98 



about ten minutes. The forelegs were used to hold the plant-louse, which was 

 devoured, legs and all. While feeding, the antennjie of the cricket w ere held erect, 

 and while searching for lice they were helil horizontal. A single individual was 

 seen to destroy nearly forty plant-lice. 



A Food of Robber-Fly Larvae. — The Mr. Eaton referred to in the last note, has 

 found the larva' of a ro])l)er fly feeding upon white grubs (larva? of Lachnosterna). 

 A Tacbina Parasite of May Beetles. — Mr. Eaton has also found the puparium 

 of a Tachina fly l)eneath the empty carapace of a May beetle {Lachnosterna sp. ) 

 which it had evidently destroyed before it issued from the ground. Tachina eggs 

 have Ijeen found by the writer attached to the thorax of Lachnosterna, but no better 

 proof of this parasitism is upon record. 



Strange Habits of a Tropical Cricket in South. Carolina. — 3Iay 14, 1903, Mr. 

 Harry Hammond, Beech Island, S. C., sent specimens of a cricket, Anurogryllu?- 

 nmticus DeGeer, with accompanying information that the insects make holes in 

 cotton fields to the depth of 18 inches, which they line with shreds of cotton leaves, 

 destroying the young cotton for several feet in the row in accomplishing this. Until 

 the discovery of these crickets it was surmised that the damage was entirely due to 

 cutworms, some species of which have the habit of dragging vegetation into holes in 

 the ground. The young of the cricket were found in these holes in June, and the 

 insect lives in cornfiel<ls and in fields lying fallow, as also in cotton fields. The 

 species in question is tropical and a native of the West Indies, Central and South 

 America. It does not appear to have been recorded as occurring in America north 

 of ^Mexico, and nothing appears in regard to its habits. 



Hydrocyanic-acid Gas for the Destruction of Mealy-Bugs. — ]Mr. John L. 

 Chapman, Bradley Hill, Hingham, 3Iass., wrote Novem])er 27, 1903, that, in accord- 

 ance with directions furnished in Circular No. 37, of this Office, he had killed mealy 

 bugs on gi-apevines by an exposure of onh^ two hours, the gas being used at the rate of 

 1 ounce to 300 cubic feet of space. The day following exposure he Avas miable to find a 

 single mealy-l:)ug on the \-ines or leaves of the plants exposed to the gas, but the eggs 

 ap])eared to l)e intact, which would of coursf necessitate another fumigation. 



Kerosene as a Remedy for the Clover Mite.— Under date of May 4, 1903, Mrs. 

 Mary E. Burrell, Freeport, 111., writes that kerosene has proved effective in her 

 experience in ridding her house of the clover mite {Bnjohia pratensix) . She used it 

 without dilution, dipping a cloth and without wringing wiping the sill and lower edge 

 of the window sash, also leaving what adhered to the glass on rubbing it over, for an 

 hour or more. Three applications were sufficient to rid the house of the pest. 



Carnivorous Habits of Polystachotes pHndatus Drury. — A specimen of this 

 species of HemeroljiitUe was sent to the Division of Entomology by Mr. Henry Tal- 

 bott, of Washington, who had found it on a fishing excursion in the northern States. 

 The specimen was still living, while the wings of three of its companions, which had 

 been placed in a box together with it, were all that remained of them. The bodies, 

 heads, and nearly every portion of the others had been destroyed, including even 

 portions of the wings. The living specimen was not much damaged. 



A Mite in Sugar Withstanding- Severe Cold Weather. — During January, 1904, 

 Mrs. Eva Bashaw, INIankato, ]\Iinn., sent a species of Tyroglyphus found in brown 

 sugar and dried fruit, with report that it was able to withstand freezing. At our sug- 

 gestion the matter was tested. A jsaper sack of sugar containing numerous individuals 

 of the insect was left out of doors over night with the thermometer at 8° below zero. 

 It was again put out for three days subject to about the same exposure, and when 

 heat was applied the insects began to crawl about. 



A Mushroom-Infesting Mite. — Tyroglyphus lintneriOsh., an account of which, 

 with Osborn's illustrations, is given on pages 452 and 453 of Lintner's Tenth Report, 

 was identified 1)y J\Ir. Banks in connection with injury to young mushrooms picked 



