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Psyche 6:57-60, 1891.

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PSYCHE.
SOME OLD CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN HARRIS, SAY, AND P1CKERING.-I.
[Many years ago Dr. J. L. LeConte
entrusted to me some letters of Dr. T.
W. Harris and Dr Charles Pickel-ing,
for use if I wished it in the Entomolog- ical Correspondence of Dr. Harris,
then preparing. Most of them were
written in the earliest period of their
entomological studies, from Milton and
from Salem, and in the discrimination
that had then to be made from the great
volume of correspondence, only one of
them was used, (loc. cit., 251), viz.
one from Harris to Say, written from
Milton in 1829. The others, however,
are so interesting as showing the con-
dition of entomology at a time when
the numbers of its devotees in this coun- try could easily be counted on one's
fingers, and as revealing in some slight degree the temperament and character
of the different writers that I have
thought it worth while to reproduce
them in PSYCHE, one at a time, that
others may share the pleasure I have
had in their perusal.
The letters proposed to be printed in
this series are six from Dr. Harris and
two from Dr. Pickering, all addressed
to Say, together with the abbreviated
draft of Say's replies, which, whenevei- such occur, were scribbled on the back
of the writer's letters. They will be
printed in chronological order, first five letters from Dr. Harris written between
1823 and 1825 with Say's replies, then
two from Dr. Pickering, both of 1825,
and finally the last of Dr. Harris's, of somewhat later date, in 1834, the last
from each of Say's correspondents bear-
ing no reply. All are printed exactly
as written, abbreviation, punctuation,
and all, with an occasional memorandum
of my own in brackets. The first of
the series is given below with the reply. The others will follow under the above
caption, from time to time as oppor-
tunity offers.-Samuel H. Scudder.]
MILTON, (Mass.) July 7, 1823.
To THOMAS SAY, ESQR.
Sir,
Though personally a stranger to
you.1 have taken the liberty of address- ing you-and, in doing so, I have the
permission of Mr. Nuttall to. use his
name as a password to admit me to
your notice. An ardent love of Natu-
ral Science has induced me, though en-
gaged in an arduous profession, to de-
vote some of my leisure moments to the
study of Botany & Entomology; but
the want of books, time, & patience,
has not permitted me to make any great
proficiency. Permit me, Sir, respect-
fully to request your aid in this pursuit, so far, at least, as to answer some que- ries which I would propose to you. In
May 1822 I accompanied an invalid to
Philadelphia, but was hurried away by




