December, '17] CURRENT NOTES 567 



In Idaho the legislature, at its last session, made appropriations to the University 

 and Station, including $4,000 for the further study of insect pests troublesome to 

 alfalfa and clover seed producers, and $1,200 for emergency calls in the investigation 

 of plant diseases, insect pests and soil troubles. 



A conference was called for November 12 and 13 at Pittsburgh, Pa., of the Com- 

 mittee on the Suppression of the Pine Blister Rust in North America. The meeting 

 was held in the rooms of the Chamber of Commerce, and special attention was given 

 to proposed legislation to prohibit the importation of plant materials. 



The Florida Entomological Society, organized less than two years ago, now has 

 sixty-one members and publishes a quarterly journal called The Florida Buggist, 

 two numbers of which have appeared, one on June 21, and the other on September 

 21. The editorial staff is as follows: editor. Prof. J. R. Watson; associate editor, 

 Dr. E. W. Berger; business manager, K. E. Bragdon. 



The following appointments have recently been made in the Bureau of Entomol- 

 ogy: G. H. Vansell, assigned to Tempe, Ariz. For extension work — Scott Johnson, 

 A. L. Ford, Kansas; M. E. Kimsey, Arizona; H. H. Fort, Missouri; C. W. Curtin, 

 C. F. Stiles, C. H. Gable, at large; J. M. Robinson, O. L. Snapp, E. P. Barrios, 

 G. Garb, S. W. Frost, H. N. Gellert, H. K. Laramore, H. J. Ryan, F. D. Young 

 and William R. Martin. 



Mr. J. L. E. Lauderdale, formerly of the United States Bureau of Entomology 

 stationed at Baton Rouge, La., is now located at Yuma, Ariz., as field assistant ento- 

 mologist, and Mr. D. C. George, formerly of the Washington State College, has also 

 been added to the staff of the Commission of Agriculture and Horticulture as plant 

 pathologist, under the administrative supervision of Dr. A. W. Morrill, state ento- 

 mologist. 



Mr. M. A. Yothers, formerly assistant professor of entomology in the Washington 

 Agricultural College, has been appointed to the position of specialist in apple insect 

 investigations. Bureau of Entomology, and will undertake a thorough-going study 

 of the codling moth and other orchard pests in the Rogue River VaUey, Oregon, in 

 cooperation with the Oregon Agricultural Experiment Station. 



An entomological section has just been formed in the Lorquin Natural History 

 Club of Los Angeles, Cal. The first meeting was held at the public hbrary on Sep- 

 tember 15, at which fourteen were present. Dr. J. A. Comstock was elected chair- 

 man, and Mr. Raoul M. May, secretary. The section meets at the public hbrary in 

 the evening of the third Saturday of each month and all entomologists are invited to 

 attend the meetings. 



Mr. E. R. Sasscer, Bureau of Entomology, reports that the Florida fern worm 

 {Callojristria floridensis) has recently appeared on species of Adiantum in a green- 

 house in St. Joseph, Mo., and to date has practically ruined three crops of ferns when 

 they were ready for marketing. This pest was in all probability introduced into 

 Missouri in a shipment of ferns received from New Orleans, La., last spring. The 

 Florida fern worm is gradually being distributed from state to state on ferns, and 

 for the past two years it has been responsible for considerable injury to these plants 

 in Anacostia, D. C. 



On September 14 a conference was called by Dr. L. O. Howard at Riverton, N. J., 

 to carefully investigate the present status of the recently introduced Japanese beetle, 

 Popillia japonica. Those in attendance at the conference were: Dr. L. O. Howard, 

 Prof. J. G. Sanders, Dr. T. J. Headlee, H. B. Weiss, E. R. Sasscer, WilUam O. Ellis 



