222 



comiuonly j^iowu in the gardens of the outlying distriets; bnt our En- 

 glish fruit-growers in those days were profoundly ignorant of the 

 simpler means of dealing vnth these enemies. 



AN ENEMY OF THE TUSSOCK MOTH. 



Under the above heading |the Pacific Rural Press of November 7 

 prints some interesting notes concerning a new coleopterous enemy of 

 Orgyia leucostigma. Extracts are given from two letters, both from 

 Watson ville, Cal., bearing on this subject. Mr. W, R. Radcliflf says : 

 "They seem to be a 'sure shot' on the eggs of the Tussock Moth, and 

 are plentiful and industrious," and Mr. James Gaily reports that there 

 was "scarcely a sound bunch of eggs" to be found in the orchard be- 

 longing to liis father's estate. Specimens of the insect that has been 

 <loing such efificient service were shown to Mr. C. W. Wood worth, of the 

 University of California Agricultural Experiment Station, who pro- 

 nounced them to be the larvjie of a beetle of the family Dermestidfe. 

 The specimens sent him perished, unfortunately, and he was conse- 

 quently unable to refer them to the exact species. 



THE "BLACK VINE-WEEVIL " — A HOT-HOUSE PEST. 



In a letter recently published in the Untomologisfs Monthly Magazine 

 (Vol. II, No. 19, second series) Mr. Theodore Wood furnishes some notes 

 on the so-called Black Vine-weevil {Ofiorhynchus sulcatns Fab.), which 

 he finds destroying the fronds of the ferns in his greenhouse. The 

 beetles were observed at night clinging to the fronds and nibbling their 

 edges. Little more than the midribs were left by them in some cases. 

 The insects had hibernated as larvte in the pots, and the pupte and 

 freshly developed beetles were found buried in the earth. The writer 

 believes the insect quite partial in its tastes, attacking, in his experi- 

 ence, chiefly the Hart's Tongue {Scolopendrii(mvnlgare). 



Mr. W. W. Fowler, in an editorial comment, mentions having received 

 the same species from a gardener who had found it destructive to 

 Maiden Hair ferns in one of his houses. The larvae were found at the 

 roots. 



Mr. E. A. Butler, in No. 20 of the same volume, adds that he has found 

 0. sulcatus and what appeared to be its larva damaging a species of 

 Saxifrage. 



This insect has already been referred to in Vol. iii, of Insect Life 

 (pp. 37-38). It is a northern species, common to Europe and North 

 America, and what Mr. Wood regards as its favorite food plant, the 

 fern Scolopendrium ndgare, is also common to both hemispheres. Dr. 

 Hagen has recorded the beetle as having damaged the flowers and in 

 some cases the bulbs of Cyclamens in greenhouses in Massachusetts, but 



