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Psyche 6:169-172, 1891.

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PSYCHE.
SOME OLD CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN HARRIS, SAY AND P1CKERING.-IV.
Dear Sir,
Mr. Nuttall has just sent me your let-
ter of Jany. 8th, with the insects which you committed to his charge. I feel
myself under additional obligations to
you for your attentions, and am highly
gratified with the specimens which I
have received from you.
I have met with but one individual of
the Dic~Zm eZozgatas i and, since my
last? have obtained the male of Boleto-
phagus cornut~s ; Your specimen is the
female, & is of a lighter colour, as is
represented in the plate attached to
Panzer's Prod[r] omus. Both these in-
sects must be considered as rare in this section of the country. The Demog-
aatha vittata & species of Lytfa are
exceedingly interesting to me. The
other insects I have never discovered
here ; they are therefore valuable ad-
ditions to my small collecti n.
%
Mr. Fuller purchased for me the first
vol. of your American Entomology,
which is executed in a most beautiful
manner> & must add greatly to the liter- ary fame you already enjoy. You are
entirely at liberty to quote my localities for any insects which you may hereafter
describe? either in this work or the Jour- nal Acad. Nat. Sc. In your Enton~ol-
ogy I find a species of Smeri~fhus
which I have never noticed: we have
one however very much like it, which
I have taken to be the oceZZatu ; whether it may be the myo@ or excaecata I can-
not determine, having never seen the
descriptions of those species.
Feeling myself the great want of
books on American entomology, &
knowing the impossibility of our insects being determined without good descrip-
tions, I have had it in contemplation to describe all the species which 1 have
collected, with the view to publishing a small local Fauna of the insects in this vicinity. With this intention I have
resohecl to visit Philadelphia the ensuing spring,to request your assistancein deter- mining the genera & species. You have
described so many of our insects which
I had considered new, and your descrip-
tions of many of them having never
reached me, that I was quite surprised
to find that, among those which I have
sent you, there were so few nondescripts. I shall immediately obtain the Trans.
Am. Philos. Soc. & if possible the
Journal of the Lyceum.
As you may publish your descriptions
of Coleoptera before I have an opportu-
nity of consulting with you, I will give the names of such of ours as now occur
to me, with some remarkson those whose
names you gave me in your last letter.




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170 ps ~C'lL!?. [November 1891.
CiciivdeZa 9arYurea is very common
in dry pastures. C. hirticoZZz's is rare.* C. sexguttat~z, & 2 varieties, one with
an additional spot on the disc, the other without the terminal one, are found in
sandy paths. The habitat of $z~ivctu-
Zata is the same. EZa$hms ri)5a~ius
is rare. Carahs catenulatus is scarce.
Agra $eivsyZvanica I have found be-
neath stones on sunny banks. Omo-
$hroiv limbaturn Latr. inhabits near
fresh water streams ; Dytiscus margin-
ah's in stagnant water. Several other
species of Dytisczds are found, but I
have not made out the species. We
have a Bu$restis which appeass to be
the virgi~iemis, but my specimen has
not the metallic lustre of yours. EZater oculat~s is common ; I have not ascer-
tained the habitat of its larva. We
have your E. dorsaZis, & 23. corticiivus. Lycus dimidiatus & L . reticuZatus are
generally taken on the wing in the day
time, about bushes, & hedges. ATaZa-
chius pnaculatas? the male is distin-
guished by having the zd joint of the
antenn~ (not the 3d joint, as in Fabri-
cius) dilated, quadrate, & with a deep
indentation, But what is most remark-
able is that, even by aid of a powerful
magnifier, I could detect only 4 joints
to the antei-ior tarsi. Like others of
the genus this species is furnished with with 4 retractile, tridigitated tentacula? or processes, one on each of the thorax
& abdomen. Having fixed my speci-
men to a card I cannot compare the
colours beneath with those of your
*In Prof. Peck's cabinet are the only specimens I have seen.
vittatas ; but those of the superior sur- face correspond exactly, except the an-
tenna, the first and zd joints of wh'h
are rufous, the remainder blackish.
Length of the male just + inch. The
female has the usual number of joints to the anterior tarsi. There some varieties particularly of this sex : In these the
thorax is destitute of the black spots ; the dilated humeral portion of the masgin is extended into a fascia which unites with the suture. This species of Malachias
I have found in meadows, on the flowers
of Chrysaivthemzmz Zeucaivthemum, in
June & July.
We have several species
of Ijs which are allied to the fasciatu. Attage~as jeZZio is very common in
houses, & a species, or perhaps variety, without the 'white dot on the elyti-on.
I have met with 2 Lucazas which
corresponds with your $araZZeZus, only
that there is no small tooth "on the
middle of the inferior inner edge" of
the mandibles. PassaZus iiv.terrzq5-
tus is common. Dia$eris macdata
Oliv. is found here upon fungi.
Three species of Lytta are also found
here, viz : L. ciiverea on the potato-vine &c, L. margz'nata on the Clematis
virghiana, & L. ah-ata on the Solid-
ago. Brachu-vjisi prevails every year.
We have yo&- Lamia as$ersa, also L.
rze6uZosa I?. and '~a~lidium ~Z'COZOY, 5'. I will now recur to the insects which
I sent you in box I.
If No. 2 be CaLo-
soma calidum of Fabricius (which I
presume you intended when you wrote
calz'da) that author was mistaken in
describing it as apterous ; all the speci- mens which I have seen certainly have




