76 



Reply. — I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 6th inst. You are 

 entirely mistaken in supposing that Lady-bugs are the parents of the grain-lice. 

 Their appearance in the grain fields in such great numbers is due to the fact that 

 they feed upon the lice. Hence your proposition to destroy the Lady-bugs will 

 result in the destruction of the farmers' best friends. That these insects are so abun- 

 dant in the infested fields is a very encouraging sign and indicates that the lice will 

 speedily disappear at least in part. — [April 12, 1^90.] 



Notes on Bulletin 21. 



Page 12. Re Fedalia cardinalis. — I have already alluded to this subject in the 

 Garden and Field. Still, there is no harm repeating that neither Mr. Tepper nor my- 

 self have the slightest recollection of Mr, Koebele showing us the Lady-bug on the 

 occasion he states, but I can understand that he may have done so without my 

 remembering it, because my thoughts were all intent on Lestophonus. Neither the 

 Rev. T. Blackburn, who is strong on Coccinellids, Mr. Tepper, nor myself have ever 

 seen V. cardinalis in our lives to our knowledge. 



Page lb. Be Diabrotica {Aulacophora punctata). '* This gentleman claims that all 

 injury can be avoided by dusting powdered lime over the plants." This is news to me. 

 I certainly was not the informant. As the Aulacopliora is not to be found near Ade- 

 laide I have had no opportunity of experimenting with it. I will bear the remedy in 

 mind. 



Page 18. I certainly informed Mr. Koebele that Mr. Maskell considered the insect 

 on the Kangaroo Acacia that has often been mistaken for Icerya, as a Dactylopina, but 

 he had had only 2 specimens to examine, and if I remember right he only suggested 

 it. I have since re-examined it, and believe it to be an Eriococcus but the insect is 

 now so scarce that I can not obtain any specimens. Eriococcus eucalypti have also dis- 

 appeared unless on the tops of tall gum trees. 



Page 20. P. engenioides fihonld read, eugenioides. 



Page 29. Dr. Diez should read, Mr. A. Zietz, 



So much for Mr. Koebele's report the perusal of which has given me much pleasure. 

 He certainly did his work well and, what is better, it has turned out better even than 

 was anticipated. I hope that you may be able to send him again before long to bring 

 us a consignment of Codlin Moth enemies and take back a general assortment of our 

 useful insects. — [F. S. Crawford, Adelaide, South Australia. 



GENERAL NOTES. 

 A MUCH PARASITIZED INSECT. 



A most remarkable id stance of parasitism is given by Prof. G. Eu- 

 dow-Perleberg, in Die Insekten-Welt, \^olume IV, Nos. 4and 5, May and 

 June, 1887. 



In treating of the enemies of Cheimatoba hrumata, a common Euro- 

 pean moth, he gives a list of no less than sixty-three parasites of the 

 family Ichneumon idee , and states that he has reared an almost equal 

 number of Braconids and of Chalcidids, and Proctotrupids. We give his 

 list of IcJmeumonids, as a matter of interest. It will be noticed that in 

 nearly every case several species of the same genus have been bred 

 from the single host. From this fact we might suspect that some of 

 the so-called species may be simple varieties ; but the author has studied 



