ECONOMIC ZOOLOGY — ENTOMOLOGY. 657 



lat-iy attractive to tlieni, about the first of October an ordinary dry goods box, 

 about 2 by 2 by 3 ft. may be filled witla cottoli seed and straw, or othet- porous 

 vegetable material, and placed near the center of an ordinary city lot or gar- 

 den. If the top be left exposed to tbe weather the contents Will become moist 

 and the center of the mass become very xVartn aS decay pfOceedS. This pre- 

 sents a nesting situation so attractive to the ants that practically all colonies 

 within a radius of 30 or 40 yds. take up their abode in it as cool weathei* 

 approaches. The number of fertile queens, which, during the winter of 1908, 

 occupied a trap formed in this way is conservatively estimated as upwards 

 of 1,000. In January, the cracks in the box were closed tightly, the top cov- 

 ered with a waterproof canvas, and a pound or two of carbcai bisulphid 

 poured into the box to destroy the colony. " So effective has this winter 

 trapping appeared to be that we fully believe that if it were carried out 

 uniformly by the residents of several or more contiguous city blocks acting 

 in cooperation, few if any other measures would be necessary to hold the pest 

 in reasonable check." -* 



While much can be accomplished by destroying colonies during the summer 

 months, steady and persistent effort is necessary, as the colonies are of com- 

 paratively small size and occur in every conceivable situation. Much may be 

 accomplished by the use of carbon disulphid, decoy logs near which jars of 

 honey have been placed, etc. " Sweetened preparations of soluble arsenic 

 are of little direct use, as they kill the majority of the foraging workers taking 

 them and little, if any, of the poison reaches the colony proper." In actual 

 test, the author found tape treated with corrosive sublimate to successfully 

 repel the ants for 11 months without being renewed. " I<]xperiments have 

 shown that solutions of sugar or molasses containing a small percentage of 

 arsenic can be used to drive the ants from a room which the foragers persist 

 in visiting. The best solution of this kind is made as follows: White arsenic, 

 2 gm. ; cane sugar, 20 gni. ; and water, 100 cc." 



The insect and other galls of plants in Europe and the Mediterranean 

 Basin, C. Houard {Lcs ZoovcckUcs dts Plantes d'EiiroiK' ct dii Ba.s.sin dc la 

 Meditcrancc. Paris, 1908, volx. 1, pp. 1'5(W; 2, pp. dUS-U',!, pis. 2, fiys. 1365; 

 m: in Sciowc, n. scr., 31 (lOW), ^'(>. JS-'i, pp. 27, 28).— In this work the cecidia 

 are grouped with reference to the host plant instead of under the insects or 

 other animals which cause their formation. " The host plants are arranged in 

 accordance with Engler and Prantl's Pflanzenfamilien and under each species 

 are given the cecidia which occur upon it, with cross references for those species 

 of cecidia which occur on more than one host. Each family of host plants is 

 preceded with a resume of the characters of the cecidia which occur upon its 

 species. The work records a total of 0,239 species, with descriptions of 

 each. ... 



" Following each species of cecidia are the references to the bibliography. 

 Each species is also accompanied by abbreviations which explain the part of the 

 plant on which it occurs, whether it is simple or compound, whether the 

 metamorphosis occurs in the cecidia or in the ground, the time required for its 

 complete development, and the geographical distribution. . . . About one-third 

 of the known genera of American cecidia are also common to Europe, but only 

 a very few species are common to both the Old and the New World. . . . 



"The work also includes a bibliographical index of nearly 400 authors and 

 about 1,200 titles, index tables giving the orders, families, genera, and species 

 of the organisms which cause the cecidia, and the families, genera, and species 

 of the host plants." 



The review is by M, T, Cook, 



