37 



inner one. If larvfB of tbis species are confined to breeding cages with- 

 out eartli, they form tlieir cocoons among or nuder the dead and fallen 

 leaves. Within these cocoons they change to yellow piipie, which in 

 the conrse of a week give forth the winged insects. 



The Imago. — The winged insects are dull and heavy in all their mo- 

 tions, and depart greatly — like most saw-flies — from the general char- 

 acter of the order to which they belong. They possess neither the 

 powerful jaws of the predaceous tribes, nor the slender jaws and tongues 

 of the honey-feeding families. When the females are engaged in sawing 

 slits in the leaves for the reception of their eggs, they are not easily 

 disturbed in their work. The males, however, are more active, being 

 one third shorter, and not as bulky as their females. The color of both 

 sexes is black ; the female has the venter, tibite, palpi, and the base of 

 the wings of a decidedly blnish-green color ; the edges of the abdomen 

 and obsolete bands between the segments are pale yellowish. The 

 same parts in the male, and more or less of the upper surface of the 

 abdomen, are yellowish-brown or orange colored. The female averages 

 8""" in length and the male G"'™. 



NATURAL ENEMIES AND REMEDIES. 



No parasite has as yet been found to attack the larvte. The eggs 

 however, are frequently destroyed by very small Chalcids of the genus 

 Trichoyramma which become numerous when the second brood of 

 females is ovipositing. 



The Wheel-bug ( PHonidus cristatus) has been of very great service in 

 reducing the numbers of these slugs. At a time during the summer 

 of 1887, when the willows were threatened with total extinction, a 

 number of these useful bugs stationed themselves upon the infested 

 twigs and impaled every slug that could be found upon the same twig. 

 Towards the end of the fourth generation the willows recovered some- 

 what and put out new foliage, and the slugs became so very scarce that 

 the Wheel-bugs found it no longer profitable to remain. 



The English Sparrows, although flocking in large numbers to some 

 sun-flowers that grew very close to and among the willows did not eat 

 a single slug; their whole attention was directed to the ripening seeds 

 of the Sun-flower. 



As to remedies, no insect is more readily destroyed than this by the 

 use of arsenical solutions. 



NOTES ON EUMAEUS ATALA. 

 By E. A. SciiWARZ. 



By far the most conspicuous insect in semitropical Florida is Eumaeus. 

 atala, a butterfly which on account of its abundance and brilliancy 

 in coloration can not fail to attract at once the attention of the en- 



