363 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 2 



is appreciated in competent quarters. Our 'brief technical descrip- 

 tions' to which Mr. Banks appears to object are intentionally brief. 

 We do not believe in padding descriptions with useless detail, but seize 

 upon the essential characters which, in our opinion, after a survey of 

 the group, serve for the recognition of a species. 



"With regard to the reviewer's concluding statement that 'most of 

 the figures are taken from Neumann. The plates are original — ,' we 

 would say that there are 116 figures (not 114). Of the 116 figures 

 45 are original, 43 are reproduced, by kind permission, from Neu- 

 mann's original blocks and 28 are from figures by other authors. Of 

 the 9 figures on the 3 plates 6 figures are original and 3 are repro- 

 duced from other authors. Are we to accept this as an example of 

 Mr. Banks' sense of fair play or of the scientific precision which char- 

 acterizes his 'brief technical description' of our book? 



"We fear that Mr. Banks has unfortunately transgressed the line 

 of legitimate criticism . . . We regret that we have been un- 

 able to make anything of his descriptions of two species of Argas. 

 That others have experienced a similar difficulty with his diagnoses ap- 

 pears from the fact that in 'Das Tierreich' (Lieferung 3, Acarina) 

 while eight of his species of Orihatidce are admitted as possibly valid, 

 sixteen are relegated to the category of 'doubtful.' 



"Yours truly, 

 ' ' GrEO. H. F. NuTTALL, Quick Professor of Biology in the 



University of Cambridge." 



Scientific Notes 



Injurious June Beetles, Anomala marginata Fabr. — At the office of the state 

 entomologist at Blacksburg, Va., a complaint was recently received from Pat- 

 rick County, Va., to the effect that a large apple orchard was being damaged 

 seriously by some leaf-eating insect and request made for an investigation. 

 A visit on July the 14th, 1909, revealed the fact that a large number of the 

 apple trees in this orchard had been partially defoliated by a species of June 

 beetle. The orchard consisted of about thirty thousand apple trees, from three 

 to eight years old. The damage done to this orchard was so extensive that a 

 portion of it presented a dull brown, unhealthy appearance from a distance. 

 The trees most seriously damaged extended over an area of probably one hun- 

 dred acres. Some trees were damaged more than others ; some of the smaller 

 ones had but few leaves left. 



There were about twelve grape vines in front of the manager's dwelling, 

 small vines of two or three years' growth, that were entirely defoliated. 



There were several hundred of these beetles on one apple tree in some 



