342 



Mr. C. H. Rowe, of Maiden, Mass., reports that as early as March 

 25, when the weather was quite cold and snow to the depth of 6 

 inches was on the ground, swarms of Haltica carinata were found 

 on his elm trees. In all these cases only the imagos of the Halticids 

 were observed, and it is safe to say that the plants mentioned are not 

 the food plants of the larva?. 



Whether or not the discovery of the food plant and habits of the 

 larvjE of Crepidodera rujipes will materially add to the means at our 

 command in dealing with the injury can not now be predicated. If 

 the larva should be found to live on the roots of locust bushes the 

 destruction of these would prove advantageous in the vicinity of young 

 orchards. On the other hand, if the real food plant of the larva is 

 scattered throughout the woods or meadows its discovery would be of 

 little practical importance. 



EXTRACTS FROM CORRESPONDENCE. 



The "Overflow Bug" or "Grease Bug" a Plague in California. 



I seud you iu the iuclosed box a '' grease bug," so called, I presume, from its dis- 

 agreeable odor wheu crushed. They are among our Avorst pests about the house, 

 comiug in swarms so they sound like a rainstorm on the side of the house. They 

 attack all kinds of food, eating holes into the interior of bread, etc., but preferring 

 meats. I have had many bird-skins destroyed by their eating the lores and adjacent 

 parts when drying. They stop here all summer, finding some damp jilace, where they 

 congregate in immense numbers. I have seen at least a peck under one haycock in 

 the tield, and nearly every cock with them. They crawl up the sink-drain into the 

 closet under the sink, and I have taken them from here by the double handful, drop- 

 ping them on the hot sand, when they invariably kicked their last in less than half 

 a minute. 



I had thought they Ijred in the dead stock on the swamp, but the country about 

 Wheatville is nearly free from them, and that is nearer the swamp than this place. — 

 [A. A. Eaton, California, May 12, 1893. 



Note. — A similar account of undue abundance of this insect (Flatinus maculicolUa) 

 was given us some years ago by Mrs. A. E. Bush, another of our California corre- 

 spondents, her letter being published by Riley in a note entitled " The Overflow Bugs 

 in California," in the American Naturalist of August, 1882 (pp. 681-682).— [Eds. 



Is the English Sparrow instrumental in suppressing the Horse Bot-fly? 



I am sending you specimens of a fly, together with its larva, which is causing much 

 trouble amongst our horses in this colony. There is a ditterence of opinion as to its 

 identity, some asserting that it is the English Bot-fly, others that it is not. The 

 nearest approach which I can find to it is at page 623 of Harris's Insects Injurious to 

 Vegetation (Flinted.^, where we find the brown farrier bot-fly " Gasterophilus vtteri- 

 uiis." One fly darts on to the throat of the horse, depositing an egg on a hair at each 

 operation. The animals frequently become frantic as these flies approach them. 

 Farmers have adopted the remedy of tying a piece of sacking under the jaw, which 

 prevents the fly from depositing her eggs on that particular spot. I notice that Dr. 



