80 



Hopkins stated that observations led him to believe that this fly was 

 rnore destructive to growing red and crimson clover seed than the 

 midge. He also noted that while the midge actually prevented the 

 seed from forming, the chalcis-fly fed in the developing seed and 

 allowed it to almost reach maturity before entirety devouring the 

 seed content. The following year, at the next annual meeting of the 

 same association/* Dr. Hopkins reported that his studies of the yesir 

 left no doubt " of the chalcis-fl} 7 being a destructive enemy and that 

 it wintered out of doors in the seed as a larva.*' 



Lintner, in his report as State entomologist of New York, for 1896, 

 credits the clover injuries reported by a correspondent of his office, 

 "J. W. J., Muncie, Indiana," to the clover-seed worm Grapholitha 

 {Enarmonia) interstinctana Clem. The description of the injury as 

 reported b} T the correspondent, "seeds hulled out like beans eaten by 

 bugs" would indicate the work of this chalcis-fly rather than that of 

 the seed worm. 



LIFE HISTORY OF THE SALT-MARSH CATERPILLAR (ESTIGMENE 

 ACR^A DRTJ.) AT VICTORIA, TEX. 



By W. E. Hinds. 



While stationed at , loioria, in 1902, there were brought to the head- 

 quarters of the boll-weevil investigations during the last part of July 

 and first of August numerous reports of very serious damage to cer- 

 tain fields of cotton which, it was said, were being entireh" stripped of 

 leaves by a very "large black caterpillar." One of the remarkable 

 "facts" reported in regard to this strange caterpillar was that "it 

 could not be poisoned." Nothing seemed effectual in stopping the 

 progress of the worms, and the foe was thought by some to be'" worse 

 than the boll- weevil." As soon as the larvae had stripped one field, it 

 was said, they would move in vast numbers to fresh fields where they 

 would repeat their work of devastation. 



So alarming were the reports and so urgent the appeals to the boll- 

 weevil investigators, that on August 5 an examination was made in the 

 infected territory. It was found that the damage was being done by 

 the larvae of Estigmene (Leucarctia) acrsea Dru., the " salt-marsh cater- 

 pillar," so called because at the time it was first described the larvae 

 were overrunning the salt marshes in the vicinity of Boston, Mass. 

 The larvae had nearly completed their feeding when found and a large 

 part of them had crawled out of sight into favorable places for pupa- 

 tion. The thin cocoons, made by interweaving the long hairs from the 

 body with a light web of silk, were found at the surface of the ground 

 under some sort of rubbish. As a rule about one-half of the cell was 

 formed as a lining to a corresponding depression in the earth. A large 



a Bui. 17, n. s., Div. Entom., U, S, Pept. Agr., 1897, p. 45. 