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November ~Sgr, J 2's ~CK?3. 171
wings.
No. 4 I had taken to be the
cisteloides of Sch6nherr, jmijes of
Paykull. To No. 9 I had fixed the
name of 2. cupreus, F. ; it is your
PaciLia ZuctxJamia ; to No. 16, your
Avzara impuactata , 1 gave the name of
CaraJas &spar, Paylkull, or vzZgayis,
F. I should not have suspected your
Ha7-$aZtxs rusticz~~ (No. I I) to have
belonged to the genus Har$aZus,
judging from a cursory view, it seems
very unlike the other species of that
genus. Your H. vi~idis, Nos. 12 and
rs, stand in my cabinet by the name of
Beeus? F. jroteus? Paykull. The
latter name appears appropriate from
the variety of shades which different in- dividuals exhibit. You will, I hope,
excuse my confessing my mistakes, for
such I presume they must be; for you
have the best means of knowing that
these individuals had not been before
described, or that I had not rightly made them out. No. 38 is not the female of
Lam$yris conusca. I have obtained
the sexes in coitu, & the female is not
apterous. No. 41 which you mention
as a variety of L. Zaticomis, F. I have
found in great numbers on shrubs in
July, & never in company with the
Zatico~nis, No. 42 : Hence 1 conclude
it must be distinct, & therefore marked
it as the ater? F. No. 47, your S.
caudata, stands in my cabinet as the
SiZjha Zajj4o~ica, to Fabricius' des-
cription of which I tho~~ght it corres-
ponded. I cannot discover teeth on the
posterior thighs of No. 48, S. swina-
mensis F., as described by Fabricius.
Is No. 59 the same as Demzestes
~zarmoratus, Knoch, in Melshei~mer's
catalogue? No. 66 answers the des-
cription of Scarabaeus ZIecate, Panzer,
(Faun. Amer. Boreal. Prod [r] omus).
No. 74, yourSc. ~elz'ctus is very CO~I~IOII in certain localities. On May ~1st 1822
I saw the ground covered with them at
Hoboken, New Jersey ; & last summer
great quantities were exhumed from be-
neath a dung hill in this vicinity, in all their stages of larva, pupa, & imago.
No. 75 ~IFeZaZontha pe~ciga, Knocl~,
is very injurious to fruit trees in June ; the larva is equally destructive to the
roots of grass. Can No. 82 be a variety
of JL va~iam. It has not the ovoid form
of the varz'am, & seems nearer allied
to your i~icolo~. T~ichius sca6er dif-
fuses so strong an odour that I have.
frequently discovered it by that alone,
when at the distance of several yards.
The larva in habits the trunks of decaying trees.* MeZoZontha elo~gata is found
in profusion on oaks in June. To No.
91 I gave the name of TYOX a igritus, &
to gz that of T. ~~Zverulezttxs. I omit- ted in course No. 22 which is my Ca~a-
6us,$usiZZus, '& No. 33 EZate~ $uwziZus. No. 93, to which you assign the name
of TeweJyz'o 6a~6atuZas, lives like the
moZz20~ :tbout stables, granaries kc.
The larva devours corn; is elongatedy
depressed, corneous, & of a yellow
colour, with 6 very small legs at the an- terior extremity, & a short tubercle be- neath the posterior to assist it in moving. In the pupa the
segments of the ab-
domen are produced, flattened & finely
*Is T~ichius eremicoia, Knoch, the Sca~abms ebenus of DeGeer?




