118 
but there is no evidence that they were reared from live beetles, and it 
is hardly possible that they were. This species has been reared, accord- 
ing to Aldrich (2), from decaying meat. 
FANNIA CANICULARIS Linn. 
This interesting little fly, frequently found in houses and therefore 
termed the little house-fly, was reared from a female Phyllophaga 
vehemens obtained by J. M. Langston at Greenwood, Miss. The live 
beetles were collected April 24, 1915, and received at the Lafayette 
Laboratory April 28. The cage was examined May 4, at which time the 
dead beetles were discarded, and when again examined, May 28, one 
beetle was found to contain a dipterous puparium, the adult fly, de- 
termined by Dr. Aldrich as F. canicularis, issuing July 20 of the same 
year. ‘This species is only known to breed in decaying vegetable matter, 
dead insects, or animal excreta, and there is reasonable doubt as to 
whether it is sometimes a true parasite, or purely a scavenger as we have 
assumed. 
SpipEeRS as HEINEMIES OF May-BEETLES 
Although not generally active enemies, several species of spiders 
have been seen attacking live May-beetles at night. Most frequently 
the grubs are caught in the webs and are there taken by the spider, but 
the writer has seen one case of a truly predaceous attack. While col- 
lecting beetles from trees at Lafayette, Ind, May 20, 1912, an adult 
Phyllophaga implicita was seen to alight on a peach tree about dusk 
(7:45 p. m.), and several minutes later, after it had begun to feed, it 
was seized by a spider, determined by Dr. Nathan Banks as Lycosa 
helluo Wakeman. 
Another spider, Xysticus gulosus Keys (Banks det.), with a cap- 
tured P. futilis, was taken at Lafayette, Ind., May 12, 1915, by Mr. 
A. F. Satterthwait, of the Bureau of Entomology. 
At Princeton, Ind., June 29, 1916, while collecting May-beetles 
from trees, a number of spiders, all ot the same species and determined 
by Nathan Banks as Plectana stellata Hentz (Pl. XI, Fig. 46, 47), were 
observed attacking May-beetles (P. implicita) which had been caught 
in the webs, and the same spider was seen attacking May-beetles in a 
similar manner at Lafayette, Ind. Mr. G. G. Ainslie found an adult of 
P. fusca in the web of this spider at Knoxville, Tenn., and the writer 
saw an adult P. congrua attacked and killed by the same species at New 
Orleans, La. 
Diseases of the larva 
A Nematove Diszase 
A new white-grub disease, caused by nematodes, appeared in bene- 
ficial abundance in the vicinity of Lancaster, Wis., during the late 
summer and fall of 1915, but although many other localities where grubs 
were abundant were visited and a special search was made, the new 
