155 



The house-fly is, in Chili, the same common and annoying companion of 

 man as elsewhere, and the question whether or not it existed before the 

 arrival of the Europeans will never be answered, ^tomoxi/s calcitrans 

 is rather scarce in Chili, and Dr. Pliili[)pi observed it first twenty years 

 ago ; it is not mentioned in Gay's work. 



With the introduction of domestic animals some of their insect para- 

 sites have also come to Chili. The sheep-tick {Melophagiis ovinus) was 

 introduced at a very early period, but the sheep gad-fly {Oestrus ovis) 

 exists in Chili only since about twenty-five years. (Estrus hovis, occa- 

 sionally introduced in breeding cattle, has hitherto not taken a firm 

 hold on Chilian soil. (Estrus equi and Rrpposboca equina have never 

 been found in the country nor has Chili any native species of that 

 family. The chicken and pigeon have also added their parasitic Acari 

 {Acarus gallince and Argas refiexus) to the Chilian fauna. 



The Eed Spider {Tetranyohus telarius) has become extremely numer- 

 ous and injurious in Chili, but it is interesting to note that in the south- 

 ern provinces, e. g., Valdivia, where rains are frequent and abundant, 

 this pest has never been found. Whether the Itch Mite [Acarus scabiei), 

 which is especially common on the island of Chiloe, is to be considered 

 as an endemic insect or as an importation by the Spaniards can never 

 be satisfactorily decided. 



We mentioned above that PMsia gamma and Blatta germanica are 

 considered by Dr. Philippi as endemic forms, and to those must be added 

 Ophion luteus and Acridium tesselatum, which according to Prof. Carlos 

 Berg is different from A. migratorium, a question which is, however, still 

 an open one. However that may be, any grasshopper damage in Chili 

 is never done by A. tesselatum, but by the much smaller (Edipoda cineras- 

 cens. But since more than forty years there was never any damage worth 

 mentioning done by grasshoppers, whereas still at the beginning of this 

 century such invasions took place several times in the vicinity of San- 

 tiago. But since that time the enormous increase of the cultivated area, 

 in consequence of the construction of numerous irrigation canals, has 

 forever prevented an undue multiplication of the grasshopper.. 



REMARKABLE ABUNDANCE OF THE CECROPIA SILK-WORM. 



Miss Clara E. Brown, of Calaway, Custer County, Nebr., writes to the 

 Commissioner of Agriculture, under date of October 5, sending speci- 

 mens of the Cecropia cocoon, and stating that the worms commit great 

 havoc among the timber claims of that section, and that the cocoons 

 are to be found in vast numbers this fall fastened to the limbs of the 

 trees. She also found them fastened to a bush which they call the 

 " Shoestring" {Amorpha canescens) in that country. Her object in send- 

 ing was to see whether they could be made of any commercial value, 

 but, as is well known, the difficulty in reeling the silk prevents this. 