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172 T'TS' G'EL??. [November IQI.
serrated, & the tail bifurcated.
No. 95
is the only species of iMeZoe I have ever discovered; it is not uncommon in pas-
tures. I cannot reconcile the descrip-
tions of Dia$eris viridi'eam's with my
specimens of No. 94. They inhabit be-
neath the bark of decaying trees. To
gg I gave the name of Curculio Airtus
in my collection. No. 103 I have al-
ways taken to be the Megaceflha marm-
.o~ata. No. 106 is the Sc09tus cerasi
$of my cabinet. Is it not of the
genus HyZurgus?
No. I 1 r you have
marked as a variety of CaZZia?. few&
cum. Fabsicius describes that insect
with violaceous elytra. I had marked
I 1 I as the $avu?~, F. In the Steno-
corus $utator, Peck, the zcl and .3d
joints of the antennz are each termin-
ated with one rigid spine; & I agree
with you in thinking that it is probably distinct from the 6ideas & vi?Zosus of
Fabricius. 170 is my Donacia ajtea-
aata. 127 Crioce~is (Lema) tdineata
is found on the vines of the potato &
<other Solani in June. The eggs are
affixed to the leaves, & immediately on
,their being hatched the larvz enter the iearth. No. 133 inhabits the leaves of
the apple tree. The larva devours the
pal-enchymatous substance of the leaf,
:the cuticle remaining untouched. Here
it changes to a nymph, & emerges from
its retreat only when it has assumed the imago. The lai-ve of 130 Imatidiam
G argus, feed upon the leaves of the COE- VOZVU Zi; those of 132, Cassida au~ichal- cea, on the leaves of the sweet potato, & the Sola~um dukama~a. Eumol$us
auratm 1 have always found on the A$o-
cynum a~d~osmm~oZium, and Chry-
somela trz'macdata on the AscZe$ias
syriaca on which plant the larva & pupa
of the latter are also found, CoccineZZa paotata, & C. a66reviata inhabit the
leaves of the carrot, from which I have
obtained the larva & pupa. Your C.
6iocuZata is constantly found in all its stages on the Ligustrum wdgare. 163,
your Colas--is 10-notata, I have found
only upon the leaves of the oak. No.
I 75 is my HeZo$s $iceus.
The marine shells which I intended
for you, were unfortunately mislaid or
lost, & I have delayed this letter in the hopes of recovering & sending+heim by
a private conveyance.
They were not
of much value for rareness or beauty,
but were such as are common here, &
which I can therefore replace in the
course of the summer.
With sentiments of respect,
Yr. ubed't friend
T. Wm. Harris.
[Endorsed with the following notes
by Thomas Say] :-
Malachius 4-maculatus Fabr. ; it is
certainly the 3d j't. Fab. is right; the ant'r tarsi have 5 very distinct joints. Mal. vittatus some of my spec's have
the anten'a dusky at tip. Lucanus paral- lelus. the fem. has the tooth somet's
hardly obvious. Calosoma calida and
several others Fab. descr'd as apterous
have wings.




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