belonging to this group discovered in this country, all other known species belonging to the Australian fauna. The galls are situated on the lower side of the leaf, with a nearly closed slit on the upper side. The mouth of the slit, which is parallel with the midrib, is beset with a pale grayish pubescence. The gall itself is quite large, somewhat conical, laterally compressed, leaning over to one side, and ending in a slightly curved point, the whole resembling a broad, flat tooth. They are green on one side and crimson or purplish on the other, and closely covered by a short grayish pubesence which can easily be rubbed off. Each of these galls contains at this date a single specimen, which rests in the lower or pointed end of the gall. They have cast at least one skin and some evidently two. The insect is orange, broad oval, somewhat more pointed posteriorly, and with a fringe of short stiff hairs around the whole margin. The antennæ are six-jointed, the third being the longest. Eyes small and brown; pro

boscis stout, reaching between middle coxæ; legs stout and rather short.

Received June 12, 1882, another lot of these galls, which are now almost woody and quite hard. Most of them contain the insect, although others are empty, and some are inhabited by a lepidopterous larva, which preys upon the coccid. This coccid is a most remarkable insect. Its upper or dorsal surface is quite flat and fits closely to the walls of the gall, and around the whole margin is a narrow elevated ridge. The color of the dorsum is dark purplish brown and is slightly covered with a delicate pruinose substance. The lower or ventral side fills entirely the lower end of the gall. It is orange and also somewhat covered with a mealy excretion. The legs are free and movable. No eggs or larvæ were found. The lepidopteron is purplish, the head brick red, cervical shield somewhat paler anteriorly, with a broad black posterior margin. The body is marked each side with a somewhat irregular row of minute whitish spots and similar spots across the middle of the segments. The venter is pale dirty grayish yellow. Length of the largest about 7 mm.

FIG. 44.-Gall of Olliffiella cristata on Quercus wrightii (original).

Received May 25, 1883, some of these galls on Q. emoryi from Mr. Morrison, Fort Huachuca, Ariz.

At the meeting of the Entomological Society of Washington, held March 18, 1896, Dr. James Fletcher, the Dominion entomologist of Canada, referred to an outbreak of the white pine butterfly (Neophasia menapia) in the elevated arid plateau which forms the interior of British Columbia. The larvae of this insect, according to Dr. Fletcher, in this locality feed entirely upon the leaves of the yellow or bull pine (Pinus ponderosa), while at Vancouver Island, where this pine does not occur,

the larvæ feed on the foliage of the Douglas spruce and do much harm. In both cases where the insect was observed in large numbers the pupa were found to be parasitized by an ichneumonid, Theronia fulvescens. The descent of the full-grown larvæ from trees 100 feet high by a silken thread was described.

August 22, specimens of this insect were received at this office from Mr. H. D. Langille, of Mount Hood, Oreg., with a letter dated August 12, which stated that the butterfly appeared that day at Cloud Cap Inn, at the snow line on Mount Hood, in immense numbers. Two years ago the insect came about the mountains in large numbers, seeming to hover about the evergreen trees mostly, and the next year whole acres of the nut pine (Pinus monticola) began to die, presumably on account of the work of the larvæ of this butterfly.

A week later specimens of the same insect were received from Mrs. W. J. Hess, of Goldendale, Wash., with the statement that it made its appearance during 1895 in the pine timber on the mountains near Goldendale in great numbers, in some places falling into the small streams and damming them. Some hogs pasturing in the timber died, and, upon examination, their stomachs were found to be packed with the "moths." It was noticed that year that the pine trees where the "moths" were bore no cones, while a few trees on the prairie had them as usual. The trees this year (1896), according to Mrs. Hess, were infested with a small green worm, undoubtedly the larvæ of this butterfly. For about a month in midsummer the butterflies were noticed on the prairie flying southward high in the air.

RECENT DAMAGE BY THE STRAWBERRY WEEVIL.

During May of the past year, too late as usual for remedial experimentation, complaints were received of injuries by the strawberry weevil (Anthonomus signatus Say) from Maryland and Virginia.

