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Psyche 6:137-141, 1891.

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PSYCHE.
SOME OLD CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN HARRIS, SAY AND P1CKERING.-111.
MILTON (Mass.) Nov'r 18, 1824.
To Thomas Say, Esq.
Dear Sir.
I have waited until
this for a private conveyance of the
box of insects which accompanies this
letter.
The numbers of your Journal which
I have received have afforded me much
gratification, particularly the papers by yourself and those by Mr. Charles Bon-
aparte.
From your descriptions I have
already recognized several of my insects, & probably shall more when I can find
leisure to examine them. The last
number of the Journal wh. I have re-
ceived is that for August ; & I shall be glad to have any numbers that have
since appeared sent me by the gentle-
man to whom I have entrusted this
letter & box. I have requested Mr.
Fuller to procure for me the first vol-
ume of your American Entomology,
from which I anticipate much informa-
tion & pleasure. If the work is pub-
lished by subscription I should be happy to use my endeavours to procure sub-
scribers for you.
I am completely at a loss for the de-
scription of that weevil which, in your
letter of the 26th May, you call the
@'zastri of Fabricius.
The same spe-
cific name occurs in Melsheimer's cata-
logue; but I find no species by that
name in the works of Fabricius which I
possess : These are his Entomolopia
Systematics, 5 vols. I 792- 1 798 ; & his Systema EZeIttheraiorum, S. Bhyn-
gotorum, S. Piezatorum, & S. A&-
ator~tm, 5 vols. 1801-1805. either
does the specific name pinastri occur
in Gmelin's Linnk.
Curculio Nenzdphar Herbst I do not
find in Fabr. or Gmelin, & have not
access to the work of Herbst.
I must thank you to refer me to the
number of the Journal Acad. Nat. Sc.
in which your description of Stenoco-
rut idens is to be found.
Last September I was so fortunate as
to discover the male of that species of
Aegeria of which [ sent you the female
in the spring, & to wh. I gave the name
offulvico~nz's, in a former letter. After repeating my definition of the .species I will, agreeably to your request, add the characters of the male. Aegeria (fd-
vicornis) brunnea, a h posticis hyali-
nis ; margine postico, stigmateque cos-
tali fuliginoso ; antennis tarsisque fulvis, abdomine barbato. Mas minor, alis
anticis basi hyalinis, apice opacis ; an0 tribarbato, barba media perlonga, fulva. The most remarkable characteristic of




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138 p&'ycHE. [September 1891.
the male is the extremely long, slender, bearded appendage to the abdomen, of
a tawny or dirty yellow colour. The
whole length of the male from the head
to the extremity of this appendage is
of an inch ; this appendage is not quite of an inch ; beirg nearly as long as
the whole body. Standing obliquely
on each side of the anus is a little fuli- ginous tuft. The abdomen is some-
what fulvous beneath. The anterior &
intermediate extremities are fulvous, the latter however have a dark patch on the
genicula & tibiae. The first joint of
the posterior tarsus is much more pilose than in the female; the hair near the
union of the tarsus & tibia is fuliginous, the remainder fulvous. The fectina-
tions of the antennae are slightly fus-
cous. This is the only male that I have
ever seen, & I found it on the identical currant bush from which I had the pre-
ceding year taken the females.
I have this season met with a species
of Cicindela that is new to me, & which
I cannot identify as any one of those de- scribed by you in the Trans. Am.
Philos. Soc. Phila. 1818. I have called
it Cicindela (erythrogaster) * obscure
fusca, elytris lunulis basi et apicis,
fascia intermedia flexuosa, punctisque
duobus albidis : abdomine femoribusque
viridis ; ano late rufo. Length half an
inch. Antennas green at base. Head
cupreous, with two green abbreviated
lines between the eyes. Mandibles
white at the base, black at the points.
Lip white, with a single tooth. Thorax
cupreous obscure, with the margin &
breast green. Elytra obs[c]ure, some-
*[See Harris, Entom. corresp., p. 2.1
what cupreous, with a humeral & ter-
minal lunule, an intermediate flexuous
band, & two spots behind the band
whitish. Abdomen green, the hypo-
gastrium red. Feet obscure, thighs
green. I have only met with one spec-
imen, which was captured in a dry,
gravelly pasture.
Prof. Peck taught me to define the
species in Latin & I have generally ad-
hered to his advice, though it savours
somewhat of pedantry.
My friend, Mr. Fuller, has kindly
taken charge of a package containing
two boxes of insects for you. In box I,
(the bottom one) are some of the Cole-
optera which I have collected. They
are all numbered in order to facilitate
you in naming to me such as have been
described, & to enable you to indicate
the nondescripts. I have kept a cata-
logue to correspond, with arbitrary
names for all the species not as yet as- certained. From the want of books,
plates, & access to other cabinets, but
morethan all, from the want of time to
examine them I have made out but few
of the species. These I have added,
however, that I might from your infor-
mation and experience, render myself
doubly sure ; & also that I might learn
of you to what genera they are to be re- ferred, according to the System of Dr.
Leach in Brewster's Encyclop. I pre-
fer on most accounts his system to that
of Latreille in the Regne Animal of
Cuvier. Should it however be incon-
venient to you to follow the first, I must content myself with having the genera
according to the second ; with such syn- onyms as may be necessary. No. I of




