1917] ECONOMIC ZOOLOGY ENTOMOLOGY. 855 



rainy May scarcely fails to precede a good honey season. South wind seems 

 favorable and east wind unfavorable. 



" The yield shows a gradual depression preceding and a gradual increase 

 until about the fourth day following a rainy day, after which it remains fairly 

 constant until about the fourteenth day following the rain. Good honey 

 months average slightly higher in temperature than poor, this being especially 

 true of the spring and fall months. Clear days are favorable to production 

 of honey. Yield is best on days having a maximum of 80 to 90° F. and a wide 

 daily range of temperature is favorable for a good yield. A low barometer 

 is also favorable for good yield. The fluctuations in yield for a producing 

 period seem to be closely correlated with the temperature range and the 

 barometric pressure, acting jointly. A cold winter has no detrimental effect 

 on the yield of the succeeding season, but a cold March reduces it. A winter 

 of heavy snowfall is in the great majority of cases followed by a larger honey 

 yield." 



Seventh annual report of the State inspector of apiaries for the year 1916, 

 B. N. Gates (Mass. Bd. Agr., Apiary Insp. Bui. 11 (1911), pp. 26).— This, the 

 usual annual report (E. S. R., 35. p. 662). is devoted particularly to a dis- 

 cussion of the occurrence of bee diseases in the State, the effect of repellent 

 sprays, etc. 



The domestication of the Indian honeybee, L. V. Newton {Agr. Jour. India, 

 12 (1917), No. 1, pp. 4^-57, pis. 5). — This paper relates particularly to Ajns 

 indica. 



Life history and habits of Polistes metricus, F. C. Pellett (Pt'oc. loiva 

 Acad. Sci., 23 (1916), pp. 275-284, flss. 2). — A report of observations made in 

 Iowa. 



Further observations upon the habits of the "western wheat stem sawfly 

 in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, N. Cbiddle (Agr. Gaz. Canada, 4 (1917), No. 

 3, pp. 176, 177). — The data here presented which relate to Cephus occidentalis 

 are supplementary to those given in the bulletin previously noted (E. S. R., 

 34, p. 250). 



The author finds that this sawfly is dependent largely on wild grasses, par- 

 ticularly those of the genus Agropyron, including A. richardsoni, A. smithii, 

 and A. repens, for its perpetuation. Various species of lyme grass (Elymus 

 spp.), most of which show a marked preference for deserted fields, roadsides, 

 etc., have proved to be of greater importance as hosts of the sawfly than was 

 thought at first to be the case. Couch grass (A. repens), which grows freely 

 among the various cultivated crops, is probably a greater menace as a host 

 of the sawfly than any of the others. As regards remedial measures, it has 

 been found that a trap strip of rye or wheat sown between the previous sea- 

 son's infestation and the new crop early in the spring and plowed down about 

 the middle of July or cut with a mower at that time may be used to considerable 

 advantage. 



An American species of the hymenopterous genus Wesmaelia of Foerster, 

 P. R. Myers (Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 53 (1917), pp. 293, 294). 



A report on a collection of Hymenoptera (mostly from California) made 

 by W. M. Giffard, S. A. Ron web (Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 53 (1917), pp. 233- 

 249). — This contains descriptions of 15 species new to science. 



Australian Hymenoptera Chalcidoidea, A. A. Gibaxtlt (Mem. Queensland 

 Mus., 5 (1916), pp. 205-230; abs. in Rev. Appl. Ent., Ser. A, 5 (1917), No. 3, p. 

 129). — Among the parasites here described as new are Pterygogramma 

 acuminata n. g. and n. sp., reared from eggs of a jassid embedded in twigs of 

 Eucalyptus; Alaptus immaturus n. sp., reared from sugar-cane leaves contain- 



