, and had so filled itself with blood that it was distended to the 
 size and shape of a bean. Of course no time was lost before removing 
 this thirsty little blood hound. Notwithstanding this, the pain con¬ 
 tinued extremely severe, indicating the wound to have been poisoned 
 by venom from the insect. To neutralize this poison, it was freely 
 bathed with diluted aqua ammonia. She went to the school she was 
 teaching and entered upon the day’s exercises, but finding she was 
 becoming more unwell, she was constrained to dismiss her school and 
 return home. The surface around the wound became vesicated, as 
 if from a plaster of cantharides, the whole limb became swollen, some 
 slight convulsions occurred, and, for a time, her condition seemed 
 rather critical-. The medication, however, which was promptly 
 resorted to, appeared salutary ; the next day she was evidently better, 
 and thereafter speedily recovered. 
 
 The following is the description of the above insect, drawn up from 
 the specimen as it appeared when it was placed in my hands some 
 time afterward. 
 
 Dimensions, 0.40 long, 0.25 wide, 0.10 high. Color of the body, gray, tinged with 
 blue; anteriorly white, of a tallow-like appearance, here and there with a blackish 
 dot or irregular blotch, six of these dots being in a transverse row on the neck. 
 Head and legs chestnut brown. It is of an oval form, with a gentle contraction 
 forward of the middle and narrower forward of this contraction than it is behind it, 
 the ends bluntly rounded, flattened upon the back and also beneath; the back ante¬ 
 riorly sloping gently downward toward the head. The surface very finely and 
 closely striated transversely. The head (in strictness termed the buckler or shield) is 
 coriaceous and glossy, longer than wide, rounded, its sides back of the middle recti¬ 
 linear for a short distance, and its anterior end cut off transversely. Its surface is 
 punctured, the punctures minute and shallow, more dense on each side, where are 
 two impressed lines which at their anterior ends approach each other. The beak is 
 short, about a third of the length of the head. The back anteriorly is occupied by 
 large irregular ridges and intervening hollows, which are mostly transverse or oblique. 
 The middle and hind parts present three parallel, wide and deep longitudinal grooves, 
 the middle one less broad, extending farther back, and ending anteriorly in a line 
 with the contraction. Crossing the two interspaces between the longitudinal lines 
 near their middle, is a transverse groove which is less deeply impressed. On the 
 under side two large grooves begin at the throat, and, diverging from each other, 
 extend the whole length, and between them posteriorly is a medial groove which 
 reaches backward beyond the ends of the lateral ones. 
 
 Eleven years before this case occurred, in September, 1S57, my 
 young daughter found a small tick upon her arm, with its head sunk 
 into the skin, and causing an intolerable pain, much more severe than 
 the sting of a bee or a wasp. She had, just before, picked up a basket 
 of chips under the wood-shed, where this had probably got upon her 
 clothes. As it was instantly removed, the pain gradually subsided, 
 a redness remaining at this point the next day. 
 
368 
 
 New York State Agricultural Society. 
 
 The description of this tick, which I drew up at that time, is as follows: Length, 
 0.10. Of a lurid dove color or leaden-blue, with an impressed furrow on each side of' 
 the back, the furrow slightly interrupted near its forward end; and, posteriorly, a 
 similar furrow along the middle, extending a little farther hack than the lateral ones, 
 its anterior end more slender, and terminating about opposite to the middle of the 
 lateral ones. Beneath, similar, but the lateral furrows almost in contact at their 
 anterior ends, and diverging backward; and the middle furrow short, being merely 
 a deep, oblong, oval indentation. The head, or clypeus, is crustaceous and shinimj, 
 diamond shaped, with the posterior and lateral angles rounded and the fore end 
 transversely truncated. It is finely punctured, with two impressed lines reaching 
 almost its entire length, with a shorter line on each side between these and the outer 
 edge. The head is of a pale chestnut color, as are also the beak and legs. These last, 
 are shortish, thread-like and equal in length, each composed of six short joints, about 
 twice as long as thick. 
 
 Although this tick is so diminutive, and quite unlike the one first 
 noticed in size and appearance, being thin as paper, whilst that is so 
 plump and round that its thickness equals the total length of this, 
 they coincide so exactly in color and sculpture that I doubt not they 
 both pertain to the same species. The two impressed lines on each 
 side of the head and the three furrows upon the back appear to be 
 characters whereby, in connection with its leaden color, this species 
 can be easily identified, whether in its ordinary gaunt state or obese 
 from distention with blood. Though specimens in my collection show 
 there are other species having three furrows upon the back, the 
 furrows differ from those of this species, the middle one in particular 
 being much longer here than appears usual for it to be. 
 
 Two descriptions of this tick have now been presented to the 
 reader, one being of its appearance in its ordinary state, when newly 
 captured, the other of its appearance when distended with blood and 
 several months dead and dried. To render this account more com¬ 
 plete, I will next present a description taken from a living specimen 
 filled with blood, though not so fully distended as the specimen 
 already described. 
 
 One of these ticks occurred firmly fastened upon the skin of a mink 
 (Putorius vison.) On removing the skin a bright red inflamed spot, 
 a quarter of an inch in diameter, was exposed on the inner side of the 
 skin at the point where this tick was fastened; and on the whitish 
 fascia of the muscle covered by this portion of the skin was a similar 
 inflamed spot, indicating the excessive irritation and pain the animal 
 had been suffering from this parasite. 
 
