62 



No one seems to have noticed this habit of the Myobia before, and, 

 judging from Mr. Lucas's experience, it seems to have been so common 

 in the locality where he observed it as to be an important factor in reg- 

 ulating the numbers of the Asparagus Beetle. Up to the present time 

 not a single natural enemy of this insect has been discovered in Amer- 

 ica, although it is annually doing a great deal of damage from Long 

 Island to Virginia and for some little distance inland. It ought not to 

 be a difQcult thing at the proper season of the year to import this para- 

 site from France, and we shall be greatly pleased if our friend, M.Lucas, 

 will assist us by sending material. No species of Myobia are now known 

 in this country. 



CONCERNING THE UJI PARASITE OF THE SILK-WORM. 



Prof. C. Sasaki's admirable paper upon the biology of the celebrated 

 silk-worm parasite of Japan has already been noticed in this country in 

 a recent number of the American Naturalist, and hence does not require 

 further notice here. We may state, however, that we have received spec- 

 imens of the parasite from Professor Sasaki direct. Our object in men- 

 tioning the paper at this time is to call attention to the fact that Mr. J. M. 

 F. Bigot, in the Annales for 1888 (Bulletin, page XXXIX) states that after 

 a careful examination of the plate he has is decidedly of the opinion 

 that Rondani's provisional erection of the genus TJjimyia for this species 

 was unnecessary and that it really is nothing but a species of the 

 Tachinid genus XesA:^a of Robineau-Desvoidy (1830). Mr. Bigot's de- 

 termination of this fact is extremely interesting because from his stand- 

 ing as a dipterologist there can be but little doubt as to the accuracy 

 of this conclusion and principally because there are two European 

 species of the genus LesMa^ viz, L. aurea and L. bicolor, and there will 

 therefore be opportunity in Europe to verify the abnormal point in the 

 life history of the Uji ily brought out by Mr. Sasaki, which is to the 

 effect that the eggs are not laid upon the silkworms, as is the custom 

 with other Tachinids, but are laid upon the mulberry leaves and are 

 hatched after they have been eaten by the silk-w orms. We are not 

 aware whether the habits of the European species are known, but if 

 they are at all common it ought to be not a difficult matter to ascertain 

 their habits and to compare them with those of Leskia sericaria, as the 

 Uji fly must now be called. 



Our faith in the unity of habit in the same family would make us 

 somewhat skeptical of the accuracy of Sasaki's observations, notwith- 

 standing the high character of the work as a whole. 



