85 



Scolytid beetles boring into wine casks. — Two cases of this rather rare injury 

 have heen reported to this office within a few days of each other. September 9 Mr. 

 Holmes Erwin sent us from Pomona, Fla., specimens of Xyleborus pubescens, which 

 he stated were doing much injury to wine casks in his cellar by boring through the 

 staves and causing leakage. On September 12 Mr. George T. Hart sent from X i oka- 

 jack, Ga., specimens of Monarthrum mail and M. fasciatum, which were damaging 

 his wine casks in the same way. This injury is one of the results of the February 

 freeze, which occasioned such widespread disaster last winter all over the South. 

 This freeze greatly increased the food supply of these and allied Scolytidae, which as 

 a consequence have multiplied enormously and are doing much damage, especially 

 in Florida. 



Invasion of a carabid beetle. — Mrs. E. D. Kane, M. D., writes us from Kane, 

 Pa., that she has been much annoyed by the appearance; in her house of numbers of 

 the small but very strong-smelling carabid beetle, Nomius pygmesus. So foul was 

 the odor from the insects that defects in the drainage system were suspected, and 

 the pipes were inspected. The beetles were probably attracted to the house at 

 night by the lights. 



An unwelcome insect imported via the World's Fair. — Prof. W. T. Trelease 

 sends from Missouri larvae and beetles which he states are very troublesome in cycade 

 on a suburban place in St. Louis. They came in plants bought by the owner of the 

 place at the close of the Chicago Exposition, and Mr. Trelease thinks were imported 

 direct either from Australia or South Africa. The insect proves to belong to the Aus- 

 tralian genus Tranes, family Curculionidse, and is a dangerous addition to our insect 

 fauna. Energetic steps should be taken to exterminate it. 



The drug-store beetle damaging boots again. — Supplementary to the note 

 upon pages 403-404 of Volume IV, of Insect Life, we have to record the receipt of 

 larva? of what is probably Sitodrepa panicea from the quartermaster's depot at San 

 Francisco, Cal., where they are said to be damaging boots by boring into the leather 

 near the straps, where an excess of paste was used, and also wherever the paste was 

 dropped upon the boot. The ordinary bisulphide of carbon treatment was recom- 

 mended. 



Injury by the three-striped blister beetle. — In Volume IV of Insect Life, page 

 77, attention was called to the three-striped blister beetle (Epicauta lemniscata Fab.) 

 and its injuries in potato fields and to cabbage. June 5 of the present year | lsin; 

 Mr. W. F. Colcock sent specimens of this beetle from Yemassee. S. ('.. with the 

 report that it was injurious to potato vines, beet tips, and squash plants, ami 

 during August Messrs. W. T. Taylor & Bro. wrote that the alfalfa crop in the vicinity 

 of Wharton, Tex., was a failure through the depredations of the same insect. Sep- 

 tember 4 we received specimens for determination, with the further statement that 

 it did much damage to other vegetation. 



Oreodera in the West Indies. — Mr. J. E. Duerden, acting secretary of the Insti- 

 tute of Jamaica, Kingston, Jamaica, British West Indies, sends as specimens in all 

 stages of the longicorn beetle, Oreodera glauoa, boring into sweet orange trees in 

 Jamaica. The sending is of unusual interest, as it not only gives us a new orange- 

 tree enemy, but from the further fact that of the 'M species of the genus Oreodera 

 none has ever before been found in the West Indies. 



A new locality for Bruchus obsoletus.— January 10 of the present year we 

 received from Mr. 6. H. Hicks, of the Division of Botany of this Department, spec- 

 imens of Jirucltus obsoletus Say and Apion Segnipes Say. bred from the semis of Tepli- 

 rosia spicata collected at Titusville, Brevard County, Fla. />'. obsoletus, it will be 

 remembered, was long believed to be the name of the destructive bean weevil until 

 1892, when we succeeded in establishing the identity of the bean >peeies with />. 

 obteetus Say and obsoletus as the species that lives on TepkrotUi virginiana. The lat- 

 ter was described from Indiana, and has been recorded also from the District of 

 Columbia. The species and its food plant are figured in the Annual Report of this 

 Department for 1892 (PL VII, tigs. 2 and li). 



