360 EXPERIMENT STATION EECORD. 



Contributions toward a classification and biology of the North American 

 Cerambycidse. — Larvse of the Prioninae, F. C. Craighead (U. S. Dept. Agr. 

 Rpt. 101 {1915), pp. 24. pis. 8). — The present paper is based upon rearings for 

 identification of some 200 species additional to some 50 on which the report by 

 Webb (E. S. R., 27, p. 756) was based. Emphasis is made of the need of great 

 care in rearing these larvse, it being stated that a single piece of infested wood 

 may contain from five to a dozen different species of Cerambycidfe. 



The larvse of this family of beetles are primarily and probably without ex- 

 ception phytophagous, boring in the ligneous tissue of, for the most part, the 

 aborescent flora, though a few species are confined to herbaceous plants, in this 

 case being usually pith or root feeders. Some are confined to one species of 

 tree, as is usually tbe case with those attacking living tissue, others to a single 

 genus, and again there are species which will have a wide variety of host 

 plants among either the conifers or the hardwoods, but the larvse of the same 

 species will rarely attack both indiscriminately. 



Keys to the larvse of the subfamilies of Cerambycidse and to the genera of 

 the Prioninse, and general anatomical characteristics and descriptions of larvse 

 of Prioninse are given. 



The roundheaded apple-tree borer, F. E. Brooks {U. 8. Dept. Agr., Farmers' 

 Bui. 675 {1915), pp. 20, figs. 19). — A popular summary of this pest, its life 

 history and habits, natural enemies, and methods of control. 



Some sugar-cane root-boring weevils of the West Indies, W. D. Pierce 

 (U. 8. Dept. Agr., Jour. Agr. Research, 4 (1915), No. 3, pp. 255-263, pis. 4).— 

 The present paper, which deals with the weevils of the genus Diaprepes that 

 attack sugar cane in the West Indies, has been prepared with a view to 

 straightening out the diflicult nomenclature, to point out the dangerous nature 

 of the injury by the species treated, and so to describe the various forms that 

 quarantine agents may readily detect them. The author calls attention to the 

 fact that, due to their variable color, shape, and markings, it is extremely 

 diflicult to determine their specific limitations. Two species, namely, Diaprepes 

 spengleri and its six varieties (marginatus, comma, spengleri, ahhrevdatus, 

 denudatus, and festivus), and D. famelicus are recognized and here considered, 

 one of which varieties (D. spengleri denudatus) from Guadeloupe is described 

 for the first time. 



Descriptions of new Hymenoptera, IX, J. C. Crawford (Proc. U. 8. Nat. 

 Mus., 48 (1915), pp. 577-586, figs. 11). — ^Among the new species here described, 

 of economic importance, are the following : Uexaplasta marlatti reared at War- 

 renton, Va., from cow dung with Hsematobia ; E. fungicola reared from dip- 

 terous larvae in mushrooms at Washington, D. C. ; H. we'bsteri reared from 

 Euxesta nitidiventris at Wellington, Kans. ; Figites popenoei reared fi'om 

 Boletus hicolor at Washington, D. C. ; Zelotypa fungicola reared from dipterous 

 larvse in B. felleus at Clarendon, Va. ; Oeniocerus cJirysopce reared from 

 cocoons of Chiysopa at Batesburg, S. C. ; G. juniperi and O. marcovitchi reared 

 from berries of Juniperus virginiana at Ithaca, N. Y. ; and Oonatocerus gibsoni 

 reared from the eggs of Drceculacepliala moUipcs at Tempe, Ariz. 



FOODS— HUMAN NUTRITION. 



[Food and drug topics], E. F. Ladd and Alma K. Johnson (North Dakota 

 Sta. Spec. Bui., 8 (1915), No. 17, pp. 289-304).— This bulletin, which gives 

 information regarding some proprietary medicines, including a so-called hog- 

 cholera remedy noted on page 389, contains a report, by R. O. Baird, of the 

 chemical analysis of 29 sami)les of molasses. 



