CONTENTS. Page. INTRODUCTION THE PEACH TWIG-BORER (Anarsia lineatella Zell.) (illustrated). C. L. Marlatt.. NOTES ON CUCUMBER BEETLES (illustrated).. TWO JAPANESE INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT (illustrated).. 5 7 ..L. O. Howard.. L. Zehntner.. ON INSECTS THAT AFFECT ASPARAGUS (illustrated) F. H. Chittenden.. L. O. Howard.. THE BUFFALO-GNATS, OR BLACK-FLIES, OF THE UNITED STATES (illustrated)... ON THE HABITS OF THE OSCINIDE AND AGROMYZIDÆ .D. W. Coquillett.. F. H. Chittenden.. NOTES ON THE STRAWBERRY WEEVIL: ITS INJURIES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY F. H. Chittenden.. GENERAL NOTES. A Peculiar Damage to the Apple (p. 89); Another Lead-boring Insect (p.90); Icerya purchasi in Portugal and the Azores (p. 91); A Littleknown Tineid Moth of Indoor Habits (p.92); Another Moth Likely to be Mistaken for Tinea granella (p. 93); Parasites of Bean and Cowpea Weevils (p. 94); Injury by the Western Flea-Beetle, Phyllotreta pusilla Horn (p. 94); The Windrow Remedy for Blister Beetles (p. 95); White Grubs of Allorhina nitida Invading a Cellar (p. 95); Reported Damage by the Green Plant-bug, Lioderma uhleri Stal. (p. 96); On the Food Habits of the Harlequin Cabbage Bug (p. 96); Food Plants of the "Cotton Stainer" (p. 97); Collecting Locust Eggs in Morocco (p. 98); Poisoning Grasshoppers in Natal (p.98); Collecting Grasshoppers in New Hampshire (p. 99). NOTES FROM CORRESPONDENCE 97 3 INTRODUCTION. The present bulletin is the second of those belonging to the new series which contain shorter articles and notes; in fact, such material as was formerly published in Insect Life. It is the policy of the Division to present in this form the results of the observations made in the office which are not sufficiently extensive upon any one topic to form an independent and complete bulletin. The present issue contains a number of articles which will doubtless be found of wide interest and more or less importance. The article upon the peach twig-borer, by Mr. Marlatt, was completed in July, and was presented by title before the meeting of the Association of Economic Entomologists at Detroit, Mich., in August. A bulletin by Mr. Cordley, of the Oregon Station, which has priority of publication, was apparently prepared simultaneously with this article. It is hoped that the article by the writer on the fig-eater, or green June beetle, will be of value as showing the harmless character of the larvae of this insect, which have generally been supposed to be plant depredators of some consequence. The series of articles by Mr. Chittenden comprises a number of new notes upon garden insects which have resulted from a series of careful observations upon insects of this class. Further results will be published from time to time. The articles by Dr. Zehntner, of Java, and Professor Matsumura, of Japan, have an interest to American economic entomologists, not only from the general interest attaching to the methods of work in economic entomology by trained foreigners, but also from the fact that the necessity of an intimate knowledge of foreign species which may at any time be introduced into our territory, is every day becoming more evident. For a number of years it has been thought very desirable to have an annual exploration made of the territory comprised within the limits of the permanent breeding grounds of the Rocky Mountain locust, as well as the adjoining territory, for the purpose of obtaining exact knowledge of conditions upon which might be based some intelligent idea as to the prospects of locust abundance in ensuing seasons. These annual trips have always been made down to the present year by Prof. Lawrence Bruner, of the University of Nebraska, under the auspices of this Division. Thus Professor Bruner's reports for 1895 and 1896 were published in Bulletin No. 7 of this series. In 1897 the newspaper reports and the office correspondence indicated a greater abundance of grasshoppers than usual, and in Professor Bruner's absence in South America his assistant and former companion on some of these trips, Mr. W. D. Hunter, also of the University of Nebraska, was commissioned to undertake the work. Mr. Hunter's report is published in full, and it is gratifying to note that although the true Western migratory grasshopper was, owing to conditions which he has pointed out, more abundant than for several years past, the character of the season of 1897 was such as to suggest the probability that the numbers of this insect will be much less during the summer of 1898. The articles by Mr. Coquillett present synopses of the species of the insects known as black-flies, or buffalo-gnats, and on the habits of the injurious flies of the families Oscinidæ and Agromyzidæ, and will have an interest by no means limited to the systematist. The accurate knowledge gained from the view of the habits of the last-named families will be of especial value to the economic worker particularly interested in the insect enemies of grains and grasses. L. O. H. SOME MISCELLANEOUS RESULTS OF THE WORK OF THE DIVISION OF ENTOMOLOGY. THE PEACH TWIG-BORER.1 (Anarsia lineatella Zell.) By C. L. MARLATT. INTRODUCTION. Up to the present year the twig-borer of stone fruits and the crownminer of the strawberry have been treated as the same insect, as indicated in the appended bibliography and as will be fully explained later. Prior to the observations made by Mr. E. M. Ehrhorn, as published by Mr. Alex. Craw, the knowledge of the twig-borer was confined to the fact of its injury to peach twigs, either in terminals before the trees leaved out in the spring, as described by Glover; or in the young shoots and later in the ripening fruit, as described by Professor Comstock and others. What was supposed to be the same insect had also been observed to affect the crown of the strawberry, as reported by Mr. William Saunders and later by other writers, one brood wintering in the half-grown larval stage in the crowns and a second brood working during early summer in the young shoots and runners. While passing through California in the fall of 1896 the writer had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Ehrhorn and examining with him the curi ous hibernating chambers made by the newly hatched larvæ of this insect in the crotches of the trees and had explained the habits of this insect as far as then known to Mr. Ehrhorn and substantially as recorded by Mr. Craw. The discovery of this peculiar hibernating habit of Anarsia lineatella is very interesting in itself, and is also a long step toward the completion of our knowledge of the life history of the insect, and is especially valuable as suggesting better means than any heretofore known of preventing damage from it. Arrangements were made with Mr. Ehrhorn at the time to supply the Department with ample material of the young larvæ in their hibernating cells; and, throughout the winter and spring of 1896-97, Mr. Ehrhorn was good enough to send repeatedly quantities of such material Read by title before the ninth annual meeting of the Association of Economic Entomologists, August 13, 1897. |