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September 1891 .]
the Coleoptera I once supposed to be
Cicindelu trifasciata, F. ; but now
think it must be you[r] C. vulgaris. No. 7 is probably Brachinus fumans F.
No. 27 much resembles your wrestis
divaricata ; btit is evidently a distinct species, from the construction of the
apex of the elytra. No. 37 is the lumi-
nous larva ? of some Lampyris: it is
very common in low grounds in Sept'r
and Oct'r. Nos. 66, 67, 68, and 69
may perhaps be only sexual or other
varieties of one species. The same
may be true as to Nos. 136, 137, 138,
and 139. No. 76 I take to be your Melo-
Zontha pilosicollis ; No. 83 your M.
sericea ; & No. 86 your Cetonia bar-
bata. No. 93, as was observed by
Prof. Peck, differs somewhat from the
European Tenebrio &tor. No. 98
is to 'be found in all stages within the legumes of Baptisia (So-phora L.)
tinctoria, in the months of Aug't and
Sept'r. No. 106 inhabits beneath the
bark of the Plum-tree ; No. I 07 beneath that of the Juni$erm virginiana and
if they are not already described by
some other name, should, according to
a rule of Linnaeus, bear for their spe-
cific designations the generic names of
the trees which afford them sustenance.
This rule I conceive to be of the high-
est importance ; and it appears most
proper to distinguish the species of in- sects by the names of the trees or plants on which they live, in every instance
where it is practicable, or where the
habitat is known.
Can you tell me where I am to look
for the larva of No. I 14, Lamia torna-
tor, F. & for that of No. I I 7 ?
That of
No. I 16 inhabits the Lombardy poplar.
Can No. 117 be Stenocorus cyaneus,
F. ? Dr. Leach has separated from the
genus Rhagium some insects to which
he has given the generic name of Har-
gh; the characters of which are,
"Thorax 7uith a spine on each side;
antennce thickest in the middle."
The type of this genus is Rhagium
indugator, F. Now it seems to me
that No. I I 7 might be referred to this genus. Please give me your opinion
on the subject. No. 132 appears to be
Cassida aurichalcea, F. but no men-
tion is made, in the description of that species, of the small black spot on each elytron. I have written a paper on
this insect for my friend Hon'l John
Lowell. No. 149 is extremely com-
mon on the Tilia americatta, & the
English Elm.
In the second box No. I is a complete
scare-sleepy and from its note is called ^Katy-did" No. 20, Sigara -
swims in the ordinary way, & not upon
its back. No. 21, Membracis bimacu-
latus ? I?. is found in abundance on the Robinia $setidacacia in September.
You may have observed the knotted
condition of the small twigs of this tree. Each protuberance contains in summer
a reddish worm, the larva of some in-
sect, which lives on the pith, & leaves
the tree to go through its metamorpho-
sis, -probably in the grottnd. May it
not be the larva of this species of Mem- brads. Do you know the oeconomy
of No. 33 ? I have ascertained the
metamorphosis of Nos. 34, 35, 36, 44,.




