56 EXPEKIMENT STATION RECORD. 



grown and passed into the pnpal stage. By October nearly all have become 

 fnlly developed beetles, but tliey make no attempt to leave the plant until the 

 following spring. 



In this country in addition to red clover, on which the species makes especially 

 destructive attacks, it is known to attack mammoth and alsike clover and peas 

 and may be expected to become destructive to alfalfa. In cases of extreme 

 abundance, almost the entire main clover root, except the bark, is eaten, the 

 substance being displaced by excreta, and the dead top either becomes detached 

 of itself or is easily broken off if one attempts to pull up the plant. While an 

 infested clover plant sooner or later succumbs to an attack by this insect, life 

 may be lengthened or shortened by meteorological conditions. The only pre- 

 ventive method yet tried that gives any measure of success is summer fallowing 

 as soon as the hay crop is removed. 



The western grass-stem sawfly, F. M. Webster and O. I. Reeves (C7. S. 

 Dept Agr., Bur. Ent. Circ. Ill, pp. 6, fig. 1). — This stem sawfly {Cephus occi- 

 dciitfilis) first observed in 1S90, has since been reported at intervals as feeding 

 upon grasses and occasionally upon wheat in Canada and the United States. 

 Its history and distribution, liabits and seasonal history are discussed and 

 technical descriptions given. 



" The injured stem appears discolored between the tirst and third joints and 

 the larva may be seen through the translucent wall of the stem where it is 

 eaten thinnest. In the case of wheat, the stalk often bends at this point, an 

 inch or two below a joint rather than above as in Hessian fly injury, and the 

 head falls to the ground shortly before harvest." It is a native species which 

 has learned to attack wheat and rye, since these have taken the place of its 

 native food plants — t]uack grass, wheat grass, brome grass, rye grass, and 

 timothy. It was especially abundant in Agropyron along railroad embankments 

 in North Dakota in 190.5-6, so that in many clumps of this grass one-half of 

 the heads were prematurely whitened. 



An undescribed chalcidoid was reared from larvje collected in North Dakota. 

 A remedy which has been practiced to some extent is that of plowing down all 

 stubble either in autumn or before June 15, at which time the adults may be 

 expected to emerge and deposit eggs. Grass growing near the edges of fields 

 should be mowed early in July, while the larvfe are small, to prevent them from 

 maturing and attacking the crop of the following year. 



A new chalcidoid genus and species of the family Mymaridse from Illi- 

 nois, parasitic on the eggs of the weevil Tyloderma foveolatum, A. A. 

 GiRAULT {Jour. X. y. Ent. i^oa, 77' (lOO'J), No. J,, pp. 767-/77).— The species 

 described as new (Atinphoiilra sordidata) was bred from the eggs of a common 

 weevil {T. foveolatum) collected from the stems of the weed aJnothera bieunis. 

 " The parasite is solitary as shown by dissection, the body of its pupa filling 

 nearly the entire cavity of the host egg. It is not rare in this vicinity [Ur- 

 bana. Ill.l." 



Technical results from the gipsy moth parasite laboratory. I. The para- 

 sites reared or supposed to have been reared from the eggs of the gipsy 

 moth, L. (). Howard (U. S. Dcpt. Agr., Bur. Ent. Bui. 19. tech. .sc?-., pt. 1, pp. 

 12, figs. 7).— In this paper descriptions and notes are given on 3 genera and 3 

 species new to science, namely. Hcticdiun Icuninfr and Ti/ndaricJru.'t mtrw reared 

 from gipsy moth eggs received from Japan and Atoposomoidea oginm, reared 

 from cocoons of the Ghjptapantclcs japonicus also received from Jaiian. Other 

 species noted are Anastatus hifasciatm, reared from egg masses received from 

 all parts of Japan, also from eggs from Crimea and Hungary; Pachyncnron 

 gifuensis, imported in gipsy moth eggs from Japan; and Perissoptcrus jarcnsis, 

 a scale parasite which is thought to have been reared from gipsy moth eggs 



