156 FIRST ANNUAL REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



through the crown of the strawberry plant into the j^ith and eating 

 through the more woody portions is very similar to that recorded of 

 the Anarsia lineatella, and the ravages of the two insects, in localities 

 where they conjointly occur, are liable to be confounded. The gene- 

 ral use of common names for our insects, birds, fishes, mammals, etc., 

 very often results in serious confusion, when, with little difficulty, the 

 scientific name, which always indicates the object referred to, could 

 be acquired. 



Parasitic Attack. 



It is gratifying to know that, in all probability, this destructive pest 

 has already been attacked by a parasite which promises to perform an 

 effective part in checking its ravages. 



The *'pupa apparently filled with parasitic eggs," referred to in the 

 communication accompanying the examples sent to me, was the dead 

 body of a caterpillar, distended to its utmost capacity by the pres- 

 ence of no less than fifty-one pupa-cases of apparently some Chalcid 

 species.* They had been crushed in their transit through the mail, 

 preventing the perfect insect being taken from them, or even an ap- 

 proximate reference of their relationship. 



Remedies. 



Should the increase of this insect not be prevented by parasitic 

 agency, then the most effectual means of arresting it will be the cut- 

 ting ofif of the infested terminal twigs of the trees upon which it oc- 

 curs — readily to be distinguislied by the drying up of the leaves — and 

 burning them with their contained borers. This must be done during 

 the month of May, or early in June, before the larvae have attained 

 their maturity, after which they leave their burrows to seek some 

 sheltered place beneath the loose bark of the trunk, leaves upon the 

 ground, or elsewhere, where they may construct their cocoons and un- 

 dergo their final transformation. 



Strawberry plants giving indication of their presence should be 

 promptly uprooted and burned. 



*Mr. L. 0. Howard (our authority in the Chalcididoi) expresses the belief (^4»teWca« iVa<- 

 uralist, xiii, 1882, p. 150), based vipon the mode of occurrence, that these were the cocoon- 

 like cells of a Chalcid species belonging to the genus Copidosoma of Ratzeburg, and congeneric 

 with others found by him, distending to the utmost the larval skins of another example of 

 A. lineatella, and also of Lithocolletis FitcJiella Clem., Gelechia finifoliae, Chamb., and 

 Plusia brassiccB Riley. From a single example of this latter species the almost incredible 

 number of two thousand five hundred and twenty-eight parasites, by actual count, 

 emerged. 



