﻿92 



NINTH ANNUAL REPORT 



suminof the eo-gs. * * * I am aware that two years ao^o this parasite was found 

 working npon the eggs at Madelia and other places, but here we have the remedy al- 

 most as soon as the eggs are laid, while in the former instances the parasite was only 

 discovered in the Spriaor. — [Letter from Ex-G-ov. Stephen Miller, written from Win- 

 dom, Minn,, Aug. 15, 1S7G. 



We send herewith a box of grasshopper eggs, together with the '■ silky mite," of 

 which so much has been said. You can see a sample of the work they are doing. They 

 are over the ground and in it wherever eggs have been laid They suck the eggs, 

 leaving the bare shell. We have talked with farmers from all parts of the county, and 

 they all tell the same story — not a cell to be found that is not partially or wholly de- 

 stroyed. 



We have personally inspected them in more than twenty different places, and are 

 satistied that in this county the eggs gf the festive G-. H. are a '■ total wreck." Allow 

 us to suggest that you call for a report from every county in the State that has been 

 infested by them. — [Letter to Pioneer Press and Tribune, from Bell & Gruelle, Worthing- 

 ton, Nobles Co., Minn., Aug. l(i, 187(5. 



I send, enclosed in a circular tin box, mailed with this, some dirt containing grass- 

 hopper's eggs, and also the red mite or spider that sucks them, as you will perceive on 

 examination. I tru^t they will be received in good order. I send them at the request 

 of A. Whitman, of St. Paul, of this State, with whom 1 am corresponding sometimes 

 on this grasshopper matter. — [Letter from R. B. Potts, U. S. N , Worthington, Minn., 

 August 18, 187(j, 



Up to the past autumn the Silky Mite was the only parasite that 

 was known to attack the eggs of our locust, though a small Chalcid- 

 fly* had been bred by Mr. 8. H. Scudder, from those of the Carolina 

 Locust, a large species with blue and black hind wings ; and two Ich- 

 neumon-flies were known to attack locust eggs in Europe. The present 

 year live new insect enemies have been found attacking these eggs 

 almost everywhere throughout the infested country, and these I will 

 proceed to describe. 



The Anthomyia Egg Parasite, {AntJiomyia radicum^ var. calop- 



teni.) — This is by far the most wide-spread and generally useful of the 



[Fig. 23-1 different egg enemies. It 



has occurred in Minneso- 

 ta, Iowa, Nebraska, Kan- 

 sas, Missouri and Texas, 

 and wherever I have ex- 

 amined the locust eggs, 

 whether in Missouri, Kan- 

 sas or Nebraska, I have 

 found it destroying on an 

 /^ "[r^l" average about ten per 

 -^"' cent, of them. It is the 

 ^ „ , , , enemy referred to by Mr. 



Anthomyia Egg-Pakasite:— a, fly; b, pupa; c, larva from 

 side; d, head of same from above-enlarged. Jno. D. Dopf, of AtchisOn, 



and by Mr. J. D. White, of Holt county, in the reports from Missouri, 



•a similar, if not the same Chalcid, infe.sts the eggs of sprf/t/s, for Mr Potts has sent me egg- 

 masses in which every egg had a Chalcid pui)a. Unfortunately? tliey were too drywhen received to 

 permit of rearing the imago. 



