90 [Assembly, 



discovered in inconsiderable numbers on wheat heads in Minerva, 

 Ohio, which " take a portion of the grains out of the heads that 

 they attack." 



The same larva was reported by W. S. Chamberlain, secretary 

 of the Ohio State Board of Agriculture, as occurring on wheat at 

 Columbus. No mention was made of its severing the heads. 

 An example of the larva was sent to Washington, but from 

 the condition in which it was received it could only be identified 

 at Washington as one of the Tenthridinince, none of which at that 

 time had been recorded as injuring wheat in this country. 



The Red-humped Apple-tree Caterpillar and Parasite. 



From Mr. G. W. Duvall, of Annapolis, Md., some caterpillars 

 were received July first which were infesting his apple trees at 

 that date, and had also been injurious the preceding year. 



They are of the species known as the red-humped apple-tree 

 caterpillar, or (Edemasia eoncinna (Sm.-Abb.). They have a 

 prominent red hump on the top of the fourth segment ; the head 

 is coral- red, the body is striped in yellow, black, and white lines 

 and bears above two rows of short, black spines and shorter ones 

 upon the sides. The hind end is elevated in walking. The cat- 

 erpillars usually congregate on a single limb, and are sometimes 

 quite destructive, particularly to small trees. 



The specimens sent presented a very curious appearance. Each 

 had been preyed upon by a parasite, which had eaten out 

 the entire contents of the caterpillar and had used the outer skin 

 for its cocoon. The cocoons were seen as white oval forms, between 

 three and four-tenths of an inch long, impressed with six or eight 

 more conspicuous rings (the larval segments), each of which is ringed 

 with a row of short, black .spines. The head of the larva, now 

 changed to shining black, marks one end of the cocoon and the 

 black terminal prolegs the other. The parasite, which is a small 

 wasp-like creature, with yellow legs and the tibial joint of the 

 hinder pair banded with black and white, eats its way out of the 

 cocoon through a large round hole invariably placed near the 

 larval head. Altogether it is one of the most peculiar looking 

 cocoons that we have met with in the large family of 

 Ichneumonidce. The parasite is known as Limneria fugitiva (Say). 



