282 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



water. Slight variations of this wash are made by adding to it 

 one part of the extract of tobacco, or one part of potash. Another 

 wash, which is recommended for such grape insects as the Pyrale 

 and Cochylis, has also soap for its ingredient, and is prepared as 

 follows : Soap, three parts, dissolved in one-half of one part of 

 alcohol, to which is added one and one-half parts of benzine, and 

 the whole combined with one hundred parts of water. 



As already noted, the great crops of the region about Florence 

 are the vine and olive. The former is grown throughout Italy, 

 in rows, trained on trees or on very high trellis-work, and is 

 rather carelessly cultivated and apparently very liable to insect 

 attack, especially when trained on trees which furnish very con 

 venient winter retreats for the chrysalids of the Cochylis or the 

 larvae of the Pyrale. The chief enemy, the Phylloxera, is kept 

 in check by the use of American stocks, and planting in sandy or 

 gravelly soils. 



The olive finds its principal enemy in the olive-fruit fly, which 

 Doctor del Guercio's experiments, he says, have demonstrated to 

 be subject to control. Since this insect winters in the pupa state, 

 either on the ground or near the surface, he has found that deep 

 plowing at any time from January to May will very materially 

 limit the pest. Nevertheless, this insect is present nearly every 

 where, and the loss from it is necessarily great. Of other insects 

 little account is taken, and not much damage is reported. Yearly 

 examinations are made for such wood-boring insects as Scolytids, 

 and the soap solutions mentioned above are used for the leaf- 

 feeding insects. Egg-masses are carefully collected and destroyed 

 in the winter. 



In nearly all the principal towns in Italy are Royal Universi 

 ties, most of which have a zoological section and museum, with 

 a director or professor in charge. Prof. Carlo Emery, the well- 

 known student of the Formicidae, is thus connected with the 

 Royal University of Bologna, and Prof. Achille Costa, for nearly 

 forty years, has been similarly connected with the Royal Univer 

 sity of Naples, and Director of the Museo Zoologica. Unfortu 

 nately, opportunity did not offer to meet either of these men. 

 The latter museum is chiefly interesting as containing the types of 

 the genera arid species described by Prof. Costa during the last 

 half century in his "Fauna del Regno di Napoli" 



