9 1 6 General Notes. [ November, 



attention by the injury caused by them as perfect insects. They 

 are as follows : Epicceriu> , - >' s\ a very general feeder; Pach- 

 nmis opctlus and irtip s Widanus, both injurious to the orange 

 tree. Of a few other species we know the food-plants: thus 

 Ncoptochus adspersus feeds on oak ; Pachnmts distant on oak 

 and pine; Brachyst 'us acutus is only found on persimmon; 

 Aphrastus tmniatus lives on paw-paw (but not exclusively) ; Eu- 

 diagogus pulcher and resensch ■ '■ 7 defoliate the coffee-weeds (Cas- 

 sia occidentalis and other species of the same genus). Two very 

 common species, Pandeleteius Maris and Tanymecus confertus ap- 

 pear to be polyphagous, without preference for any particular 

 plant. Very recently the habits of another species, Anametis 

 grisea Horn, were brought to our knowledge by Mr. Geo. P. 

 Peffer, of Pewaukee, Wis., who sent us specimens of the beetle 

 accompanied by the following communication : " The larger 

 Curculio I send you is working around the roots of apple and 

 pear trees, near the surface of the ground or around the union 

 where grafts are set. I found fifteen of the larvae on a small tree 

 one and a-half inches in diameter. The beetle seems to lay its 

 eggs just where the bark commences to be soft, near or partly 

 under the ground. The larva eats the bark only, but they are so 

 numerous as to girdle the tree entirely in a short time." — C. V. 

 Riley. 



BOMBYLHD LARWE DESTROYING LOCUST EGGS IN ASIA MlNOR.— 

 The eggs of locusts in Cyprus and the Dardanelles, as we learn 

 from the Proceedings of the London Entomological Society, are 

 much infested with the parasitic larva; of Bombyliidce, though 

 these were previously not known to occur on the island. This 

 fact shows that the habit which we discovered among some of our 

 N. A. Bombyliids recurs in other parts of the world, and we have 

 little doubt that careful search among locust eggs will also reveal 

 the larval habits of some of the Mdoid - in Europe and elsewhere. 

 Indeed, notwithstanding the closest experiments of Jules Lichten- 

 stein which show that the larva of the Spanish blister-beetle of 

 commerce will feed on honey, we imagine that its more natural 

 food will be found in future 'to he locust eggs. The particular 

 Bombyliid, observed by Mr. Frank Calvert, destroying locusts in 

 the Dardanelles is Callostoma fascipennis M icq., and its larva and 

 pupa very closely resemble those of Triodih s mm which we have 

 studied and figured (see Vol. XV, pi. vi). We quote some oi VLt. 

 Calvert's observations : 



"On the 24th of April I examined the larva? in the ground : the 

 only change was a semitransparent appearance which allowed od 

 a movable black spot to be seen in the body. On the 8th June 

 about fifty per cent, of the larvae had cast a skin and assumed the 

 pupal state in their little cells : the color yellowish-brown dark- 

 ening to gray in the more advanced insect. About one per cent. 



