196 PROCEEDINGS ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



THE NATIVE FOOD-PLANTS OF THE APPLE RED-BUGS. 



BY R. A. CUSHMAN, Bureau of Entomology. 



A few years ago Prof. C. R. Crosby discovered two new species 

 of Capsidae injuring apples in New York State. These were 

 described by Renter as Heterocordylus malinus Reut. and Lygidea 

 mendax Reut. The former was christened by Crosby "the apple 

 red bug" and the latter "the false apple red bug." Renter 

 adopted this idea in naming the species. 



During the spring and early summer of 1915 I had occasion 

 to make some observations on these two species both in orchards 

 and in wild lands. At Geneva, N. Y., malinus was fairly abun- 

 dant on apple and more so on Crataegus; mendax was not found 

 and no trees of the common wild crab were seen in the neighbor- 

 hood where the observations were made. At Clearfield, Pa., 

 in an orchard that had been grossly infested the previous season, 

 mendax was extremely abundant and malinus occasional. In the 

 waste land immediately contiguous to the orchard both Crataegus 

 and wild crab were of frequent occurrence. On the former mali- 

 nus was very abundant and on the latter mendax was equally so, 

 but mendax was rare on Crataegus and malinus was not found at 

 all on crab. In waste land at Westfield, N. Y., where wild crab, 

 Crataegus and wild seedling applies were growing so close together 

 as almost to mingle their branches, practically the same con- 

 ditions prevailed as at Clearfield. 



It is evident that the natural food-plant of malinus is not 

 Pyrus but Crataegus, that the reverse is true for mendax, and 

 that mendax is more likely to attack apple than is malinus, and it 

 would seem that a reversal of the specific names would have been 

 more indicative of the true conditions though not entirely appro- 

 priate, since the apple is not the natural food-plant of either. 



A CURIOUS FORMATION OF A FUNGUS OCCURRING ON A FLY. 



BY L. O. HOWARD. 



The insect, sent by Prof. G. C. Becker of Fayetteville, Arkansas, 

 was a greatly shriveled muscoid fly which apparently had two 

 gigantic halteres that in reality were two perfectly capped Cordy- 

 ceps growths. A similar growth, uncapped, protruded from the 

 anus of the fly. 



Mr. Alden T. Speare determined the fungus as very likely 

 Cordyceps, possibly being C. dipterigena, B. & Br., but on account 

 of its rarity he had not crushed it for specific determination. 



