REPORT ON NATIONAL MUSEUM. 295 



Riley, Charles V. — Utilization of ants in horticulture. 



(Scientific Amer., Jan. '27, 1883.) 



Abstract of C. J. Macgowan's "Utilization of Ants as Insect Destroyers in 

 China" (North China Herald, April 4, 1882), and of H. C. McCook's "Ants as 

 beneficial Insecticides" (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Philad., 1882, pp. 203-271), 

 with additional matter ; notices of published accounts of ants which con- 

 struct nests on plants, especially of Azteca mirabilis on Ceeropia trees in South 

 America; possibility that the introduction of ants into this country might 

 involve objectionable consequences; probability that ants would not bo of 

 service in protecting orange trees from the scale insects which mainly injure 

 those trees in this country. 



New lists of North American Lepidoptera. 



(Amer. Naturalist, January, 1883, xxvil, pp. 80-82.) 



Reviews of the Brooklyn Entomological Society's "Check List of the 

 Macro- lepidoptera of America, North of Mexico. Brooklyn, N. Y., January, 

 1882;" C. H. Fernald's "ASynouymical Catalogue of the described Torlricidce 

 of North America, North of Mexico" (Trans. Amer. Entom. Soc, May-July, 

 1882, x, pp. 1-64) ; and. A. R. Grote's " New Check List of North American 

 Moths. [N. Y.], May [Aug.], 1882:" remarks upon the roles of nomenclature 

 adopted in these works; faults found in Grote's work ; notice of B. Gerhard's 

 " Systematisches Verzeichniss der Macro-lepidopteren von Nord-Amerika. 

 Lpz., 1878." 



The " Cluster Fly." 



(Amer. Naturalist, January, 1883, xvn, pp. 82-83.) 



Abstract of communications by W. H. Dall and F. Baker to the Biological 

 Society of Washington, D. C, on the habit of a fly, resembling the house-fly, 

 of collecting in swarms or clusters in houses in wiuter ; determination of the 

 species as Pollenia rudis, Fabr.; synonymy of this fly; little known of the 

 larval habits and development of the species of Pollenia; accounts and at- 

 tempted explanations of the swarming of other Diptera. 



Reprint (Prairie Farmer, December 23, 1882). 



Naphthaline cones. 



(Amer. Naturalist, January, 1883, xvn, pp. 83-84.) 



Remarks supplementary to author's " Naphthaline Cones for the protection 

 of Insect Collections" (Amer. Naturalist, May, 1882, xvi, pp. 409-410), in 

 reply to C. A. Blake's objections ; author's former criticism in the main main- 

 tained; Blake's naphthaline cones stain the paper lining of boxes, and seem 

 to destroy mites and Psoci very soon, but to have little effect on Dermeslidce. 



Spread of the 12-pnuctiired Asparagus Beetle. 



(Rural New-Yorker, Jan. 13, 1883, xvn.) (Amer. Naturalist, Feb., 1883, xvn, 

 ]>. 199.) 



Increasing destructiveness of Crioceris duodecimpunctata , recorded by O. 

 Lugger to have been introduced near Baltimore, Md., from Europe; descrip- 

 tion of the imago of this species as compared with that of ('. asparagi, 



Hibernation of the Cotton Worm. 



(Scientific Amer., Feb. 3, 1883.) 



Abstz - act of paper read before American Association for the Advancement 

 of Science, at Montreal, Aug., 1882; proof of the hibernation of Aletia oftjlina 

 as a moth, and of the perpetual existence of the species in bTorida. 



(Also, under title of " The hibernation of Aletia xylina (Say) in the United 

 States a settled fact." Proc. Amer. Assoc. Advanc. Sci. for 1882, xxxi, pp. 

 4G8-4(i9.) 



