279 



NOTES FROM CORRESPONDENCE. 



Maggots in poor butter.— Dr. E. G. Love, of New York City, has seut us speci- 

 mens of maggots found in poor butter. These maggots seem to belong to the genus 

 Drosophila, but can not be determined specifically. 



New Habitats for the Florida Red Scale and White Fly. — We have received 

 from Mr. F. W. Mally, Dickinson, Tex., leaves of a lemon tree atfected by the Florida 

 red scale (Aspidiotiis /(■»*■ Ashm.) and of the white fly {Jleyrodes citri R. & H. ). 

 Neither of these insects has previously been recorded west of Louisiana. The prob- 

 abilities are that both were introduced from Florida into Louisiana during the New 

 Orleans Cotton Exposition of 1885. The original home of the former insect is the 

 West Indies or South America, while that of the latter is not known. 



Northw^ard Range of the Wheel Bug. — In reply to our inquiry in a previous 

 number of Insect Life, Mr. Thomas K. Parker, of Providence, R. I., writes us that 

 in past summers he has noticed the wheel bug (Prwnidus eristatiis) in the vicinity of 

 Providence. He has seen lioth the insects and their eggs upon board fences. 



The Potato Scab-gnat in Missouri. — Dr. P. M. Higgins, of Webster Groves, Mo., 

 has sent us specimens of potatoes affected by Mr. Hopkins' new Epidapus scabies, pro- 

 ducing a similar form of scab to that described in volume vi of Insect Life (p. 349) 

 and in the last volume (p. 147). 



Oklahoma Food of the Harlequin Cabbage-bug. — Dr. J. C. Neal, director of 

 the Oklahoma Agricultural Experiment Station, writes us that the alkali mustard 

 (Cleomella angustifolia Torr.) is one of the food plants of the harlequin cabbage-bug 

 which is slowly spreading over Oklahoma Territory. The Cleomella, according to 

 Dr. Neal, grows from choice over thousands of acres of alkali flats and gives an 

 early start to the cabbage-bug. 



The Apple Maggot in North Carolina. — In an apple received by the Pomologist 

 from Mr. George E. Boggs, of Waynesville, N. C, we found larvae of Trypeia pomo- 

 nella, the well known apple-maggot fly of the Northern States. We place the fact 

 on record, as from our infornuition the locality is new. 



Abundance of Army Worm Moths. — In view of the fact that 1894 has been an 

 Army Worm year in Virginia and Maryland, it is interescing to note that Mr. Frank 

 M. Jones, of W^iiniington, Del., in the course of his collecting at electric lights in that 

 city, out of a total of 9,500 specimens found that 8,000 were army worm moths. 



The Sugar-cane Weevil in the Fiji Islands. — Mr. Albert Koebele informs us that 

 the Colonial Sugar Company of the Fiji Islands has been trapping the sugar-cane 

 weevil {Sphenophoriis olscuriis) in large numbers with pieces of split cane. In this 

 way no less than eleven and a half millions of the beetles have been collected with 

 the practical results that while two years ago 32 per cent of the cane was infested 

 the present season only 7 per cent was infested. 



Inoculation against Insect Stings. — Mr. Herbert H. Smith writes us that in 

 his experience particular parts of the body may become temporarily inoculated 

 against insect stings. He used to catch small wasps in his net with his fingers. 

 The fore-finger of the left hand was stung so often that it lost all su8ceptil)ility even 

 to severe stings, and it remained so for two or three years. It is now, however, as 

 susceptilde as ever. 



The Ceylonese Spider Parasite. — In our first note on the external parasites of 

 spiders, in Insect Life (vol. i p. 42), we mentioned the illustrated article by Mr. 

 E. Ernest Green, of Punduloya, Ceylon, in Hardwicke's Science Gossip, for .July, 

 1888. Only recently Mr. Green has had the kindness to send us specimens of the 

 spider and of the parasite itself, and it is interesting to note that the parasite 

 proves to belong to the genus Zatypota, to which at least one of our American 

 external spider parasites also belongs. The spider itself is a handsome little spe- 

 cies with a triangular abdomen, which Dr. Marx tells us belongs to Cambridge's 

 genus Chrisso. 



