103 



through the winter they would prove very useful to the farmer. During their breed- 

 ing season the soldier hug possesses a voracious appetite, carrying a hug on his hill 

 most of the time. During the fall and winter they live hidden away in dry places 

 and seem to eat nothing. Many of them hide away in houses. I found the accom- 

 panying specimens in the house. The male and female are marked a little different, 

 the male being red where this one is yellow. 



NOTES ON 3IISCELLANEOUS INSECTS TN KANSAS. 



Under date of December 11, 1899, Mr. F. F. Crevecceur, of Onaga, 

 Kans., wrote that on June 9 of that year he observed an individual of 

 the histerid beetle. Paromalus estriatus, feeding npon a box-elder plant- 

 bug (Leptocoris trivittatus). The same day he saw a specimen of the 

 robber fly (BasyUis tergissa) feasting on a honey bee. July 16 a speci- 

 men of " granddaddy long-legs" (Phalangium ventricosum) was seen 

 attacking a bine wasp, Chalybion ccerideum, in his house. It had nearly 

 devoured the abdomen, but whether it had killed the wasp or found it 

 already dead was not ascertained. July 20 the large ground beetle 

 Pasimachus punctulatus was observed while carrying off a smaller 

 ground beetle, A nisodactylus verticalis, that it had just killed. August 

 20, Mordella scutellaris was reared from a yellow pupa about a quarter 

 of an inch in length, which was taken August 14 in the stem of 

 Amaranthus chlorostachya. The Pyralid moth, Titanio octonalis Zell., 

 was reared from larvae taken June 20, feeding on Onosmodium Caro- 

 linian urn ; the imago issued June 29. 



As to the reported statement by us in Farmers' Bulletin No. 99 that the 

 white-marked tussock moth ( Orgyia leiicostigma) had not yet made its 

 way west of Iowa, so far as known to our Department, Mr. Crevecceur 

 wrote that in 1898 two or three larva? were observed hanging from trees 

 at Onaga, Kans., and in 1899 two adults were reared from larvae on 

 box-elder, and that as long back as 1890 this species was very plentiful 

 on walnut trees in that vicinity. Onaga, it should be mentioned, is not 

 farther west than Lincoln, Xebr., a locality also recorded by us for this 

 insect. 



Concerning the peculiar buzzing noise made by the large ground 

 beetle (Harpalus caliginosus), by stridulation, our correspondent wrote 

 that it was several times observed during the summer. The habit is 

 now well known, but it is seldom that one has the opportunity of 

 hearing this singular noise for himself. 



AN EMBARRASSING- FEATURE OF FOREIGN INTERDICTION AGAINST 

 AMERICAN PLANTS AND FRUITS. 



It appears from a dispatch from the United States consul at Geneva 

 that the vineyards in the Canton of Vaud, the greatest wine-producing 

 section of Switzerland, have suffered greatly during the year 1899, as 

 well as 1898, from the grapevine Phylloxera, and that the vine-growers 

 of all French Switzerland are greatly concerned over the present situ- 

 ation. The grand council of the Canton of Vaud has recommended the 