 The specimen measures 0.38 by 0.23, and is regular oval, with bluntly rounded 
 ends. It is flattened and glossy, of a white color tinged with leaden blue, the head, 
 mouth and legs being dark brown and shining. On the back are three dilated, 
 impressed lines or grooves, which are uneven, the lateral ones being narrowed by a 
 
Report of Entomologist : 
 
 369 
 
 contraction toward their anterior ends. The middle groove commences farther back 
 than the lateral ones, and its anterior portion is shallow. Posteriorly it is prolonged 
 beyond the ends of the lateral ones. Beneath are two longitudinal grooves, and 
 between their hind ends is an elliptic impression, in depth and width similar to the 
 grooves. One and another of these grooves becomes small and slight, and again 
 becomes deep and wide at the will of the animal when it is living; and in the lateral 
 ones, on the back, a series of punctures, live in number, are at times quite conspicu¬ 
 ous. And I notice the middle groove on the back at times becomes for a moment or 
 two greatly increased in its depth and width, the lateral grooves simultaneously being 
 almost obliterated. Over the whole surface are very close minute transverse strife. 
 1 he coriaceous chestnut-brown head has numerous punctures evenly scattered over 
 its surface, and four impressed longitudinal lines, the two middle ones diverging back¬ 
 ward. The two lines on each side incline to unite at their ends, thus inclosing an 
 elliptic space. 
 
 It is slow in its motions, and though heavy and unwieldy, from 
 being gorged with blood, it readily crawls up the side of a glass bottle. 
 
 It may be noticed that the blue tinge of the body in this species 
 fades, and at length totally vanishes in specimens which are long pre¬ 
 served. The small specimen described above, which was first taken, 
 is now changed to a dull white color. The specimen distended with 
 blood is also dull white with some dark colored blotches and dots 
 here and there. The specimen taken upon a mink has now become 
 badly “greased,” a casuality well known to collectors, rendering one 
 and another of their specimens worthless, and for which there is no 
 remedy that I am aware. Thus affected, this specimen, the body of 
 which was originally bluish white, is now dark chestnut throughout, 
 this being at first the color of the head and legs only. 
 
 Is the bite of these ticks venomous ? Do they poison the wounds 
 they make ? I his was a question on which there was some discussion' 
 and difference of opinion among persons in the vicinity of Miss 
 Turner, wme of those most intelligent on subjects of this kind being 
 of the opinion that the bite of these insects was merely a simple 
 wound. But the excruciating torment which it produces, we think, 
 is a sufficient proof that the wound is poisoned. If it were a simple 
 wound like that made by a sliver of wood, removing the irritating 
 substance would immediately alleviate the pain. But, here, the pain 
 continued intolerable for hours after the insect had been removed. 
 Moreover, the fact is well known that some of these ticks are extremely 
 venomous. One of the most noted of these is the Persian tick, 
 Argas Persicus, locally termed the Malleli, and known to travelers 
 as the Venomous bug of Miana, the species being most common and 
 dangerous in that city in northern Persia. As showing the habits 
 of these insects mere fully, and the symptoms produced by their bite, 
 [Ag.] 24 
 
370 iV/Jir York State Agricultural Society. 
 
 we extract what follows from the account of the Miana bug, given by 
 M. Kotzebue, in his Travels in Persia, in 1817, as cited by Walckenaer 
 and Gervais in their Natural History of Apterous Insects, although 
 some of the statements have a savor of the proverbial exaggerations 
 of travelers. The European bug, with which he compares that of 
 Miana, we suppose to be the common bed-bug. 
 
 This dangerous insect, called the Miana bug, is a little larger than 
 the European bug, and is blackish gray, sprinkled on the back with 
 a multitude of red points. It conceals itself in the walls of dwellings, 
 frequenting in preference those that are old. In these the bugs are 
 found in great abundance, and their prick is most dangerous. They 
 never show themselves in the day-time, and are also afraid of light, 
 though the glare of lamps and candles does not always put them to 
 flight. They have infested Miana from time immemorial, and scatter 
 themselves out into its suburbs, where they are a little less dangerous. 
 During winter they remain motionless in the holes of the walls, 
 and, like all venomous animals, it is in the greatest heat of the 
 summer that their poison has the most activity. What is most 
 marvelous of these bugs is that they do not attack the native inhabi¬ 
 tants, or, at least, the puncture which they make in them has no 
 more grave results than that of the bugs of Europe \ but, in return, 
 they make a cruel war upon strangers who have the misfortune to 
 pass a night at Miana, often causing their death in less than twenty- 
 four hours. Of this I have heard two instances related. 
 
 The English residents at Tabreez unitedly declare that they at 
 Miana lost one of their servants who was attacked by these terrible 
 insects. lie soon after felt a violent heat all over his body, fell into 
 a kind of delirium, and finally expired in terrible convulsions. 
 
 From others I have received information, equally credible, about 
 Colonel Baron Wrede, who some years ago was sent as Russian 
 ambassador to Persia. It was quite late in the season when he passed 
 Miana, and thinking there was then nothing to fear from the bug, he 
 rested there over night, but with the precaution of having a candle 
 lighted in his room. He experienced no evil, but a Cossack in his 
 retinue, the next morning had a black spot on his foot, took to talking 
 wildly?and at length fell into a paroxysm of frenzy. The inhabitants 
 advised a remedy they used in such cases. This was to skin an ox 
 and envelope the foot in the warm hide. Recourse was had to this 
 expedient, but it was of no service, and the poor Cossack died in 
 woful agony. We are assured that this measure is commonly success¬ 
 ful, but it is also necessary that the diseased person remains forty 
 
Report of Entomologist. 
 
 371 
 
 days without taking any food or drink but sugar water and honey. 
 As already stated, the natives of Miana take these bugs into their 
 hands without any danger. How fortunate it is that these formidable 
 insects do not nestle in the clothing, for they would soon be carried 
 all over Persia. 
 
