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the lOtli of October I received the cabbages thus treated by express 

 just as they were when cut from the roots. The accompanying letter 

 reads as follows : 



The worms seem to become torpid at first — at least inactive, and then seem to dry up. 

 How the meal acts on the worms I can not say. Can not say whether they eat it by 

 itself or whether it gets mixed up with the leaves they eat, or whether the meal that 

 gets on them, by adhering to them, acts like poison on them. The meal does not seem 

 to do any good unless there is a heavy dew on the cabbages and it will adhere well. 

 Perhaps they get killed by the meal getting on them while the dew is on them. But 

 I think not. 



When the cabbages were received by me the worms were dead and 

 partly dried up, just as they had been described to me. I do not know 

 what to think of the matter, and give the facts as they appear here. 



Eleodes tricostata. — A cabbage pest in the shape of a rather active, 

 cylindrical, grayish-brown Coleopterous larva was noted for the first 

 time during the past spring here at Lincoln. In some of our market 

 gardens this larva did even more injury than was committed by the 

 various cutworms that were quite plentiful and against which we are 

 obliged to contend every spring. This larva not only attacked cab- 

 bages, but also showed a decided inclination to feed upon various other 

 products of the garden. It was also found to be a general feeder both 

 upon the prairies and in the fields where it even attacked the weeds. 

 By placing specimens of nearly full-grown larvse into a breeding cage 

 it was a surprise to me when I found that from them developed the 

 common Eleodes tricostata. This insect appears to be greatly on the 

 increase here in Nebraska, and especially does it seem to be increasing 

 over the settled portions. 



While speaking of this beetle, it might be well to record the fact that 

 I have very frequently observed attached to the elytra of tricostata and 

 opaca the eggs of some Tachina fly. In several instances as many as 

 three or four of such eggs were observed upon the back of a single 

 beetle. No effort has been made by me to rear these Tachinids, nor 

 even to ascertain whether or not the eggs had hatched, and, if so, 

 whether or not the young maggots had succeeded in entering the bodies 

 of the beetles. 



