177 



tember 19, from Mr. J. Reverchon, Rose Cottage, Dallas, Tex., reported 

 them to have been very numerous in Dallas, and inclosed two clippings 

 from the Dallas Xeics, both dated September 11, which showed Fort 

 Worth and Waco to have been particularly infested. They were espe- 

 cially attracted to the electric lights, and in Waco the stone base of the 

 city hall was black with their moving masses. It was said that there 

 were enough to make several cart loads. All-night restaurants were 

 compelled to close. Large quantities of the crickets having been swept 

 into the gutters, both there and in Fort Worth, they produced a nau- 

 seating stench. 



Under date of October 4 Mr. Ragsdale sent us specimens of the 

 cricket and of the beetle in question. The cricket belongs to an un- 

 determined species of Gryllus, which we have had in the collection 

 some time, both from Dallas, Tex., and Xew Orleans, La., and the beetle 

 proves to be Harpalus gravis^ Lee. Our first impression was that the 

 Earpahis was attracted by the great numbers of the crickets and 

 was feeding upon them, but it appears that in September, 1887, we re- 

 ceived the same beetle from Fort Worth, from Mr. H. C. Edrington, 

 with the statement that these beetles had made their appearance in the 

 same part of Texas about the same time of the year for the past two 

 years in immense numbers. Mr. Edrington made no remark about the 

 accompanying crickets, and the occurrence of the Harpalus remains as 

 much of a mystery as the swarming of the "overflow bug" [Platynus 

 maculicollis) in California. We published an account of the swarming of 

 this latter insect in Fresno County in the American Naturalist for 

 August, 1882, page 681. 



A PARASITE OF THE WILLOW CIMBEX. 



Among a lot of specimens recently determined for Mr. Bruner was a 

 specimen of Opheltes glaucopterus, a very large and handsome Ophionid, 

 which we had previously collected and which Mr. Bruner had received 

 from Mr. J. M. Aldrich, of South Dakota, who observed it ovipositing 

 in Cimbex americana. The interesting point of this rearing, aside from 

 the fact that the Cimbex has a parasite, is that this same parasite oc- 

 curs also in Europe and is there an enemy of Cimbex humeralis, C.femo- 

 rata^ and C. connata, 



ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 



2>ov. 6th, 1890.— Mr. Erwin F. Smith was elected a member of the society. 



Mr. .Schwarz exhibited a larva of the genus Cara&?/s with deformed maxillary palpi. 

 The right palpus is normally formed except that the suture between the first and 

 second joints is nearly obliterated ; the left palpus is only 3-jointed with the joints 

 nearly transverse as in Calosoma. 



Mr. Marlatt exhibited three female specimens of a species of the Tryphonid genus 

 Metopius. The strikingly large and peculiar ovipositor of this species was described 

 and reference was made to the literature relating to this genus from whichit appears 

 that the female has never been properly characterized if indeed it has ever been de- 

 scribed at all. 



12746— No. 4 4 