 Tooth-ache Mite, Ixodes ? Odontalgia, new species. Aptefa Acaridse. 
 
 A minute brown mite with pale margin and legs, the penultimate joint of the lat¬ 
 ter longest, the end of its body transversely truncated and strongly notched in the 
 middle. Found on the root of a newly extracted tooth. 
 
 In addition to the ticks and mites which infest the skin of man and 
 animals externally, are others which are internal, occurring in differ¬ 
 ent paits of the interior of the body. One of the most common and 
 best known of these is the itch-mite, Sarcoptes Scabiei, which abounds 
 in the pustules of the human itch. Other mites occur in ulcers, and 
 like the itch-mite may communicate the same ulcers to other persons. 
 An interesting case in proof of this is reported in Cooper’s Microsco¬ 
 pic Journal, 1S42, vol. ii, p. 65. A negro sailor was received into 
 the Seaman s Hospital Ship, affected with large ulcers on the soles of 
 his feet, of a peculiar character. He appeared to have received this 
 malady from wearing a pair of shoes a day or two, which he had had 
 from another negro whose feet were similarly diseased. In these 
 ulcers a mite occurred, a figure of which is given, which shows it to be 
 a species quite different from the itch-mite. This sailor had come 
 direct from the East Indies, from a locality where no such malady as 
 this was known. The other negro was from Sierre Leone, where, it 
 is stated, a sort of itch is prevalent, which ulcerates and is very diffi¬ 
 cult to cure. It is added that in some water from the Sinoe river, on 
 the coast of Africa, a whole mite and broken fragments of others were 
 found, similar in every respect to the one from these ulcers. 
 
 It is reported that in one of the quarters of Paris at a former period 
 persons were frequently affected with mites under the eyelids, which 
 a woman there became considerably noted for removing with a silver 
 needle. Another species, named the dysentery-mite, from its abound¬ 
 ing in the evacuations of dysentery patients, is stated to occur in all 
 parts of the alimentary canal. And even in the brain these insects 
 have been met with, both on its surface and deep in its interior, 
 lermann reports that in the post-mortem examination of a soldier who 
 died in the military hospital of Strasburg from a fracture of the skull 
 on separating the two hemispheres of the brain and taking out the pia- 
 
37 2 -ft'jnv York State Agricultural Society. 
 
 mater, a mite was seen running upon the corpus callosum near the 
 pineal glaud. He also states that M. Lauth, professor of anatomy, 
 showed him a little insect he had found near the base of the brain, on 
 the surface of the pituitary gland, in a deceased maniac in the hospi¬ 
 tal, which everybody took to be a crab-louse, but which Hermann 
 knew to be a species of mite closely resembling in size and color the 
 Acarus cellar is, which he frequently met with in the moist earth in a 
 corner of his cellar. 
 
 There can be little doubt that in many cases these mites are pre¬ 
 sent in one part and another of the body, and that under certain 
 circumstances they occasion lesions and diseases, of which the most 
 competent members of the medical profession are unable to conjecture 
 the cause. I here present an interesting instance of this kind: 
 
 A young lady applied to Z. Cotton, dentist, now some years located 
 at Cambridge, N. Y., to extract a tooth from which she was suffering 
 much pain. He found the tooth complained of to be perfectly sound 
 and all its surroundings healthy; he therefore felt averse to removing 
 it, and proposed a resort to soothing, external applications, whereby 
 the pain perhaps would after a time pass away. It, however, was 
 occasioning her so much torment, no external applications having 
 given the slightest relief, that she insisted upon having it taken out. He 
 accordingly extracted it. On then inspecting it, he could perceive no 
 traces of caries, ulceration, or other disease which should cause it to 
 have been painful. While thus looking attentively at the tooth, he 
 noticed, by its moving, that there was a minute insect upon the side 
 of the tooth, partly between its roots. This was a discovery indeed. 
 From the place where it was located when it was first seen, Mr. C. 
 is confident it was not situated between the fleshy gum and the tooth, 
 nor could it, in extracting the tooth, have been rubbed from off the 
 gum to be at the point where it was. Evidently it was situated a 
 short distance within the alveolus, insinuated into the suture between 
 the tooth and the wall of its bony cavity. And he thinks, with rea¬ 
 son, it was this mite that had caused the pain which the patient had 
 experienced in this tooth. 
 
 He inclosed the specimen in a small vial and presented it to me. 
 As the dysentery-mite, Sarcoptes Dysenterice, occurs in the mouth as 
 well as in the stomach and intestines, I suspected this would perhaps 
 be that insect, or a species very similar to it. But it proves to be 
 quite different. It is so minute, and the specimen is so contracted in 
 drying, that I am unable to draw from it a description that is com¬ 
 plete and perfect. The characters which follow, however, are ample 
 
Report of Entomologist. 373 
 
 to enable the species to be clearly identified by an observer who lias 
 a specimen of it in his hands. 
 
