1877. J 45 



XiNTH Annual EEroRx on the Noxious, Beneficial, and other Insects 

 OF THE State of Missouri ; by Charles V. Rilet, State Entomologist. 8vo, 

 pp. 129. Jefferson City, 1877. 



The pleasing duty of noticing Prof. Riley's Annual Report again devolves upon 

 us. In this 9th Report the author, in giving full scope to his keen powers of obser- 

 vation, minuteness of detail, and the skill with which he vises his pencil, and at the 

 same time in shewing a regard for that scientific accuracy unfortunately too often 

 neglected in works on economic Natural History, maintains his right to be termed 

 the foremost economic entomologist of the day. The contents of this Report are 

 vei-j' varied— more so, perhaps, than those of any of the preceding. As a commence- 

 ment, there is a chapter on currant and gooseberry worms, beginning with a moth 

 (liujitchia ribearia), which, in its habits and larva-state, greatly resembles our 

 Abraxas grossulariata, but which, nevertheless, is apparently not congeneric with it : 

 then follows our too-familiar gooseberry saw-fly, imported into America, and proving 

 as great a pest there as with us ; and the chapter is concluded by a notice of a 

 native saw-fly {Pristiphora grossularice) which is also destructive to currants and 

 gooseberries. A saw-fly {Emphj/tus macitlatus) that injures strawberries is briefly 

 alluded to, as are also two species of the pine-destroying genus Lopliyrus. The 

 Colorado potato-beetle figures as conspicuously as heretofore, and Prof. Riley still 

 maintains his opinion that if it should once get a footing in these islands, it will 

 rather enjoy our climate than otherwise. Considerable space is devoted to an 

 " Army-worm " (Leucania albilinea) which has suddenly made itself obnoxious, and 

 destructive to wheat in the ear. There are notes on two " Innoxious Insects," 

 CorydaHa cornutus and Megathymus yucca, of the former the eggs ai'e described, 

 proving that those formei'ly considered to pertain to Corydalis, were more probably 

 those of the enormous water-bug — Belostoma grandis. But more than half the 

 volume is occupied by a most extended Report on the Rocky Mountain Locust, which 

 has already become an object of legislative solicitude, Congress having passed acts 

 relating to its destruction, applicable to the states of Missouri, Kansas, and Min- 

 nesota ; in addition to a multitude of wood-cuts, a capital map shewing, by dark 

 shading, the districts in which it proved destructive in 1876, is given. Most 

 interesting are the detailed results of experiments of freezing and thawing, moisture, 

 burying at different depths, and exposure to free air, upon the egg-masses : the 

 results appeared to shew that: — (1) frost has no injurious effects ; (2) alternate 

 freezing and thawing is far less injurious than was generally supposed ; (3) tlie 

 breaking open of the egg-masses and exposing them to free air is the most effectual 

 means of destroying them, hence the importance of harrowing ; (J?) moisture has 

 little effect, excepting where land can be flooded for two or three days at the time 

 tlie young are hatcliing. We hear at this moment what the Report does not tell us, 

 viz. : that a " Grasshopper Commission," has been instituted, with government aid, 

 and that Prof. Riley has been appointed chief commissioner, and with him are 

 Dr. Packard and Prof. Thomas the well-known Orthopterist, each taking certain 

 districts, and certain distinct brandies of investigation. It is expected that the 

 meteorological department will act in unison, and it is hoped that the co-operation of 

 the Canadian government will be obtained.* Probably there has never before been so 

 marked an instance of a country using exhaustive endeavours to combat an insect pest. 



* Since these remark.s were written, we have received No. 1 of a periodical, styled the 

 " Bulletin of the United States Entomological Comnaiseion," referring to the means of destroying 

 the " young or unfledged " Locusts. 



