264 
female of which has the appearance of a globular egg, and it seems at 
least reasonable that reports of eggs having been found in connec- 
tion with these larve were due to a confusion of the parasites whereby 
they were taken for eggs. This question is of peculiar interest, as, if 
this be true the occurrence of Heteropus in America in 1845, would by 
several years antedate its discovery and description in England by 
Newport. In 1856, Dr. Asa Fitch described under the name of Aphis 
maidis a species of Aphides affecting the stems of roasting ears, in 
August.* And in 1863 Mr. B. D. Walsh reared what, until quite re- 
cently, at least, was supposed to be the root form of this species from 
roots of corn.t Thirty-four years prior to the appearance of the first of 
these publications, Mr. Tho. Emory, of Poplar Grove (State not given), 
in a communication relating to a disease of wheat known as ‘‘ Sedging,” 
says, ‘‘ IE believe this insect is the same as that known by the name of 
the root-louse in corn, so frequently found in that plant, growing after 
clover, when the land is early flushed, and which occasions so stunted 
and diseased growth that it rarely recovers until late in the summer, 
and nct then if the season is dry.” ¢ 
Another corn insect wasreported from Buckingham, Va., in 1828, by Mr. 
Charles Yancey, the depredator being “alittle white worm with copper- 
colored head,” which perforated the stalks of young corn just below the 
surface of the ground, which destroyed the growth.§ | This depredator 
and its method of attack agree so closely with what we know of the 
larve of Diabrotica 12-punctata, which has since been observed working 
similar injury in Virginia,|| that it appears quite probable that this is 
an early exhibit of its destructive propensities. The injury to Blue 
Grass, which has since been found to be largely caused by a species of 
Thrips, was observed in New York as early as 1844, but the depredator 
was not discovered. 
The advent of the Striped Cucumber Beetle, Diabrotica vittata, is en- 
veloped in obscurity, but the use of covered frames for the protection 
of the vines dates back to 1823.** The small beetle, Byturus unicolor, 
though studied as a raspberry insect by both Fitchtt and Packard ft in 
1870, bobs up serenely in the Rural New Yorker as a new depredator, 
from Michigan, in 1885.§§ we 
The new inspiration given to the studies of the economic features of 
entomology by the establishment of experiment stations is very proper, 
* Second Rep. Ins. N. Y., pp. 318-320, 1856. 
t Proc. Ent. Soe. Phil., vol. 1, p. 300, 1863. 
t American Farmer, vol. 4, p.71, May 24, 1822. 
§ American Farmer, vol. 10, p. 3, 1828. 
|| Insect Life, vol. 4, p. 104. 
q The Cultivator, New Series, vol. 1, p. 206, July, 1844. 
**American Farmer, vol. 4, p. 374, 1828. 
tt Fourteenth Report, p. 358. 
tt Insects, New and Little Known. Pamph., p. 12. 
§§ Rural New Yorker, August 22, 1885. % 
