56 



issued was to be seen. Adult Tachmcv were also observed in tbe in- 

 fested fields. 



Some of the dead grasshoppers had the appearance of having been 

 affected with Entomophthora, and I gathered a number in order to make 

 an effort to cultivate the disease, but as yet have nothing to report in 

 this line. The dead hoppers will be kept with living ones, and if the 

 latter take the disease we may hope to still further multiply the dis- 

 ease by inoculating still others, and then an effort can be made to dis- 

 tribute the disease in the fields. Its spread, however, is evidently 

 slow, and I do not think other measures should be neglected this season 

 for a plan which is still uncertain. 



Among the natural enemies observed, toads were perhaps the most 

 common, some of the fields containing great numbers of them, espe- 

 cially of half-grown individuals, and these would seem capable of greatly 

 reducing the numbers of hoppers. A dead one, which saved me the 

 necessity of making a dissection to get positive proof, showed in the 

 partly decomposed stomach the legs and other parts of grasshoppers, 

 proving that, as would be inferred from presence of toads in the fields, 

 their mission was to feed u]>onthe grasshoppers. 



The attacks of skunks upon grasshoppers, as stated by Mr. Long- 

 streth, have already been mentioned. 



As the tendency is for natural enemies to multiply with the increase 

 of any species of insect, we may look for increased assistance from this 

 source by another year, and in connection with the measures already 

 urged, these ought by another year to keep the insect entirely within 

 the limits of destructiveness. 



Mr. Osborn then read the following paper : 



THE CLOVER-SEED CATERPILLAR. 



( Grapholitha interstinctana Clem. ) 

 By H. OSHORN and H. A. Gossard, Ames, loua. 



On the evening of the 23d of May many small dark brown moths were 

 noticed flying about a clover field upon the College Farm. They were 

 resting upon the blossoms and among the leaves, and upon being dis- 

 turbed would fly a few paces and then settle again. These moths 

 proved upon examination to be Grapholitha interstinctana Clemens, the 

 parent forms of the Clover-seed caterpillar mentioned in the Entomolo- 

 gist's Report to the Commissioner of Agriculture in 1880. We had 

 during the past winter received specimens of clover seed which we 

 suspected of being damaged by this pest, which has been reported as 

 injurious in some of the states east of us in the last year or two. The 

 moths are also remembered as occurring at Ames in numbers some eight 

 or ten years ago. They were not, however, at that time connected with 

 any damage observed in clover fields. 



