270 REPORT UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 
IlAIR-WORMS AND RED-MITES REMARKABLY ABUNDANT UPON LO- 
CUSTS IN California. — Since reading my brother's articles last week 
(being absent myself last fall and winter), I am reminded of having seen 
about one-fourth of an acre of my meadow, thickly filled last fall with 
eggs in the pools and. along the creek, as the snow went off, covered 
with millions and millions of what I now think may have been Gordius 
(white hair-snakes), about one inch long; also, another quarter of an 
acre fairly covered with little red-mites, which I will hereafter observe 
more closely. — [W. C. Lemmon, Sierra Valley, California, June 13, 1880. 
CnALCiD Flies. — The only instance in which these flies have been 
observed to attack locusts is described in the following quotation from 
an article by Professor Lemmon in the Sacramento, Gal., Wceldy Record- 
Union, November 29, 1879 : 
Another enemy greatly feared by the locusts is a minute, ant-resembling fly of the 
Chalets group. It lias monstrous enlargements of the hind legs just above the foot; 
yellow, lenticular, and prominent, they resemble the pollen baskets of a bee. This little 
swift-flying insect pursues the locust, and hovering over its head, attempts, by a quick 
thrust of its ovipositor, to place an egg upon its head or in the sutures of its neck, 
meanwhile dexterously dodging the blows aimed at it by the frantic locust. My 
close-observing brother, B. P. Leininou, and myself watched it particularly when at- 
tacking female locusts ovipositing. Frequently the locust would duck and dodge about, 
strike with her hind feet, or hasten away to another spot, but becoming wearied, or 
perhaps more concerned in her work of providing for the continuation of her own spe- 
cies, she often remained motionless, martyr -like enduring attacks from all quarters. 
How this pest is fostered or when or how born the writer cannot tell ; circumstances 
prevented the examination necessary at the right times. 
The egg-parasite, Caloptenobia ovivora, of our First Eeport, proves to 
be Sparasion famelicus of Say, 338 a member of the Hymenopterous family 
Proctotrupidce. The insect, however, belongs not to Sparasion, but to 
the closely allied genus Scelio, Latreille, and should be known as Scelio 
famelicus (Say). In our types we note that the mandibles and tegulae 
are honey yellow. From Say's description these specimens differ only 
in having two, instead of six, of the basal joints of the antennae pale, 
and in the mandibles being hardly "piceous." 
Digger Wasps. — Accompanying a letter dated July 11, 1880, Mr. 
W. C. Lemmon sends specimens of Larra tarsata Say, a digger wasp 
labrurn (misprint for labium?), which they cannot possibly be ; they are evidently the 
maxillae. The upper lateral pieces bearing the antennas are much less conspicuous, 
judging from the description, in Bombylius than in Systachus. The pupa of Bombylius, 
from Dr. Chapman's excellent description, differs in the greater prominence and some- 
what different arrangement of the cephalic spines, the anterior pair being 6touter and 
more bent forward than in either of the genera we have treated of. Dr. Chapman 
speaks of these spines forcibly reminding him of the tusks of a walrus, and of their 
admirable adaptation to tearing down the clay stopping and digging through, as 
" with mattock and shovel," the long burrows of the bee upon which it preys. The 
dorsal and anal spines are also much more prominent than in our locust-egg parasites. 
The pupa of Systcechus and Triodites, not being under the necessity of such strenuous 
digging, have a less formidable armature ; otherwise, there is strict structural corre- 
spondence with Bombylius. 
338 Boston Journal of Natural History, vol. 1, p. 27G (1836). 
