June, '09] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 287 



Notes and Ne\vs. 



ENTOMOLOGICAL GLEANINGS FROM ALL QUARTERS 

 OF THE GLOBE. 



PROF. LEVI W. MENGEL, the well-known lepiopterist of Reading, 

 Pennsylvania, has been abroad for a number of months and has traveled 

 up the Nile, visited Palestine and other places of interest. At present 

 he is inspecting the various museums in western Europe. 



ONE of the Cornell entomologists who is rapidly winning a reputa- 

 tion in his chosen field is Charles W. Howard, A. B., 1904. On com- 

 pleting his undergraduate work here, he remained as a laboratory as- 

 sistant, in the department of Entomology for a part of the following 

 year and, early in 1905, went to Pretoria as Assistant Entomologist to 

 the Transvaal Department of Agriculture On the death of C. B. Simp- 

 son, B.S.A., 1899, ne became Government Entomologist to the Trans- 

 vaal. Recently he has transferred to Portuguese East Africa in a 

 similar position. 



Aside from the educational work which must accompany the intro- 

 duction of modern American methods of Economic Entomology into 

 a conservative colony, Mr. Howard's main work will be in studying 

 and combatting insect transmitters of disease and in the fight against 

 the locust plague. 



Something of the extent of the latter may be seen from the fact 

 that, in a single district of the colony, the locusts last year damaged 

 the cocoanut crop alone to the extent of $360,000. On a big sugar 

 plantation along the Zambezi River there have just been dug from 

 among the canes, over an area of 2000 hectares, more than fourteen 

 tons of locust eggs. In addition to this method of destroying the pest, 

 oil was being spread along all the roadways and other areas where the 

 young grasshoppers were hatching out. Mr. Howard has organized, 

 in connection with this work, a system for collecting information 

 which, during the year, should give much reliable data as a basis for 

 the fight in the future. 



In a recent letter, he writes that he is somewhat handicapped by 

 lack of proper equipment, but that the work is being very liberally 

 supported, and that as fast as he can collect apparatus, he will be able 

 to obtain it. It is hard for us to realize what it means for so conserva- 

 tive a government to take the radical step of establishing and actively 

 supporting such a department, and it may well be seen that the work 

 will call for the exercise of the greatest tact and ability in handling 

 men as well as demanding a knowledge of technical entomology. Mr. 

 Howard's success in the past few years bespeaks an equally successful 

 experience in his new field and his work will be watched with interest 

 by his Cornell friends. Cornell Countryman. 



