58 



Remedies. With regard to remedies for these troublesome insects, diere is nothing 

 better than giving the clothes, furs, etc., a thorough beating and brushing, and then pack- 

 ing them away in spring, if possible before the moths appear. They should be folded 

 neatly and wrapped in strong paper ; of course if the edges are pasted, so mxich the safer. 

 I have seen in the City of Detroit large paper sacks prepared specially to keep out moths, 

 in which dresses can be hung up without folding. In Insect Life, Vol. II, page 214, a 

 plan of Mr. L 0. Howard's is recommended : " He buys for a small sum from his tailor 

 a number of paste-board boxes in which they deliver suits, and his wife carefully folds and 

 packs away all clothing, gumming a strip of wrapping paper around the edges of the cover 

 so as to leave no crack. These boxes will last for a lifetime with careful use. Others 

 use for the same purpose ordinary paper flour sacks or linen pillow-cases, which answer 

 well. The success of these means depends entirely on the thoroughness of the preliminary 

 TTOrk." 



As many have found to their sorrow, camphor, pepper, cedar chips, and that abomin- 

 able malodorant naphthaline, do not kill the insects and are only partially successful in 

 keeping them away. 



When carpets are found to be attacked, the furniture should be removed, the 

 carpet thoroughly swejjt and the edges of the room freely sprinkled with benzine or gaso- 

 line. But as both of these liquids are extremely inflammable, great care must be taken, 

 not to tate a light into the room until some hours afterwards or until the room has been 

 thoroughly aired. In the case of upholstered furniture or carriage linings, these may be 

 sprinkled freely with gasoline, which will destroy the insects in all stages, and the un- 

 pleasant odor soon disappears when the articles are left in the open air. Prof. Riley 

 recommends for carriage linings sponging them with a dilute solution of corrosive 

 sublimate in alcohol, made only just strong enough not to leave a white mark on a black 

 feather. The extr'^mely poisonous nature of this substance, however, demands that the 

 greatest care should be exercised in its use. 



For clothes which may have to be used only occasionally during the summer, it is well 

 when the house is known to be infested, to hang them in some place where they will not 

 be forgotten and will be frequently moved. 



THE WEB-WORM TIGER (PLOCHIONUS TIMIDUS, HALD). 



By Mary E. Murtfeldt, Kirkwood, Mo. 



It would seem appropriate that this hitherto somewhat rare and inconspicuous little 

 oarabid should be brought to notice in its new role of a benefactor. 



I have been observing its habits for two years, and am confident that to it, more than 

 to any other agent, do we, in the neighborhood of St. Louis, owe our present comparative 

 freedom from the Web-worm nuisance. Whereas formerly almost every other tree 

 would, at this season of the year, be infested with one or more of the disfiguring nests, 

 they are now so few and far between that it requires some search to find one. I was 

 particularly struck with the difference, in this respect, between this section and the 

 Atlantic slope, on my journey to Washington last August, the eastern woods and orchards 

 being in many places almost defoliated and presenting a very unhealthy and unsightly 

 appearance fiom the ravages of this insect. 



It is impossible, of course, to ascertain just when or how the beetle under considera- 

 tion acquired the habit of preying upon the Web-worm ; but I think it could not have 

 been much previous to its discovery. In 1888 Ilyphantria was abundant in Kirkwood,, 

 and for the purpose of obtaining fresh specimens of the moth, as well as of its usual para- 

 sites, I transferred a colony from a box elder tree to the rearing cage. From these a large 

 number of perfect insects were bred and also parasites of two or three species, but no> 

 larv£e or imagines of Plochionus were observed. 



