242 
were white with a very pale pinkish band across the dorsum of the ab- ~ 
dominal segments. The head, cervical plate, and thoracic legs were 
black and the face brownish. The cervical plate possesses a narrow, 
pale median line, the piliferous warts were minute and black and the 
anal plate yellowish, dusky, or black. These larve spun their cocoons 
either under the epidermis of the potato or outside, generally in some 
depression. In the latter case it was covered with particles of the skin 
of the tuber so that it was difficult to detect. Several other potatoes 
were received early in December. From these two lots a large series 
of the moths were bred. They issued almost daily from November 13 
well on into December. The different stages of the insect, drawn from 
life, are show at Fig. 27. 
We supposed at first that the insect had been accidentally imported 
from either New Zealand or Australia upon one or more of the regular 
steamers in the steward’s supplies, as potatoes are not imported com- 
mercially to any extent from either of these countries. Mr. W. A. Web- 
ster, however, writing under date of November 26, informs us that the 
potatoes sent were of the first crop and had been out of the ground pro- 
bably since August; that they were obtained from a Chinese gardener 
and that heis strongly impressed with the possibility that the insect was 
imported from China, as goods are constantly being brought over by 
Chinese merchants and many seeds and bulbs as well. Mr. Webster 
is positive that this is the first season that the insect has been found 
near Bakersfield. 
REMEDIES. 
It is strange that this insect should make its appearance at a com- 
paratively inland point like Bakerstield, and this fact makes it all the 
more important that strenuous efforts should be made to stamp it out 
before it obtains a foothold. Wherever the insect is found we urge the 
immediate destruction of the infested potatoes. No remedy, for the 
present, will be necessary beyond the careful examination of potatoes 
and the immediate sequestration and destruction of all found to be in- 
fested. Sound potatoes, also, should be more carefully packed or 
stored in tight rooms. 
A GENUS OF MANTIS EGG-PARASITES. 
There are, according to Westwood’s revision, more than five hundred 
species of Mantide in different parts of the world, and it is safe to say 
that in almost every instance where any species has been at all carefully 
studied it has been found that its egg masses are pierced by a species 
of the peculiar Chalcidid genus Podagrion. Very few of these forms 
have been described, but a large number exist in the various museums. 
Westwood mentions the rearing of several tropical species; Walker 
has described a species from Australia; P. pachymerus is a common para- 
