414 



County, Wyo. The larvfe were foimd in a cup-sliaped depression in the 

 top of a small cone about 20 inches high, situated a few feet from a 

 large sulphur mouiul or " dune," under which the boiling water could 

 be heard rumbling Tlirough small apertures in the bottom of the cup 

 hot water rose and overflowed the edges, and it was in this cup filled 

 with hot water that the larvte were found. The temperature of the 

 water, Mr. Hamm states, was so hot he could not hold his hand in it, 

 and he estimates that it was not more than twenty or thirty degrees 

 below the boiling point. The larvai belonged to the dipterous family 

 Stratiomyiida'. 



It is to be regretted that the temperature in this case was not taken 

 with a thermometer f(n~ comparison with previously recorded cases of 

 this kind. Mr. Bruner cites the statement of a Mrs. Partz (Kept. U. S. 

 Geol. Surv. for 1878, Pt. II, p. 358) who saw " in springs in Owens Val- 

 ley, Cal., a spider-like animal and small red worms in water having a 

 temperature of 124° F." 



To this may be added Mr. H. G. Hubbard's statement in a letter pub- 

 lished in the Canadian Entomologist or 1891 (j). 226), that in the Yel- 

 lowstone National Park he saw a little Salda running about the edges 

 of springs which were actually boiling. He also observed two species 

 of Nebria living under pieces of geyserite " even on the sides of the 

 cones of the largest spouting geysers, where they were liable to be 

 washed away in a flood of boiling water." Prof. A. S. Packard (Ameri- 

 can Naturalist, 1882, p. 599), also records such a case, he having 

 received from a Mr. Griffith the larva of a Stratiomyia found in a hot 

 spring in Gunnison County, Colo. In this case the temi)erature of the 

 water is stated to have been 157° F. 



APPARENT SUCCESS OF ONE OF THE HESSIAN FLY PARASITE 

 IMPORTATIONS. 



In the last number of Insect Life (p. 35G) we published a figure of 

 Entedon epigotius, the principal European parasite of the Hessian fly, 

 and mentioned the attempts which Professor Piley had made in 1891 

 to introduce the species into the wheat fields of this country. One of 

 the last acts performed by Professor Riley before leaving this office in 

 May, 1894:, was to send a batch of parasitized puparia of the Hessian 

 fly, just received from Mr. Fred Enock, of London, to the farm of Mr. 

 G. Morgan Eldredge, at Cecilton, Md. During May, 1895, wishing to 

 ascertain whether or not this attempt had been successful, we sent Mr. 

 William H. Ashmead to Cecilton to make careful observations. He 

 found that the parasitized puparia had been x)laced upon the ground at 

 the borders of a wheat field which appeared to be rather badly affected 

 by the Hessian fly. The crop was harvested and the laud plowed at the 

 end of August and planted in winter oats, which at the time of Mr. 

 Ashmead's visit were from four to six inches high. After harvest the 

 wheat straw was stacked in the immediate vicinity of the place where 

 the parasitized puparia were deposited, and a small quantity of winter 



