REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



411 



galleries are formed, which are for the most part tightly packed with 

 sawdust. 



The beetle thus becomes, not the destoyer, but the parasite of the 

 tree, and lives in a domicile, which may not improperly be termed a 

 gigantic root-gall. The effect on the tree is to kill the original sapling, 

 which becomes replaced by a cluster of insignificant and straggling- 

 suckers, forming perhaps a small clump of underbrush. In many cases 

 the branches and leaves are barely sufficient to supply the materials 

 for sluggish growth, and the entire strength of the plant goes toward 

 the formation of a root plexus, out of all proportion to the growth 

 above ground, and plainly designed to repair tbt> ravages of the borer. 



The Mallodon borers are very abundant in South Georgia and Florida, 

 and as a result of their attacks, vast tracts which might otherwise have 

 become forests, enriching the ground with annual deposits of leaves, 

 are reduced to comparatively barren scrub, in which the scattered oak 

 bushes barely suffice to cover the surface of the sand. 



Many a new settler, seeing his sandy hillside covered only by insig- 

 nificant oak bushes, and anticipating easy work in converting the wil- 

 derness into a blooming garden of orange trees, has been grieviously 

 disappointed to find before him no light task in clearing from the soil 

 these gnarled and tangled roots. In fact the great strength and weight 

 of the southern grubbing hoe appears no longer a mystery when one 

 contemplates the astonishing pile of " grub roots " which in vigorous 

 hands it will extract from a few square yards of apparently unoccupied 

 soil. 



The results of the work of this beetle are very plainly visible around 

 Savannah and especially on Tybee Island where Mr. George Noble first 

 drew our attention to it; while Mr. Hubbard has carefully studied its 

 work, as here recorded, in Florida. 



The Clover Seed Midge (Cecidomyia leguminicola Lintn.). — The 

 first complaint of this insect which we have heard during the past two sea- 

 sons was received early in September from Mr. 0. Wakefield, of Allen- 

 ville, Mifflin County, Pennsylvania. This is a new locality for the midge, 

 but its abundance in Virginia and New York makes it altogether prob- 

 able that it will be found in all of the intervening region. Mr. Wake- 

 field states that the seed-crop in his section is being entirely destroyed ; 

 that the midges were bad last season, but much worse this fall. We 

 gave an account of this insect, with figures, in the Annual Report of the 

 Department for 1878, pp. 250-252, and additional notes will be found in 

 the Annual for 1879, pp. 193-197. 



The Potato Stalk-weevil (Trichobaris trinotatus, Say).-— Vines 

 containing this borer were received August 1 from Mr. Richard B. Tay- 

 lor, of West Chester, Chester County, Pennsylvania. Mr. Taylor stated 

 that two-thirds of his potato crop had been destroyed by the weevil, 

 although he had seen no notice of loss by others. This insect was 

 treated in our first report as State entomologist of Missouri, and was 

 there figured in all stages. The only satisfactory remedy consists in 

 pulling up and burning all infested stalks as soon as, by wilting, they 

 indicate the presence of the weevil. 



The Red-humped Prominent ((Edemasia concinna, Smith and Ab- 

 bot). — This curious and well-known caterpillar was received in August 

 from. Oregon. Mr. F. S. Matteson, of Aumsville, states that he found it 

 in large numbers on a young apple tree, entirely denuding the branches 

 of leaves. This mention is made as bearing upon the geographical dis- 

 tribution of the species. The gregarious habits of these larvas when 

 first hatched admit of an easy remedy in hand-picking. 



