208 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 4 



rain, eggs were being laid at the most rapid rate of the season. But 

 few eggs were laid after this date at Wooster, though scattering ones 

 could be found deposited daily until the IGth to the 20th of October. 

 On the 13th of October I examined 143 plants taken at random from 

 numerous points over the station wheat plots sown September 26 

 and 27. Of these, sixty-seven plants were clean and seventy-six of 

 them had a total of 212 eggs on them, or 53 per cent of these late sown 

 plants had on them an average of about three eggs each. Since many 

 of these will perish before spring, even in case all hatch, we think this 

 wheat safe, but evidently we are in more danger from this insect than 

 we have been since 1900. 



The plum gall mite is apparently on the increase in the state and 

 each year we receive a few more reports from new localities than we 

 did the preceding year. 



The clover or pea louse, Macrosiphum pisi, became abundant in 

 early summer, especially in northwestern Ohio and some fields died 

 out after the clover was cut. Droughty conditions, undoubtedly, 

 had much to do with its unusual abundance. The clover thrips also 

 caused more inquiry than usual. The clover seed chalcis, which was 

 extremely abundant for one or two seasons preceding the present, 

 caused very little trouble this year, or at least it was not sent to us 

 in sufficient numbers to attract our attention. 



I saw one very interesting result of the use of formalin solution on 

 onion seed at planting time. So successful was the mixture in pre- 

 venting smut and giving the plants a vigorous start by which they 

 were enabled to outgrow damage by root maggots, that some of the 

 growers were inclined to think it possessed both fertilizing and insec- 

 ticidal properties. It appeared to me to be of more value in enabling 

 the plants to out-strip maggot damage than fertilizer applications 

 would be. Our animal husbandman requested a formula for the 

 destruction of flies at the hog barns. I recommended a solution of 

 formalin and water, but he reported that he obtained little success 

 with it until he used it in combination with sour milk and swill. After 

 using it in this way,, he was soon able to sweep bushels of dead flies 

 from the floors. The catalpa midge continues to be the worst enemy 

 of catalpa plantations. One of our correspondents sent us the common 

 Carabid beetle, Galerita janus, with the report that he had more than 

 once found it feeding voraciously on the young of the Colorado potato 

 beetle. We caged the species with an abundance of young potato 

 bugs, but were not able to verify the observation. The birch borer, 

 Agrilus anxius, is causing much destruction to birch trees in the 

 parks of Cleveland and Toledo. The corn pollen maggot, Meso- 

 gramma politum, has been reported from Newark for two successive 



