ECONOMIC ZOOLOGY — ENTOMOLOGY. 559 



stance in order to prevent the exit of tlie pupre and adult insects, or cutting off 

 and burning all such parts. 



Progress in the control of the salt marsh mosquito, T. J. Headlee (New 

 Jersey Stas. Girc. 17, pp. 3-10, figs. 3).— This is a brief account of the progress 

 which has been made in control worli in New Jersey. 



Ditching work has been going on continuously since 1906 until all the salt 

 marsh from Secaucus to a point a few miles below Barnegat has been drained. 

 This drainage has relieved the whole shore line from Secaucus to Sandy Hook, 

 and has demonstrated beyond doubt that the drainage of the salt marsh re- 

 lieves adjacent cities and villages from the salt marsh mosquito plague. lu 

 addition to an estimated increased valuation of the shore property to an extent 

 of 15 per cent, the drainage of the salt marsh increases the yield of salt marsh 

 hay. " It seems therefore very conservative to say that the completion of the 

 control of the salt marsh mosquito will bring about an increase in value of not 

 less than $26,000,000. Careful estimates indicate that the total cost of com- 

 pleting the ditching, in view of the Increased cost of that operation, will prob- 

 ably be not less than $300,000." 



How does the house fly pass the winter? H. Skinner (Ent. News, 2^ {1913), 

 No. 7, pp. 303, 304). — The author concludes that the house fly hibernates in the 

 pupal stage and in no other way. 



The stable fly, F. C. Bishopp (U. 8. Dept. Agr., Farmers' Bui. 540, pp. 28, 

 figs. 10). — This is a summarized account of information relating to Stomoxys 

 calcitrans, including its distribution and abundance, the severe outbreak of the 

 stable fly in 1912. hosts, character of injury and losses, action of animals at- 

 tacked, summary of life history, development and habits, seasonal history, agri- 

 cultural practices in relation to fly abundance, and natural and artificial 

 control. 



A report of studies of this pest by the author has been previously noted 

 (E. S. R., 29, p. 256). 



Attempts to transmit poliomyelitis by means of the stable fly (Stomoxys 

 calcitrans), W. A. Sawyer and W. B. Herms {Jour. Amer. Med. Assoc, 61 

 {19 IS), No. 7, pp. 461-466, fig. 1). — In a series of 7 experiments conducted under 

 the auspices of the California State Board of Health and the California Ex- 

 periment Station in which the conditions were varied, the authors were unable 

 to transmit infantile paralysis from monkey to monkey through the agency of 

 the stable fly. 



In their studies of the stable fly at Berkeley, Cal., the fly larvfe were found 

 in abundance during the fall and first half of the winter in moist decaying 

 alfalfa and grain hay, in the bottoms of outdoor feeding troughs for cattle, 

 in wet middlings which had accumulated beside a mixing trough in a dairy, in 

 a pile of decaying onions, and in a wet mixture of decaying weeds and grass. 

 Larvae and pupae were plentiful also in wet hay sittings under a large dairy barn 

 and at the bottom of a stack of hay piled in an inadequately drained horse 

 barn. It is pointed out that since Stomoxys larvae and pupae are rarely found 

 in manure, a favorite breeding place for the house fly, the measures successful 

 in the control of the house fly are not adapted for the suppression of the stable 



fly. 



"In the study of the life history of the stable fly {8. calcitrans), we ob- 

 served that in the insectary at from 23 to 26° C. (from 73.4 to 78.8° F.) female 

 flies deposited eggs on the eighteenth day after their emergence from the pupa 

 oases. The number of eggs deposited varied from 25 to 124, but it was most 

 frequently between 30 and 35. Usually the flies died a few days after ovula- 

 tion. A set of flies which were fed only on sugar water deposited no eggs. 



