OF WASHINGTON, VOLUME XV, 1913. 45 



Rice is also grown on an extensive scale, chiefly by native farmers 

 (coolies imported from India). This crop is not seriously injured 

 by insects as a general rule, but this season the young rice was 

 in many cases entirely destroyed by Laphygma frugiperda. This 

 insect in company with many other pests appeared in enormous 

 numbers at the commencement of the wet weather, which, this 

 year followed a prolonged drought. 



Mr. Bodkin also said that in the future he hoped to have more 

 attention paid to the insect fauna of British Guiana; for from 

 an entomological point of view it is an extraordinarily rich, inter- 

 esting, and practically untouched field. He also expressed his 

 gratitude to those who had offered to assist him in this project. 



NOTES ON THE YELLOW CRANE-FLY, TIPULA FLAVICANS FABR. 



BY A. N. CATJDELL, Bureau of Entomology. 



On October 28 of the present year I found the above named 

 insect in great numbers at Rosslyn, Virginia. They had issued 

 from clay soil near the river in a situation subject to inundation 

 and at most times very moist. Many hundred adults were flying 

 about and the pupal shells were found in numbers on the ground 

 beneath the thin layer of leaves and debris which had accumu- 

 lated since the last overflow of the river. As shown by an exami- 

 nation of many old shells the pupa always project a considerable 

 distance out of the ground when the adult emerges. Ordinarily 

 they project about one-half to two-thirds their length, rarely as 

 little as one fourth but often more than two-thirds, in some cases 

 the shells being found entirely clear of the hole of issuance, indi- 

 cating that they were entirely withdrawn by the adult in emerg- 

 ing. The soil is of a yellow clay nature and well filled with small 

 rootlets upon which the larvse of the fly probably feed. The 

 occurrence of this species covers some weeks as Mr. Knab found 

 them plentiful at this same locality as early as September 22. 

 Still earlier in the season, in early August, this same situation was 

 populated by another nearly related Tipulid of very similar super- 

 ficial appearance and also a blackish marked species. Indeed this 

 locality seems to be one very rich in its Tipulid fauna. 



Many of these flies observed at Rosslyn were copulating, some 

 during flight and some at rest on the ground or on leaves or twigs. 

 In one case observed by me an apparently freshly emerged female 

 sat on the ground within an inch of what I presume was the pupal 

 shell from which she had issued and was quite covered with a 

 yellowish mass of males. There were six of these males massed 

 over and around this female, one of them mating with her, the 

 other five sitting almost motionless, some with the mouth parts 

 touching her abdomen. 



