April, '10] REVIEWS 253 



late of very exclusive adaptation of parasite to host, we must assume that the 

 larvae, or triuugulins, which stand but little chance anyway, when they are on 

 the flowers, of getting on to Hymenoptera, have their chances of survival still 

 further diminished by being carried to the nests of the wrong species of wasps 

 or bees. There are also a few minor points which strike the reader of 

 Pierce's monograph as being inadequate or erroneous. Thus the measure- 

 ments should have been given uniformly in micromillimeters (/*) , if they are 

 really as important as he would have us believe. The view that the Strep- 

 sipterou, is not entoparasitic. These, however, are slight errors, and Mr. 

 mouth and alimentary tract, as Brues has shown, and there is therefore no 

 reason for supposing that it feeds unlike other entoparasitic larval insects. 

 It is not true that the Strepsipteran type of metamorphosis "is unique among 

 insects," for the reason that "in no other case is there complete endopara- 

 sitism," since the triuugulin, or first larval stage, even of the female Strep- 

 sipteron, is not entoparasitic. These, however, are slight errors, and Mr. 

 Pierce is deserving of great praise for the care and diligence with which he 

 has brought together all the scattered and fragmentary descriptions of the 

 Strepsiptera and for the copious and substantial additions he has made to 

 our knowledge of this extraordinary group of insects. 



W. M. WlIEEXER 



Experiments with Powdered Arsenate of Lead as a Practical Boll 

 Weevil Poison, by Wilmon Newell and G. D. Smith, Louisiana 

 Crop Pest Commission, Circ. 33, p. 251-333, PI. 1, 1909. 



Two recent publications of the Lousiana Crop Pest Commission furnish 

 the most important data thus far brought forward concerning the control of 

 the boll weevil, at least as far as its control in the lower Mississippi Valley 

 is concerned. We predict that the results published in these two bulletins 

 "Will be worth many times the entire cost of the Commission to the citizens of 

 Louisiana. 



In Circular 23 of the Louisiana Crop Pest Commission, Professor Newell de- 

 scribed preliminary experiments with powdered arsenate of lead as a remedy 

 for the boll weevil, which indicated the practicability of its use. In the bul- 

 letin just issued the outcome of practical field experiments is recounted and 

 It is evident that Mr. Newell and his assistants have demonstrated for the 

 first time the successful use of poisons for the boll weevil. There is a long 

 and checkered history of the attempts to poison the boll weevil which need 

 not be rehearsed, but from the account given it would seem that a method 

 has finally been demonstrated which is both effective and practical under 

 prevailing conditions. 



The principal field experiments in 1908 were destroyed bj- fioods, but nine 

 acres located at Mansfield, La., showed an increase of 56. lbs. seed cotton per 

 acre from a single application of one pound of powdered arsenate of lead 

 per acre, this giving a net profit of two dollars per acre. This experiment is of 

 interest because on the same ground experiments were made with Paris 

 green in 1907 which showed a decrease of 97 pounds per acre against the 56 

 poimds increase when the arsenate of lead was used. Two experiments car- 

 ried on with liquid arsenate of lead showed no benefit resulting. 



Several cages were used for making further tests of the effect of powdere^l 

 arsenate of lead. These were about five feet high covering a single plant 

 "which bore about 15 bolls and many squares; 100 weevils were confined in 



