373 



states that he had receutly received specimens of injured grass from 

 Emmett, Ohio, and also from Union Springs, N. Y., but was liimself 

 unable to determine the nature of the depredator. In one of the stems 

 of grass sent from Union Springs he found some globular, transparent, 

 rather large eggs, which had been placed under the sheath near the 

 joint. These eggs hatched lepidopterous larvte, which fed within sec- 

 tions of grass stems with which the professor supplied them, but did 

 not reach maturity. 



In his review of this notice, Prof. J. H. Comstock, in the American 

 Naturalist, vol. 22, No. 255, page 200, stated that he had, thirteen years 

 previous, published a notice on the subject, giving an account of the 

 depredations of a species of Thrips, Limothrips poaphagus MS., the de- 

 scription of which he had never published. 



Professor Comstock states {loc. cit.) that the young insect pierces the 

 stem of the grass, just above the upper joint, causing it to shrink, and all 

 parts above the injury to die. He also says that the insect obtains its 

 growth under the sheath, at the point stated, after which it crawls forth, 

 and can be swept from the grass in great numbers. He further states 

 that it occurs first, each season, on the Blue-grass, which it injures the 

 most severely, and later on Timothy and other grasses. He has not, 

 however, been able to complete the life-history of this interesting insect. 



In the Thirteenth Report of the State Entomologist of Illinois, Prof. 

 S. A. Forbes, in a foot note on page 22, calls attention to this injury to 

 the stems of Blue- grass and Timothy, stating that, judging from the ap- 

 pearance of a single pupa, found by him under the sheath outside the 

 stem of Timothy, the injury to the grass was not due to Meromyza amer- 

 *crtnrt,but that the pupa found by him belonged to a species of Chlorops; 

 but he was unable to say to what extent the species figured in the in- 

 jury to the two grasses named. 



In his report as Entomologist to the Department of Agriculture of Can- 

 ada for 1885, p. 11, Mr. James Fletcher devotes considerable space to the 

 discussion of similar injuries to both Blue-grass and Timothy, giving re- 

 ports from a number of his correspondents showing that the damage 

 there is quite a serious matter. The major portion of Mr. Fletcher's 

 correspondents appeared to attribute the injury to the work of the Joint 

 Worm, but a Mr. Brodie, of Toronto, had found the larviie of a fly 

 (Chlorops) doing much harm in several townships in the county of On- 

 tario. 



In his report as Entomologist of the Dominion Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Farms for 1888 the same gentleman again refers to the subject, and 

 reaches the following conclusion: 



Now, from the above observations and some others mentioned below, made by 

 trained entomologists, it is perfectly certain that there are injuries to grasses by dif- 

 ferent insects, the effects of which are very similar in appearance, and all of which 

 ■would be classed under the head of " Silver-top," but for each of which a different 

 treatment might be necessary. 



25068— No. 12 2 



