No. 115.] 135 



they are procurable, applied at the latter part of winter or early- 

 spring, and plowed in, should serve to rid the soil of their presence. 

 There is good reason to believe that salt, if used in sufficient 

 quantity — several hundred' pounds to the acre — would act as a 

 preventive of attack, by making the tuber distasteful for food, as 

 does a tablespoon ful of the material spread over a hill of corn after 

 planting render the roots distasteful to the white grub. How the 

 salt could be used so as to act the most effectively, must needs be 

 learned by experiment. A liberal handful of it might be sprinkled 

 over each hill after planting, to be washed in by rain, and enter 

 into the circulation of the plant. Successive and larger applica- 

 tions would have to be made later in the season, and especially 

 at about the time when the attack commences, which might be 

 ascertained by opening a few hills. Perhaps, too, the foliage of 

 salted plants might not be agreeable to the Colorado potato beetle, 

 the blister beetle, the flea beetle, and other foliage eaters, and the 

 two or three species of stalk borers. Experiments in this direction 

 are desirable. 



NOTES ON VARIOUS INSECTS. 



Microgaster pieridis. — Some larvae of Pier is rapce collected 

 at West Albany, N. Y., on the ninth of October, gave on the 

 thirteenth of the same month clusters of the yellow cocoon of 

 Microgaster pieridis, spun in each instance alongside of the larva, 

 but detached from it. 



Habits of Wasps. — Mr. C. R. Moore, of Johnson Town, Va., 

 states that he has seen the common brown wasp [fPolistes fuscatus~\ 

 seize the green worms on cabbage [fPieris rapce], sting them 

 repeatedly and then carry them away. 



He further states, that after a number of dead katydids [Platy- 

 phyllus concavus~] had been drawn up by the bucket from a well 

 in his vicinity, a " mud-dauber" [probably Pelopceus coeruleus] was 

 frequently seen to fly to the well with a katydid and drop it in. 



Gortyna nitela Guenee. — Mr. E. G. Fowler, of the Orange 

 County Farmer, Port Jervis, N. Y., sends, through Dr. Sturtevant, 

 stems of tomato burrowed by a larva which I identify as that of 

 Gortyna nitela. The larva is quite young, only about three- 

 eignths inch in length, but showing plainly its characteristic 



