382 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 7 



thought would do. The bundles of parasites were unpacked and re- 

 packed in these five trunks, and, the superintendent of the office having 

 approved, the traffic manager started with his five trunks and an addi- 

 tional hamper on the 6.50 train for Paris. 



The rest of the story is that he made the journey without accident, 

 got the trunks on the La Lorraine, where they were put into the refrig- 

 erating room. They arrived in New York on time, were met by the 

 Government Despatch Agent, Mr. I. P. Roosa, hurried through the 

 customs, and shipped to Melrose Highlands, where they arrived in 

 admirable condition, and when Mr. Burgess unpacked them he found 

 that practically all were sound. 



No further comments on this incident are necessary. 



NOTES ON THE LIFE HISTORY AND ECOLOGY OF TIPHIA 



INORNATA SAY 



By George N. Wolcott, Traveling Entomologist, Porto Rico Board of 



Agriculture 



The most important parasite, in the United States, of the grubs of the 

 genus Lachnosterna, commonly known as "white grubs," is a black 

 Scoliid wasp, Tiphia inornata Say. The work on which I have been 

 engaged for the last year, September, 1912, to November, 1913, is the 

 collection of sufficient numbers of the cocoons of Tiphia inornata to 

 send to Porto Rico, in order that the species may be established there 

 to aid in the control of the Porto Rican Lachnosterna grubs, which are 

 a serious pest of sugar cane and other crops. For the successful collec- 

 tion of large numbers of Tiphia cocoons it was necessary to determine 

 what factors limited the abundance of Tiphia, to the end that fields 

 and localities might be found where these factors would be negligible, 

 or nearly so, and cocoons would be present in abundance. The great 

 majority of cocoons that have been collected are from localities not 

 far from Urbana (my temporary headquarters) and Bloomington in 

 central Illinois. All the observations here recorded, upon which are 

 based the conclusions that are set forth in the following discussion, 

 were made in central and northern Illinois, and are strictly applicable 

 only to that region. 



No attempt has been made to do any taxonomic work on Tiphia, 

 for all the adults which emerge in Porto Rico from the cocoons sent 

 from Illinois, after being used in breeding, are forwarded to Mr. S. A. 

 Rohwer, for study and identification. The results of this work are 

 not yet available. The life history notes are incomplete owing to the 

 fact that the cocoons are sent to Porto Rico soon after collection, but 

 observations to supplement the data here given may be expected 



