1918] ECONOMIC ZOOLOGY — ENTOMOLOGY. 363 



strates the necessity for proper screening of windows and doors of rooms 

 where experimental animals are Ijept. It particularly indicates the necessity 

 for keeping experimental animals inoculated with pathogenic organisms pro- 

 tected from the house fly." 



Flies and bacillary enteritis, W. Nicoll (Brit. Med. Jour., No. 2948 {1911), 

 pp. 870-872). — Continuing a discussion of flies in disease transmission (E. S. R., 

 37, p. 854), the author shows that organisms producing bacillary enteritis are 

 to be met with not infrequently in flies under natural conditions, that a con- 

 siderable number of organisms resembling enteritis bacilli occur frequently 

 in flies in the natural state, and that the utmost care is necessary in discrimi- 

 nating between these and the true enteritis-producing organisms. 



A note on the rice field fly (Ephydra macellaria) (Bui. Soc. Ent. Egypte, 

 9 (1916), No. Jf, pp. 102-105).— The author is of the opinion that this fly, which 

 is frequently accused by farmei's of causing the death of rice over considerable 

 areas in the northern part of Lower Egypt, is a secondary invader rather than 

 the cause of the death of young rice. Its food appears to consist of dead and 

 decaying vegetable matter and possibly living alga?. 



Fleas and their control, P. C. Bishopp (U. 8. Dept. Agr., Farmers' Bui. 891 

 (1911), pp. 15, figs. 6). — This is a revision of Farmers' Bulletin 683, previously 

 noted (E. S. R., 34, p. 159). 



Three-lined fig-tree borer, J. R. Horton (U. S. Dept. Agr., Jour. Agr. Re- 

 search, 11 (1917), No. 8, pp. 371-382, pis. 5).— This is a report of studies made 

 of Ptychodes trilineatus, a ceranibycid which is the source of considerable in- 

 jury to fig trees (Ficus carica) in the Southern States through boring into the 

 larger branches and trunks. It is not, however, the only borer attacking fig 

 trees in the Southern States, mention being made of Leptostylus biustus, Goes 

 sp., Stephanoderes sp., and Ataxia crypta, all of which were found working in 

 the same trees with P. trilineatus. 



This fig borer is known to occur throughout the Southern States from Florida 

 to Houston, Tex., and from South Carolina to the Gulf. It has also been reported 

 from parts of Mexico, several of the Central American countries, the West In- 

 dies, South America, and Tahiti. 



The greatest amount of damage is caused by the larvse, although the adult 

 beetle causes some injury by feeding upon the fruit, leaves, and bark and by 

 ovipositing in the bark. The larva mines its way into the larger branches and 

 trunks of the tree where it feeds upon the wood for from three months to more 

 than one year. The borers live in both dry and green wood but seem to prefer 

 wood that is partly dead and has lost some of its sap. The favorite points of 

 attack are near wounds made by the breaking of large limbs, untreated saw 

 cuts, splitting of the trunk, the knots formed in the branches by fig canker, 

 injuries in the bark, etc. The author finds that fig trees kept in a thriving 

 healthy condition are less subject to severe attacks by this borer. 



The eggs, which are deposited by insertion into the bark of the larger 

 branches and trunk, hatch in from 3 to 8 days, with an average of 5.6 days. 

 On hatching out the young borer mines its way along through the bark for sev- 

 eral days, then tunnels into the solid wood, and often eats its way to the very 

 heart of the branch. It lives and feeds in this manner for from 2 to 15 

 months. About two-thirds of the borers complete the larval stage in the sea- 

 son in which the eggs are deposited, while the remaining third live through the 

 winter and pupate the following season. The single-season larvae require ap- 

 proximately from 2 to 4.5 months to complete their larval life, and the over- 

 wintering borers from 7.5 to 15 months, with an average of 3 months, the aver- 

 age life in the wood being llj months. 