 This mite is about 0.015 long. Its body is opakc and of a brown color, like the 
 weathered surface of wood, its border all around being pale, as are the legs also. It 
 is nearly square or quadrangular, and as broad as long, or perhaps somewhat broader 
 across its fore part, and slightly shouldered or humped on each side. Its anterior 
 end is rapidly narrowed and prolonged in the middle into a beak, having the feelers 
 appressed to its sides. The feelers are three-jointed, the first joint only being seen 
 when viewed from above. This joint is cylindric, a third longer than thick, and 
 reaches slightly beyond the end of the beak. The second joint is shortest and held 
 perpendicularly downward at right angles with the first and third, which last is 
 longest and more slender, over twice as long as thick, and held horizontally back¬ 
 ward. They are all bearded with inclined bristles on their outer sides. At its hind 
 end the body is cut off transversely and is conspicuously notched in the middle, the 
 notch abrupt and somewhat square, more wide than deep, with a convex projection 
 or small lobe in its middle. Close upon each side of this notch are two coarse 
 bristles projecting backward. The eight legs are about equal in length, more than 
 double the length of the body, thread-like, bearded with inclined bristles, which are 
 coarser toward the feet. They are six-jointed, the basal joint more short and thick; 
 the second, third and fourth joints equal, cylindric and thrice as long as thick, the 
 second and third having each a long coarse bristle arising from their middle, and 
 the fourth having some coarse, thorny points at its tip, and one near its middle; the 
 fifth joint a third longer than the preceding joints and slightly tapering; the sixth 
 joint more slender and shorter than the sub-basal joints, and ending in a long conic 
 point, except in the fore legs, which terminate in a triangular pellet. 
 
 Earwig-fly, Merope tube?', Newman. (Neuroptera. Panorpidae.) 
 
 A singular insect, forming the type of a new genus, and in several 
 of its prominent characters quite dissimilar to the insects to which it 
 appears to be most nearly related, was discovered in our State, at 
 Trenton Falls, by the late Edward Doubleday, in the year 1837. He 
 met with only a single specimen, a female. From this specimen a 
 short description was drawn by E. Newman, and published the 
 following year in the Entomological Magazine, vol. v, page 180. 
 Mr. Newman there named it the Merope tuber, the generic term 
 Merope being the astronomical name of one of the smaller Pleiades or 
 stars arising to view in the spring of the year; and the specific name 
 tuber having allusion to a remarkable appendage of this insect, a small 
 semicircular callus, like an excrescence, growing upon the inner edge 
 of its fore wings near the base. This unique specimen was subsequently 
 examined and its mouth was carefully dissected by Mr. Westwood, 
 who communicated a more full description, with figures of its several 
 parts, to the London Entomological Society, which was published in 
 the Society’s Proceedings, vol. v, plate xiv, fig. 2, a to l. 
 
 Of this rare and remarkable insect, I, eighteen years ago, captured 
 
B74 New York State Agricultural Society. 
 
 a specimen, which is a female. The past season I have been so 
 fortunate as to meet with it again, the specimen now obtained being 
 a male, showing this sex to be still more of a paradox than is the* 
 female. I know not whether any other specimens of this insect have 
 ever been found. It is an object of so much scientific interest that I 
 here present an account of it: 
 
 Whoever meets with the male of this insect, his notice will first 
 be attracted to the remarkably long, stout pair of forceps with which 
 it is furnished, giving to its long, narrow body such a close resem¬ 
 blance to an earwig ( Forficula ) that he will think it probably per¬ 
 tains to that family of insects. But on coming to see that its wings 
 are of ordinary structure, filled with fine longitudinal veins; that its 
 feet are five instead of three-jointed; that its head is retracted and 
 almost entirely hid under the thorax, with the face flattened and held 
 backward, the mouth pressing upon the breast, and with the eyes 
 kidney-shaped and the antennae inserted in the notch on their inner 
 side, his second thought will be that it is a cockroach ( Blatta ) fur¬ 
 nished with a forceps, and thus giving it a relationship to the kindred 
 group Forficula. It is not till he happens to observe that the four 
 wings, though broad and hyaline, with the first pair smoky, and thus 
 resembling wing covers, are yet alike in size and are destitute of any 
 plaits or folds, that he becomes aware it may pertain to the order 
 ISTeueopteea instead of Oetiiopteea, where its resemblances to an ear- 
 w'ig and a cockroach would place it. Even then, he notices so many 
 points in which the specimen appears more like the insects of the 
 latter than of the former order (the broad costal or outer area of the 
 ■wings, no spot in this area answering to a stigma, no small eyes, etc.) 
 that he is in doubt whether it may not be an Orthopter with wings 
 not perfectly developed, as is the case with several of the species of 
 tliis and other orders. • 
 
 To ascertain if it pertains to the Neuroptera, he searches through 
 this order for insects having the end of the body equipped as it is 
 here, but he nowhere finds any which are described as corresponding 
 with it in this particular. The only approach to a structure of this 
 kind appears to be in the family Panobpida:, where the males have 
 the tip of the body furnished with a pair of claws or hooks much 
 resembling the jaws of many insects, these hooks having their sharp 
 points directed forward over the end of the back, their size, form, and 
 position being quite unlike the forceps of this insect. And when he 
 reads that “ this family Panoepida: is at once distinguished by the 
 front of the head being produced into an elongated slender deflexed 
 
Report of Entomologist. 
 
 375 
 
 rostrum,” “ the head vertical, its anterior end prolonged and narrowed 
 in the form of a proboscis;” as the insect in hand has only a short 
 nose or snout, not prolonged into a slender narrow proboscis, and 
 the head not held vertically downward, but horizontally backward, 
 with the mouth pressed upon the breast; he concludes in full confi¬ 
 dence that it cannot pertain to this family. And, on comparing it 
 with the other families of this order, he finds no place where it 
 appears to belong. So anomalous is it, that the student in this science 
 will be embarrassed by it in whatever direction he turns. Even Mr. 
 Newman, though he had made the insects of this order his particular 
 study, was unable to decide as to the particular family to which it 
 pertains. 
 
 By dissecting its mouth, Mr. Westwood obtained such details as to 
 show the family Panorpidos to be its true place, notwithstanding it 
 differs so notably from all the other genera of this family as to make 
 its association with them appear quite incongruous. And it is not 
 that it is intimately related to them, but that it is more nearly related 
 to them than to the genera of any other family that makes this family 
 its true place. 
 
