1893-] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 123 



DEPARTMENT OF EGONOMIG ENTOMOLOGY. 



Edited by Prof. JOHN B. SMITH, Sc. D., New Brunswick, N, J. 



The Black Peach Aphis. In Bulletin No. 40 of the Cornell Experiment 

 Station Mr. Slingerland has an article on the Black Peach Aphis, Aphis 

 persicce-niger, which has, it seems, made its appearance in destructive 

 numbers in -some sections of New York State. Nothing is added to our 

 knowledge of the history of the insects, and under the head of remedies 

 he makes the statement concerning the root inhabiting form that "There 

 is on record no experiments in the destruction of this form." This 



is not strictly correct; in Bulletin No. 72 of the New Jersey Station I rec- 

 ommend kainit for the root form of this insect, and in Bulletin No. 75 I 

 quote the positive testimony of Dr. E. F. Smith, who made the experi- 

 ment, that tobacco dust had been tried with great success. In my report 

 for 1890'! cite the testimony of growers as to the effects of applications 

 of kainit on infested ground, and throughout my reports are notes on the 

 same subject. If my memory serves me, Mr. Alwood, of the Virginia 

 Station, has also stated at some meeting of economic entomologists that 

 tobacco had been successfully used by him or in his State. Dr. E. F. 

 Smith has, somewhere, published his experiments on the root forms of 

 the peach louse in some detail, and Mr. Slingerland, however small his 

 faith in the efficiency of the remedies, might at least have stated that 

 claims have been made for them; leaving it open to the farmers to make 

 experiments if they choose. Though I have made no experiments which 

 have any claim to be called conclusive, yet the uniform success that has 

 attended a liberal use of kainit in peach orchards infested by these root 

 lice, leads me to feel safe in making positive recommendations. Thus 

 far I have not found a case where the applications have failed. The 

 trouble with the trees was not starvation in all cases, but entirely an aphid 

 attack. ' 



Carnivorous and Herbivorous Insects. The food relations of some of 

 our supposed predaceous insects have been carefully studied by Prof. S. 

 A. Forbes, and some contributions have been made on the subject by Mr. 

 F. M. Webster and others. Among the predaceous forms the Coccim-1- 

 lidae have been shown to be by no means as universally carnivorous as 

 was once supposed, but that vegetable matter, and particularly fungus 

 spores formed a considerable proportion of their nourishment at some 

 seasons of the year. Coccinella y-iiofadt is one of the most common of 

 our "lady birds," and there is no question that, in both larval and adult 

 stages, much, and sometimes all of its food is furnished by plant lice. 

 Others as well as myself have actually observed them feeding voraciously 

 on quite a number of species of aphids, so that this habit of the species 

 is in no doubt. Epilachne borealis, on the contrary, is as universally 

 known as an herbivore, which is gradually but steadily iiu rc.isin- in mini- 



