PROC. ENT. SOC. WASH., VOL. 24, NO. 5, MAY, 1922 125 



This is a two year species. In most cases the eggs were laid 

 near the ground, and the larvae on hatching, bore directly into 

 the bark from the underside of the eggs, filling the empty shells 

 with excrement, then burrowing downwards into the roots 

 where they pass the first winter, the following spring they start 

 making spiral mines around the limbs and extending upwards 

 for a considerable distance before reaching maturity, when they 

 extend their mines into the wood and make their pupal cells 

 near the outer wood, from which they emerge the following 

 year. These mines are rather difficult to distinguish, and as 

 the plant is a rapid grower, the new wood grows over the larval 

 mines, causing a slight swelling on the outside, which is 

 scarcely noticeable. When these mines are examined, those 

 made by the larvae during the first year are covered with new 

 wood, and represented by a raised spiral ring on the wood, while 

 the mines made during the second year are only covered by a 

 thin filament of wood, allowing the dark borings in the mines 

 to be readily seen through the new wood. 



This species seems to be apparently free from natural enemies 

 in the localities where the writer made observations, as no evi- 

 dence of parasites was found in any of the mines. 



In some sections a great many of the plants have been killed 

 by this beetle, but where the plants were only slightly infested, 

 the mines were soon overgrown, without any noticeable injury 

 to the plants. 



A DIVING WASP. 



BY A. X. CALDELL. 

 The following is an extract from my Entomological Journal: 



"Monday, July 4, 1921. A blazing hot day, but I went 

 picnicking to Great Falls, on the Maryland side of the Potomac. 

 Very disagreeable weather, but in spite of the heat I secured a 

 few desirable insects and made some interesting observations. 

 Before crossing the swinging bridge I found a pair of green 

 stone flies mating on the ground and after crossing the bridge 

 I took a nymph of Pterophylla camellifolia on a large oak leaf 

 but a few feet from the ground. Among other insects taken 

 was a female psammocharid wasp which Mr. Rohwer identified 

 later as Anoplius illinoiensis Robt. I first observed this wasp 

 on a flat stone barely rising above the surface <>t a stagnant 

 pool of water, about three inches in depth, lying near the river. 

 The wasp was lying on one side and kicking the hind legs as 

 if severely injured. Soon it dragged itself a few inches and 

 turned over on the other side and kicked the legs, mostly the 

 long hind ones, with which it rubbed the end of the abdomen, 



