410 



eaten, the season was favorable and I had a good yield of cabbages. In concluaion 

 I would say that since 1884 I have made no effort to preserve the disease, and it has 

 made its appearance each year about the 1st of August. My cabbage has been 

 planted each year on nearly the same ground. This year the worms were later in 

 showing themselves. The disease has become pretty general through this locality, 

 and has proved of great benefit. I found this year the larvte of a Geometrid affected 

 with the same disease. — [E. R. Boardmau, M. D., Elraira, Stark County, Illinois, 

 December 15, 1890. 



An Orange Plant-bug from Australia. 



Herewith I inclose specimens of a beetle which is very destructive to the orange 

 crop in this district by eating the young and tender shoots. If you have the same 

 pest, I should be glad to have anything bearing on the treatment of trees affected 

 with the pest. — [Thos. G. Hewitt, editor Northern Star, Lismore, New South Wales, 

 Australia, October 25, 1890. 



Reply. — The insect is not a beetle, but the immature form^of one of the true bugs. 

 We have nothing very similar to this insect in this country, and it will be impossible 

 to determine the exact species without receiving full-grown individuals. It seems 

 to be identical with a form which Mr. Koebele found both in Queensland and New 

 South Wales, sucking the sap of the tender twigs and the fruit of the orange. We 

 have an insect in Florida, known popularly as the Red Bug (Dyadercus suturellus), 

 which works in a somewhat similar manner, and it has been found there that the best 

 remedy is to spray the tree, while the bugs are at work, with a dilute kerosene-soap 

 emulsion, a good formula for which I inclose on a separate sheet. The insects are 

 also easily trapped by placing under the tree a small heap of decaying fruit of any 

 kind, and they can be destroyed upon this heap by the use of hot water, preferably in 

 the early morning. We will be glad to have you send a large series of specimens of 

 this insect, as well as any other crop pests which may be prominent in your vicini- 

 ty.— [December 15, 1890.] 



On Parasites of Lepidoptera. 



Prof. C. Rudow must surely have made some mistake in the list of parasites pub- 

 lished in the last number of Insect Life, kindly sent me from your Department. No 

 less than seven species of Meaoleius ! Ratzeburg gives a few Tryphonidse as having 

 been bred by Brischke from Lepidoptera, but Brischke in his list, published several 

 years after Ratzeburg's last volume, does not mention any Tryphov, Mesoleius, or 

 Bassus as having been bred from Lepidopterous hosts, so a mistake must have occurred 

 somewhere. It certainly requires a very large amount of faith to believe that Rudow, 

 or any one else, bred five species of Bassus from a Lepidopterous host, and besides 

 there are two species of Phygadeuon. The only Tryphonidae I have that were bred 

 from Lepidoptera are : 



Parasite. Host. 



Phytodietus scabriculus Tortrix costana. 



Gry pocentrus genalis M Microptery x semipurpurella. 



Sphinctus serotinus Limacodes testudo. 



Triclistus holmgreni Holm Tortrix decretana, 



lativentris Holm Emmelesia alchemillata. 



Exochus decorator H Peronea maccana. 



hastana. 



alpinus Pa^disca solandriana. 



Phlaeodes tetraquetrana. 

 Penthiua dimidiana. 

 Euchromia flammea. 



flavomarginatus Eudorea truncicolella. 



fletcheri M Gelechia notatella. 