 The following are the points in which this insect corresponds with 
 the typical genera of this family : 1st. The upper lip is prolonged to 
 an acute point, forming with the other organs of the mouth a beak 
 or rostrum, which is the essential distinction of this family, although 
 here this beak is short, scarcely longer than thick, whilst there it is 
 long and slender, four times as long as thick. 2d. The upper jaws 
 are longer than wide, and have two sharp teeth at their tips. 3d. The 
 maxillary feelers are thread-like and five-jointed, the joints little 
 longer than thick, the last one oval. 4th. The veins of the wings 
 coincide with those of the genus Panorpa more closely than with 
 those of any other insects of this order. 5th. In the female the body 
 gradually tapers to an acute point, which is furnished with two 
 minute threads which are here two-jointed, and in Panorpa three- 
 jointed. And 6th, as we now know, in the males the tip of the 
 body is armed, the armature here being a pair of very long stout 
 forceps, whilst there it is a pair of stout sharp hooks. 
 
 But the points in which this insect differs from its associates in this 
 family are much more numerous and notable. Allusion has just been 
 made to the great dissimilarity of their beaks, short, and turned back¬ 
 ward in the one, in the others long and slender, and hanging down in 
 front like the trunk of an elephant ; and of the armature at the end of 
 the body in the males, which is here, a formidable pair of forceps held 
 
•37G 
 
 Xew York State Aqricvltural Society. 
 
 horizontally backward, and almost equaling the insect’s body in length; 
 there it is merely a pair of small hooks directed upward and curving for¬ 
 ward over the end of the back. Other differences, equally important, 
 merit to be noticed. The head, instead of being prominent, and fully 
 exposed as it is in Panorpa, Bittacus and Boreus, is retracted, and 
 almost totally hid under the fore part of the thorax. The eyes, 
 which are protuberant and subglobular in those genera, are here but 
 little elevated above the surface, and are long, narrow, and curved, or 
 kidney-shaped. The three glassy simple eyes, which are so conspicu¬ 
 ous in the two first named genera are here wholly wanting. The 
 antennae, instead of being long and thread-like, or like a fine hair, are 
 shortish and thick. The first segment of the thorax, instead of being 
 a ring or hoop forming a kind of neck to the head, is flattened, form¬ 
 ing a semi-circular plate. The body is long, narrow and flattened, 
 not slender and cylindrical. The wings are not shining and glass¬ 
 like, and are not at all ornamented with spots and bands as they are 
 in the other genera. And the small semi-circular lobe on the inner 
 margin of the fore wings, near the base, is a singular appendage, 
 whereby this species is at once distinguished from all others. 
 
 Keaders intelligent upon this subject will be aware from what has 
 now been stated, that this insect differs widely from those with which 
 it is associated. In this family PanokpidvE, however, each of the 
 groups are very distinct. Though there is a beautiful similarity to the 
 species of each genus, the few genera composing this family are each 
 remarkably different from all the others. They hence form a very 
 heterogeneous assemblage, as will appear from a cursory review of them. 
 
 In the genus Panorpa , or the scorpion-flies, the body and its mem¬ 
 bers are of ordinary aspect, with nothing peculiar that is perceptible 
 to the eye, except the end of the body in the males, the last joint 
 being very large and egg-shaped, and the two joints preceding it 
 remarkably small, appearing as if atrophied, this structure giving 
 free motion to the tip of the body, enabling it to turn in every direc¬ 
 tion like the tail of a scorpion. 
 
 In Bittacus , the body, wings and legs are remarkably long and 
 slender, giving these flies a striking resemblance to the crane-flies or 
 daddy-long-legs of the genus Tipula in the order Dipt era. 
 
 Boreus contains very diminutive insects, scarcely one fourth the 
 dimensions of their kindred. They are destitute of wings, and move 
 by feeble skips on the surface of the snow in winter. The genus has 
 only three species, one in Europe, long known, and two, which I 
 have described, in this country 
 
Report of Entomologist. 
 
 37? 
 
 In these three genera the heads are quite similar, being prolonged 
 into a long slender beak or proboscis; and in the males the end of 
 the body is furnished with a pair of stout, sharp-pointed hooks. 
 
 The genus Nemoptera is remarkable for the singularity of its 
 wings. Although the order Neuroptera is defined as having four 
 wings of equal size, we here have a genus of that order in which the 
 hind wings are double the length of the forward pair, and are exceed¬ 
 ingly narrow and slender, like blades of grass, and the wings remain 
 spread apart when the fly is at rest. 
 
 Finally, the genus Merope differs from all the preceding genera in 
 having the head withdrawn under the thorax, the eyes kidney-shaped 
 and several other characters which have already been stated; the fly 
 resembling a cockroach, the males having forceps like an earwig. 
 
 These two genera have the head slightly prolonged, and forming 
 a short beak or snout; they have no small simple eyes, and their 
 maxillary feelers are short, not reaching beyond the jaws. They 
 evidently constitute a subfamily separated from the three first genera 
 by the shortness of their beak. Dr. Rambur, who was unacquainted 
 with the last genus, elevates Nemoptera to the rank of a family 
 (Neilropteres, page 332j, which he characterizes as having the hind 
 wings very long and nearly linear. But it being the distinctive mark 
 of the family Panorpid^e that its mouth is prolonged into a beak, the 
 great difference which exists in the length of this beak is the most 
 natural and perspicuous character on which to found a primary 
 division of this family. And thus the two genera, Nemoptera and 
 Merope will constitute a subfamily, Nemopterides, having the beak 
 short, little, if at all, longer than thick. 
 
