ECONOMIC ZOOLOGV — ENTOMOLOGY. 563 



The cause of European foul brood, G. F. White {U. 8. Dept. Agr., Bur. Ent. 

 Circ. 157, pp. 15, Jigs. 10). — In feeding experiments with Bacillus alvei. Strepto- 

 coccus apis, B. mesentericus vulgaris, B. orpheus, and Bacterium eurydice, the 

 author was unable to iuduce the disease commonly known as European foul 

 brood. 



" Considerabe quantities of filtrate from aqueous suspensions of crushed dis- 

 eased larvje were fed to healthy colonies and in no Instance was European foul 

 brood produced. This eliminated tentatively the probability of there being an 

 ultra-microscopic virus in European foul brood capable of producing the dis- 

 ease. Bacillus plnton [—Bacillus Y] (E. S. R., 20, p. 857), therefore, was the 

 only factor that was not so eliminated from the list of possible exciting causes 

 of the disease and became thus the iirobable exciting cause of European foul 

 brood. When this organism was studied in larvse h\ which the disease could be 

 susptK-ted by insiiection alone, one or more species of bacteria were sometimes 

 found to be present also. These, when present, however, occurred in relatively 

 small numbers. 



" The disease was then studied in a still earlier stage ; i. e., before its pres- 

 ence could be detected by gross examination of the larvae. This was done by 

 cultures in part, but principally by fixing and sectioning larvae during the incu- 

 bation period of the disease. This study demonstrated that in the production 

 of the disease B. pluton was the first invader of the healthy larvse." 



Papers on insects affecting stored products. — The broad-bean weevil (Laria 

 rufimana), F. II. Chittenden {U. S. Dcpt. Agr., Bur. Ent. Bui. 96, pt. 5, pp. 

 59-82, figs. 10). — This weevil, commonly known as the bean beetle or bean seed 

 beetle in Europe, has frequently been brought to the United States and Canada 

 in its food supply, but there was no positive proof of its having become estab- 

 lished in North America until 1909. In Europe it is common and destructive 

 and especially infests the broad, horse, or Windsor bean {Vicia faha) and, it is 

 said, peas and some other legumes. 



The species is known to occur in middle and southern Europe and northern 

 Africa ; has long been credited as being a pest in England ; and is recorded from 

 the Canary Islands. In 1S93 the author found this species commonly in many 

 exhibits of broad or Windsor beans at the World's Columbian Exposition. In 

 September, 1909, living specimens were received from San Luis Obispo, Cal., in 

 horse beans, which have been grown quite extensively in that region for feeding 

 stock. It appears to have become established in several localities in the State 

 and bids fair to become a most formidable drawback to the cultivation of broad 

 beans. Records of the occurrence of this pest in imported beans are briefly 

 discussed. Notes on Occurrence in California (pp. 64, 65) and Experiments 

 with Remedies (pp. 74-SO), by W. B. Parker, are incorporated in the paper. 

 Parker states that the weevil was first observed and captured in broad beans in 

 Sacramento on March 25, 1911. 



'• The female weevil begins to deposit her eggs on the young seed vessel in 

 the blossom before and after the former has developed into a pod. Here the 

 eggs hatch and the larvae penetrate into the growing seeds, each gnawing a 

 gallery for itself, which it lengthens from time to time, as needed. When full 

 grown, the larva transforms to pupa within the accumulated frass and develops 

 later into the beetle stage." Like the closely related pea weevil (L. pisorum) 

 it produces only a single generation a year and hibernates as an adult in the 

 seeds. 



Germination tests of infested beans from California show that " even in cases 

 where a single individual weevil attacks a broad bean, less than 60 per cent 

 of such infested beans germinate, whereas when 4 or 5 beetles find lodgment in 

 a single seed, 33.3 per cent, or about one-third only, germinate. There is no 



