260 



but whether this would hold good iu the field I can not tell. Rubber might be put 

 in the grooves if thought advisable. * * *— [T. D. A. Cockerell, Jamaica. 



Reply.— When you have given your Heliothis crusher a practical test please no- 

 tify me of the result. It really seems to me that one could use his unassisted hand 

 to about as good an advantage. The pressure could certainly be graduated more 

 accurately. 



Wax Moths in a Cupboard. 



First letter.— I send a box of cocoons. I have never noticed them before, but 

 this year they were found in abundance in a cupboard shelf where books and papers 

 were kept. They seemed to have lived on the paper and in forming their chrysalides ; 

 some gnawed into the hard covers of books and pasteboard boxes.— [Alda M. Sharp, 

 Iowa, December 7, 1892.) 



Reply.—* * * The cocoons which you send are ai^parently those of the com- 

 mon Honey Moth or ^' Wax Moth" (Galleria meUonella), and I imagine that you may 

 have kept honey in this same cupboard. You will find some account of the insect in 

 Riley's First Report as Entomologist of the State of Missouri (p. 166), where it is 

 mentioned under the name of GaUeria cereana, by which name it is also treated in 

 most of the works on the Honey Bee.— [December 14, 1892.] 



Second letter.— When I sent you the cocoons I was not aware that honey or 

 wax had been in the cupboard where they were found, but I have eince learned 

 that a jar of wax and honey from a hive killed out by moths had been stored there a 

 few days, which solves the riddle.— [Alda M. Sharp, Iowa, December 21, 1892. 



On the Habits of some Blister-beetles. 



On July 21 I noticed that Lytta cinerea and Lytta marginata were devouring the 

 Clematis virginiana. The two species seemed to be about equally divided. I dusted 

 the vine with Paris green mixed into lime, and the beetles disappeared. 



On July 23, 1 noticed that they had attacked another vine, Clematis coccinea. On 

 the 25th I prepared to try these with kerosene emulsion. After having sprinkled 

 about half of them I noticed that the two kinds were mating indiscriminately. I 

 then quit trying to destroy and began to observe. Three pairs while in copulation 

 were bottled, one pair, male cinerea with female marginata; one pair, male marginata 

 with female cinerea; one pair male and female cinerea. As many as eight cases of 

 cross-mating were observed, with only one of cinerea with cifierea and not any of 

 marginata with marginata. It is plain that crossing was preferred. 



The Paris green and lime frightened all away from Clematis virginiana, and they 

 never returned. The kerosene emulsion lessened the number on CZema^is cocciwea. 

 It was the 20th dilution and killed those only that raised their wings so as to per- 

 mit the spiracles getting wet. Others were simply knocked off the vine. On 

 August 1 there were a few beetles on C. coccinea, some of each kind; but the beets, 

 pot*atoes, tomatoes, cabbage, pig-weed, and black nightshade of the gardens and 

 Silphium and Actinomeris of the woodland were being attacked by marginata. 

 Two of these found in copulation on the potato were bottled. Lytta cinerea was 

 found on nothing but Clematis, and all had disappeared by August 10. 



The period of vigorous vegetation which precedes and accompanies inflorescence 

 seems to determine what species of Clematis these beetles select as food-plants. 

 They first attacked the late flowering species, as C. virginiana and C. flammula ; 

 these flower in profusion by the first of August, and were when attacked full of ten- 

 der leaves and flower buds. Their second choice seemed to be those species that 

 flower all summer, C. coccinea and C. viorna. The early flowerets, as C. jackmani 

 and C. Candida, were not touched, perhaps, because having long passed the flower- 

 ing stage, the leaves of these species had become harsh and woody. 



On August 15 Lytta marginata was everywhere abundant. By this time they hadi 

 stripped the potato tops and w^ere making skeletons of the cabbage leaves, I can 

 safely say, all over Decatur County. 



