74 
by the mature beetles. A top-dressing of wood-ashes with a slight ad- 
mixture of Paris green was recommended, but I was not informed with 
what results. 
In company with this flea-beetle on the leaves of late radishes in our 
own garden, I was surprised to find great numbers of a species of 
Podura. I could not determine whether it produced any effect on the 
radish foliage independently, or why it should have appeared there so 
numerously. 
Canker-worms (Anisopteryx vernata), except in orchards thoroughly 
plowed and harrowed the previous autumn, were quite abundant. 
Owing to the very warm winter, and consequent irregularity in emer- 
gence of the moths, cotton band traps, applied even as early as the first 
of March, did not capture as large a proportion of the females as usual. 
On some trees, therefore, the worms were numerous and where not 
killed by spraying were quite injurious. 
The Plum Curculio, which last year caused seareely any damage to 
the fruits usually affected by it, appeared this season with recruited 
ranks; and on peach and plum trees, where spraying was not prac- 
ticed, or where the frequent rains washed off the arsenites, a large pro- 
portion of the fruit was stung. As confirmatory of the single brooded- 
ness of the species, I observed that all the very late peaches, whether 
free or cling stones, even when so severely punctured on the surface as 
to prevent the development of the fruit, were entirely free from worms, 
showing that the cuts had been made for food only. 
Aphidide.—It would seem as though all known and unknown species 
of this group ef insects appeared in myriads throughout the Missis- 
sippi Valley, during the spring and summer. In many instances trees 
and shrubbery were killed outright by the punctures of their countless 
beaks, and the closing of the stomata of the leaves by their sticky 
exudations. So badly infested were the elms, maples, lindens, box- 
elders, and other shade trees, in and around Minneapolis, Minn., during 
the latter part of June that to pause or even pass beneath them was to 
endanger one’s apparel from the honey dew that continually dripped 
from them, and from the black mold that soon covered trunk and 
branch and which *“‘ smutted ? everything touching it. All other insects 
seemed to be repelled from the aphis-infested trees; not even a leaf- 
roller or leaf-miner could I see. In the September number of INSECT 
LIFE, mentioning the prevalence of Aphis avene in the grain-fields of 
many of the Middle and Western States, I observe that Missouri was 
omitted from the list. The insect, however, occurred quite extensively 
in the middle and northern portions of the State, but it appeared 
rather late, and but comparatively little damage was done so far as I 
have been able to learn. 
Syrphus fly, Coccinellid and Chrysopa larvee waged a fierce, but, at 
first, unequal warfare with the tiny hosts, assisted by Aphelinus and 
probably other smaller as well as larger allies, so that as the season 
