64 



mud wasp in the deserted i)jiper uests of Vespa maculnta. One that he opened 

 recently contained no less than nine mud- wasp cells, about one inch in length, in 

 the interior. 



Root Web-worm in Pennsylvania. — We have received from Mr. George C. Maule, 

 of Gum Tree, Pa., larv;^ bearing the characteristic ranrkings of the root web- worm, 

 Crambiifi zeelhis, with the statement that it is injurious to cornfields in his vicinity. 

 On his own farm it occurred in a field which had lain two years in clover and 

 timothy. In a neighbor's field of the same age in rotation of crops four acres of 

 corn were entirely destroyed. Our correspondent states that the worst affected 

 fields are old timothy sod. 



The Horn Fly attacking Horses. — It will bo remembered that on page 344 of the 

 last volume of Insect Life, we mentioned an instance of the horn fiy attacking a 

 horse at Cheyenne, Colo., and inquired if other correspondents had observed similar 

 cases. Recently Mr. W. C. Brass, of Carlisle, Ark., has sent a large number of the 

 true HamiatoMa serrata which he himself took from horses. Prof. R. H. Price, of 

 the Texas Agricultural College, also writes that he has seen the flies on horses in 

 both Virginia and Texas, but never in any great abundance. 



Flies in Seaweed. — Mr. Arthur H. Norton, of West Brook, Me., has sent us 

 specimens of Coclopa frigida Fall., a small fly of the family Phycodromidfe with the 

 information that it occurs abundantly in windrows of seaweed left by high tides on 

 island shores. During the Avarmest i)art of the day they may be seen flying play- 

 fully over their habitat. On being apjiroached they crawl into the seaweed and are 

 quick to hide "' even when quite numb." Our correspondent was on an island during 

 February, and the temjjerature averaged freezing during that time, the seaweed 

 which the insects inhabited being frozen except at the surface exposed to the sun. 



