﻿OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 93 



(ante, pp. 68, 72.) and the following items will serve as samples of 

 many others that referred to the same parasite : 



Recently a white worm or mao-got has been discovered in the locust ego's laid in 

 this vicinity, and so generally are the grnbs that we really look for a great diminution 

 in next year's locust crop. About the time the hoppers began laying eggs we had a 

 hard, soaking rain, and since then we have had several more — the last this morning. 

 By this time the ground is well soaked with water and the eggs were and are laid in 

 earth that is quite moist. It is about two weeks since the hoppers first reached Man- 

 kato, they have laid many eggs, and already this worm or maggot has developed and 

 seems to be on the increase, being found in the egg cells, where it sucks or destroys 

 the egg. Some cells tiiat I have opened have had two and three vvorms in them. — 

 [From a letter from J. C. Wise, Mankato, Minn., August 20, 1877. 



On the ninth [ sent you a box of locust egg parasites, and to-day I will send you 

 some more of different sort-: or diB'erent stages of development or both. I find them 

 more plentiful to-day than before. The ground seems to be full of them from 5 to 20 

 of the small white worms in a single cell, one generally, though sometimes two of the 

 large white ones in a cell. The reddish covered ones 1 suppose are in a different stage 

 of development, though the same parasite. In every cell in which I have found any 

 of those sent you the eggs were nearly or quite destroyed. But there is another, and 

 a far more destructive enemy, viz: the hoc sun, which is hatching them out by the 

 million, though the parasites may continue their work after it ceases to operate. I 

 shall be happy to do all I can to aid yon in your investigations — [Letter from C. E. 

 Treadwell, Kockport, Atchison county, October 16, 1876. 



Yesterday we discovered on a warm southern exposure that our locust eggs were 

 hatching out maggots. We break open the cocoons and the eggs on exposure to the 

 sun for a few moments crawl away a worm. In warm places along the hedges the 

 earth is alive with them. Is this a new development of the locust question ? It would 

 seem to be a confirmation of the theory you promulgated, as I understood it, at the 

 time. I secured a few of the perfect cocoons which I enclose for your examination. 

 We suppose these will do as the others do upon exposure to the sun. 



The people here are quite excited over the matter, hoping it may be a solution of 

 the problem for next year, atleast, and have deputed me to lay the matter before you. 

 Any information you can give us in regard to this our latest development, will be 

 thankfully received and acknowledged— [Letter from S. M. Pratt, M. D., Hiawatha, 

 Brown county, Kansas, October 30, 1876. 



Various reports have been circulated in regard to the destruction of the eggs of the 

 Rocky Mountain Locust (Caloptenus spretus) by a worm. I am happy to state that 

 these reports were substantiated yesterday by Mr. McLockhead of Deer Creek, Kana- 

 waka, twelve miles west of this city, who brought me a box of earth in which the eggs 

 of the "hopper" had been abundantly deposited. To-day a similar box was secured 

 from W. B. Barnett, Esq , of Hiawatha, Brown county. In both of these instances a 

 large proportion of the eggs have been destroyed by a small, white larvie. Many of 

 the egg-cases, which ordinarily each contain from twenty to thirty eggs, had no eggs 

 in them, but were full of these woims or larvae, each one of which took^the place of an 

 egg which it had destroyed. Some of the egg-cases contained only two or three larvae 

 with more than twenty sound eggs. I consider these to be the larvne of a parasitic 

 Hymenopterous insect [it was subsequently verified as the Antliomyia under considera- 

 tion] which I hope to obtain in the winged or perfect state, if I succeed in carrying 

 them safely through their transformation— [Prof. F. H. Snow, in Lawrence (Ivansas) 

 Journal, November 1, 1876. 



This good little friend, which simultaneously prevailed over so 

 large an extent of country, is a small white maggot, (Fig. 23, c) of the 

 same general form of the common meat maggots or " gentiles," but 

 measuring, when full grown and extended, not quite ^ of an inch in 

 length. The head, with some of the anterior joints of the body, 

 tapery and is retractile, and the jaws consist of two small hooks 

 joined to a V-shaped, black, horny piece which, as it is retracted or 

 extended, plays beneath the transparent skin. The hind or tail end 



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