48 



developments proved their fears to be well grounded. Letters of 

 inquiry and packages of specimens came to me from all directions, and 

 during a trip about the first of June, to Butler County, on the southern 

 boundary of the State, I was able to observe for myself the dwarfed 

 and sickly appearance of small grain everywhere along the railroad, 

 attributable in all cases to the attacks of this insect. Shortly after- 

 ward the outfields in St. Louis County and in many other localities 

 were plowed up and replanted to corn, which, owing to the drought and 

 to its own insect enemies, was, in its turn, a poor crop. The unusual 

 prevalence and unparalleled multiplication of Aphididce was undoubtedly 

 due to to the scarcity of their natural enemies, both parasitic and pre. 

 daceous. It was not until the middle of June that the larvae of SyrpJii. 

 dee, CoccinelUdce, and Ghrysopa became numerous, and, re-enforced by 

 parasites of the genera Aphidius and Trioxys, finally brought relief from 

 the pests; too late, however, to prevent irreparable injury to many 

 herbaceous crops, young fruit trees, and various sorts of shrubbery. 



A somewhat remarkable development of the season was the appear- 

 ance in unusual numbers of many insects not often accouuted noxious, 

 and the reappearance of some species not observed in this locality for 

 many years. 



Among the former may be mentioned the great abundance and variety 

 of "stinging" larvae, principally Limacodes. For the first time in my 

 experience the beautiful larvae of Parasa chloris were so abundant on 

 some young apricot trees in the orchard of one of our neighbors as to 

 do great damage to the foliage. When full grown, three-fourths or 

 more of an inch in length, thick, oblong, sub-cylindrical, gaily striped 

 longitudinally in carmine red, purple, and bright yellow, the stinging 

 spines concealed in the two rows of deflected bright yellow plumes that 

 adorn the back, gliding with slow, graceful motion over the leaves, they 

 were almost too ornamental to doom to destruction. As they were 

 very voracious, however, the latter was a necessity of the case. Those 

 that were preserved were fed to maturity on the leaves of Chickasaw 

 plum, to which they were transferred without difficulty. 



Euclea querceti H. S., of the same form and size as P. chloris, but much 

 less brilliantly colored, being of a dull, mottled green, with two or four 

 dark purple-red spots on each side of the dorsum, and having the plu- 

 mose spines pale green, appeared on Plum, Cherry, and Apple in the 

 orchard, as well as on Sycamore, Post Oak, and Wild Cherry in the 

 forest. It was not, however, in any destructive numbers on any fruit 

 tree. 



So far as coloration is concerned this larva varies greatly. The crim- 

 son sub-dorsal spots, usually quite large when there are but two, are 

 in some examples smaller and less conspicuous and are followed pos- 

 teriorly by a second pair. The longitudinal ridges on which these are 

 situated, and from which also proceed the larger urticating spines, 

 vary in hue from pale pea green to yellow and bright orange. A second 



