126 



Cantharis niitt(dJl. — Tbave received specimens from four or five cor- 

 respondents in the ils'ortliwest Territories of this handsome blister bee- 

 tle. The crop it was most injurious to was Broad Beans. 



Parasites of many kinds have been particularly noticeable during 

 the past season. The eggs of the Vancouver Island Oak-looper {Ellopia 

 somnicuHa) were largely parasitised by a minute black Proctotrypid. 

 A consignment of bark sent to me by Mr. W. H. Danby, of Victoria, 

 British Columbia, showed many larvae and pupae which had been killed 

 by the Entomophthorous fungus Sporotrichum glohuUferum the previous 

 autumn. The species hibernates in the egg form, and with one single 

 exception all the eggs sent were parasitised by the species mentioned, 



Nematus rihesii. — Since many years ago Dr. Lintner recorded finding 

 a Trichogramma in the eggs of the Imported Currant Saw-fly, I have 

 searched assiduously for the parasite. Until the present summer I 

 never could find it. This year, however, I found it in three separate 

 localities in the neighborhood of Ottawa. The first of these was near 

 Arnprior, about 40 miles from Ottawa. The eggs of the Nematus when 

 attached turn jet black and shining. The same thing was the case 

 with a single egg of Papilio turnus, taken at Nepigon, from which I 

 bred a swarm of minute parasites of this same genus. Egg clusters of 

 Mamestra picta have also given a Trichogramma and another black 

 Proctotrypid in large numbers. 



Pteromalus puparum has been extremely abundant and useful in 

 keeping Pleris rapce in check. 



Mr. Forbes said: "I do not know whether the entomologists present 

 are all yet satisfied as to the food habits of our common species of 

 Thrips and their relations to vegetation, about which there has been in 

 the past a good deal of doubt. An unpublished experiment of mine, 

 made April 23, 1889, seems, however, to settle the matter, at least so 

 far as the common yellow Thrips, known to us as T. triticij is concerned. 



" There was during that year an enormous amount of the peculiar 

 blighting of strawberries known to strawberry- growers as ' buttoning,' 

 accompanied by a truly astonishing number of the above Thrips ui)Ou 

 the flowers, which they sometimes almost literally covered as soon as 

 opened, penetrating them, in fact, while still in the bud. In order to 

 determine the effect of this Thrips' attack upon the plant, I transferred 

 strawberry plants to pots, placing them under large bell jars in my of- 

 fice, and keeping them under observation for several days. Under one 

 of the bell jars a large number of Thrips were introduced, obtained by 

 sweeping the blossoms of pear and cherry trees. The other pot was 

 kept under similar conditions as a check. In a short time an injury to 

 the blossoms of the infested plant was quite manifest. It appeared 

 first as brownish, and later as blackish, si)ecks upon the pistil and fil- 

 aments of the anthers, then upon the bases of the petals, and finally 

 even upon the calyx and flower stem. All these parts gradually black- 

 ened and withered, the flowers sometimes drying up completely. 



