286 REPORT UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



Fig. 21.— Anthomyia Egg-paeasite.— a, fly ; 5, pupa; c, larva from 

 side ; d, head of same from above — all enlarged. (Alter E.iley.) 



worms," &c., as the cause of the non-hatching of eggs ( App. 18), and the 

 following extracts have reference to the work of the same : 



Recently a white worm or maggot has been discovered in the locust eggs laid in this 

 vicinity, and so general are the grubs that we really look for a great diminution in 



next year's locust crop. About 

 the time the 'hoppers began 

 laying eggs we had a hard, 

 soaking rain, and since then 

 we have had teveral raore — 

 the latt this morning. By 

 this time the ground is well 

 soaked with water and the 

 eggs were and are laid in 

 earth that is quite moist. It 

 is about two weeks since the 

 'hoppers first reached Man- 

 kato ; they have laid many 

 eggs, and already this worm 

 or maggot has developed and 

 seems to be on the increase, 

 being found in the egg cells, 

 where it sucks or destroys the eg^. Some cells that I have opened have had two and 

 three worms in them. — [J. C. Wise, Mankato, Minn., August 20, 1876. 



On the 9th I sent you a box of locust-egg parasites, and to-day I will send you some 

 more of different sorts or different stages of development, or both. I find them more 

 plentiful to-day than before. The ground seems to be full of them, from five to twenty 

 of the small white worms in a single cell, one generally, though sometimes two, of the 

 large white ones in a cell. • The reddish-colored ones, I suppose, are in a different stage 

 of development, though the same parasite. In every cell in which I have found any 

 of those sent you, the eggs were nearly or quite destroyed. But there is another and 

 a far more destructive enemy, viz, the hot sun, which is hatching them out by the 

 million, though the parasites may continue their work after it ceases to operate. I 

 shall be happy to do all I can to aid you in your investigations. — [C. E. Tread well, 

 Eockport, Atchison County, October 16, 1876. 



Yesterday we discovered on a warm southern exposure that our locust eggs were 

 hatching out maggots. We break open the cocoons, and the eggs on exposure to the 

 sun for a few moments crawl away a worm. In warm places along the hedges the 

 earth is alive with them. Is this a new development of the locust question? It 

 would seem to be a confirmation of the theory you promulgated, as I understood it at 

 the time. I secured a few of the perfect cocoons, which I inclose for your examina- 

 tion. We suppose these will do as the others do upon exposure to the sun. 



The people here are quite excited over the matter, hoping it may be a solution of the 

 problem for next year, at least, and have deputed me to lay the matter before you. 

 Any information you can give us in regard to this, our latest, development will be 

 thankfully received and acknowledged. — [S. M. Pratt, M. D., Hiawatha, Brown County, 

 Kansas, October 30, 1876. 



Various reports have been circulated in regard to the destruction of the eggs of the 

 Rocky Mountain locust (Caloptenus spretus) by a worm. I am happy to state that 

 these reports were substantiated yesterday by Mr. McLockhead, of Deer Creek, Kana- 

 waka, twelve miles west of this city, who brought me a box of earth in which the 

 eggs of the "hoj^per" had been abundantly deposited. To-day a similar box was 

 secured from W. B. Barnett, esq., of Hiawatha, Brown County. In both of these in- 

 stances a large proportion of the eggs have been destroyed by a small, white larva. 

 Many of the egg-cases, which ordinarily each contain from twenty to thirty eggs, had 



