168 



Eev. T. A. Marshall writes us that E. Andre, of Beaune, is now en- 

 gaged in compiling a new catalogue of the Hymenoptera of Europe and 

 adjacent countries, every parr of which will be submitted to specialists 

 before publication, and which doubtless will for a time prove serviceable 

 to working Hymenopterists. 



The Buhach Producing and Manufactuiiug Company, of Stockton, 

 Cal., very generously offered to sell the Department some time ago 

 seed of Pyrethrum cineraricvfoUum^ at the following rates: One pound, 

 850; 5 pounds, $200: 10 pounds, 8350; 50 pounds, 81,250; which 

 shows that there is money in the cultivation of this insecticide plant 

 in the United States. We have already shown that the plant can be 

 successfully grown over a large portion of the country and it seems 

 remarkable that this firm should have enjoyed a monopoly so long. 



We are anxious to get copies of our First and Sixth Eeports on the 

 Insects of Missouri. We shall be pleased to purchase them of any of 

 our readers who happen to have copies that they can spare. We desire 

 these two reports more particularly. The first is published in the Ee- 

 port of the State Board of Agriculture for 1868, and we will purchase 

 copies ot that report where the entomological part is not separated. 

 The Sixth Entomological Eeport was published separately. We are also 

 willing 10 purchase the entomological reports for any other years. 



THE HABITS OF THALESSA AND TREMEX. 



By C. V. Riley. 



HABITS OF THA.LESSA. 



Our two largest American Ichneumonids (Thalessa atrata and T. luna- 

 tor) have loug been known to bore the trunks of various trees with their 

 lengthy ovipositors, choosing, apparently, only trees or stumps inhab- 

 ited by Tremex or other wood-boring larvie, from which the general suj) 

 position has been that the larviie of the Ichneumonids were parasitic 

 upon the larviB of the Tremex. Accurate and positive observations on 

 this point, however, seem not to have been made, or at least not to have 

 been recorded, prior to our own, which vill presently be (juoted. J 



Harris (Ins. inj. to Veg., p. 538) says of the larva ot" Tremex columoa : 



It is often destroyed b.v the niag«j;ots of two kinds of ichneanionllies( /'!»(;>/<{ alrata 

 and Iituator of Fabricius). TIjcsc tiles may freqnently be seen thrnsti.ig tlieir slender 

 borers, nieusnring 3 or 4 inches in length, into the trnnks of trees inhabited by the 

 grnbs of the Tremex, ami by other wood-eating insects; and, like the female Tremex, 

 tliey sometimes become fastened to the trees and die without being ablo«to draw their 

 borers ont again. 



