ENTOMOLOGY. 857 



a wood shed, the daily gain in honey of a hive, a bee cellar, and winter- 

 ing experiments in 1896 and 1897; and a few suggestions are made to 

 beginners in apiculture. 



A swarm of bees taken June 13, weighing 6f lbs., furnished with 4 

 frames of drawn comb and 4 frames of foundation placed alternately, 

 and kept on scales for 11 weeks from June 17, made a total net gain of 

 90f lbs., the largest gain of any one day being 6^ lbs. This gain was 

 made on two days, one during clover and the other during basswood 

 flow. There is noted also a loss of Ih lbs., which is the sum of losses 

 noted in 1 different weeks and which the author apparently attributes 

 to the differences connected with the weight of brood, etc. 



Report upon further experiments with certain brands of comb founda- 

 tion, F. T. Shutt (pp. 271-275). — The experiments of former years were 

 continued. The results of this year's work apparently show, taking 

 the values of comb foundation as depending upon the extent to which 

 it is used by bees in cell formation, that what the author designates 

 choice wax made on the Eoot mill at a temperature of 89° F. gives the 

 best results, while the foundation made by a patent process and running 

 12 or 15 sq. ft. to the pound gives the poorest results. In the for- 

 mer case the average percentage of the wax of the foundation utilized 

 by the bees was 52, as contrasted with 12 in the latter case. A poor 

 quality of wax in any of the foundation used seems to give bad results. 

 In obtaining percentages noted the method was followed of paring off 

 the cells of the comb and comparing the weight of the piece thus 

 obtained with that of the foundation when placed in the hive. 



Report of the entomologist, A. D. Hopkins ( West Virginia Sta. 

 Bpt. 1893, pp. 29-48). — After stating that the common insect pests were 

 not sufficiently numerous during the year to attract serious attention, 

 the pine bark beetle is noted as occasioning great damage during 

 1891-'93. "Never before in the history of the country has such 

 widespread and universal destruction of timber been caused by the 

 ravages of insects." Extensive travel through the spruce and pine 

 forests of the State showed that the death of the trees was due to the 

 attack of Dendroetonus frontalis. As the result of a circular letter 

 mailed to various timber owners, setting forth the dangerous character 

 of the attack, some $750 was contributed, to which the station added 

 $150, for the purpose of carrying on investigations and to import pre- 

 dacious insects from Germany. After a number of weeks of study 

 in Europe Clems formicarius was chosen from a number of benflcial 

 predacious insects for importation. As a beginning 50 specimens, male 

 and female, and 25 larvae were placed on dying trees near Morgantown. 

 During the following spring and summer (1893) colonies of often as 

 many as from 30 to 100 each were placed throughout the State. In all, 

 including insects from a second importation, 14 distributions were thus 

 made. The number of the pests were so decimated by disease, etc., as 

 not to threaten any material damage in the future. 

 16436— No. 9 5 



