320 



"weed. Two years ago the writer took particular pains to eradicate it iu aud around 

 his garden patch, killing everj' young plant of S. rostratum as it came up. The 

 result was a serious attack on the potatoes, which were only saved by twice going 

 over all the plants aud collecting and destroying the beetles. That the plant did not 

 migrate easterly at a greater speed — I dou't think it has crossed the Mississippi yet — 

 is to be wondered at, as in the region of the one hundred and second meridian, on the 

 wide prairies, it has the tumble-weed habit. The whole plant is subglobose aud when 

 ripe snaps ofl" close to the ground and goes bowling along before the wind at a great 

 rate. The winds there, however, are more north aud south than fiom the west, so 

 that probably has delayed the progress of the plant in longitude. The plant is 

 abundant iu waste places iu towns and by roadsides iu all eastern Kansas now, and 

 we rarely hear of the Colorado Beetle damaging potatoes. 



Another plant which is traveling eastward is the Mexican Poppy, Prickly poppy, 

 or, as some have called it, Califoruia Poppy. It is the Argemone mexicana. Many 

 years ago, sixteen or seventeen, the writer first saw it in the region of the oue hun- 

 dredth meridiau, aud he noticed it more easterly every year since. Several years ago 

 an illustratiou iu Harjjer^s Magazine to nn article entitled "Ladies' Day at the Ranche," 

 showed it as being a prominent flower in Ellsworth County. It is very abundant in 

 waste lots of Junction City now, aud the last season it was seen as far east as Wamego, 

 about the ninety-seventh meridian. It may be further east, but the writer has not 

 seen it. It is a very handsome plant, with a very large white flower, manifestly the 

 variety albiflora. It may be that the migration of these plants has elsewhere been 

 recorded, aud that it may have proceeded further than is here set dowu, but it seems 

 that the record is worth preserving if not previously made. — [Robert Hay, Junction 

 City, Kans., February, 1890. 



Hymenopterous Parasite of Icerya in Australia. 



I have done a little as follows : First, I have bred four hy menopters, which I take to 

 be theparasite which Koebele discovered. All I know about them isl found them alive 

 in a bottle containing some Icerya, and from which some Lestophoui had emerged. 

 The hymenopters had not emerged from any Lestophoui outside the Icerya, but that 

 one would uot expect, still I have no proof that they were not parasitic on the Icerya; 

 but I presume they are Koebele's parasite. I found two out of the four. 



Second, I received some three mouths ago some Icerya from a place some 50 miles 

 south of Adelaide, the owner of the orange orchard not having seen auything of the 

 kind before and wanting to know what they were. These I placed as usual iu a bottle 

 loosely stoppered with cotton wool. With the Icerya was a Chrysopa larva, which 

 for soiue weeks was busy feeding on the eggs. One day on examining it I discovered 

 several Hymeuopters (Proctotrupidte ?). The female, yellowish-browu (?); male, 

 almost black (?). On examination I found that many might have escaped through 

 the cotton stopping being insecure, but I suppose I have had about thirty since. It 

 is strange that this is the only instance of an hymenopterous parasite of Icerya yet 

 discovered in South Australia. I send you a few of these under separate cover. I 

 presume the small black insect is the male, because I observed them chase the larger 

 brown flies, and then leap on their backs, but so far iu front that it would be impos- 

 sible for any sexual connection to take place (at least in my opinion), and then would 

 commence a rapid movement of the antenna', as if they were having a bout of fisty- 

 cuffs. I observed this three or four times, but in no case did I observe any act of 

 coition — as the bottle was not very well suited for observation with a coddiugton 

 lens, it may be that I am mistaken, but such is my impression. This strange proceed- 

 ing would last a few seconds. Was it a kindof preliminary investigation ou the part 

 of the male to discover whether the female had been already impregnated ? 



I likewise send you some cayenne pepper in which you will find some small beetles 

 which breed iu that very hot condiment. A sole diet of cayenne pepper must make 

 Ihom peculiarly hot tempered if beetle life iu any way resembles human existence. 



