fully used in New Jersey. Mr. Fletcher tailed attention to the fact that 

 the worms are not killed immediately but go beneath the soil surface 

 about an inch where they die in course of a day or two. 



Prof Cook had also tried planting succulent plants in fields of ,1; rape 

 vines and apple trees to prevent tlie climbing cutworms from injuring 

 the bud>. with con:-iderable success. He had bred Mero^nyza americana 

 from oats very frequentlv. Prof Smith had often taken adult Aleromyza 

 in a sweep-net in New Jersey, but had not known it to do any serious 

 damage. He said that the Wheat ^lidge did some injury in New Jersey. 



IMr. Fletcher thought no remedy for the Wheat Midge had been 

 suggested but that of destroying refuse. Prof. Cook advocated pushing 

 the crop to rapid maturity. Prof Saunders reported this pest very de- 

 structive in many parts of Canada. At Prince Fdward"s Island farmers 

 plant either very early or very late to avoid it. Had lately seen many 

 flies about infested heads which he supposed to be parasites. 



Prof Cook said that one of the most serious pests in Michigan was 

 the wire-worm for which no successful remedy was known. One year's 

 cultivation of buckwheat would not destroy them. He also asked how^ 

 Chrysopa larvae feed, reporting observations indicating that the juice of 

 the victim was sucked in through the long jaws. Similar observations 

 upon the mode of feeding of Syrphus larvae showed that they partially 

 roll themselves inside out, making a sort of funnel cif themselves in suck- 

 ing iheir victims. 



Ill s])eaking of injuiy to Larches h\ Kcmalus erichsonii, Mr. Howard 

 reporteti that (Jr. Packard had figured in the forthcoming report of the 

 U. S. Fntomological Commission, Larches killed by repeated attacks of 

 this insect, and added that there were Flms of the Department grounds 

 at Washington, that had been defoliated year after year by another insect 

 but yet were still vigorous. 



Mr. Saunders reported that the bean crop had been badly injured 

 by cut-worms this year. 



^L-. Howard called attention to the ease with which parasites of 

 scale insects can be carried from place to place. 



Prof Smith made some remarks on the structural peculiarities of 

 the genus Agroiis tending to show that a loosely assembled mass of 

 species is classed under this generic name. He described the variations 

 in the palpi, the frons, the thoracic tuftings, the antennce, the legs, the 

 wing form and the general habitus, and showed that any definition of 

 the genus ba^etl upon the existing assemblage would take in every Noc- 

 tuici, widi naked eyes and spinose tibice. hind wings not red or banded. 

 He gave some of the characters upon which he had divided the genus 



