453 



Some weeks after your departure I gathered some leaves aud loose earth in ray 

 vineyard, just as I saw you do. This I sifted, putting the siftiugs in the bright sun- 

 shine, and sat watching for about half an hour, when I saw a movement among the 

 siftings which looked suspicious, and securing the bug making it found it to be the 

 pest we were after. Soon after I caught a second. 



From Mr. Alexander's observations and my own, it seems that but 

 little aid can be looked for in the direction of burning over the forests, 

 and that little only following late burning in spring. If, as I believe 

 to be the fact, the Grape Curculio passes the winter closely ensconced 

 in the ground about the bases of the grape vines or under the loose flat 

 stones with which the surface of these mountains is thickly strewn, 

 destruction by the agency of fire will prove of little value, and we must 

 look to other means, such as are applicable to the vines, both in the 

 vineyard and to, at least, those wild vines in close proximity thereto. 

 The nature of these means, as well as their effect, can only be deter- 

 mined by careful investigation and experimentation. 



While riding over the mountains, on my way to Vineland, an insect 

 flew by my ear, aud, though not able to see or capture it, the note it 

 produced was unmistakable, and, although I had not heard it for nearly 

 three years, the evidence was conclusive that SinniUa of some sort were 

 abroad in this region. On the morning prior to my leaving the locality, 

 cattle, more especially young animals, appeared very restive and un- 

 easy. On examination bufitalo gnats were found attacking them in con- 

 siderable numbers. Climbing down the mountain side and following 

 a small stream to its junction with a larger one, and where the water 

 was dashing over its rocky bed, an abundance of larva? were found 

 attached to the rocks in the midst of the stream. The gnat season was 

 evidently only just beginning, as very few pupae were to be found, 

 though they were found in this same locality a lew weeks later by a 

 young man in the family of Mr. Alexander. While never becoming 

 sufficiently numerous to kill stock, probably on account of the small 

 size of the stream, there are often enough of the gnats produced to 

 cause much annoyance, especially to young cattle. If common testi- 

 mony is to be trusted, the Ox Warble Fly, Hypoderma hovis, is much 

 more injurious to cattle, as is also the Scj:ew Worm, the larva; of LucUia 

 macellaria. 



Information obtained at Paris, Texas, was to the effect that wheat 

 was in the best of condition, and free from all insect attack. While 

 sweeping over the experimental plats of wheat belonging to the Agri- 

 cultural Experiment Station, at College Station, Texas, I was sur- 

 prised to observe Meromyza americana, and found all of the earlier 

 stages, except the eggs, in considerable abundance ; so much so, in fact, 

 that in future a report of serious injury to wheat through the supposed 

 attack of Hessian Fly, but really due to the Meromyza^ will not be in 

 the least surprising. 



A species of Thrips, and also a PMoeothrips^ were especially abundant 

 in young growing wheat. The larvae of Leucania pseudargyria were 



