Article beginning on page 247.
Psyche 7:247-249, 1894.
Full text (searchable PDF)
Durable link: http://psyche.entclub.org/7/7-247.html
The following unprocessed text is extracted from the PDF file, and is likely to be both incomplete and full of errors. Please consult the PDF file for the complete article.
NOTES ON THE WINTER INSECT FAUNA OF VIGO COUNTY, INDIANA,- I.
BY W. S. DLATCIILEY, INDIANAPOLIS, IND.
One of the greatest problems which
each of the living forms about us has
had to solve during the years of its
existence on earth is how best to per-
petuate its kind during hat cold season
which once each year, in our temperate
zone, is bound to come. Many arc the
solutions to this problem. Each form
of life has, as it were, solved it best to suit its own peculiar case, and, to the
earnest student of nature, there is
nothing more interesting than to pry
into these solutions and note how varied, strange and wonderful they are.
As far as I can ascertain but little
has as yet been written concerning the
winter habits of insects, and yet every
one of the 30,000 or more species known
to inhabit No1 th America survives the
cold season in some form,
At present I have a knowledge of
hiit two papers that have been written
on the subject.* One, 'å´O Winter
3 Since writing ihc above I have, through the kindness of Mr. S. H. Scudtler, been enabled to examine a rare and little known paper which was published by Dr. ASH Fitch (Am. Journ. Sci. Agric., v , 1846,274)~ on " Winter Insects of Eastern New Yoik." In it Dr. Fitch describes as new and gives the habits of the following eight species of insects which he found quite comroon in winter in the locality mentioned: Bweus xivwiundus, J3. byu~alix, Perin &ic& Nemoisya nivalis, Cdex hyemnUs, Chiro- mwifs itlvo~itiHdtts, Trichocwa' hmulis and Podwn m+ncola. With the exception of the last, these belong to the ordc~s Nwropiera and Dijtern, the members of wbicli I did not collect.
Collecting," by H. T. Fay, was pub-
lished in the Proc. Ent, Soc. Phil.,
1862, v, 194, in which 129 species of
beetles were listed as having been taken during the winter months in the vicinity of Columbus, Ohio. This paper I
have never seen and have a knowledge
of it only through Psyche,! The other,
Our Winter Beetles," by 11. F.
Wickhan2, appeared in the Canadian
Entomologist, xxiv, 1892, 99, in which
33 species are mentioned as having
been noted near Iowa City, Iowa.
Dr. A. S. Packard, in his " Ento-
mology for Beginners," p. 41, makes
the following statement : -
fi During the winter the species (of
insects) in most cases are represented
by the egg alone. Rarely does the
mature insect hibernate,i though one
will find a few ichneumons, beetles, and bugs under leaves and the bark of trees ; but in many species, especially moths,
the pupa hibernates to disclose the
imago in the spring or early suninier.
Larvae seldom live throng11 the winter,
although there are some well known
exceptions to this law."
In January, 1891, I began to collect
the Coleoptera and the Hemiptcra-
t October, 18q1, 162.
:The italics are mine.
================================================================================
248 PsTc'HR. [June 18.15.
Hcteroptera found in Vigo County,
Indiana, and to keep full accession
notes of the species of those two orders as well as of the Ortltoptera. which I
tad been collecting for some years.
In November, 1893, I conceived the
idea of preparing a paper on the insects of the three orders mentioned which I
found either as adults or nymphs (active young) of Orthoptei-a and Hemiptera
in the winter montlis of December,
January and February. I had intended
to collect during the present winter
and prepare the paper as tlie result,
mainly, of the two winters' (1893-'94
and 1894-'95) collecting, but having
moved from the county before Decem-
ber, 1894, I sliall have to base it upon the former winter's collecting and such
accession notes as I took before I began a systematic search for winter insects.
The Orthoptera taken are noted in
the present paper. The Hemiptera-
Heteroptera (about 65 species), and
the Coleoptera (between 250 and 300
species) will be treated of in future
articles.
ORTHOPTERA.
BLATTIDAE.
Of the six species of this family
known to occur in Llie county four
have been taken in winter. Of these
PhyZlodromici germanica (L.), the
Croton bug, is very abundant in all
stages about the older hotels and board- int? houses of the citv of Tcne Haute.
the kitchen of one of the hotels.
Two
of the adults were females with o6theca
protruding.
Periplaneta orientalis (I-'.) is less
common and I have seen only half
grown nj~nplis in the winter months.
It is most frequent in bakeries and
about old tenements.
7 3
1 lie other two species, Isch~~optera
micolor (Scudder), and I. -pemsyi-
vanica (De Geer), occur only in the
country. They are usually found in
company but the former is scarce while
the latter is the most common insect
noticeable in the woods in winter. One
cannot pull the loose bark from an old
log without dislodging a colony of
from ten to a hundred of the nymphs
of various sizes. Cold has seemingly
but little effect upon them as they
scramble away almost as hurriedly
when their protective shelter of bark is removed on a day in mid-January with
the mercury at zero as they do in June
when it registers a hundred in the
shade. The adults of these two species
occur only from about May 12 to
October. The nymphs of the two are
distinguisliable by color alone. Ectobia flavocincta Scudder and Temnopteryx
deropeZtifor~uis Brunner are found in
the county and probably pass tlie winter in the nymph stage, but I have not been
able to identify them with certainty at
that season. I might add here that an
adult male of Per//Zaneta americana
as well as two nvrnohs were seen in a
- *
On Dec. 16, 1893, 30 adult specimens
hotel in Indianapolis on Jan. 15, thus
and fully half that number of young proving that that insect passes the were taken in less than ten minutes in winter in all stages.