 Two or three facts are all we as yet know of the habits of this rare 
 and anomalous insect. It comes abroad in its perfect state from the 
 middle till the end of the month of July. It flies around in the 
 night, and probably secretes itself and remains at rest during the day. 
 It is attracted by a light, and by night flies into the lighted rooms of 
 dwellings through the open windows and doors. It was in a lighted 
 parlor that my specimen of the female was taken, it having entered 
 at an opened window. The male occurred running among the papers 
 on my writing table, having no do\ibt flown in at the open door and 
 alighted on the table unobserved. From its aspect and motions I 
 confidently supposed it to be a cockroach, until in securing it its 
 formidable forceps were seen. • Thus by its habits also this insect is 
 related to the genus Nemoptera, one of the species of which is stated 
 by Olivier to enter houses by night, attracted by the light. 
 
 1 
 
378 
 
 JVfiif' York State Agricultural Society. 
 
 This insect is of a dingy brown color, its abdomen dull pale yel¬ 
 low, and its legs and the forceps of the male yellowish white. Its 
 wings are hyaline but not clear and glassy. They have a tinge of 
 umber brown, the fore pair perceptibly deeper tinged with this color 
 than the hind pair. 
 
 The male is larger and his body more robust than the female, measuring 0.40 in 
 length to the end of its tail-like appendages, and to the end of the forceps 0.G5. The 
 forceps are joined to the body obliquely on each side of its end, their entire length 
 being 0.32, which is also the length of the body forward of their base. The extended 
 wings of the male are 1.20 from tip to tip. The female is 0.30 long and 0.95 wide 
 across its extended wings. The dimensions of the Doubleday specimen are given as 
 0.35 in length and 1.05 in width. 
 
 The head is almost totally hid beneath the thorax. When viewed on the under 
 side it is more long than wide, its outline is oval, flattened and turned backward 
 horizontally, with the mouth pressed upon the breast and reaching a little beyond 
 the base of the first pair of legs. Its sides are occupied by the eyes, which in the 
 female almost meet together on the vertex or crown of the head, being parted asun¬ 
 der merely by a slender elevated ridge, which has an impressed line along its summit. 
 In the male they are more widely separated, the vertex or space between them being 
 more long than .vide and narrowing forward, where it is also grooved along the mid¬ 
 dle. In both sexes the vertex is black without any glossiness. In front the circular 
 space between the eyes is smooth and shining, black in the male and chestnut brown 
 in the female. The face below the eyes is dull whitish and glossy, the surface 
 slightly uneven from three faint transverse elevations, which are parted asunder by 
 shallow impressed parallel lines. Below this the upper lip is prolonged downward, 
 and viewed in front with a common magnifier, appears like a cone twice as long as 
 thick and gradually tapered to a sharp point. The jaws have on their outer side a 
 dense tuft of yellow hairs, in which their tips are hid from view. The feelers are 
 small, reaching only to the end of the jaws. They arc dull whitish, thread-like and 
 five-jointed, the joints little longer than thick, the last one oval. To Mr. Westwood 
 the last joint appeared to be formed of two rings. He found the upper jaws to end 
 in two sharp curved teeth, and inside of these a third obtuse one ; the lower jaws 
 two-lobed, their tips conic, and the lower lip nearly square, its anterior angles 
 rounded and fringed with hairs, and furnished with a pair of short, two-jointed feel¬ 
 ers. The eyes are coal black, their surface finely granular. They arc slender, 
 kidney-shaped, four times as long as thick, their lower part narrower than the upper. 
 No simple eyes are perceptible in either sex. The antenna arise in the lower part of 
 the notch of the eyes, and are almost in contact at their base. They are alike in the two 
 sexes, short and thick, about half the length of the body in the female and a little more 
 than a third its length in the male, thickest forward of the middle, and gradually 
 tapering in both directions, toward their tips becoming very slender. They are dark 
 dingy brown in the male, pale brown in the female, the basal joint pale dull yellow. 
 They are composed of thirty joints, which are about as long as thick, and are distinctly 
 separated by contractions between them. The basal joint is thick, its diameter simi¬ 
 lar to that of the thickest middle joints, and rounded at its summit. The second 
 joint is small, but half as thick as the first. The third joint is slightly longer than 
 thick, and gradually widens from its base to its apex. The following joints increase 
 very gradually in thickness to about the eighth joint, from which to the twelfth they 
 do not perceptibly differ in size, and beyond this they begin to diminish. 
 
Report of Entomologist. 
 
 379 
 
 The tiiokax has its first segment flattened and semi-circular with the sides strongly 
 inclined downward, and in the female so much deflected, that when viewed from 
 above this part appears square and as long as wide, with its opposite sides parallel 
 and its anterior end convex. In its middle is a longitudinal ridge with an impressed 
 line along its summit, and on each side is a raised line extending obliquely outward 
 and forward, these elevations not reaching the basal edge, and in the female less 
 prominent. The second and third segments are alike in size and form, similar in 
 length to the first, but a third broader. The first and second segments are dark dingy 
 brown, the third dull pale yellow. 
 
