ENTOMOLOGY. 143 



and ladybirds have made the ravai^es during 1895 small. Plum trees 

 are most iujured by the pest, although quince and apple trees are also 

 attacked, and in one instance an ash grove was found to be infested. 

 A hymenopterous parasite {Coccophagus lecanii) and the twice-stabbed 

 ladybird have been active in attacking the scales. Spraying with 

 kerosene emulsion is strongly urged, one application to be made after 

 the leaves fall in the autumn and two others in the spring before the 

 buds open. 



Wirewornis and the bud moth, M. V. Slingerland [New York 

 Cornell iSta. BuJ. 107, pp. 37-66, figs. 26). 



Synopsis. — Illnetrated descriptive and life-history notes on wireworms and the bud 

 moth, with the results of experiments in combating them. Early fall plowing 

 and the use of poisoned baits are recommended against wireworms, and spring 

 spraying with arsenites against the bud moth. 



Wireivorms (pp. 37-56). — Wireworms and click beetles in general are 

 briefly discussed, and the methods of experimentation with them 

 described, the cnges employed being kept under as natural conditions 

 as possible, with untreated cages as checks. The possibility of protect- 

 ing seed corn from the attacks of wireworms by coating it with various 

 substances, and by soaking it in poisonous and disagreeable solutions, 

 was tested extensively. Coatings of Paris green and flour and tar 

 were applied, and the corn was soaked in solutions of salt, copperas, 

 chlorid of lime and copperas, strychnin, kerosene, turpentine, and other 

 substances without the least deterrent effect being produced. The 

 wireworms readily ate the prepared seed, which in a number of cases 

 had its germinating power injured by the processes to which it was 

 subjected. 



Tbe destruction of the larvae was attempted by means of starvation, 

 and by various insecticides and fertilizers, without satisfactory results. 

 The wireworms were found to live in fallow land, and where crops were 

 grown on which they had been supposed not to feed, such as buck- 

 wheat, mustard, and rape. Kerosene, pure and as an emulsion, and 

 carbon bisulphid killed the larvae; but required use in such quanti- 

 ties that with the first substance the vegetation was destroyed, and 

 with the second the expense would be too great for field use. Salt, 

 potash salts, lime, gas lime, and chlorid of lime were either not effect- 

 ive or only in large quantities. The best results were obtained by 

 plowing and harrowing for a few weeks in summer, commencing the 

 latter part of July, by which procedure the earthen pupa cells were 

 broken up and the tender, immature insects destroyed. In connection 

 with this cultivation, short rotation of crops is advised. It was found 

 that the adults could be readily attracted and killed by the use of trap 

 baits of clover poisoned with some arsenite. Trapping by lanterns 

 was of no practical value, owing to the small number captured. 



Illustrated descriptive notes are given on the life history of the wheat 

 wireworm {Agriotes inancus), Asaphes decoloratus, Melanotus communis, 



