ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS 



AND 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL SECTION 



ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES, PHILADELPHIA. 



VOL. XXI. 



DECEMBER, 1910. 



No. 10. 



CONTENTS: 



Smith Azolla vs. Mosquitoes 437 



Rowley and Berry Notes on the Life 

 Stages of Catocalae; a Summer's 

 Record and Incidental Mention of 

 Other Lepidoptera 441 



Crawford A new Anthidium from N. 

 Jersey 456 



Davis Observations on Cicada prui- 

 nosa and a description of a new 

 species 457 



Kellogg and Paine Mallophaga from 



Birds and Mammals 459 



Barnes and McDunnough New North 



American Cossidae 463 



Rohwer Some Australian Sawflies. . . . 467 



Editorial 475 



Notes and News 476 



Entomological Literature 479 



Doings of Societies 483 



Azolla vs. Mosquitoes. 



BY JOHN B. SMITH, Sc.D. 



(Plate XIV) 



During the summer of 1908 there appeared in the news- 

 papers throughout the country an extract from a consular re- 

 port, stating, in effect, that experiments made in Germany had 

 demonstrated that a water plant, a specimen of Azolla, had 

 been made practically useful in dealing with the mosquito pest 

 by preventing their breeding. 



Naturally this interested me and I tried to ascertain just 

 what basis there was for the report. I could learn little about 

 Azolla from such botanists as I consulted. Every one of them 

 knew it, but not one of them knew very much about it : it was 

 simply one of those locally common things that is taken for 

 granted. 



Meanwhile Dr. Bartmann, the exploiter of the Azolla propo- 

 sition had written to the Governor of New Jersey, offering, for 

 an adequate pecuniary reward to come to the relief of the 

 State and to make experiments. The letter was referred to 

 me in due course and I put myself into communication with 



437 



