1916 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 55 



Epialthes gigds Walsh, which closely follows the above in our lists, has a 

 forbidding appearance. Epialthes (Gr.) means a nightmare, one that leaps upon 

 you. Not a bad name! Decidedly it is better to have the insect preserved in 

 the cabinet than alive in the bed-chamber. 



I have in my collection, amongst many other useful insects, representatives 

 of twenty-two species of the genus Ichneumon. They attack the Noctuids. I 

 have seen Ichneumon Icetus Brulle break from the emptied skin of a cut-worm. 



The micro-hymenoptera are valuable friends to man. I have here a family 

 of 103 specimens of Apanteles longicornis Provancher, which fed in one Tussock 

 caterpillar, and then spun their cocoons around the remainder of their victim. 



To show how thoroughly the work of the micro-hymenopterous parasites is 

 done, and how important it is, in sometimes un-noted directions : 



Those who have stood on a Quebec wharf in the blueberry season, and seen 

 the Saguenay steamhoats discharging their freight, will have noticed the stacks 

 of rude boxes, made of slabs from the sawmills, and filled with blueberries, landed 

 there; and they will have witnessed the eagerness with which dealers have made 

 bids for them. The reflection will have come into their minds, what an important 

 source of revenue — what a provision of food — the blueberry crop must prove, to the 

 poor inhabitants of the Chicoutimi and Saguenay wilds, and how serious a loss 

 to them its failure would be. 



In May, 1895, I sent to Mr. Wm. H. A&hmead, a number of galls that I 

 had found on the blueberry bushes at Levis, and specimens of the flies that I 

 had raised from them. Mr. Ashmead replied: 



" The gall on Vaccinium is my Solenozopheria vaccinii described in 1887 

 (Trans. Am. Ent. Soc. XIV, p. 149). 



" The parasite reared from it is my Megorismus nuhilipennis. The gall occurs 

 abundantly on various species of Vaccinium, in all parts of the country, but the 

 maker is extremely rare; and the only one known, so far as I know, is my single 

 type specimen. I took the gall by the hundreds, and have never reared but one 

 specimen of the gall-maker; all other things reared from it heing parasites. I 

 have reared several distinct species of micro-hymenoptera from it, although of these 

 the M. nuhilipe7inis was the most common." 



One of the most brilliant little micro-hymenoptera came under my notice in 

 peculiar circumstances, and has remained a memory and a mystery to me to this 

 day. The late Mr. Joshua Thompson, of D'Aubigny Villa, Levis, sent to me one 

 day in July, begging me to come and see his plum trees. The trees were loaded 

 with half -grown fruit; and a most remarkable invasion of the trees had occurred. 

 I never witnessed anything like it. There were myriads of tiny h^onenopterons 

 upon them. I counted as many as thirty on one plum. The females of the 

 species had their ovipositors thrust deep into the fruit. 



I submitted specimens of the insects to Mr. Ashmead and he declared them 

 to belong to a new species. I named them Torymus thompsoni, and I published 

 a full description of them in the Thirty-fourth Ann. Eep. of the Ent. Soc. of 

 Ont., page 10. The type of the species is in my collection in Ottawa. 



I had previously raised specimens of Torymus sachenii Ashmead, from 

 blisters on the leaves of Golden Rod. 



In the valuable series of Farmers' Bulletins issued by the Bureau of Ento- 

 molog}% at "Washington, there appeared lately an article by Mr. F. M. "Webster, 

 which reminded us of a time when the hearts of men began to fail them for fear 

 ■because of the devastations wrought in their grain fields by the Hessian Fly. 

 Where this insect comes in its strength — to use the words of 'Mr. Webster — 