May 2, Mr. G. W. Donaldson, who has kindly kept me informed in previous years of the invasions of this destructive little beetle in his neighborhood, formerly called Dixie Landing, and now known by the somewhat more euphonious title of Cherry Dale, reported the insect in injurious abundance on his farm and on those of his neighbors who grow the "Jessie" and other staminate varieties of strawberry. Some of these farmers have several acres in strawberries and depend chiefly upon this crop for a livelihood.

May 9, specimens of strawberry buds showing injury by this species were received from Mr. Richard Mason, Marshall, Va., with the report that nearly his entire crop had been destroyed the past two springs. In 1895 he sprayed with a solution of whale-oil soap with no effect, and the past season with a solution of sulphate of copper and lime, also with kerosene emulsion, so he writes, but without any apparent effect.

In the latter days of May Mr. James S. Robinson, horticulturist of the Maryland Experiment Station, called at this office for advice

in regard to the treatment of this insect, which he reported to be almost universally destructive throughout the berry-growing region of the State of Maryland. In reply to inquiry he stated that at least fifty complaints concerning its injuries were received at the station. He estimated the damage to his own crop at about $500 or $600 and to the fruit-growing district in the immediate vicinity of Baltimore at about $20,000.

During this same month we received specimens of the insect from Mr. M. V. Slingerland, of Ithaca, N. Y., who also transmitted a complaint of injury that was undoubtedly due to the same species from Mr. C. W. Coons, Wadalin, Dutchess County, N. Y.-[F. H. CHITTEN

DEN.

NOTE ON THE SCOLYTID, XYLEBORUS TACHYGRAPHUS ZIMM.

One of the rarest scolytid beetles in collections is Xyleborus tachygraphus Zimm., and until its discovery a few years since infesting the tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera) nothing was known of its habits. In volume II of the Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington (pp. 62–64) Mr. E. A. Schwarz, of this Division, gave some interesting facts concerning this species and its food tree.

A year or two following Mr. Schwarz's observations the writer had occasion to observe this insect at work in other trees, there being evidence to show not only that it is capable of considerable injury to young forest growth, but that in previous years it had been sufficiently abundant to have caused the death of many trees in a tract of woodland in the vicinity of Rosslyn, Va., and in the same neighborhood in which the Liriodendron colony was found.

May 28, females were discovered beginning their galleries in the green and still living portion of a stump of box-elder (Negundo negundo). On the same tree similarly engaged was found Monarthrum mali, an account of which the writer has already given (1. c., p. 392).

June 11 of the following year another colony was discovered, occupied as before, on two saplings of red-bud (Cercis canadensis), both plants to all appearance in perfectly healthy condition. The entrance holes of the scolytid's galleries were a few inches above the ground. and extended about a foot up the trunk. They were very closely crowded together, in one sapling no less than 16 holes being counted on one side in a surface of 33 square inches, 9 of these occurring in a space only an inch square. On the opposite side of the trunk only two galleries had been started. Subsequently this species was found dead in its galleries, at the bases of three other young trees, likewise dead, viz, maple (Acer sp.), beech (Fagus latifolia=ferruginea), and sumac (Rhus typhina). In the maple the longitudinal galleries of the beetle ran parallel to each other and were constructed so closely together that the trunk broke off at the point of attack under slight pressure. In the beech and sumac the galleries were similarly crowded. In all findings save the last the species was represented only by one sex, the female.

Mr. Schwarz has remarked that the galleries of this species, which he describes and figures, are indistinguishable from those of our common X. dispar, which occurred in the same shoots. The galleries that I have seen in other woods differ considerably, but as the general design is under normal conditions somewhat similar it will be unnecessary to describe them here.-[F. H. CHITTENDEN.

THE HARLEQUIN CABBAGE BUG ON ASPARAGUS.

A striking instance of how a plant never before known as furnishing sustenance for a particular species of insect may be attacked by this insect when its appropriate and favored food supply becomes exhausted was recently observed in the case of the harlequin cabbage bug, Murgantia histrionica Hahn.

