INSECT NOT IiS. 365 



Lophyrus abietis. 

 Spruce Sawfly. Lot 323. "All the fir trees in this vicinity 

 are dying" was the complaint which accompanied large sendings 

 of cocoons of the spruce sawfly from Orrs Island and some 

 other localities this season. The sawflies emerged about Sep- 

 tember 9, 1908. This is a well nigh impossible pest to fight in 

 the woodland and the very serious trouble of this season added 

 to last season's attack by the same species is rendered a little 

 more hopeful by the fact that parasites emerged this spring from 

 cocoons which were received from Seeket last year. The attack 

 seems to have been more general upon the fir than the spruce. 



Hymenopterous parasites. 



Tiphia inornata, Lot 228, parasitic upon the white grub, 

 were very numerous. Cocoons of these beneficial insects were 

 received from South Thomaston, April 30, with the statement 

 "I am planting new ground to potatoes and find an unusual 

 quantity of the enclosed." 



Chelonus sp. were bred from the tiny spruce tortrix, Argyro- 

 ploce abietana Fernald. Ichneumon sublatus bred from the 

 saddled prominent, was noticeable in woodlands all over the 

 State. At Norridgewock as many as 10 or 12 were frequently 

 to be found resting upon a single plant, about the first of 

 August. At Mercer, August 3, one of these parasites was 

 observed to be sipping honey-dew globules from a poplar leaf 

 when an ant about one-third its size rushed at it and the Ichneu- 

 mon took to its wings in haste. This comedy was repeated sev- 

 eral times, as the Ichneumon would return to the feast of the 

 honey-dew. 



Pimpla pedalis also emerged from pupae of the saddled prom- 

 inent this spring. 



As for parasites in general they were so abundant this season 

 as to seem a prediction of fewer caterpillars another year. 



Grasshoppers. 

 As was the case last year grasshoppers have been seriously 

 troublesome this season. The red-legged locust, Melanophus 

 femur-rubrum and M. bivittatus were guilty of most of the 

 mischief, though the grasshopper kind in general were numer- 

 ous and industrious. Among the other grasshoppers collected 



