1 8 8 2 ,] Eiitomology. 4 1 1 



After a few hours the larva loses its liveliness in the ground. I have 

 no pods at present to try if the larva feeds on the eggs of the locust. 



A remarkable coincidence with the appearance of the parasite 

 is the melting away of the immense swarms of locusts that were 

 hatched; it is true some were devoured, but the great masses 

 have died before the deposit of the q^^; the country so freed 

 round us is about twenty miles by forty. It is difficult to find 

 locusts for specimens! * * * The body parasite has de- 

 stroyed the locusts that escaped the Callostoma over 8oo square 

 miles. 



Parasitic Diptera.— To the parasitic Diptera that are already 

 well known, Dilophus, a genus of Bibionid<-E, should, it appears 

 now be added as, according to Mr. R. H. Meade of England, it 

 has recently been bred from larvae of ChcBtoptria hypcricana. The 

 Bibionidae have hitherto been known only as vegetable feeders in 

 the larva state. 



Dorsal Locomotion of Allorhina nitida. — In the October, 

 1879, number of the Canadian Entomologist, I published a note 

 on the larvae o{ Lachnosterna fiisca, remarking on the numbers in 

 which they occurred in the lawn in front of the Capitol at Wash- 

 ington, and describing the peculiar manner in which the larvae 

 moved when placed upon a smooth surface — immediately turning 

 upon their backs and moving forward with considerable rapidity 

 by the alternate contraction and expansion of the segments. The 

 specimens were determined for me as Lachnosterna by an expe- 

 rienced coleopterist ; but the next year, by the rearing of the 

 adult, they were proved to have been Allorhina nitida. Professor 

 Riley had meanwhile called my attention to the fact that in Le 

 Baron's fourth report, he had figured the larvae of the latter spe- 

 cies upon its back and in the act of progression. The statement 

 is also made in this report that this larva " when out of the 

 ground crawls with ease on its back." 



This interesting habit is not confined to this species, as Rev. 

 Samuel Lockwood, in the American Naturalist, 1868, men- 

 tions the same fact of the full-grown larva of Cotalpa lanigera, 

 stating, however, that the young larvae walked normally upon 

 their legs. Other Scarabaeid larvJE will doubtless be found to 

 share in the same habit. — L. 0. Howard} 



Modes by which Scale-insects spread from tree to tree. — 

 I watched to-day a colony oi Hyper aspidiiis coccidivorns Ashmead 

 which has for two months or more been increasing on the trunk 

 of a tall seedling orange tree. The main trunk of the tree is cov- 

 ered densely with Chaff scale," and upon it the larvae and imagos 

 of the beetle are feeding. The greater number are now in imago. 

 I found but one pupa although larvae are still abundant. The 



1 Mr. W. Kite of Germantown, Philadelphia, sent to Naturalist, some months 

 ago, a description of the same habit. 



2 Parlatoria Fers^andii Comstock. — Ed. 