 The abdomen is smooth and glossy, soft and flesh-like, of a pale dull yellow color. 
 In the male its color is more dull and its substance more firm, its width the same as 
 the thorax, its opposite sides parallel, scarcely narrowing toward the tip. In this sex 
 it has eight segments, distinctly marked by an elevated line on their hind margins. 
 The first segment is longest, and is narrowed on each side concavely from its base to 
 its middle, and from thence widens to its hind angles. Its surface is uneven from 
 large smooth elevations and intervening depressions, a largo roundish elevation occu¬ 
 pying its central and anterior part, and on each side of this a smaller and somewhat 
 triangular one occupying the anterior corners. The second segment is short, less 
 than half the length of the first, and on each side widens from its anterior to its hind 
 angles. The four succeeding segments are larger, equal in size, each about twice the 
 length of the second. The seventh segment is shorter, and the eighth still shorter, 
 the two together being only equal in length to the sixth. The last one is followed 
 by a triangular plate or ninth segment, which is transverse, nearly double the length 
 of the short eighth segment, but not equaling it in width, with its apex rounded; 
 and from under its edge is protruded two narrow triangular appendages, flattened 
 and membranous, about 0.03 long, gradually tapering to a very acute point, and over¬ 
 hanging the angle formed at the inner base of the forceps. 
 
 Th e forceps are hard and horny, project horizontally backward, and are regularly 
 curved, each blade in the form of a slightly bent bow. The blades are each com¬ 
 posed of two pieces articulated one to the end of the other. The basal piece is 
 double the length, and double the thickness of the apical. It is slightly thicker at 
 its base, where it is articulated to the whole length of one side of the triangular 
 plate, and to the outer end of the hind edge of the eighth segment. It is flattened 
 its whole length, both on its upper and its under side, whereby it is more than twice 
 as broad as thick. The apical piece at its tip is abruptly and strongly compressed, 
 and widened to thrico its preceding thickness, and is concavely notched, this dilated 
 portion having the form of a crescent, placed vertically, with its horns projecting 
 obliquely backward and inward—this last joint of the forceps being thus analogous 
 in its form to the top of the spire of a Turkish mosque, ending in a crescent placed 
 transversely. The surface of these grappling organs is closely bearded with inclined 
 hairs, which arc very short and minute on the first, and much longer and coarser on 
 the last joint. 
 
 In the female the abdomen is simple, narrower than the thorax, flattened, and 
 beyond its middle gradually tapered to an acute point. It is composed of seven seg¬ 
 ments, one less than in the male, all but the last corresponding in length with those 
 of the male, and the basal one similarly sculptured. The seventh segment is of equal 
 length with those forward of it, and like the sixth is strongly narrowed from its fore 
 to its hind end, where it is transversely cut off, and from its end is protruded a cylin¬ 
 drical tube, as it appears when viewed from above, which is twice as long as thick, 
 and nearly the length of the segment to which it is appended. And from the end of 
 
380 
 
 If e w York State Agricultural Society. 
 
 this tube hangs downward and diverging outward, two small thread-like appendages, 
 which are two-jointed, the joints twice as long as thick. 
 
 Thf legs are long and slender, the hind pair slightly longest They are densely 
 coated with a fine short incumbent beard, and the shanks have a pair of spurs at 
 tlieir tips. The feet are five-jointed, the joints cylindric and successively diminished 
 in length, the last one ending in a pair of small black simple hooks. 
 
 The wings are laid flat upon the back, one upon another when the insect is run¬ 
 ning or at rest. They reach much beyond the end of the body, being almost double 
 its length, and in the male cover and hide from view the forceps. The four wings 
 arc nearly alike in size, form, texture, and in the number and position of their veins. 
 They are thrice as long as wide, the fore pair being slightly longer and narrower, 
 gradually widening from their bases through two-thirds of their length and rounded 
 at their ends, thus being elongated egg-shaped. They are destitute of any plait or 
 fold, and are pellucid and faintly smoky, the anterior pair perceptibly more so than 
 the hind pair. Along their inner side they are slightly fringed with extremely fine 
 short hairs, which incline backward, and on their outer side are similar hairs incum¬ 
 bent upon the marginal vein. Their disk is occupied by numerous veins running 
 lengthwise of the wing, nearly equidistant from and parallel with each other, some 
 of them forked. They are blackish in the fore wings of. the male and pale brown in 
 the hind wings. In the female they are pale brown in the fore wings and dull 
 whitish or colorless in the hind wings. They are connected together by many small 
 and more slender transverse veinlets of a whitish color. 
 
 The outer portion, or costal area, of the wings is broad and widened toward its 
 middle, thus appearing like the wing of an Orthopterous rather than a Neuroptcrous 
 insect, and it is destitute of any discolored spot or stigma toward its tip. On its 
 inner side this area is traversed lengthwise by a slender slightly flexuous and nearly 
 colorless vein, which terminates in the marginal vein. Along the outer side of this 
 vein at irregular distances are short oblique veinlets, about twelve in number, con¬ 
 necting this longitudinal vein with the margin. About five of the first of these vein- 
 lets are straight and closer together, forming short rhombic cells between them. The 
 succeeding veinlets become more oblique, longer and curved, their middle portion 
 being more longitudinal than their ends, and most of these curved veinlets send off at 
 right angles one or two short straight branches to the next veinlet or to the longitudi¬ 
 nal vein, thus dividing all the middle portion of the costal area into extremely 
 irregular cells. In the hind wings these veinlets are fewer, about eight in number, 
 and all nearly straight. Along its inner side this longitudinal vein is connected to the 
 rib vein by from three to six oblique and transverse veinlets placed at irregular dis¬ 
 tances. 
 
 The rib vein is slightly thicker and more deeply colored than the other veins. 
 Along its inner side are seven short veinlets connecting it to the next vein, the three 
 first of these being oblique and farther apart, thft others transverse. 
 