================================================================================
~una IS^;.] PSYCHE. 249
ACRIDIDAE.
Of the 38 species of this family
occurring in the county 10 are to be
found in the winter
season, the others
being then represented by the eggs
alone. Seven of the ten belong to the
subfamily of Tetti'inae or Grouse
Locusts. Five of these, namely : Tettix
arenosus BLISIII., T. omatus Say, T.
pndatzis Kirby, Teitigidea lateralis
Say, and poZymo@ha Burm., are found
in the mature state only. During
severe cold weather they ensconce
thcrnsclves beneath the loose bark of
logs, piles of decayingleaves, the rad-
ical leaves of mullein ( Verbascum
thapsus L.), or the bottom rails of the
old mcl fast disappearing Virginia rail
fences. From these retreats every
warm, sunny day tempts them forth in
numbers, and, on such occasions, the
earth seems to swarm with them as
they leap before the intruder, their
hard bodies striking' the dead leaves
with a sound similar to that produced
by falling' hail.
Batrachidea cristata Harris occurs
sparingly in winter both as nymphs and
adults in like situations ; while Tettix cncullatus Burm. has been taken only
in the various larval stages, usually
beneath logs in sandy soil near water.
The two species of Tettigidea are
gregarious in winter, as many as 1 I
specimens having been found within a
space of six square inches on the side
of an overturned log.
The winter species of Acrididae other
than those mentioned are Chorto$haga
viridtfasciata (De Gee]), both brown
and green forms ; A@hia suZ,*hurea
Fab., and Hiå´pi>iscu tuberculatus Pal.
de Beauv., all of which are found only
as larvae or pupa. The first two are
very common in the county, and the
young of Ar$/tia sulphurea are often
very prettily mottled with lichen-like,
grayish markings -a character which
I have never seen in the adult. Thcsc
three species in winter frequent dry,
open woods and roadsides and are very
active on all sunny days when the mer-
cury rises above the freezing point;
often climbing or leaping upon the
lower rails of fences or sides of stumps and there resting in and apparently
enjoying the sunshine.
The young of one or two species of
Ceuthophilus are the only winter rep-
resentatives known to me of the 34
species of this family which I have
taken in the county. Specimens vary-
ing much in size have been taken singly
on a number of occasions in each of the
winter months -usually from beneath
logs deeply buried in decaying leaves
and vegetable mold. I have kept
examples of them in confinement for
some weeks in winter but they invari-
ably died before reaching maturity.
The young of the different species are
difficult to separate ; but judging mainly from color char.icters, most, if not
all, of the winter specimens were C.
blatchleyi Scndder, the most common
species in western Indiana.
================================================================================
PSYCHE. [June ~8%.
Since my paper on the " Gryllidae
of Indiana7'* appeared, seven addi-
tional species have been taken, so that
now 22 are known to occur in Vigo
County.
From what is known of the
life history of the mole crickets, the two species, Gryllotalpa borealis Burm.,
and G. columbia Scudder, undoubtedly
exist through the winter in the larval
stage, though I have never happened
upon them in that season.
A careful study of the members of
the genus Gryllus during the last three
years has developed the fact that 4
species, namely : G. neplectws Scudder,
abbreviatus Serville, pennsylvanicus
Burm., and luctuosws Serville inhabit
the county. The last two may be dif-
ferent forms of the same species, but
that the first 3 are distinct, there is, to my mind, no doubt.
Of these, the eggs of neglectus and
pennsylvanicus, and probably those of
luctuosus, hatch in autumn, and the
young in numbers may he found
beneath logs, rails, and other protective cover during the entire winter. Often
as many as a dozen are sheltered
beneath the same object, each at the
bottom of a cone-shaped pit, quite sim-
ilar to the one made in loose sand by
the larva of the ant lion, Myrmeleon
obsoletus Say.
G. neglectus reaches maturity as
early as May $11, the males having been
heard chirping on that date. Pcnn-
sylvanicus and luctuosus are full
grown about the z<th of May, while
the adults of alibreviatus, from eggs
hatched in spring, do not occur until
the last week in July.
EGGS OF THE LONG-NOSED OX-LOUSE, HAE1VIATOPINUS VITULA L.
BY F. L. HARVEY, ORONO, ME.
Professor Osborn says in his mono-
graph " Pedicula and Mallophaga af-
fecting Man and the Lower Animals "
(Bull. 7, Div. Ent. U. S. Dept. Agric.
p. 18) LL that the eggs of this species
have not been described, and we have
not had the good fortune to discover
them." Having been more fortunate
we are able to submit the following
account of the eggs of this species.
The Long-nosed ox-louse has been
quite bad this winter in herds in the
vicinity of Thomaston, Me. At our
request Mr. A. W. Batchelder of
Thomaston collcctcd some hair from
the infested animals, and upon this
we found three egg-shells with the
operculum off, but the form, sculpture,
manner and place of attachment to the
hairs seemed perfect.
================================================================================
Volume 7 table of contents