102 



The larvae that were kept under observation burrowed into the soil 

 with which they were provided and remained there until the advent of 

 a warm spell, which happened April 17. when they came up from the 

 earth, evidently in search of food. 



The pupal cells observed were in most cases rather crude, but some 

 few were fairly well defined — one such which will prove a fair sample of 

 the best, measuring about 20 mm in length, half that in width, and 

 nearly as deep as wide. 



A larva that was kept under observation transformed to pupa April 

 15 and the imago appeared May 15, this individual having remained as 

 pupa thirty days. 



From the species figured and described by Eiley as B. herbivagus, 

 this larva may be distinguished by size alone as well as by color and 

 form, but it also agrees in many particulars. It is about a third longer, 

 measuring 0.85 inch (11 to 12 mm ) as against 0.58 inch for herbivagus. 

 The abdomen does not taper strongly, all of the segments except the 

 last three being of similar width to the head and thorax. The color is 

 white, the thorax being bright yellowish, but little darker than the 

 body. The mandibles are dark brown and the single strong median 

 tooth is black. The body is clothed with short yellowish hairs in the 

 same manner as herbivagus, but these are more sparse than in the figure 

 of that species. 



One of the pupae taken April 9, while being placed in alcohol, gave 

 forth a parasitic larva, evidently dipterous, which crawled out from 

 the under surface of the body near the legs of its host. — F. H. C. 



A NEW WESTERN ENEMY OE THE COLORADO POTATO BEETLE. 



Mr. J. A. Green, Waynoka. Okla., has sent us specimens of the sol- 

 dier bug PeriUus eJaudus Say. with the accompanying information made 

 under date of September 16, 1899, that the species is an enemy of the 

 Colorado potato beetle. He writes as follows: 



These bugs appear during the month of May. They have a bill that lies close to 

 the under part of their body when not in use. They deposit their eggs (which are 

 black) on a potato leaf. The body of the young bug is a bright red and the head is 

 a dark blue, almost black. As they grow they keep shedding their skins and chang- 

 ing in appearance until they are grown. The young bugs commence feeding on the 

 eggs of the potato bug. They insert their bill in the end of the egg and suck the 

 juice. One little bug will commence on a nest of potato-bug eggs and never stop 

 until he has sucked the last egg. The bugs, both young and old, stick their bills 

 into the young potato bugs, and when these are scarce they do not hesitate to tackle 

 old ones. They do not stop at potato bugs, but suck all the miller or moth eggs they 

 find, and even destroy the worms after they hatch. I saw them last spring with 

 worms on their bills two or three times as large as themselves. 



Worms of different kinds are very destructive to tomato vines iu Oklahoma. Last 

 spring I placed one nest of this bug's eggs in my tomato patch, and. for two months, 

 or until the bugs left, I was not troubled with worms of any kind. It was here that 

 I first noticed them destroying worms. There is a similar bug, belonging to the 

 same family, perhaps, that destroys the moth, eggs, and worms in the katir corn in 

 the same way. If we only had some means of protecting these valuable insects 