 The several veins which ramify the middle and inner portions of the wing, are all 
 branches of two principal veins, which are given off from the inner side of the rib 
 vein near its base. These two veins are designated the externo-medial and the 
 intcrno-medial. The former extends along the inner side of the rib vein its whole 
 length, the latter along the inner side of the axillary or anal vein. There is a beauti¬ 
 ful correspondence between these two veins, both in their branches and their princi¬ 
 pal connecting veinlets. Each vein sends off three branches, the first branch being 
 also once forked, thus making five veins ending in the margin of the wing. 
 
 The externo-mcilial vein parts from the rib vein above and little more than its 
 diameter distant from the root of the intcrno-medial. It diverges very gradually 
 
Report of Entomologist. 
 
 381 
 
 from the rib vein, and after extending the same distance that its root is from the 
 base of the wing it forks, giving off its first branch. This branch, after running a 
 similar distance, divides into two forks, which extend straight onward without any 
 further division to the end of the wing, terminating in the middle of its rounded tip. 
 The main vein extends twice as for before it again divides and sends off its second 
 branch, and at or quite near the same point it makes its first connection with the 
 rib vein, sending a veinlet obliquely backward to it; and this second branch, near its 
 commencement, is connected by a transverse veinlet with the outer fork of the first 
 branch. The main vein, after again extending a similar distance, which is a third or 
 more of its remaining length, gives off its third branch. 
 
 Mr. Westwood figures the wings of the left side only, and this externo-medial vein 
 he repsesents as having four branches in the fore wings and three in the hind ones. 
 But both pairs of wings are liable to vary in the number of these branches. In the 
 male specimen before me this vein has only three branches in each of the wings; in 
 the female specimen the fore wing of the left side and the hind wing of the right 
 side have four branches to this vein. 
 
 The interno-medial vein , like its fellow, forks three times at equal distances apart, 
 sending out branches from its inner side, which ramify the inner half of the wing. 
 The first branch is given off forward of the corresponding branch of the externo- 
 medial, with which it is connected a short distance from its origin by a transverse 
 veinlet which issues from that branch at half the distance from its base to its fork. 
 This branch continues single two-thirds of its length. It then divides, and its two 
 forks attain the end of the wing next to those of the first branch of the externo-medial. 
 The main vein sends off its second and third branches before it has extended half its 
 length. It reaches the inner margin at about three-fourths the distance from the base 
 to the apex of the fore wings and two-thirds of this distance in tl\p hind ones. Like 
 the outer vein, this also sometimes gives off a fourth branch near its termination. 
 
 Occupying the long narrow space between the interno-medial vein and the inner 
 margin of the wing are two veins, answering to what are termed the anal and 
 axillary veins. The first of these corresponds somewhat with the rib-vein, it being, 
 particularly in the'hind wings, more thick and darker colored than the other veins 
 in this part of the wing, becoming slender and colorless, however, toward its tip; 
 and the interno-medial vein also connects with it by an oblique veinlet at or near the 
 base of its second branch, and by other veinlets beyond this. The second, or axillary 
 vein is slender, colorless, and scarcely half the length of the preceding. Near its 
 base are two short branches, passing from it obliquely to the margin, and these arc 
 connected together by a veinlet which runs from near the end of the first to the base 
 of the second branch. 
 
 In the fore wings upon the inner margin, near the base, and at the end of the first 
 or shortest of the two branch veins last mentioned, is a singular appendage, a little 
 semi-circular lobe projecting from the margin, like an excrescence growing upon the 
 side of the marginal vein, the vein being straight and not at all indented by it. This 
 appendage is concave on its upper and convex on its lower side, and is feebly trans¬ 
 lucent except on its thickened edge. It is black in the male, and pale testaceous in 
 the female specimen before me. 
 
 The veinlets in the wings are more slender than the veins, whitish, gradually 
 becoming more numerous toward the tips of the wings. There are six or seven 
 veinlets between each of the long parallel veins, and one or two less between the 
 veins ending in the inner margin. They are arranged more or less regularly in five 
 or six rows, crossing the wing in an oblique, or partly in a transverse direction. 
 
382 
 
 ATsrr York State Agricultural Society. 
 
 REPORTS OF COUNTY SOCIETIES. 
 
 ALBANY. 
 
 In obedience to the requirement of the statute, ordering a yearly 
 report from the several agricultural societies of the State, I herewith 
 present you a brief abstract of the proceedings of the Albany Countv 
 Agricultural Society, for the year 1870: 
 
 Our annual fair was held at Hurstville, about two miles from the 
 city of Albany, on the 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th of October. 
 
 ihe week previous was selected for the purpose of holding the fair, 
 but as it set in rainy and unpleasant, it was resolved by a majority 
 of the executive board present at a meeting held on the fair ground, 
 to adjourn for one week. 
 
 On the appointed day, the fair opened with a fair prospect of suc¬ 
 cess ; but it was then discovered that many exhibitors who had 
 intended to follow up the several fairs taking place about that time, 
 would not be able to attend ours, and then fulfill their previous 
 arrangements. 
 
 The manufacturers department was well represented, excepting 
 the sewing-machines, of which no entries were made by our local 
 agents. Ihe only entry made was by a foreign agency. 
 
 The show of fruit and vegetables, was limited, oil account of the 
 adjournment. Most of the articles in this department were perishable, 
 and must necessarily be lost if kept longer than they were prepared 
 for. 
 
 The display of cattle was very good, the sheep department fully up 
 to former years, and that of swine and poultry comparing favorably 
 with previous exhibitions. 
 
 The show of horses (always good in our county), was not behind 
 former collections. Some two or three stallions, with their get two 
 years old and under, producing a great interest in horse circles, were 
 shown, and formed a very interesting feature in that department. 
 
 "Ihe premiums being quite large for fast horses, a great number 
 were shown in the different classes, and we were well satisfied that 
 

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