92 
PARASITES OF BEAN AND COWPEA A^TSEVTLS. 
It lias always been a matter of surprise and coinineut tliat our rom- 
inoM beau and i)ea weevils were not jiarasitized, since t\w allied cowpea 
weevils and various otlier brucliids that attack only wild plants were 
known to have chalcidid parasites whi(;h pi'cyed upon tlicni, often in 
great nund>er8. During the year that nas just passed the writer was 
successful in rearing a parasite of the bean weevil, and the occasion is 
taken to present notes on all the i)arasites of the legume-feeding bru- 
ehids which have been identilied at this tiiui'. The determinations of 
the parasites are by Mr. VV. H. Ash mead. 
/'Jupclmns ryanireps Ashm. — September 21, 1807, the writer reared 
what is probably the lirst i)ai'asite known of the weevil, Jiniclius ohtcctm 
Say. It was in beans brought to this office by Mr. Frank Benton from 
Berwyn, ]Md., and it oc^curred in some numbers. This si)ecies has pre- 
viously been mentioned by the writer as having bred from the seed 
pods of false indigo {Amorpha fruiicoHa) inhabited by liruchus exufuus 
(Insect Life, Vol. V, p. 250). 
Bruchobius hfticollis Ashm. — October 18, dead specimens were received 
from Dr. C. F. Parker, Mentone, Ala., with living individuals of the 
beetle of Bruchns ohtectuH in beans. This is a common parasite of 
Bruchtis 4-maculatus. The Department has received si)ecimens from 
several localities in beans and cowi)eas infested by this latter weevil, 
among which may be mentioned Washington, D. C, Lake City, Fla., and 
Chicago, 111. At the last-mentioned place numerous specimens were 
taken in seed from Brazil exhibited at the Columbian Exposition. At 
the Atlanta Exposition the sj)ecies occurred in material from Venezuela. 
Cephalonomia sp. — A single exami)le reared from beans from Vene- 
zuela, infested by B. 4-maculatus and exhibited at the Columbian 
Exposition. 
Aplastomorpha prattii Ashm. MS. was reared from Bruchus imacxi- 
latus in cowpeas brought to the Division by Mr. F. C. Pratt from a 
store at Washington, D. C, November, 189(>.— [F. H. C] 
INJURY 1\Y THE WESTERN FLEA-BEETLE, PHYLLOTRETA PUSILLA 
UOKN. 
July 10, 1807, specimens of the small blackish flea-beetle known as 
BhiiUoireia puHiUa were received from Mr. D. A. Piercy, Kennedy, Nebr., 
with the accompanying statement that the species had destroyed 
between 10 and UO acres of corn in twenty-four hours. In gardens they 
were stated to destroy everything. They came in swarms of black 
clouds and covered the plants. Our correspondent writes that a strong 
solution of soai)suds killed the beetles instantly, and that a mixture 
of fresh cow manure, wet up so as to be sprinkled on the plants with a 
brush or coarse sprinkler, would also drive the beetles away. 
Later in the month Mr. Benjamin F. Henry, of Hill City, S. Dak., 
complained of a ^'flea'' — a name commonly applied by farmers to flea 
