156 Forty-ninth Keport on the State Museum 



The following preventives have also been recommended : 



Sowing new crops as remote as possible from old and infested fields. 



Pasturing infested fields in the autumn so as to feed off the aftermath, 

 thus depriving the hibernating larvae of many good shelters. If manuring 

 is practised, apply in the spring and of a kind that will leave no refuse in 

 the autumn for shelter. 



If the field be badly infested in May or June, it may be well to leave 

 narrow strips uncut to which the moths will be attracted for oviposition 

 and as soon as they have disappeared the strips may be cut and quickly 

 stacked, thus destroying many larvse. When the clover is to be turned 

 under, this should be done some time in October or November or in early 

 spring when the larvae are near the ground. The furrows should be 

 turned completely over and rolled so as to bury the larvae and kill them. 



Replying to the inquiry of the safety of the hulled seed, — the seed that 



is sacked is perfectly safe from further injury by the insect, as no larvae, 



pupae, nor eggs of the moth can remain in it after it has passed the 



huUer. 



Parasites. 



Prof. Comstock succeeded in rearing a small, light brown Ichneumonid 

 from one of the cocoons, which Mr. Cresson identified as PhaJierotoma 

 tibialis Hald. It was originally described by Haldeman in the Proceed- 

 i7igs of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, iv, p. 203, as 

 Sigalphus tibialis. It is 3.5 mm. long, of a light brown color and with a 

 large yellowish spot on the back of the abdomen. The insect occurs at 

 Ames, Iowa, though it has not been bred there from Grapholitha inter- 

 stinctana. 



Another Ichneumonid, Glypta leiicozonata Ashm., was reared from this 

 insect by Miss Murtfeldt at Kirkwood, Mo. Microdus laticiiictiis was 

 found to be the most abundant parasite at Ames, Iowa; from about forty 

 Grapholitha caterpillars Mr. Gossard reared eleven specimens of the 

 parasite. The number of broods of the two insects correspond exactly it 

 is said, — examples of the parasite usually appearing before the moths fly 

 and lingering until they have all disappeared. Microdus laticinctus has 

 also been reared from Tmetocera ocella?ia; its habitat is given as Can., 

 Mo., and lo. Bracon vernonia Ashm., was observed at Ames, lo., as- 

 sociated with Grapholitha interstinctana in marked numbers and under 

 circumstances that tend to indicate its being a parasite of this insect, 

 although it was not reared from clover-seed caterpillars. 



