August, '15] 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES 



431 



A Ciirious Feeding Habit of Chrysopa rufilabris Burm. Last fall while collecting 

 locaUy at Lafayette, Indiana, a chrysopid larva was noticed on a leaf of Cynoglossum 

 officinale forcing its long slender mandibles through the epidermis into the burrow of 

 a leaf miner. On closer observation it was seen that the larva was energetically 

 bent on impaling the maggot-hke leaf miner on its mandibles. The mandibles were 

 thi'ust into the leaf repeatedly, the insect bending its head and body in all directions 

 as it probed in its efforts to reach the miner. Finally the miner was cornered in its 

 burrow and sucked dry by the larva. A number of similar mined leaves and miners 

 were collected and the adults obtained from them were identified by Dr. J. M. 

 Aldrich of the Bureau of Entomology as Agromyza jucunda Vdw. The chrysopid 

 larva was brought into the laboratory and fed on aphids found on cabbage until it 

 reached maturity and spun its cocoon. The adult obtained was very kindly deter- 

 mined as Chrysopa rufilabris Burm. by Mr. Nathan Banks. 



Daniel G. Tower, M. S., Scientific Assistaiit, Bureau of Entomology, 

 Cereal and Forage Insect Investigations, U. S. Department of Agriculture. 



Notes on an Uncommon Blistsr Beetle. On the afternoon of April 18, 1915, 

 I was inspecting the bloom in a thi'ee-year-old plum orchard at my place in Brown 

 County, Indiana, when I discovered that the trees were covered with a blister beetle 

 that was unknown to me. 



This form was subsequentlj^ taken to my house and identified as Pomyhoyma cenea. 

 It is listed in Blatchley's Coleoptera of Indiana as being a rare species taken by him 

 in only two counties. 



The beetles were eating the entu'e substance of the flowers of the plum and were 

 more numerous on the Burbank than on any other sort. This perhaps on account of 

 the fact that the Burbank blooms earlier than the varieties with which it was planted. 



On one tree over two hundred beetles were counted and their destructive work was 

 incredibly rapid. They would attack a brajich loaded with bloom and eat it up before 

 my eyes in the space of a very few minutes. They seemed to eat first the petals of 

 the flower and then rapidly consume aU of the flower parts down to the petiole. 



I immediately ordered out a spray machine and within an horn' after I first noticed 

 the beetles we had sprayed the trees with lead arsenate at the rate of three pounds to 

 fifty gallons of water. An inspection on the morning of April 19 indicated that the 

 spray appHed the day before had not seriously inconvenienced the pests. A few 

 dead beetles were found under the trees but their numbers were not noticeably 

 lessened. 



We then sprayed the trees again using five pounds of arsenate of lead to fifty gal- 

 lons of water and we added one pint of Black Leaf 40 to each fifty gallons of the mix- 

 ture. Twenty-four hours later not a beetle could be found on the trees although 

 there were some dead ones on the ground under the trees. 



Not finding many dead beetles leads me to believe that the tobacco acted as a 

 repellant and that the beetles simply moved on to other pastures — although so far I 

 have heard no complaint from my neighbors. 



The beetles destroyed the entire crop of Burbank and seriously damaged the bloom 

 on the America and Red June plums. 



On the same date that I first observed the beetles on our trees my former chief 

 deputy, Mr. Frank Wallace, found them feeding on the bloom of plum trees (variety 

 not given) in his brother's orchard in Morgan County. This locahty is about fifteen 

 miles northwest of my place. 



The Uterature on this pest seems to be very scant and I would like to hear from any 

 one who has had a similar experience to mine. 



Benjamin W. Douglass, Trevlac, Ind. 



