514 General Notes. [June, 



been eaten away. Eaily in the fall I found them in cornfields 

 eating the crowns of kernels or ears that had blown to the 

 ground, something I had always before attributed to mice. 



The same insect has annoyed farmers considerably in another 

 manner. Much of the harvesting is done with self-binding har- 

 vesting machines, using cord for binding. Judge of the surprise 

 and chagrin of the farmer when on drawing in his stacks of grain, 

 to find instead of compact bound sheaves only a mass of unbound 

 grain, the bands of cord having been cut in many places by the 

 crickets. Also I noticed numbers of our common black blister-bee- 

 tle (Epicauta pennsylvanica) denuding the ears of corn of the silk 

 before the kernel had been fecundated, thereby either partially or 

 wholly destroying the ear. I have also found Diabrotica fossata 

 Lee, which usually feeds upon the pollen of the flowers of the 

 Composite, fare by eating the pollen of corn. 



Its near relative, D.longic rnu Say, which I fear is to be the 

 future pest of the cornfield, I found feeding upon both silk and 

 kernel ; one individual had excavated nearly the whole interior 

 of a kernel, and was still at work, being so far advanced into the 

 interior as to leave only the tip of its abdomen visible. I had 

 supposed the insect relied upon the flowers of thistle and some of 

 the Composite for its food, but now think were all of these taken 

 awav it would find abundant sustenance in the cornfield itself.— 

 F M. Webster, Waterman, Ills. 



Habits of Cybocephalus.— There is nothing recorded, to our 

 knowledge, concerning the habits of this little Nitidulid genus, 

 distinguished by its peculiar appearance from the allied genera. 

 In the summer of 1881 we received from Dr. J. H. Mellichamp 

 of Bluffton, S. C, several twigs of Finns clliottii, the leaves of 

 which were covered with a Coccid, ( 'hi :■■■■ - < ~ . ' >li<s Fitch. We 

 kept these twigs in a jar in the hope of obtaining Chalcid para- 

 sites from the scales and were rewarded by the appearance of 

 several specimens of Cy lus Lee. We had then 



every reason to suspect that this little beetle, either as larva, or 

 imago, or in both states, was feeding upon the scales. Our pre- 

 sumption has been lately corroborated by receiving numerous 

 specimens of C. califomicus Horn, sent by Mrs. A. E. Hush from 

 San Jose, California, with tin: remark that they were found on an 

 apple twig badly infested by a scale insect 



One Effect of the Mississippi Floods.— Few evils are with- 

 out their compensating benefit The planters of the Teche 

 country will, in all probability, be free for a number of years frcHn 

 the attacks of a beetle (Ligyrus rugiccps) which has of late years 

 proved very destructive to the sugar cane there. It will undoubt- 

 edly have been drowned out by the months of submersion which 

 the fields of the infested region have suffered. Late reports in- 

 dicate that even the stubble has become spoiled, and that little, it 



