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Red Ants in California. 
In southern California we were quite troubled by the small red ant, destroying 
the bark of our young orange trees, doing their work just below the surface of the 
ground. We tried various things; among others, put bits of marrowbone near the 
tree, and when the ant had settled upon the bone put the bone into hot water; but 
this makes a good deal of work in an orchard of any size. At last my hired man 
thought that perhaps the Horned Toad, so plentiful in that locality, might be an 
assistant in ridding us of the little pest; so he captured some of the little fellows 
and put them close to the trees that were being eaten by the ant, and I am in- 
formed that the pest has disappeared. My orchard is at North Cucamonga, Cal.— 
[W. D. Turner, Illinois, March 9, 1891. 
Gall on a common Weed. 
I inclose a field weed, which I wish you would have examined and report to me 
what kind of worm or insect it is that occupies those balls; whether it is an insect 
that damages corn, wheat, and other grain. Is this the kind of worm that damaged 
corn to such an extent here last spring, which is commonly called Cut-worm?—[T. O. 
Storla, Aurora County, S. Dak., January 29, 1891. 
REPLY.—The common field weed which you send has no popular name, but is known 
to botanists as Lygodesmia juncea. The round galls so common upon this weed are 
made by a Cynipid gall fly known as Antistrophus l-piswm Walsh. As the plant has 
no economic value, and as the insect is confined exclusively to this one species, its 
presence in such numbers need not be a cause of anxiety to you. It has no connec- 
tion whatever with the insects which damage corn, wheat, or other grain. The An- 
tistrophus develops within the gall, and the adult flies issue to lay their eggs upon 
the same weed and thus produce other similar galls. 
A Clerid Beetle found in Plush. 
We send inclosed two worms found in a piece of plush. Would you kindly tell 
me what they are and whether they are liable to injure goods. The darker worm 
was found in a substance resembling silk, and which adhered pretty firmly to the 
plush.—[L. Sahm, jr., Indiana. 
REPLy.—One of the larve forwarded had transformed to pupa in transit, but the 
other is still active. It is the larva of a beetle of the family Cleridz and the genus 
Necrobia. This family of beetles is, as a rule, carnivorous or predaceous in the early 
stages. It is therefore probable that the larve were attracted to the goods by the 
presence of other larve, the latter probably of some of the common ‘‘Clothes Moths.” 
We hope to rear the imago, and should-much like to have other specimens. If it 
turns out, as seems probable, that this larve will prey upon the various clothes 
moths that so trouble the housekeeper it is well to know the fact, as possibly it may 
be encouraged and utilized to advantage. On the other hand, one of the speeies of 
the genus, namely, Necrobia rufipes, is known to be injurious to preserved meat and 
has been found particularly bad in hams. An account of its injuries has been pub- 
lished in our Sixth Report on the Insects of Missouri, p. 96. The species sent by 
your correspondent is smaller, yet all the species of the genus in the larva state, so 
far as known, feed on dead rather than live animal matter, and the presumption is 
that in this case the two specimens had left some such matter and got on the plush 
accidentally, or they may have fed on the exuvie of the clothes moths. The sub- 
stance resembling silk may have been the cocoon of the clothes moth larve, or else a 
cocoon made by the Necrobia larva itself preparatory to pupation.—[September 16, 
1891. ] 
