June, '14] SCIENTIFIC NOTES 299 



Owing to the consequent expansion of the entomological work along investigatory 

 and administrative lines and the fact that such work did not constitute a necessary 

 part of the work of the Experimental Farms system and executively was virtually 

 distinct, the Entomological Service has now been separated from the Experimental 

 Farms Branch and has been constituted an independent Branch of the Department 

 of Agriculture under the direction of the dominion entomologist. It is proposed to 

 erect a building to provide offices and laboratories for the new Entomological Branch. 

 Will correspondents kindly note that all official communications and publications 

 should be addressed to "The Dominion Entomologist, Department of Agriculture, 

 Ottawa." 



This reorganization, which will also include the establishment of a national collec- 

 tion of the insects of Canada in the Canadian National Museum (the Victoria Memo- 

 rial Museum) at Ottawa under the care of the dominion entomologist, marks an 

 important step in Canadian entomology. It will result in a still greater development 

 of the study of Canadian insects along scientific and practical lines. 



An Unusual Occurrence of Walking-sticks. During the past summer (1913) 

 the woods in the vicinity of Peterson, Iowa, showed walking sticks, Diapheromera 

 femorata, in numbers which constituted a veritable pest. The woods are principally 

 oak, with smaller numbers of elm, ash, aspen, linden, hickory and black walnut trees 

 and a heavy undergrowth of hazel. On the 30th of May it was observed that the 

 hazel bushes were quite covered with recently hatched walking-sticks, varying from 

 three or four millimetres to a centimetre in length, in color they were a very pale 

 yellowish green. 



Bj' the first of August they had begim to leave the timber and appear in the orchard 

 and around the house. In the orchard they infested particularly one tree of early 

 apples, devouring nearly all the leaves; on a single twig six inches in length I counted 

 sixteen clustered together and they were equally numerous over the entire tree. 



The woods had become forbidden ground to us; if one were sufficientlj' brave to 

 start through them, the walking-sticks fell to the ground from every tree in such 

 numbers as to sound like hail. Through August and September there were seldom 

 fewer than fifty on our screen door each morning. The little chickens were particu- 

 larly enthusiastic over them and soon learned to appear when we swept them off 

 the doors in the morning. In spite of the long awkward bodies and chnging legs of 

 the insects, they were soon able to devour them quickly and deftly. 



Bjr mid-September the timber showed stretches a couple of hundred feet broad 

 and half a mile long where the trees had been completely defofiated. The walking 

 sticks began to cross the road to another piece of timber in which there had been 

 almost none of the insects and every passing carriage or motor crushed them by 

 hundreds. This extremely local character of the infestation was a curious feature. 

 One piece of timber containing about two hundred acres was almost wholly stripped, 

 while a similar piece across the road was scarcely touched. It would appear that no 

 walking-sticks matured there, and the slight damage done was by migrants from the 

 other timber. There was an apparent disparity in numbers between the males and 

 the females, though the apparent scarcity of females may be due to their greater 

 sluggishness. During the latter part of the season the females appeared in slightly 

 greater numbers. 



HoRTEXSE Butler. 



State College, N. M. 



