458 EXPEEIMEISTT STATION EECORD. 



task it might seem since the females oviposit only in the trunk and out on 

 the branches till they get down to about li in. in diameter. The author re- 

 ports that trees 40 ft. high, punctured by between 200 and 300 females for their 

 egg cells were thoroughly treated in 3 hours by means of a small squirt can 

 oiler and a quart of gasoline, with no injury to the trees. He recommends 

 that valuable trees be treated by means of a repellent, which, if ineffectual, can 

 be followed by a treatment of the egg cells. 



The cigarette beetle (Lasiodernia serricome) in the Philippine Islands, 

 C. R. Jones (Philippine Jour. 8ci., Sect. D, 8 (1913), No. 1, pp. 1-42, pis. 9).— 

 This paper discusses the distribution and dissemination, life history, and 

 natural and artificial control, including fumigation experiments with carbon 

 disulphid and hydrocyanic acid gas. No bad effect upon the aroma of the 

 fumigated cigars could be detected. 



The annual Ions caused by this beetle in Manila is said to vary from $3,000 

 to $6,500 per factory for cigars actually destroyed therein. Mention is made 

 of the rice weevil, a species of Bostrychidee, the shot-hole bamboo borer 

 (Dinoderus brevis), and a clerid beetle as being found in dried tobacco in the 

 Philippines and often mistaken for the cigarette beetle. The species of Cleridae 

 mentioned is said to be an important enemy of the cigarette beetle through 

 feeding, both in its larval and adult stages, upon the larva and pupa of this 

 pest. In observations made 6 adult clerids devoured 31 larvie of the cigarette 

 beetle in a single night. A chalcidid parasite {Norhanus sp.) has been reared 

 by the author from the pupa of the cigarette beetle, which it attacks only after 

 the pupal cell is formed. The life cycle of this parasite is said to require from 

 16 to 17 days. A small white mite of the family Eupodidae {Rhagidia sp.) at- 

 tacks this pest in all stages except the adult, both in factories and in the 

 laboratory. 



A wild host plant of the boll weevil in Arizona, O. F. Cook (Science, n. ser., 

 57 (1913), No. 9Jf6, p-p. 269-261).— Thurberia thespesioides, a plant closely 

 related to the cotton plant, originally described in 1855 from Sonora, Mexico, 

 and recently found growing on slopes of the Santa Catalina Mountains not 

 far from Tucson, Ariz., is reported to be a host plant of the boll weevil. Thur- 

 beria, some dozen plants of which were found growing in a small canyon, is 

 a large shrubby plant with hard woody trunk an inch in diameter which may 

 attain a height of 10 ft. Six definite rings of annual growth were found in one 

 specimen. 



A few larvae and pupae were discovered embedded among the seeds of nearly 

 mature capsnles and an adult weevil in one capsule. Since it seems to be a 

 habit of Thurberia to flower and fruit for only a short time in Si^tember and 

 October, it does not allow more than 1 or 2 broods of the weevil to develop 

 in a season. 



Thurberia may prove to be the original host plant of the boll weevil, as 

 otherwise its infestation at Tucson must be explained by reference to prehis- 

 toric cotton cultures which might have brought the weevil in from Mexico. 

 That the weevils in the Santa Catalina Mountains represent a recent importa- 

 tion from Texas seems to be altogether improbable as no cotton is grown in 

 this vicinity. 



Bee keeping in Tennessee, G. M. Bentley (Tenn. Bd. Ent. Bui. 9, 1913. 

 pp. 64, figs. 56). — This bulletin gives information needed by those about to 

 engage in bee keeping. 



A revision of the North American species of Megastigmus, C. R. Crosby 

 (Ann. Ent. Soc. Amer., 6 (1913), No. 2, pp. 155-110, figs. iO).— Ten species of 

 this chalcidid genus are recognized of which 3 are described as new. So far as 

 known the larvae of all the species live in the seeds of plants. 



