98 



at ten minutes. The forelegs were used to hold the plant-louse, which was 

 devoured, legs and all. While feeding, the antenna? of the cricket were held erect. 

 hing for lice they were held horizontal. A single individual was 

 seen to destroy nearly forty plant-lice. 



A Food of Robber-Fly Larvae. — The Mr. Eaton referred to in the Lost note, has 



found the larva? of a robber fly feeding upon white grubs (larva? of Lachnostema). 



A Tachina Parasite of May Beetles. — Mr. Eaton has also found the pupariuni 



of a Tachina fly beneath the apace fa May eetle {Lochnosterna sp.) 



which it had evidently destroyed before it issued from the ground. Tachina eggs 



have been found by the writer attached to the thorax c : La hnc -tc-rna. but no better 



this | rasdtis a is U] d re i L 



Strange Habits of a Tropical Cricket in South Carolina. — May 14, 1903, Mr. 



Harry Hammond, Beech Island, S. C, sent specimens of a cricket. AnurogryUus 



D Geer, with accompanying information that the insects make holes in 



tton fiel Is : the depth of IS inches, which they line with shred? of cotton leaves. 



sb ying the young cotton for several feet iu the row in accomplishing this. Until 



the discovery of these crickets it was surmised that the dams _ - ntirely due to 



utw rms, - 3j ies : which have the habit of dragging vegetation into hole- in 



the ground. The young of the cricket were found in these holes in June, and the 



insect lives in cornfields and in fields lying fallow, as also in cotton fields. The 



ss in question is tropical and a native of the West I - bra Lai id South 



America. It does not appear to have l^een recorded as occurring in America north 



of Mexi< : . and nothing appears in regard to its habits. 



Hydrocyanic-acid Gas for the Destruction of Mealy-Bugs. — Air. John L. 

 Chapman. Bradley Hill. Hingham. Mass.. wi i N vember 27. 1903. that, in accord- 

 ance with directions furnished in Circular N 37, : this I office, he had killed mealy 

 bugs on grapevines by an ex] - of only two hours, the gas being used at the rat : 

 1 ounce to 300 cubic feet of space. The day following exposure he was unable to find a 

 single mealy-bug on the vines or leaves of the plan:- exp sed to the gas. but the eggs 

 I be intact, which would of course necessitate another fumigation. 

 Kerosene as a Remedy for the Clover Mite. — Under late : May -. 1903,Mrs. 

 Mary E. Barrel], Freeport, HI., writes that kerosene has proved effective in her 

 experience in ridding her house of the clover mite (Bryobia pratemLs . She used it 

 without dilution, chipping a cloth and without wringing wiping the sill and lower edge 

 of the window sash, also leaving what adhered to the glass on rubbing it over, for an 

 hour or more. Three .plications were sufficient to rid the house of the j si 



Carnivorous Habits of Polystcechotes punctata* Drury. — A specimen of this 



s : Hemen ii "•:-;- was -ditto the Division of Entomology by Mr. Henry Tal- 



bott, of Washington, who had found it on a fishing excursion in the northern States. 



The specimen was still living, while the wings of three of its companions, which had 



been placed in a box together with it. were all that remained of them. The bodies, 



s, and nearly every portion of the others had been destr yed, including even 



ns of the wings. The living specimen was not much damag 



A Mite in Sugar Withstanding Severe Cold Weather. — During January. 19 - 



Mrs. Eva Bashaw. Mankat . Minn., sent a S] - Tyrogly] is undid brown 



sugar and dried fruit, with report that it was able to withstand foe _ r sug- 



_ -• :ithe matter was tested. A pay - I sugar containing numerous individuals 



of the insect was left out of d rs ver night with the thermometer at S = below zero. 



It was again put out for three days subject to about the same exposure, and when 



was s pplied the insects began to crawl about 



A Mushroom-Infesting* Mite. — Tyroglyphws < 7 ' Osb., an ount of which, 



with Osb rn's illustrati< as, is given :. | ages 452 and 453 of Lintner's Teuth Report, 



- .entitled by Mr. Banks in connection with injury to young mushrooms picked 



