50 
prove to be D. ministra, Drury, appeared on post oaks in Kirkwood 
and vicinity, defoliating portions of the trees infested. From their gre- 
garious habit and their susceptibility to poison they were easily routed. 
Even a stream of water turned upon them from the spraying pump 
would dislodge and bring them to the ground, where they were easily 
killed. 
Orgyia leucostigma, a species formerly abundant in this locality, but 
which I had not observed for ten or twelve years, was found on Sycamore 
(Platanus), on which, strange to say, it would. not feed after the second 
molt, and consequently all caterpillars left on the tree perished before 
attaining half their growth. The question suggested by this observa- 
tion was how the young larve came to be upon this tree which so evi- 
dently did not suit them for food. I could not find either cocoon or egg 
mass of the mother insect, nor were any of the larve discovered in 
the adjacent orchard. 
Ichthyura inclusa, another species not observed here for many years, 
appeared on willows in great numbers in September, but coming so late 
in the season the defoliations did no serious damage. 
In coneluding these notes I wish to mention an insect that will prob- 
ably prove most efficient in ridding the country of the pest of the Web 
Worm (Hyphantria cunea). This is the larva of a smail and inconspicu- 
ous Carabid of the genus Plochionus, bearing the appropriate specific 
name timidus. I had observed during the month of June that the 
greater number of the webs of the caterpillar were unusually small and 
incomplete and seemed to have been deserted much sooner than usual. 
Before I had time to investigate the matter, I received from Mr. J. C. 
Duffey, horticulturist at the Shaw Botanical Garden, a colony of the 
worms, interspersed among which were numerous small active Carabid 
larvee, which Mr. Duffey informed me were preying upon the former. 
The collection was placed in a cage and arranged for convenient obser- 
vation, and I very shortly had ocular demonstration of the correctness 
of Mr. Dutfey’s assertion. Many interesting observations were made 
upon these small but ferocious larve before they changed to pupe, and 
the appearance of the perfect insect was awaited with much interest. 
The first beetle developed about the middle of July and proved to be 
the species named, 
Comparatively few webs of the second brood of Hyphantria were seen 
in and around Kirkwood in August, and extensive examination revealed 
the fact that fully three-fourths of these also contained larvee of Plo- 
chionus, which were busily engaged in reducing the numbers of the 
rightful inhabitants. Nor is the beetle confined in its diet to the web 
worm. I found the larve repeatedly during the present autumn in the 
masses of leaves webbed together by the somewhat gregarious larva 
of a Tortrix (Cacecia fervidana) and between the two leaves webbed by 
various Tineids, especially Cryptolechia nubeculosa and C, schlegerella. 
(I doubt not I may have occasion to deprecate its work in the future 
