ECONOMIC ZOOLOGY — ENTOMOLOGY. 61 



mixture of benzin and poppy oil 4 : 1. One or 2 drops placed on the small packet 

 wliich contains the larva destroys it in a few seconds, no injury being caused 

 to the grape. It is said that benzin can be replaced by gasoline and used in the 

 same proportion. 



The " looper " caterpillar pest of tea, C. B. Antram {Indian, Tea Assoc, 

 Set. Dept. Quart. Jour., 1911, No. 1, pp. 1-7, pis. 2). — This is an account of 

 Biston supprcssaria, a common jungle geometrid, which periodically occurs as 

 a serious tea pest. 



The Philippine mosquitoes, C. S. Ltjdlow (Psyche, 18 (1911), No. 4, PP' 

 125-133). — The subfamilies of mosquitoes as here listed are represented in the 

 Philippines by the following number of species : Anophelinse. 16 ; Megarhininae, 

 2; Culicina3, 56; Aedinse, 4; Uranotaeniinte, 7; Harpagomyinae, 2; and Dendro- 

 myiuse, 1, a total of 88 species, of which 6 are described as new. 



The house fly in its relation to public health, W. B. Herms (California 

 Sta. Bui. 215, pp. 509-5 'i8, figs. 16). — This bulletin discusses the economic im- 

 portance of the house fly, methods by which it transmits disease, its life history 

 and development, its relation to the transmission of typhoid fever, dysentery, 

 summer diarrhea in infants, tuberculosis, Asiatic cholera, etc., objections met 

 with in combating it, essentials of control, indoor work with the adult fly, and 

 community-wide campaigns. 



A list is given of the references cited. 



The persistence of Bacillus pyocyaneus in pupse and imagines of Musca 

 domestica raised from larvae experimentally infected with the bacillus, 

 A. W. Bacot (Parasitology, If (1911), No. 1, pp. 68-73). — " Pupte and imagines 

 of M. domestica bred from larvae infected with P. pyocyaneus under conditions 

 which exclude the chance of reinfection in the pupal or imaginal period un- 

 doubtedly remain infected with the bacillus. In the imago the infection is maxi- 

 mal at emergence and then diminishes suddenly. The possibility of a danger- 

 ously pathogenic micro-organism being taken up by the larva and subsequently 

 distributed by the fly is one which deserves serious consideration." 



Upon the inoculation of materia morbi throug'h the human skin by flea 

 bites, C. Walker (Jour. Hyg. [Cambridge], 11 (1911), No. 2, pp. 290-300). — 

 " When fleas bit through films of tuberculin, vaccine lymph, and Staphylococcus 

 emulsion lying upon the human skin, no inoculation was observed in 188 in- 

 stances out of 195. In 6 of the experiments with tuberculin, inoculation fol- 

 lowed, which possibly was not due to the flea bites. Controls gave positive 

 results. When the same materials were rubbed over recent flea bites, no inocu- 

 lations followed. Controls were positive. A very minute dose of tubei'culin, 

 such as might be conveyed by a flea's proboscis, will produce a recognisable 

 reaction in a susceptible person." 



The bearing of the results on the question of plague transmission is discussed. 

 A bibliography of 21 titles is appended. 



An enemy of the pear (Agrilus sinuatus), P. Passy (Rev. Hort. [Paris], 

 82 (1910), No. 17, pp. J,05-!i07, figs. 3).— The larva of this buprestid beetle is 

 the source of considerable injury through boring in the branches. 



Papers on deciduous fruit insects and insecticides. — The California peach 

 borer (Sanninoidea opalescens), D. Moulton (U. S. Dept. Ayr., Bur. Ent. Bui. 

 97, pt. .'h pp. IV-r 65-89, pis. 3, fig. 1). — This paper discusses the present knowl- 

 edge of the California peach borer, its life history, distribution, food plants, 

 parasites, and best known artificial measures of control, as based largely on 

 investigations conducted since the summer of 1907. 



This borer has been known to entomologists since 1881, when it was de- 

 scribed from specimens collected in Nevada and Colorado. While it has been 

 a menace to fruit growing in the Santa Clara Valley since the very beginning 



