THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 15 



Goodwin for exact j)articulars, and to the suggestion that he might 

 possibly have been mistaken as to the identity of this nocturnal assailant, 

 the following letter was received : 



" As to our experience of last summer, there can be no question as 

 to the guilt of Otiorhynchus. I was awakened several times by the pain 

 of the bite, and caught the culprit red-handed, and having crushed him 

 safely to destroy his powers of locomotion, I laid him in a safe place to 

 identify him the next morning. Tiie bites are very painful, as compared 

 with those of other pests. They itch for a long time, and do not heal 

 sometimes for a week or two. I examined the mouth of our little enemy 

 with a microscope, and concluded that it was a biting mouth and not a 

 piercing mouth. The other members of our camp were also attacked. 

 The beetles were found constantly in our bed clothes, and there can be 

 no doubt, I think, as to this apparently acquired habit." 



ON THK RELATIONS OF A SPECEES OF ANT, LASIUS AM- 

 ERICANUS, TO THE PEACH ROOT LOUSE, 

 APHIS PRUNICOLA. 



BY F. M. WEBSTER, WOOSTER, OHIO. 



Some years ago, Dr. Erwin F. Smith* called attention to the fostering 

 of this aphis by a species of ant, Lasiiis claviger, and, although not able 

 to actually witness the act, his studies of the actions of this ant about the 

 roots of peach trees infested by this aphis led him to believe that the 

 former brought the latter from below ground in spring and placed them 

 upon the twigs, thus indirectly if not directly causing their diffusion in 

 orchards. 



This Aphis prunicola is quite abundant in some localities in Ohio, 

 and I have observed it on the twigs of peach trees as late as early 

 December. Having lately had occasion to study this insect on the roots 

 of young peach trees, I was, equally with Dr. Smith in his previous 

 observations on this aphis, very strongly impressed with the attention 

 given them by ants, in my cases this being Lasiiis americanus, Em. 



Not only have I been able to observe the attentions of this ant in 

 caring for the aphid on the roots, but also found them transporting them 

 about on the twigs, and, while I too was unable to witness the actual 

 transportation of the aphis from root to twig, I have no doubt that it is 

 done and also that this transportation is carried on from twig to root. If 

 we examine closely it will be observed that this ant burrows down about 



*Eatomologica Americana, \T., pp. 101-I03 : 201-207, 1890, 



