49 



New Food-plant and Enemy of Icerya. 



* * * For the first time I have found the Icerya infesting a Conifer — the Cedar 

 of Lebanon (Cedrus libain). The tree is growing in a yard in this city, and is infested 

 with large numbers of the Icerya in all stages. In Professor Riley's report for 1886 no 

 mention is made of this insect having been found infesting any Conifer in California, 

 although Mr. Maskell records having found it on pines, firs, and cypress in New 

 Zealand. 



I have also to record a new insect enemy of the Icerya. Mr. J. W. Wolfskill and 

 Mr. Alexander Craw, of this city, both of whom are close observers of the habits of 

 insects, inform me that they saw a long, slender, pale brownish beetle — the Telephorus 

 consors of Le Conte — feeding upon the eggs of the Icerya, having first torn open the 

 cottony covering of the egga. I have bred this beetle from a larva found under a 

 stone near the margin of a small stream of water, but have not been able as yet to 

 ascertain what the larva feeds upon. I confined one of them in a box with a cut- 

 worm, the larva of Tceniocampa rufula Grote, but the Telephorid larva did not attack 

 it, and finally died. Is it possible that this beetle has learned to feed upon the eggs 

 of the Icerya from having seen the larvae of the Australian Lady-bird do so? — [D. 

 W. Coquillett, Los Angeles, Cal., May 29, 1889. 



The Red-legged Plea-beetle Again. 



In regard to the Red-legged Flea-beetle, of which we wrote you last spring, stating 

 that they were doing considerable viamage (a reply having been received from you), 

 will say from one year's experience that they are not so damaging as was at first sup- 

 posed. The beetle does not migrate, as was first supposed, but remains on or near the 

 ground that has been recently cleared of timber. We used a solution of Paris green 

 on our infested trees last spring, and later in the season, finding that they did not 

 disturb the trees of any account outside of their origiual haunts, we did nothing 

 further, but waited for later developments. Early in the season the trees presented a 

 dead appearance, but later they threw out a number of side branches, and by cutting 

 out this spring the main branches, which are dead, and otherwise trimming the 

 trees, they look about as well as ever, but have been thrown back one year and will 

 be later in bearing in consequence. These same insects are noticeable where they 

 were found last year, but not in such large numbers. They are damaging trees now, 

 but principally on ground just cleared up. — [Stover and Stover, Edgemout, Md., 

 April 23, 1889. 



The Tarnished Plant-bug on Pear and Apple. 



I inclose you in package and send by to-day's mail sample of pear-tree foliage in- 

 jured by what I take to be the Tarnished Plant-bug, also samples of bug. These in- 

 sects have been working on the pear and apple trees ever since foliage started, and 

 over more than half of this (McPherson) county have destroyed from one-fourth to 

 one-third of the pear bloom and a smaller proportion of the apple. They appear to 

 do the most damage to the tender terminal buds toward the top of the tree. The 

 bugs are in larger quantities the present season, and, while I have observed them 

 almost every year, this is the first time they have created such marked damage. If I 

 am wrong in the determination of the insects let me know. — [W. Knaus, McPherson,, 

 Kans., April 20, 1889. 



Reply. — I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 20th instant, together 

 with specimens of an insect which is damaging the foliage of pears and apples in 

 your vicinity. This insect is, as you suppose, the Tarnished Plant-bug, which, as you 

 may know, has been ascertained to be synonymous with the European Lygits praten- 

 sis Linn., the names Uneolaria and oblinitus falling before the old Linuaeau title. You 



