1917 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 95 



realized that the conil)ination eflfects of a bacteriologist and entonidlogisi were re- 

 quired. As I had no bacteriologist on our staff, I thought this a favorable oppor- 

 tunity, and I am very pleased to find that the conclusions of one season's work 

 confirm the conclusions that we had come to as a result of our experiments. 



I think the suggestions they make -in regard to the reasons for the lack oi 

 success, viz: that in the first place we may have c(>nii)arative immunity among 

 some of our species of grasshoppers owing to the presence of a specific Coccobacillus 

 of our own, and secondly the absence of aijy cannibalistic habit are the most pro- 

 bable. To get the cannibalistic habit in the pronounced degree that you would 

 require to ob'tain success in your experiments you would have to have enormous 

 number of locusts. I think the two reasons advanced will probably prove 

 to be the cause of the inability to use this Coccobacillus in Canada, and it certainly 

 cannot be recommended at the present time. 



SOME FEATURES OF INTEREST IN CONNECTION WITH OUR 

 STUDIES OF FOREST AND SHADE TREE INSECTS. 



J. M. SwAixE, Entomological Branch, Depaktment of Agriculture, Ottawa. 



This season, as usual, British Columbia furnished many interesting forest 

 insect problems, though but two are mentioned here. The work with the "Western 

 Cedar Borer, a species of Trdchi/l'eJe, ha'^ afforded us valuable information upon 

 the life history and habits of the beetle, and especially upon the districts at present 

 affected, and the types of trees most subject to attack. There is apparently little 

 hope of obtaining an effective control for an insect that breeds freely in the heart- 

 wood of living forest trees, but we expect to materially assist the lumbermen in 

 avoiding loss from its work. It is interesting that while the borers do occur in 

 apparently normal healthy cedars their work is usually found in dead top cedars 

 upon the ridges. It is evident that burning the slash from infested trees, before 

 the early spring, will materially reduce the numbers of beetles in the limit, and that 

 the infested timber should be utilized, so far as practicable, for such purposes as 

 it is still suitable. 



The bark beetle outbreaks in the yellow pine and black pine of Southern British 

 Columbia have been spreading rapidly until the present season. In some of the 

 valleys, where three years ago the outbreak was evidenced by clumps of red-tops 

 here and there, numbering each from five to about fifty trees, the injury is reported 

 now as beyond any reasonable hope of control. HoAvever, an interesting condition 

 has apparently arisen in at least the western portion of the infested area, where 

 our reports would indicate that some influence other than parasites has succeeded 

 in at least temporarily checking the spread of the beetle. Mr. Chrystal examined 

 the infested valleys of the Xicola region, and is satisfied that there has been little 

 extension of the infestation this summer. The cause of this check is not yet apparent, 

 but it is worth noting in this connection that the summer and winter of 1915 

 afforded most unusual weather conditions in the area concerned. The summer of 

 1915 had an extremely heavy rainfall over this normally dry country, and the 

 following winter will be long remembered throughout Southern British Columbia 

 for its' extreme cold. In the spring of 1916, wide definite belts of timber well up 

 on the mountain sides were turning yellow and were apparently killed, in the Nicola 

 countr}-, as well as at other places, such as Field, B.C. The explanation appears 



