{Authors are responsible for nomenclature used.) 





\ 



The Scottish Naturalist 



No. 44-] 1915 [August 



EDITORIAL. 



The anti-fly campaign is still being vigorously prosecuted, 

 especially in America, where several important papers have 

 been recently published, devising practical methods of 

 control. The latest one, by R. H. Hutchison,^ bears for its 

 title, " A Maggot Trap in Practical Use : an Experiment 

 in House-fly Control," and is well worth the serious con- 

 sideration of farmers and others who have to deal with large 

 accumulations of such refuse as may favour the reproduc- 

 tion of the fly. The experiments described resulted in the 

 destruction of something like 98 per cent, of the larvae found 

 in manure heaps, and the trap devised is simple and com- 

 paratively inexpensive, while at the same time it is claimed 

 that the conditions which render the trap most effective 

 also tend to preserve the value of the manure. The con- 

 struction of the trap is based upon the recently discovered 

 fact that the grubs just before pupating show a marked 

 tendency to wander from the particular place where they 

 have fed. Briefly, the apparatus consists of a concrete floor 

 surrounded by a rim or wall 4 inches high, with an outlet 

 pipe at one corner (closed with a plug of soft wood) leading 

 into a cistern. Over this floor is built an open platform 

 supported on legs a foot high, and consisting of narrow strips 

 of wood nailed an inch apart and stretching over the whole 

 width of the trap. Each day's production of manure is 



' Bulletin No. 200, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture^ May 4, 1914. 

 44 2B 



