SCIENTIFIC NOTES 
491 
December, ’20] 
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 
The loss of foliage from ravages by cotton worms does not kill the 
cotton plants. 
Stripping by cotton worms results in the much earlier maturity of 
unopened bolls. 
There is practically no loss in weight of bolls maturing on plants 
without foliage. 
With a killing frost occurring normally at an average date of Novem¬ 
ber 10 for this locality, after which development ceases, the following 
conclusion is drawn: 
Under boll weevil conditions and years of abundant moisture, strip¬ 
ping of rank growing cotton two months before a killing frost is bene¬ 
ficial rather than injurious. 
This conclusion is contrary to the general opinion regarding cotton 
worm injury and the following question is therefore raised, What 
relation does the date of stripping bear to the amount of injury 
produced? 
Scientific Notes 
Predaceous Grasshoppers. We have had opportunity this summer to observe 
the highly predaceous feeding habits of one of the cricket-like grasshoppers, Udeop- 
sylla nigra Scudder (determined by Professor Caudell). They were rather abundant 
at lights during the summer and were observed many times to be feeding on Lachno- 
sterna adults. The beetles were either overpowered or directed into a corner and 
partly devoured. They generally gnawed off the legs of the beetles, leaving only 
stubs beyond the coxae. In captivity they were fed May beetles and grasshoppers, 
upon which they readily fed. Sometimes a long and hard battle was necessary to 
overcome the larger grasshoppers. The writer knows of no reference to this species 
in literature as a predator of May beetles. R. C. Smith. 
A Blossom Destroying Beetle on the Mango and Avocado. During the past 
spring avocado and mango groves in certain sections of southern Florida have been 
visited during the blossoming period by swarms of a small Scarabaeid beetle, Anomala 
undulata Mels. The beetle is nocturnal, carrying on its devastation at night, attack¬ 
ing the bloom spikes, cutting them off in many instances as with a knife. During 
the day the beetles seek shelter a short distance beneath the soil. Several groves 
noticed particularly were visited by swarms of this species and before any remedial 
and preventive measures could be carried out, considerable damage was accom¬ 
plished by this pest. The habits of the larval stage are not known. 
G. F. Moznette. 
A Dipterous Parasite of the Parsnip Webworm ( Depressaria heracliana Linn.). 
On July 12, 1920, there were received, for identification, larvae of the parsnip web¬ 
worm in wild parsnip from K. H. Fernow at Pleasant Valley, near Hammondsport, 
N. Y. Two of the caterpillars had pupated and these pupae were placed in a vial for 
the purpose of rearing the moths. On July 18 a Tachinid fly emerged from one of 
the pupae and was identified as Dichaetoneura leucoptera Johnson after having been 
compared with material from Maine in the Cornell University collection determined 
