50 



prove to be D. ministra, Drury, appeared on post oaks in Kirkwood 

 and vicinity, defoliating portions of the trees infested. From their gre- 

 garious habit and their susceptibility to poison they were easily routed. 

 Even a stream of water turned upon them from the spraying pump 

 would dislodge and bring them to the ground, where they were easily 

 killed. 



Orgyia leucostigma, a species formerly abundant in this locality, but 

 which I had not observed for ten or twelve years, was found on Sycamore 

 (Platanns), on which, strange to say, it would not feed after the second 

 molt, and consequently all caterpillars left on the tree perished before 

 attaining half their growth. The question suggested by this observa- 

 tion was how the young larvae came to be upon this tree which so evi- 

 dently did not suit them for food. I could not find either cocoon or egg 

 mass of the mother insect, nor were any of the larvae discovered in 

 the adjacent orchard. 



Iclithyura inclusa, another species not observed here for many years, 

 appeared on willows in great numbers in September, but coming so late 

 in the season the defoliations did no serious damage. 



In concluding these notes I wish to mention an insect that will prob- 

 ably prove most efficient in ridding the country of the pest of the Web 

 Worm [Hy pliant via cunea). This is the larva of a small and inconspicu- 

 ous Carabid of the genus Plocliionus, bearing the appropriate specific 

 name timidus. I had observed during the month of June that the 

 greater number of the webs of the caterpillar were unusually small and 

 incomplete and seemed to have been deserted much sooner than usual. 



Before I had time to investigate the matter, I received from Mr. J. G. 

 Duftey, horticulturist at the Shaw Botanical Garden, a colony of the 

 worms, interspersed among which were numerous small active Garabid 

 larvae, which Mr. DufTey informed me were preying upon the former. 

 The collection was placed in a cage and arranged for convenient obser- 

 vation, and I very shortly had ocular demonstration of the correctness 

 of Mr. Duffey's assertion. Many interesting observations were made 

 upon these small but ferocious larvae before they changed to pupae, and 

 the appearance of the perfect insect was awaited with much interest. 

 The first beetle developed about the middle of July and proved to be 

 the species named. 



Gomparatively few webs of the second brood of Hypliantria were seen 

 in and around Kirkwood in August, and extensive examination revealed 

 the fact that fully three-fourths of these also contained larvae of PIo- 

 cluonus, which were busily engaged in reducing the numbers of the 

 rightful inhabitants. Xor is the beetle confined in its diet to the web 

 worm. I found the larvae repeatedly during the present autumn in the 

 masses of leaves webbed together by the somewhat gregarious larvae 

 of a Tortrix (Gacoecia fervidana) and between the two leaves webbed by 

 various Tineids, especially Cryptolecliia nubeculosa and C. schlegerella. 

 (I doubt not I may have occasion to deprecate its work in the future 



