OBSERVATIONS ON THE SPINED SOLDIER BUG. 155 



sulphur-salt wash a sulphur there known as "crystallized sulphur," 

 which is practically the crude product as it comes from the mines. 

 The following papers were then read: 



SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE SPINED SOLDIER BUG. 



{Podisus macuUvcntris Say.) 

 By A. W. Morrill, Washington, D. C. 



The observations recorded in this paper, unless otherwise stated, 

 are based on two specimens of Podisus macuJirentriH taken by the 

 writer July 9, 1902, on a Camperdown elm tree at Amherst, Mass. 

 The specimens were on that date in the fourth nymphal instar, and 

 one of them had a nearly full-grown elm leaf-beetle larva impaled on 

 its beak. They were taken to the laboratory, and until theiv death, 

 which took j^lace in each case over one and a half months later, were 

 under daily observation, beino- caged in a lantern globe, covered at 

 the top with cheese cloth. 



The insects upon which my observations Avere made were kindly 

 examined by l)oth Mr. E. P. Van Duzee and Mr. (). Heidemann, who 

 independently determined them as Podisus maeulirentris Say, a name 

 which has recently taken tlie place of the better known Podisus 

 spinosus Dall. 



As a beneficial insect this species has long held a high place in the 

 esteem of economic entomologists, and consequently in entomological 

 literature the references to it are very numerous. It has been noted 

 as being esiDccially useful as an enemy of the larva^ of the Colorado 

 potato beetle {Leptlnotarsa decemlineata Say), the elm leaf-beetle 

 {Galerucella luteola Miill.), the tent caterpillar, the cotton boll worm 

 {Heliothis ohsoleta Fab.), and the cotton leaf -worm (Alabama arr/il- 

 lacea Hbn.). Undoubtedly some accounts of the destruction of in- 

 jurious insects by Podisus mactdiventris have been under the name 

 P. serieventris Uhl., a species with Avhich it is frequently confused. 

 Van Duzee, in his Annotated List of the Pentatomida'," indicates 

 his suspicion that the form treated of by Ivirkland ^ as P. serieventris 

 is the same as the one he (Van Duzee) has called P. mactdiventris. 

 Whether or not the form known to some as P. serieventris be ulti- 

 mately considered as a species distinct from P. maculiventris, its 

 habits appear to be the same as those of the latter, and for a more 

 general account than I shall give one should refer to the papers by 

 Kirkland, which also contain an extended bibliography of the species 

 of the genus. 



o Annotated List of the Pentatomidse Recorded from America North of ^Mexico, 

 with descriptions of some new species. By Edward P. Van Duzee. Trans. Am. 

 Ent. Soc. Vol. XXX, p. 71, March. 1904. 



6 Mass. Bd. Agric, Report on Gypsy Moth, 189G, pp. 392-403. Same, 1898, pp. 

 129-131. 



