Natural Enemies. 



317 



eggs are laid, while in the former instances the parasite was only 

 discovered in the spring. — [Letter from Ex-Gov. Stephen Miller, 

 written from Windom, Minn., Aug. 15, 1876. 



We send herewith a box of grasshopper eggs, together with the 

 '• Silky Mite," of which so much has been said. You can see a sam- 

 ple of the work they are doing. They are over the ground and in 

 it wherever eggs have been laid. They suck the eggs, leaving the 

 bare shell. We have talked with farmers from all parts of the 

 county, and they all tell the same story — not a cell to be found that 

 is not partially or wholly destroyed. 



We have personally inspected them in more than twenty differ- 

 ent places, and are satisfied that in this county the eggs of the 

 festive G. H. are a " total wreck." Allow us to suggest that you 

 call for a report from every county in the State that has been 

 infested by them. — [Letter to Pioneer Press and Tribune, from 

 Bell & Gruelle, Worthington, Nobles Co., Minn., Aug. 16, 1876. 



I send, enclosed in a circular tin box, mailed with this, some 

 dirt containing grasshopper's eggs, and also the red mite or spider 

 that sucks them, as you will perceive on examination. I trust they 

 will be received in good order. I send them at the request of A. 

 Whitman, of St. Paul, of this State, with whom I am correspond- 

 ing sometimes on this grasshopper matter. — [Letter from R. B. 

 Potts, U. S. N., Worthington, Minn., Aug. 18, 1876. 



Up to the autumn of 1876 the Silky Mite was the only 

 parasite that was known to attack the eggs of our locust, 

 though a small Chalcid-fly* had been bred by Mr. S. H. 

 Scudder, from those of the Carolina Locust, a large species 

 with blue and black hind wings ; and two Ichneumon-flies 

 were known to attack locust eggs in Europe. In 1876 I 

 found five new insect enemies attacking these eggs almost 

 everywhere throughout the infested country, and these I 

 will proceed to describe. 



* Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist, XII, p. 99. Mr. Scudder has kindly furnished 

 me with female specimens. They are about 0.20 inch long, pitchy black, the head 

 and thorax very deeply pitted and roughened, and the abdomen, which is flattened 

 and quite tapering, also deeply marked with irregular, longitudinal depressions. 

 The antennae have the scape as long as the flagellum, which is curved and enlarges 

 to tip, which is suddenly docked. The scape, basal joint of flagellum and legs are 

 honey-yellow ; the wings hyaline. 



A similar, if not the same Chalcid, infests the eggs of spretus, for Mr. Potts 

 has sent me egg-masses in which every egg had a Chalcid pupa. Unfortunately, 

 they were too dry when received to permit of rearing the imago. 



