271 



TWO MORE IMPORTANT VEDALIAS. 



We have recently received from Mr. A. Alcock, superinteudent of 

 the Indian Museum at Calcutta, specimens of Vedaliafumida, var. rosei- 

 'pennis Muls., which has appeared in considerable numbers during the 

 present season and is feeding on Icerya ccgyptiacum on ornamental 

 plants in the compound of the Museum. Whatever bearing this fact, 

 and the rearing of an internal parasite of this Egyptian Icerya by Mr. 

 Cotes last year, as recorded in Insect Life, may have on the supposi- 

 tion that India is the original home of this insect, the fact remains that 

 the new Indian Yedalia will be an important insect to import into the 

 aftected gardens of Alexandria, Egypt, where /. wgyptiacum has been 

 doing so nnich damage. 



Mr. C. H. Tyler Townsend, in the course of a recent journey to Mexico 

 under a commission from this Department, discovered Vedalia sieholdii 

 feeding upon Icerya purchasi. We have, therefore, a Vedalia at hand 

 in case I. imrcliasi should reappear in dangerous numbers in California 

 and the original stock of V. cardinalis die out. We have no knowledge 

 of the life- history of the Mexican species, and it may prove to be a 

 slower breeder than the famous V. cardinalis. 



DAMAGE BY THE IJROWN SAP-CHAFER. 



An unusual number of complaints were received during the past 

 season, from correspondents of this Division, of injuries by a common 

 light grayish-brown beetle belonging to the family Scarabieidaj, known 

 an Euphoria mrf« Linn., and generally referred to in works on economic 

 entomology as the Indian Cetonia. 



August 31, specimens were received from Pullman, 111., where the 

 beetle was reported to be feeding on the sap flowing from wounds 

 made by borers in elm and ash trees, also from a correspondent at 

 Hickory Hill, Pa., who wrote that it seemed to be very destructive to 

 green corn, by eating the kernels oif the cob. September 1 it was 

 mailed to us from Dr. E. H. Jenkins, vice-director of the Connecticut 

 Agricultural Experiment Station, with the information that the insect 

 was damaging corn extensively at Westport, Conn. September ■! it 

 was received through the editor of the New England Homestead, 

 who reported the insect to be attacking tomatoes at Sterling, Mass. 

 September 18 it was received from Greenwich, Conn., where the insect 

 was found on sap exuding from oak trees. In the last instance, as in 

 the first, our correspondent was laboring under the impression that 

 the beetles had injured the trees, and was of the opinion that the 

 insects, of which he states he had picked off" hundreds from five oak 

 trees, "sting" the bark, causing the sap to flow. 



In the November number of Gardening (pp. 55-56) two similar cases 

 are mentioned by correspondents in White Plains, N. Y., and Detroit, 

 Mich. The first of these found the insects on a pear tree which was 



