281 



No. 9. July 5th a cornstalk was noticed to have a number of maggots burrowing 

 down its center. The stalk was brought into the laboratory and twelve of these 

 Dipterons reared from it. 



No. 10. A Tineid moth that I have obtained in large numbers from breeding cages 

 containing cut- worms. Can it be that the larvae of this insect are parasitic upon the 

 cut- worms, or do they live on clover with which the worms are fed ? 



No. 11. Gall and moth. A small bush of Amorpha fruticosa was noticed early in 

 the spring to have one of these galls at the tip of nearly every twig. These galls 

 were brought into the laboratory and the moths began to issue May 22. 



No. 12. Three of these ^gerians were reared from a cluster of woody galls on a 

 small limb of Quercus ruhra. The galls were of last summers growth and were gath- 

 ered early in the spring. Aside from the moths nothing but a number of guest gall- 

 flies, Inquilince, were reared. 



No. 13. Dipterons reared from maggots that were mining the leaves of the common 

 "pig- weed," Chenopodium album. 



Nos. 14 and 15. Reared abundantly from plum twigs that were covered with 

 Aphides. — [C. P. Gillette, Ames, Iowa, August 2'i, 1889. 



Reply. — List of species referred to in Mr. Gillette's letter of August 28, 1889: 



1 and 2. Sigalphus curculionis Fitch. 



3. Sigalphus canadensis Frov . 



4. Pimpla inquisitor Say. 



4a. Pteromalid, probably undescribed. 



5. Orthopelma occidentalis Ashm. 



6. Ccelinius meromyzw Forbes. 



7. Anthrax scrobiculata (!) Loew. 



8. Tac/cna sp. 



9. Chcetopsis cenea Wied. 



10. Gelechia sp. 



11. Walskia amorphella Clem, and it» 



gall on Amorpha fruticosa. 



12. ^geria nicotianaH.^dw. 



13. Anthomyia near caloptetii. 



14. Scymnus cerviealis Muls. 



15. Leucopis n. sp. ( ?). 



There is an immense amount of descriptive work yet to be done in the Pteroma- 

 lid* and the Tachinidaj, so that it is impossible at present to identify the majority 

 of the species in these families. It is not at all probable that the little Gelechia, No. 

 10, is parasitic on the cut- worms, and Mr. Gillette's later surmise is doubtless the cor- 

 rect one. 



A Grasshopper Letter fiom Utah. 



I thought a few lines from the Farmers' and Gardeners' Club, of Nephi City, might 

 be interesting to you. The farmers of this place have suffered considerable loss this 

 year by the ravages of the grasshoppers, which came in untold millions and ate every 

 green thing before them. The whole force of the people had to turn out and do their 

 very best to destroy them. The best mode that we found was to dig trenches about 

 3 feet deep and 2 feet wide, drive the hoppers iu, put some straw on them, and then 

 burn them up. It was supposed by this method that we destroyed not less than ten 

 to twelve bushels each day for four or five days. After that there were enough left 

 to do considerable damage to the remaining crops. Some of our farmers did not get 

 as much seed as they put in the ground ; some got about half a crop. Then came the 

 very hot weather. The water in our irrigating ditches was not more than one-half 

 as much as we have had in years past, the cause being very little snow in the mount- 

 ains. Our main dependence, therefore, for crops, agriculture, and horticulture suf- 

 fered greatly, excepting in some few cases. I have not seen the like in the last 

 twenty-seven years, and I am sorry to say that the farmers have come out this sea- 

 son at the little end of the horn. I sent a specimen of the "hoppers " to Prof. Law- 

 rence Bruner, of the Nebraska Agricultural Experiment Station, at Lincoln. He 

 wrote me that they were of the kind that would stay by us ; as they were not the 

 migratory kind we would have to fight them to death. I think that the farmers must 

 have been somewhat neglectful to give them such a start. The trench that I spoke 

 of extended about two miles and a half, so you can judge of the labor that it took 