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PSYCHE.
[April 1891.
the nature of my patient's. complaint,
before I could obtain the honour of an
introduction to you, a circumstance
which I have greatly regretted ever
since. I however saw Mr. Peale's mu-
seum, & found that Mr. Titian Peale
was making a collection of insects;
among these I observed that which per-
forates the apple tree, known here as
the awe-tree borer. This (which I
presume to be of the Cerambyx family)
I was informed had been described by
you. Please inform me the name it has
received, & where I shall find your ac-
count of it. There is another insect
very destructive to our Peach trees,
boring around the trunk near the root,
& which from the chrysalis (for I have
not as yet obtained the perfect insect)
must be the larva of a Cossus, or some
other of the wood eating lepidopterous
caterpillars. Length of the larva one
& a quarter inch (legs 16.) colour
white, with a reddish tinge. Do you
know it? The Locust tree is infested
by a large species of this kind, which is described by Prof. Peck, in the Mass.
~~ricult. Papers, by the name of
Cossus Robinice. This, as I have as-
certained, also perforates the Black
Oak (Quercus tinctoria Bart. ) . The
Peach tree is subject to the attacks of
a Bui>res* which perforates such
branches as are old & incline much.
The name of the species I do not know.
Length rather less than 4 inch. Colour
of the elytra dull brassy brown, with 3
or 4 irregular longitudinal lines. Abdo- men above green ; below brilliant cupre- ous. I am particularly desirous to ob-
tain information respecting our native
species of Lytta, or Melog.
In Boston
Lytta atrata Fabr. is sold for Lytta
vittata ; & some of our Physicians have
confounded L. cineyea under the same
name vittata. This is not important
in practice ; but is so in nomenclature. Are not all three, together with Lytta
marp-hafa, of the genus Canthayis of
De Geer, Geoffr., Oliv., Lamark, &
Latr., as defined by Leach in Brewster's Encyclopaedia ? What species have
you in Pennsylvania ? Are any kept by
apothecaries for the purpose of vesica-
tion ? By what names are they sold?
On what plants are they principally
found? At what times ? And are they
easily procured? Lytta afrafa and
cinem are very common here : vittata
and marginata I have seen in collec-
tions only : none others have I yet found. Do you know the oeconomy of these in-
sects ? Do the larvas live and metamor-
phose in the earth ? Any information,
or reference to authors on the subject
will be gratefully received. Illiger's
Magazin I. 256 has been quoted ; but I
have not the work to consult; if you
have access to it, pray give me the sub- stance of his account. It is my intention to draw up a description of these species, for some of our medical journals, in
order to correct the mistakes in the
names of the species, and your obsei-va- tions, if you will favour me with them,
shall be duly acknowledged.
Has the moth from the apple-worm
been described? and by what name?
The gregarious caterpillar, which infests some trees in autumn, enclosing whole
branches in a web, and devouring all
but one membrane of the leaf, giving it




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April 18y.J
the appearance of having been scorched
by fire, is produced by a small white
moth (genus Artica ?) immaculate, and
but little more than half an inch in
length. What is the species? Can you
give me the history of the common rose-
bug^ A4ieZoZontha suh$imsa ? Fabr.,
or of the striped cucumber-bug ?
Chry-
somela -- ?
My collection of insects is small, con-
taining but few more than 500 species,
& my professional avocations will not
permit me to increase it much.
If I
have any species which could be accept-
able to you, they are at your service.
I
have fine spec. of Pap. Troilus, Asterias, Plexippus, Idalia, &c., Bombyx Cecro-
pia, Polyphemus, Prometheus, with
their cocoons, that of the latter being
very curious. I have also Hemerobius
cornutus, Pectini[c]ornis, &c ; many
Hymenoptera, among which Leucospis
dorsigei-a, Ichneumon pennator, the gall insect of the black oak &c. Also sev-
eral insects interesting as having been
described by the late Prof. Peck. Such
as Stenocoms -putator Peckii, which
prunes the branches of the oak ; Ryn-
cJzcenus strobi Peckii, perforating the
leading shoot of the white pine ; Ryn-
chcenz~s cwasi Peckii, inhabiting the
cherry and plum ; Tenth~edo cerasz',
the cherry tree slug-. I have hitherto
pursued the study of Entomology with-
out any other systematic work than
Samouelle's little compendium ; and,
having very recently procured Fabricius, have not ascertained more than one
tenth of the species in my collection.
How deplorably ignorant I am you will
therefore easily imagine-indeed it must
be sufficiently apparent from this letter. Accompanying this, is a little memoir,
which was printed in the Agricultural
Journal: The species described I have
since found to answer tolerably to Bom-
byx acria Fabr. ; the colour of the
wings of the male however is not so
dark, & the ash-coloured female is not
mentioned by Fabricius; & though it
may possibly prove to be the same in-,
sect, yet I think its identity could hardly have escaped the observation of Prof 'r
Peck. I confess that I am much more
interested in the history of. such insects as appear to be injurious, or promise to be useful, than in the mere collection of such as are curious only.
A correspondence with you would be
esteemed a great gratification & honour. I must rest my claim to your notice,
principally, on the similarity of our pur- suits, on my desire for information, & on your ability to give it. Which if you do, it will greatly oblige, Sir,
Your humble serv't
T. WM. HARRIS.
Please address your reply to Thaddeus
William Harris, M. D., Milton, Mass.
[DRAFT OF REPLY BY THOMAS SAY.]
The beginning of my reply was a copy
of the answer to -.
I shall endeavour to reply to y'r in-
quiries as well as time & memory will
permit. The apple borer I've desc'd
under name Sapei-da 2-fasciata Melsh.
The name however is a very bad one,
inasmuch as the ins. is not banded, but
ornamented w. 2 wh't long'l broad lines ; notwith'g this as the name has b'n given



