61 



the following quotation is from a letter received by Mr. Webster in re- 

 ply to inquiries which he had made: 



"I had a nephew by the name of L. H. Stokes; I suppose he wa» 

 thirty five or forty years old and a man of family. He lived near the 

 Hatchie River — I think it was near Hening Station ; the year I have 

 forgotten, but think it was about 5 or 6 years since. It seemS from 

 what I could learn that Stokes, in company with a party, went fisbing 

 and crossed over onto an island. The gnats were bad, and the party 

 kept leaving. All were scattered on the island. Finally, in leaving, it 

 seems they left my nephew over there. It rained and put out the fire (it 

 was cold and the smoke was some protection from the gnats); he had no 

 matches, so he went to where they left the boat, and found his company 

 had all gone and taken away the boat. He could not swim, so he was left 

 to the mercy of the gnats. He fought till near night before he could make 

 any one hear him. After they came and took him over he went home 

 and suffered considerably, and before day he died. I never learned the 

 doctor's name, as my sister objected to the marriage of her son, which 

 caused a coolness, so he moved off, and we did not know it until sev- 

 eral days after his death. This is all I can tell you about it. There is 

 no doubt but that the Bufifalo-gnats killed him. I learn that he was 

 very much swollen. He has a brother living near Chestnut Bluff" named 

 Clinton Stokes, but I do not think he could give you any information. 

 You ask what part of the body was bitten. I can not tell this, but think 

 it was his hands, arms, face, neck, etc. — A. E. Buck. 



NEW EUROPEAN NATURAL ENEMIES OF THE ASPARAGUS BEETLE.^ 



H. Lucas, in the Annales de la Societe Entomologique de France, 1st 

 part for 1888, just published, announces that he has discovered two new 

 natural enemies of Grioceris asparagi in the vicinity of Huppain. One 

 is the Heteropter Calocoris chenopodii, which he discovered in the act 

 of sucking a larva, while the other is of much more importance and is 

 nothing less than an internal Tachinid parasite, viz, Myobia piimila. 

 This species has long been known in Europe and was first described by 

 Macquart in 1854. Mr. Lucas observed these files abundantly through- 

 out the asparagus beds, but did not suspect that they were parasites of 

 the larva of the Asparagus Beetle. While searching, however, for the 

 pupa of the Grioceris he found in the earth under the young plants a 

 large number of larval skins, which had near the head, and sometimes 

 also at the other end of the body, large openings. He took a dozen full- 

 grown larv86 and placed them in a box (this was in July, 1887), and 

 upon his return to Paris, about the middle of August, he found that 

 several of the Tachinid flies had emerged, having undergone their trans- 

 formation to pupa and to fly within the skin of the Grioceris larvae. 

 From observations which he made it seems that the fly frequently 

 emerges from the larva before the latter has descended to the ground. 



