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EXTRACTS FROM CORRESPONDENCE OF THE DIVISION. 29 
A SILK-SPINNING MITE, 
I write for information upon a very curious oceurrence to which my attention was 
recently directed. Last Wednesday, September 6, my father noticed that one of his 
large ash trees glistened and sparkled in quite a remarkable manner. Thinking it 
was the oozing out of sap, which in such quantities would have been fatal to the 
tree, he proceeded to investigate. Judge of his astonishment when he found it to be 
the complete covering of the tree with an exceedingly delicate, filmy, compact, cob- 
web (?). From the ground up on the trunk some 25 feet, and extending out on most 
of the branches, this web reached. The covering was as complete as if a silken 
kerchief had been wrapped around the tree-trunk. The author of this gigantie cob- 
-web (?) is a minute, orange-colored mite, or some say spider, with his myriads of sis- 
ters, brothers, cousins, and aunts. They were found in large masses along the tree- 
trunk and in the crotches. Concerning the conditions and surroundings I can only 
say that the tree stands in close proximity to pines, maples, apple, and evergreen 
trees. The weather has been, the entire summer, of unprecedented dryness. Three 
days after its appearance the most severe storm we have had for two months developed. 
This somewhat tore and washed away the web, but to-day, the seventh after its first 
discovery, it and the mites are still there. Any information concerning this fellow 
and his workings which you deem expedient and have the kindness to forward, I 
shall be most deeply thankful for.—[Geo. W. Manstield, Melrose Highlands, Mass., 
September 14, 1882. 
ReEpLy.—Your letter of the 14th September, 1882, is duly received, together with the: 
accompanying specimens, which prove to be a species of red mite, closely allied to 
the so-called ‘‘red spider” ( Tetranychus telarius), but specifically distinct. The facts 
which you detail are very interesting, but have been ‘previously observed by Mr. B. 
P. Mann, now of this Department, and mentioned at the Cincinnati meeting of the A. A. 
A. S. Should you wish to remove the mites from your tree you will probably find the 
use of kerosene in emulsion the most satisfactory. 
THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN LOCUST. 
» * * Thus far we have met but few C. spretus, and from present outlooks there 
is no possibility that‘we will find any numbers of this insect in this vicinity unless they 
should drift in from across the range. This, however, is not likely to occur, since at 
the present time great fires are raging in the localities where they would cross were 
they to come this way. We have quite a number of specimens which we will carry 
with us, as they might be destroyed in the mails, the roads are so rough and the care 
so slack between this point and Benton. Have heard it hinted that there are some 
locusts in the section about the Columbia and Snake Rivers that are causing some 
trouble. This may be true. * * * At present I do not think there is any danger 
of locust visitations east of the Rocky Mountains for 1883, but since leaving civiliza- 
tion, ‘‘God’s country,” as Americans call it up here, we have had no opportunity of 
reading the papers or hearing the news of the day. * * *—[L. Bruner, Fort Mc- 
Leod, N. W. T., Canada, September 3, 1882. 
AN INSECT ENEMY TO THISTLE. 
I send an insect with this note, for name. Its food-plant is the Canada thistle, 
where it inserts its beak in the stalks. I find them so thickly on some of the plants 
that they almost cover the stems. But my anxiety to learn its name is on account of 
the relation it sustains to the ants. I wish to send some notes to theAmerican Nat- 
uralist about the ants and their behavior toward these creatures, which is more inter- 
esting than anything I ever observed among the aphides and ants. If it is undescribed, 
will you name it and write a description, to be inserted with my notes for the Nat- 
uralist? I am still studying ants and spiders, and have some very interesting species. 
of the latter.—[Mary Treat, Franklin Falls, N. H., September 4, 1882. 
{The insect sent proved to be Entilia sinuata Fabr. ] 