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60 PS YCHE.
[April 1891.
and to my knowledge, I cannot stoop
to the knavery of changing it. * The
publ'n of the paper will soon take place in the Journal, it was in fact in the press before I ret'd from N. W. [the North-
west]. The fact of the Peach tree being
subject to the attacks of a Buprestis is altogether new to me. We have 2 sp.
at least wh. agree w. y'r desc'n viz.
femorata & characteristica. The latter
being rather larger than y'r mensuration & the thorax having elevated lines as
well as the elytra I think it probable y'r depred'r is femorata wh. is orn'd w. 2
dull brassy irregular spots on ea. elytron more or less indistinct, but somet. obso- lete.
The g's Lytta F. is certainly same w.
Cantharis Oliv. &c. The larvag of the
Cantharids live & metam'e in the earth
feeding on roots &c, but for more in-
form'n I must refer you to Sonnini's Buf- fon Vol. 54, p. 395 ; also Olivier, Vol. 3. The no. of sp. already disc'd in the
U. S. is 16, viz. segmenta fi vittata X, marginata x, atrata x, Nuttalliif, al-
loidaf, articularisf, imrnaculataf, aenea x , polita, sphaericollisf , maculataf, fer- ruginaej-, cinerea x , Afzeliana, reticu- latai ; of these those marked w. a X in- hab. this state, those marked w. a ? have been desc'd by myself and will appear in the Journal. It is prob'e that nearly if not all of these sp. might be used w. effect PERSONAL NOTES. - Mr. P.
R. Uhler'one
of the leading American entomologists, has recently been elected provost of the Peabody institute in Baltimore. Mr. Uhler will still retain the position of librarian which he has held for the past twenty-five years. It is not *[He changed his mind, describing it, in this very paper under the name of bivittafa. It is the S. candida of Fabricius.]
in vessication.
By far the finest sp. is
the Nuttallii, wh., as well as 2 or 3 of the other sp. is somew't larger than
vesicatoria & more brilliant.
On one oc-
casion near Rocky M's. I saw this sp.
in such nos. that I c'd have gathered a
couple of quarts in an hour, but few
were seen elsewhere, &but one occurred
on last exped'n.
Have not Illiger, nor
moth of apple worm.
Do not know wh.
species of greg's caterp's you
mean.
Rose-bug is Mel. subspinosa F. and
cucumber bug is Crioceris vittata F.,
but I know no
more of their history
than is familiar to every farmer.
It w'd
give me g't pleasure to see those ins.
you mention desc'd by Peck.
I have
not met w. his desc'n.
The Peach Insect I desc'd sev'l months
since for a paper by Mr. Worth on this
ins. under name of A. exitiosa. W'n
this essay will be publ'd I do not know, it was read to the A. N. S. 6 or 8 months ago. The sexes are very diff't. I have
b'n desc'g shells of U.
S. & w'd be
much obliged to you for any sp's you
may pick up on y'r coast. Land and
fresh water shells also highly accept'e. I will be happy to send you the names
should you wish it. Your salt marsh
caterpillar is cert'y the B. acria F. and it is fig'd by Drury and also by Cramer
under the name of B. caprotina.
a little curious how many entomologists have held the position of librarian in the public institutions of this country.
We deeply regret to announce the death,
on February 25, of Mr. Holmes Hinkley of Cambridge, one of the active membel-s of the Club and an ardent student of our Lepidop- tera.




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