42 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



February 1. 1913 



INSECT NOTES. 



SUMMARY OF ENTOMOLOGICAL INFOR- 

 MATION IN THE AGRICULTURAL 

 NEWS IN 1912. 



This summary is continued, as was promised, from the 

 last issue of the Agricultwal Neicx. 



Certain insects, and other forms of life will now be 

 considered, in relation to their harmful nature, under their 

 special headings. 



THE MELON OK COTTON Ai'His. Under this heading an 

 account of this insect, taken from Bulletin 34 of the Univer- 

 sity of Nebraska, reviews the nature of the injury caused to 

 melons and cotton, and some of the measures found useful in 

 the control of the pest. 



EEL •\\ORJis. These minute, soil-inhabiting worms were 

 considered in two articles which reproduced the summary of 

 BuUfciin No. 217 of the Bureau of Plant Industry of the 

 United States Department of Agriculture. Eel worms are 

 widely distributed and are known to attack a great variety 

 of plants. The injury cau.?ed by them has not often been 

 recogni/A'd in the West Indies, but it seems probable that 

 careful observations may reveal the fact that they are more 

 injurious than is suspected. 



TICKS. Two articles on Ticks have also appeared dur- 

 ing the year (see pp. 394 and 410). These reproduce por- 

 tions of Bulletin 106 of the Bureau of Entomology of the 

 United States Department of Agriculture, and contain inter- 

 esting and useful information with regard to a group of pests 

 which though well known to planters in the West Indies do 

 not appear to receive at the hands of owners of stock the 

 attention which from their importance they deserve. 



The attention of the Reader is now drawn to general 

 matters that have been dealt with in the Insect Notes. 



GENERAL. The following articles may be grouped under 

 a general heading. 



Plant Protection in the United States is the title of 

 an article (p. 330) in which the need is shown for legislation 

 for the prevention of the introduction of pests and diseases 

 in connexion with imported plants. The article is taken from 

 Circular No. 37, Office of the Secretary, United States 

 iJepartment nf AgricultAire. 



A method used in the Philippines for the control of Ter- 

 mites is discussed at page 122. This consists of the use of 

 the fumes of suljihur and arsenic forced into the nests and 

 galleries of the termites by means of a special pump. 



A carbon bisulphide explosion is the subject of an article 

 (p 186) giving an account of a disastrous effect resulting 

 from the use of this insecticide in a closed building contain- 

 ing grain in which a high temperature had been produced by 

 fermentation. 



The successful use of formalin in Nortli Carolina as 

 a poison for the house-fly is noted on p. 58, and in Trinidad 

 at p. 314. 



A disease of grasshoppers reported to produce fatal 

 results to such an extent as to enable it to be used for the 

 control of outbreaks of these in.sects in Yucatan, is discussed 

 at p. 170. The control of the citrus mealy-bug {Iheudo- 

 coirii.s litri) by natural enemies in California is mentioned 

 on p. 252, the information being taken from the MontJdy 

 Jiulletin of the California State Commission of Horticulture. 



An account of twig girdlers of the genus Oncideres will 

 be found on page 250, of the canna or arrowroot worm 

 {Cal'jpodes iilhHus) on p. 180; and the record of a new peat 

 of cowpeas in Barbados on p. 234. This is a small moth, 



Ballofia ristipeimis, the larva of which tunnels in the 

 terminal buds, stems and pods of the cowpeas, inflicting 

 serious injury. 



The distribution of the yellow fever mosquito {Sieyomyia 

 fasciata) throughout the tropical and sub-tropical portions of 

 the world is noted at p. 202, where also will be found brief 

 mention of the preparation of the so-called silk fish lines 

 from the silk glands of the larvae of certain large moths, 

 Saturnia pyietoruiii , in Japan. 



The jumping beans of Mexico in which the remarkable 

 activity of the bean is caused by the movements of the larva 

 of a small moth, Cii^pocapsa saltitans, are mentioned in an 

 article on p. 378. 



In New Zealand the larva of Oclontria zealandica has be- 

 come a serious pest from its attacks on the roots of grasses. An 

 account of this insect and mention of several related species 

 in other parts of the world will be found in an article 

 entitled The New Zealand Grass Grub (p. 58). 



A NOTE ON INSECT PESTS IN THE 



VIRGIN ISLANDS. 



Mr. H. A. Tempan}', B.Sc, Superintendent of 

 Agriculture for the Leeward Islands, recently paid an 

 official visit to the Virgin Lslands. The following notes, 

 with regard to insect pests, which have been submitted 

 by him to the Imperial Commissioner of Agriculture 

 are published, herewith, as being of interest to readers 

 of the Agricultural Ne^vs. 



The following observations connected with insect pests 

 in the Virgin Islands maj- be of some interest, as the con- 

 ditions present a field which up to the present has been 

 explored to a very limited extent. 



At the time of my visit, when a period of continued 

 heavy rains had followed a prolonged time of severe drought, 

 insect life of all kinds was particularly abundant. 



On cotton, the cotton caterpillar {Alaliama ari/illacea) 

 was found to be present abundantly in Tortola and Virgin 

 Gorda; the severity of the attack is such that it was found 

 necessary to organize methods of combating the pest by 

 means of insecticides; in previous years such steps do not 

 appear to have been necessary, natural enemies having 

 exercised a fairly efficient control. The conditions under 

 which cotton is usually grown in the Virgin Islands are such 

 that the areas cultivated consist largely of isolated small 

 plots surrounded by high bush; such a set of conditions 

 seems particularly favourable to natural methods of control. 

 An important factor in the control of cotton pests appears 

 to lie in the prevalence of the bird known locally as black 

 witch (Crotop/ia<j<i ant). There is a large iii ison bee which 

 apparently is also predaceous, while Jaric .Spaniards are 

 abundant. Other pests of cotton were not found to be 

 sjiecially abundant, though some damage was recorded by 

 cut worms and also by a small grey weevil dirt'ering appar- 

 ently from that which was responsible for similar damage 

 in Antigua. 



Limes, whenever seen, were on the whole remarkably 

 healthy and free from scale insect attacks. Some purple, green, 

 and white scales were seen but only in small quantities; the 

 black fungus {Mi/riangium Duriaei) was observed to be 

 plentifully present in lime cultivation, but neither the red- 

 headed nor the white-headed fungus was seen. The shield 

 scale fungus (Ceplialoq^oriiun leranii) was observed however 

 to be present in grcit quantity, parasitic on the mango shield 

 scale and other Lecaniums in and surrounding the E.^perirnent 



