170 KEPORT UPON COTTON INSECTS. 



When newly hatched, the young soldier-bugs may be frequently found 

 m the curl of the common elm-leaf plant-louse (Schizoneura Americana), 

 and also the common apple aphis (Aphis mali), busily engaged in de- 

 vouring the lice ; and it is more than probable that in the 

 cotton fields they will be found preying upon the cotton - 

 louse (Aphis gossypii). The full-grown insect is shown at 

 T /"*^^"\ ^*' ^' -ft i s brownish in color, with a reddish stripe 

 r\^K/" f l wn tue back of the abdomen. The front legs are greatly 



) OB 4 enlarged and powerfully spined, enabling the insect to hold 

 its struggling prey. From these spines, and those upon 

 FIG. ifi. Sinea the head, it has gained its scientific name, Multispinosa. 

 multispinosa. In action to tnese nve hemipterous insects, many speci- 

 mens of a small black and red bug were many times seen about the pupae 

 of Aletia, and were often found within the loose cocoons. Although they 

 were never actually observed to kill the chrysalides, their presence looks 

 suspicious, especially as upon examination their beaks were found to be of 

 the short, broad, predaceous type. All of the specimens forwarded to the 

 department were of immature individuals, from which it was impossible 

 to ascertain the species. They were flat, nearly round, a trifle over one- 

 tenth of an inch (3 mm ) in length. The head and thorax were black ; the 

 abdomen had a broad red band around near the margin, and three nar- 

 row transverse white bands. 



Although we have several parasites on the cotton-worm belonging to 

 the next order, DIPTERA, the only predaceous insects from this order are 

 the Asilus flies. 



ASILUS-FLIES OR ROBBER-FLIES (Dipt. fam. Asiliidae.) The large 

 buzzing fly with long slender abdomen, and thick hairy throat, is a 

 familiar sight in the cotton field to the observing planter. A popular 

 name was never more appropriately applied than that of robber-flies 

 (" rpulfliegen"), given to these flies by the Germans. They are amoug 

 the most rapacious of insects ; but not only are they as indiscriui mat- 

 ing as other predaceous insects, but some species seem actually to prefer 

 beneficial insects as a steady diet. There is almost no enemy which the 

 apiarist fears more than these " bee-killers," as some species are termed. 

 Dr. Fitch has written a very interesting account of these insects, from 

 which we take the following * : 



These ilies are inhuman murderers. They are the savages of the insect world, put- 

 ting their captives to death with merciless cruelty. Their large eyes, divided into 

 such a multitude of facets, probably give them the most acute and accurate vision 

 for espying and seizing their prey ; and their long stout legs, their bearded and bristly 

 head, their whole aspect indicates them to bo of a predatory and ferocious character. 

 Like the hawk, they swoop upon their prey, and, grasping it securely between their 

 fore feet, they violently bear it away. They have no teeth and jaws wherewith to 

 bite, gnaw, and masticate their food, but are furnished instead with an apparatus 

 \vhich answers them equally well for nourishing themselves. It is well known what 

 maddening pain the horseflies occasion to horses and cattle in wounding them and 

 sucking their blood. These Asilus-flics possess similar organs, but larger and more 



* Fitch's Noxious Insects of New York, IX, 255. 



