KEP0RT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST 



3*1 



A Parasitic Attack. 



About the middle of February, 1893, ears of "eight-rowed Shaker" 

 corn, from South Dakota, of the crop of 1891, were brought to me 

 from a commission house in Albany, which contained the larva? of the 

 insect and numerous holes from which the moth had emerged. Some 

 small ears of the pointed kernels, known as " Egyptian Rice," and 

 used for popping, grown in this State in 1891, were quite badly 

 infested; nearly every kernel had been burrowed. 



Three weeks thereafter, several examples of a chalcid parasite 

 emerged, which, being submitted to Dr. Riley at Washington, were 

 found to belong to the genus Catolaccus, and was probably an un- 

 described species. 



It was subsequently learned from the firm that not long before the 

 infested corn had been sent to me, thousands of a minute and delicate- 

 winged insect had been noticed flying in the room where the corn was 

 stored, when aroused by a light brought into it. In the belief that 

 their presence was connected with the injury to the corn, sulphur was 

 burned to destroy them. It accomplished its work so effectually that 

 when I visited the room to see the condition of the attack, no living 

 examples could be found, but the identity of the reported myriads with 

 the Catolaccus parasite bred by me was established by dead specimens 

 that were lying upon the beams and in folds of paper in the room. 



Number of Broods. 



Under natural conditions, abroad, there are, except in the South, 

 two annual broods of the insect. According to Reaumur, the moths 

 emerge in June from the stored grain and deposit their eggs upon the 

 growing grain as it is beginning to head. The second brood of moths 

 appears in August, and from these the larva? are produced which oper- 

 ate within the grain throughout the winter. European writers record 

 two broods of the moth, which appear in May and June, and in Novem- 

 ber. It seems, however, that the number of broods depends on the 

 latitude, for while Dr. Harris records but two in Massachusetts, five are 

 claimed in Southern Virginia, between June and October; and Prof. 

 H. E. Weed, of the Mississippi Agricultural Experiment Station, states 

 loc. cit., that "there are, at least, eight annual generations" in that 

 State, and that " in warm weather it takes but a month to pass from 

 the egg to the moth, and the various stages of the insect can be found 

 in infested grain at all times in the year." 



Writers do not agree in their statements of when the eggs of the 

 first brood are laid. In Europe the moths are said, as above, to appear 



