Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1878-04-19
CURIOSITIES OF INSECT LIFE.

While visiting RidgewOod, N. j.,
during the holidays the writer was in
troduced to Mr.. Andrew S. Fuller. He
is a pleasant faced gentleman, with a
grizzly beard and iron-grey hair, and
occupies a small Office on his farm but
few steps from his residence. Mr.. Fuller
is well known agricultural writer and a
distinguished entomologist. He has spent
many years collecting bugs and studying
their habits and characteristics. His
Office is neatly furnished. A coal-stove
and plain writing-table occupy the center
of the room, and fine scientific library
is ranged against the wall. Cases of bugs
in sliding. drawers stare the visitor in the
face, and strange sounds are frequently
heard from old logs and decaying pieces
of wood piled in the room. Each is
worked by the grub of some bug or beetle
whose habits are the particular study
of Mr.. Fuller. There are in the room
125 cases of beetles alone, containing Z,
450 species up to 1873. How many
have been added to his collection since
that time is not known, but he thinks
several hundred. He has secured many
snOut beetles mentioned in the work of
LIE Conte and Horn, recently published.
In answer to various questions, Mr..
Fuller said that no collection included all
the known species of beetles in the Unit
ed States. About 10000 kinds have
been classified and described, and ad-
ditions are constantly being made. There
are probably not less than 25, 900 species
in the country, $4,000 of which are yet
to be discovered.
'Do you confne yourself to the
collection of beetles alone" asked the
writer.
"Most bug-collectors," he answered,
"study during life but one order or fam
lily. 1 am specially interested in the
beetle. Taking beetles, moths, butter
flies, bugs, flies, ants, etc., together, there
must be over 100000 different species
inhabiting the United States alone. 1t
is supposed that over 100000 kinds of
plants are scattered over the world, and five
distinct species of insects prey upon each
plant. This would give US 100000
kinds of insects, and there are probably
many more. Taking this view of the
matter, it Is no wonder that individual
bug-collectors give their time to thestudy
of but one order or family.
zone family of beetles, " continued Mr..
Fuller, "works exclusively at trees. Their
grubs live and bore into the timber.
There, for instance, are the long-hOrned
beetles, 551 species being already named
and described in the United States.
Every farmer knows the apple-tree borer,
which is one of the long-horned family"
Here Mr.. Fuller drew out a case and
showed the reporter the long-horned
crew. They stood impaled on slender
needles by pIatoons, of all sizes and col
ors, from one-eighth of an inch to three
inches long. They were all slender fel-
lows, with shimmering clothes.
The destructiveness of beetles" said
Mr. Fuller, "may be imagined when 1
tell you that some of their grubs are as
large as a mans finger, and live in the
trunk Of tree from ten to twenty years
before changing their shape and becom-
ing beetles, All these years they are
constantly feeding. They go boring
through the trees like augers, and leave
trails as crooked and devious as the path
Of ship in a head wind. I have known
grubs to bore over fifty feet in oak trees
before they were turned into beetles.
But these grubs have their enemies. The
little wood-pecker eats the eggs which he
finds on the bark of the tree, and nips
the grub as he is working his way in.
As the forests are cut down and the
country becomes more cultivated, the
number of grubs increases, for the wood
pecker leaves us. He will not visit iso-
lated groves, either because they are so
small that he don't consider the grain
worth the reaping, or because he is shot
at or frightened away by sportsmen,
whose numbers seem to increase with the
decrease of game"
Gone might suppose" continued the
buggist, "when grub is incased in two
inches Of solid, green, hard maple, that
he is pretty well protected from the out
side world. But it is not SO, for here we
have fly" drawing out one of his cases,
"that finds and destroys him."
There were rows of the flies in the
case. The wings were transparent, the
body was black, the legs and aptenne
yellow, the waist Wasp=ike, and tail,
like horse-hair, five inches long, ran
from the end of the insect. Through
this fine hair she deposits her eggs.
This" said the servant, d" is the ich-
neumon fly. It has been great mys-
terry to know how this fly can tell the
exact spot in the tree to find the grub.
She undoubtedly does it by listening, for
a man, placing his ear to the tree, can
hear the grub bring"
Here Mr.. Fuller picked up part of an
old limb and held it to the writer's ear.
A faint noise was heard, as though some
mite was running a grist-miTl.
"It is a grub, exclaimed the bug-col.
lector, "hard at work. Well, the ich-
neumon fly, by listening on the tree,
knows where to find her grub. The next
thing is to get in to it. She places her
eggs through this fine hOrse-hair or tail.
Here is a microscope. Look at the end
of this egg placer and you will see two
bladed back-saw. See r" The writer
nodded. "With this saw" said the
scientist, the fly cuts through the solid
wood to the grub. But when she reach
es him she does not destroy him. She
simply drops an egg upon his back, the
egg matches another grub, and the Sec
Ond grub bores into the first one, feeds
on him, destroys him, and enlarges, un-
til in time, after various changes, it
emerges from the tree another ichneu-
mon hy. 1t cannot propagate its spe-