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PSYCHE.
45, 46, 47, 48, 49, & 50.
The history
of some of them, particularly the 5 or 6 last, is interesting to the agriculturist, etc. On the cover are 3 more Lepi-
doptera, with whose changes I have
made myself acquainted ; & wish to be
sure that I have ascertained the species. No. 129 I take to be Pawo TroiIus,
F., No. 130 P. asterias, F., & No.
131 P. cardui, F. All three were
raised from the young larvae. No. 75
is the parasite of Pa-piZio Asterias. I
have sent but few specimens of the
Order Lepidoptera, because they are
large, and occupy too much room.
Do you know the larva of Papilio
Hyale ? & its habitat ? Of Diptera the
box contains but 3 species. The Myopa
& Asilus are curious from their i-esem-
blance of Hymenopterous insects.
On the cover are a few shells, ob-
tained from' a pond of stagnant (fresh)
water. These & some from our beach
which I picked up last summer are not
sent as curiosities, but to convince you of my desire to comply with your
wishes, as far as it is in my power.
If you have no use for the insects I
shall esteem it a great favour to obtain, through your means, an exchange of
specimens with any collectors in your
vicinity. You have several insects wh.
are desiderata, e. g. Cremastocheilus
casfanece Knoch., Geotwes Tifyus,
F. ; Bolito$hagus cornuf us; Brentus
anchorago, & other species of the same
genus ; 7?hagiu7~~ inquisitoq F. ;
Elaphrus ri$arius; Ti&da tritici;
&c,&c. I havenot yet found native
species of Blaps; but very few of
[September 1891.
Dytiscus, of which No. 23 in Box I is
the largest; & but one small Hydro-
9hiLus. Those insects which I have
sent are such as are the most common
here : you can thence form some idea
of what my collection must consist.
I am desirous to know whether Xenos
Peckii is common with you ; & whether
you have discovered any other species
either of Xenos or Stylops. I could in
summer obtain any number of Xenos
PecK but do not know how to pre-
pare them for the Cabinet.
I will now bring this long letter to a
close, hoping that you will excuse me
if I have trespassed on your time and
patience ; for I am like a traveller in a strange land, anxious to obtain infor-
mation, & the best of guides.
Be pleased, Sir, to accept the best
wishes & grateful acknowledgements
of
Yours, very respectfully,
T. WILLIAM HARRIS.
[DRAFT OF REPLY BY THOMAS SAY.]
JAN'Y 8th, 1825.
Dear Sir!
Your interesting letter with
the boxes of fine insects came to hand in excellent order by Mr. Fuller, at whose
lodging I called several times, but
probably owing to his engagements, I
saw only once for a few minutes.
With respect to the finash' I think
it highly probable that I have adopted
the name from Melsheimers Catalogue
without examination since I do not find
the insect desc'd in my Mss. Since
the reception of y'r letter, I have looked



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September 1891.1 PSYCHE. 141
for it in vain in Fabr. & Herbst.
Prof.
Peck's name may therefore probably be
retained.
Although much of Herbst's great
work was publ'd long before the Syst.
Eleut. yet it contains a great many
desc's not noticed by Fabr.
I am very happy to find that I have
not publ'd the Stenocorus trideq
after much search I discovered the
desc'n of the insect amongst my rejected Mss. with the following note sub-
scribed "It is probable that this is the villosus Fabr. as it agrees very well
with his short desc'n." I do not think
I have seen any insect that agrees better with the bidens Fabr. than this spe-
cies, but he attributes to that sp. 2
spines to the extremity of each joint of the antennae. It may be different from
both, in which case Prof. Peck's name
of -putator must of course be retained.
Your Algeria fulvicornis, is, I think
new ; it is certainly a charming and cu- rious insect. I cannot determine
whether the Cicindela be new or only a
variety, but I am inclined to the opin-
ion that it is new. I have no unpub-
lished description of a Cicindela.
I agree with you perfectly with re-
spect to latin specific definitions ; I do not see the necessity of thus using that language in preference to the French,
German or English languages, for I
believe that almost every naturalist of
any distinction can read a description in either. If any part is to be latinized I conceive it ought to be the history
which is always the
most difficult to
read in a foreign language.
The following is a list of the insects
contained in the first box, carefully
compared with descriptions of authors,
with my Mss. descr's & with the speci-
mens in my cabinet.
[The list is not
given. ] The contents of the second
box I have not yet had time to examine
& compare, but I will attend to
them
as early as possible.
A new genus has recently been made
by Dejean for the Stenocorus cyaneus
Fabr. under the name of Desmocerus.
It could not be referred to the g's Har- giam of Leach, which is not adopted
by subsequent writers.
I regret my inability to give you any
information relative to the larvae you
mention, my opportunity of becoming
acquainted with the changes of insects
is at present very limited.
You mention having sent some
Marine shells, but I have only received
those that are attached to the lid of one of the boxefe, & they are all fresh water ; I therefore suppose that there was a
package that I have, unfortunately, not
received.
Xenos fickii is common here ; but I
have not seen any other species of the
genus or of Stylops.




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