496 rOBTY-EIGHTH REPORT ON THE STATE MUSEUM 



Black Blister Beetle Attack on Asters. (Gardening, for October 

 1, 1893, ii, p. 28, c. 3 — 16 cm.) 



Insects sent from Illinois as destructive to asters, are Epicauta Pennsyl- 

 vanica DeGeer . The method employed by the correspondent for killing them 

 which proved so successful, viz., sprinkling the beetles with a fine spray and 

 then applying pyrethrum powder, is probably as good a one as can be used, 

 as this species is known to be readily affected by pyrethrum, and the wet- 

 ting would cause the powder to adhere. Pyrethrum is only a contact 

 insecticide. Some insects, as the rose-bug, are not killed by it. 



The Clover-Seed Caterpillar. (Country Gentleman, for October 

 5, 1893, Iviii, p. 773, c. 1, 2 — 30 cm.) 



Clover-seed submitted from Miami county, Ind., much of which "has 

 been hulled out like beans eaten by bugs " and left so light as " to blow away 

 from the huUer in cleaning," shows the work of the clover-seed caterpillar, 

 Qrapholitha interstinctanu Clemens. Characters of the caterpillar and moth 

 and life-history are given. Its limited literature and its known distribution. 

 Cutting the clover in June will check its injuries. 



Grasshopper Plague in New York. (Country Gentleman, for 

 October 12, 1893, Iviii, p. 793, c. 1-4 — 107 cm.) 



New York State is exempt from the Rocky Mountain locust, Melanoplus 

 spretus ; M. femur rubruvi and M. atlanis are the two destructive species of 

 the Eastern States; injuries from them in New Hampshire, Maine, etc.; 

 comparison of appearance and habits of the two; their operations in western 

 counties of New York the present year; other associated species; present 

 condition of the plague; will the insects abound next year? how to prevent 

 their ravages, through destruction of eggs, plowing under, use of the hop- 

 perdozer and the bran-mash poison. 



[See pages 439-445 of this Report (x).] 



A Potato-Beetle Killer. (Orange County Farmer, for October 

 19, 1893, xiii, p. 1, c. 7 — 15 cm.) 



A beetle sent as "the new potato-bug killer," of which sensational stories 

 have appeared in many papers this year, is identified as Lebia grandis, one 

 of the Carabidae, and long known as an effi -ient destroyer of the potato- 

 beetle. The instantaneous death resulting from its bite and its ferocity as 

 narrated are, of course, imaginative. 



Insect Pests. (Gardening, for November 15, 1893, ii, p. 77 — 



14 cm.) 



Of three species of insect larvae sent for name from Medical Lake, Wash- 

 ington, and received in poor condition, only one — said to occur in great 

 number on apple-trees — can be doubtfully identified, as Sphinx drupi- 

 ferarum. Of one of the larvse, feeding on rutabagas, the features are given. 