September 28, 1896, an asparagus bed at Marshall Hall, Md., was found to be full of these bugs. Hundreds of specimens, naturally mostly mature at this time, but including a small proportion in the preparatory stages, were seen gathered in large groups on every main stem of the plants, and so thickly grouped in places that they could easily be seen for 20 yards or more. Thus huddled together, each individual with its haustellum sunk into the succulent stem, they looked like gigantic black and yellow plant-lice.

The cause of this unusual visitation was at once apparent. Three or four large beds of cabiage, all completely ruined by these insects had been observed in this same garden on previous occasions, but the damaged plants had been removed and such bugs as had escaped had found their way to the asparagus bed, where they had seemingly made themselves quite at home. It was noticeable that the asparagus was preferred to all other plants. Only one other crop had attracted them, and this of little importance, the sunflowers, grown for indoor decoration. Beans, beets, and grapes had entirely escaped injury.

In July of a previous year the writer noticed large numbers of this species in different stages feeding on the common ragweed, Ambrosia trifida. About ten days later all had disappeared. No crucifer on which they might have bred was present in this neighborhood except the shepherd's purse (Capsella bursapastoris), a few stunted, withered plants being found among the ragweeds. They were competely defoliated, the leaves having withered, dried, and dropped off, and it is therefore apparent that the harlequin bugs had originally fed upon this plant until they had completely exhausted its juices and had then been obliged to change their food in order to complete their transformations. The adults found at this time were all newly bred individuals.

The principal damage wrought by this insect, as is well known, is to plants of the botanical family Cruciferæ, and especially to cabbage, radishes, turnips, and kale. As another instance of unusual injury by this species may be mentioned the statement of Dr. J. A. Lintner in his first New York report (p. 265). He relates on the authority of a

correspondent in Virginia that at one time after exhausting a cabbage crop these bugs attacked bunches of late grapes and shoots of late corn, gathering in numbers near the silk.-[F. H. CHITTENDEN.

MEAL-WORMS IN SODA ASH.

During October we received from Dr. John B. Porter, consulting chemist, of Glendale, Ohio, specimens of living larvæ of the meal-worm, Tenebrio obscurus, in a box of soda ash. Our correspondent wrote that they were found in a carload of this chemical, the crude sodium carbonate, from Syracuse, N. Y. They were noticed within 6 or 8 inches of the bottom and most numerous nearer the bottom, and especially at the corners and edges. The men who handle this material make positive statement that they frequently find cars containing immense numbers of them, and that often they penetrate nearly 2 feet into the mass. They also state that these larvæ are only found in October, November, and December, and further, that once they were found living in large numbers in a bin which had been full of soda ash and tightly closed for eight months. The car from which our specimens came contained thousands of living and some few dead larvæ. The only plausible explanation of the presence of the meal-worms in the soda ash is that the cars had previously been used in shipping quantities of meal, flour, grain, or similar material in which the insects had been breeding. These larvæ attain approximate growth toward the beginning of the autumn, which will explain their having been found only from October to December. It would be impossible for insects to feed on soda ash, and the wonder is that the Tenebrio larvæ are able to live at all in so caustic a substance.

AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND COCCIDÆ,

In a most interesting letter recently received from Mr. W. M. Maskell, the New Zealand authority on scale insects, he gives us several interesting bits of information, among others, that an entirely new enemy to the peach has appeared in New South Wales. He describes it as Aonidia fusca, and states that in Sydney they are taking most drastic measures to get rid of the insect, destroying the trees as far as possible. The San Jose scale (Aspidiotus perniciosus) has recently made its appearance in Victoria. Hitherto it has been known only in New South Wales. Dactylopius adonidum, the common mealy bug of Europe, has, in the last six months, broken out in an alarming way in the Hutt Valley, near Wellington, New Zealand. During the summer and autumn of 1894 it appeared in myriads on vines in greenhouses and on gooseberries out of doors, much to the amazement of market gardeners. Mr. Maskell has found another Icerya from Australia which has no ovisac.

Referring to our note in Insect Life (Vol. V, p. 282) in which we mention on the authority of Mr. Alex. Craw the introduction of Ctenochiton perforatus and Dactylopius iceryoides into California, he states that he 8967-No. 7————6