REPORT OF TEE ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 225 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



dampening it, it sinks with remarkable rapidity to the bottom, even in this dry mixture, 

 when it is stirred. If it is desired to use the poison as a wet application, more water 

 can be added until it is of about the same consistency as porridge ; but if to be used 

 dry, dry bran must be stirred in until the mixture will run through the fingers easily. 

 This poison may then be applied to the land, either around or between plants to be 

 protected, or a row of it may be run close to the drills of crops planted in that 

 manner. 



PAKASITES. 



The valuable aid rendered by parasites, whenever any injurious insect appears 

 in unusual numbers, is so well known that the practical entomologist is always on the 

 alert to detect if these are present during an outbreak of an injurious species, such 

 as occurred in the case of the Variegated Cutworm in British Calumbia during the 

 summer of 1900. That these were present in some numbers was proved, but they 

 seem to have been local in their distribution. They are, however, difficult to delect^. 

 and it is to be hoped that they may have ber;n overlooked in many instances. At 

 Nanaimo they were looked for carefully but unsuccessfully by the Rev. G. W. Taylor, 

 an experienced entomologist, and he is of the opinion that there may be trouble agaiii 

 in that locality next year. The experience of the past with regard to similar outbreaks 

 wO'Uld, however, seem to justify a more hopeful view of the case. Cutworms of all 

 kinds have many enemies, both parasitic and predaceous, and these increase with 

 remarkable rapidity, so that two successive years marked by such an outbreak as was 

 experienced this year would be almost without precedent. Not only will parasitic 

 and predaceous insect enemies, and fungous and bacterial diseases have increased,, 

 owing to the large food supply, but many insectivorous birds and domestic animals, 

 having learned how to find them, will be ready to assail them next year on their first 

 appearance. The phenomenal abundance of the Cutworms and the widespread injury 

 they wrought has forced farmers and gardeners to learn their habits and acquaint 

 themselves with the most practical remedies. The following are a few extracts from 

 correspondence bearing on the subject of the natural enemies of the Variegated Cut- 

 worm in British Columbia. 



' Nanaimo, August 13. — I have boxed up a couple of hundred caterpillars of 

 saucia for the sake of breeding parasites : but they seem remarkably healthy, and I 

 have not seen a single one attacked by Tachina Flies.' — Rev. G. W. Taylor. 



' Victoria, August 17. — I send larvse of what I take to be a parasite. The man 

 who brought them to me said he put cutworms only into a jar, and on looking at them 

 a few days ago, he found one dead one, killed, 1 think, by parasites, two chrysalids 

 and these laiwas in an earthen hollow which had, I think, been inhabited by the host.' 

 — J. R. Anderson. 



' Victoria, August 3. — You will be pleased to learn that some of the caterpillars 

 are parasitized by ichneumon flies, and it is reported to me from Salt Spring Island 

 that " white eggs " (Tachina eggs ?) are on many of the cutworms near their heads.*^ — 

 R. M. Palmer. 



' Victoria, August 17. — Three lots of larva? which I had under observation, were 

 almost all destroyed by the maggots of a parasitic fly, no doubt the same species as 

 you found in your Victoria consignment of larvae. Field investigations show the- 

 parasites to be well distributed.' — R. M. Palmer. 



' Vancouver. August 20. — I saw in a recent letter in the papers (with reference 

 to cutworms) that you state that cutworms turn to moths. In going over a fann 

 near here, I picked up a number of chrysalids, among others one that was just bursting, 

 in fact the insect was partly out ; it was not, however, a moth, but a large black fly,, 

 and seemed to pretty well fill the chrysalis. The fly was not unlike a black flying ant, 

 but with very long legs, in fact a sort of cross between a flying ant and a hornet. It 

 had a small sting apparently. Is this a parasite of the cutworm ? I have frequentl^r 



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