488 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 5 



of material service in applied work. It is gratifying to note that 

 American entomologists are not overlooking the value of research in 

 an attempt to obtain immediate results. Those who have added to 

 the sum of human knowledge are to be congratulated upon their 

 good fortune, while all Americans should realize that we have in the 

 Bureau of Entomology at Washington, a peculiarly efficient research 

 organization which reflects great credit upon its gifted chief. 



Work upon insecticides, aside from general field comparisons, has 

 received too little attention from the economic biologist. We are 

 dealing with living organisms, and while the percentage of poison in. 

 a given insecticide and the relative activity of that poison from a 

 mechanical standpoint is most valuable, still there should be some 

 knowledge of the reaction of the poison upon the living insect. One 

 American student has thrown much light on how certain insecticides kill, 

 and in this issue we print a discussion of the possibilities and proba- 

 bilities of establishing some such criterion as a poison exponent based 

 upon the reaction of the insect under recorded conditions to standard 

 amounts of various poisons. The inquiry is most praiseworthy and 

 should be extended along several lines in a search for some practical 

 test which will give much more accurate information than the com- 

 paratively gross field experiments which have been our principal source 

 of information in the past. 



Reviews 



26th Report of the State Entomologist on the Noxious and Beneficial 

 Insects of the State of Illinois, by s. a." forbes pp. 1-160, figs. 42. 

 1912. 



The increasing importance of shade tree and shrub pests is shown by the discus- 

 sion at the outset of some 27 species occupying 60 printed pages. We note the absence 

 in this hst of the false maple scale, Phenacoccus acericola King, a species more gen- 

 erally injurious to hard maples in the vicinity of New York City than the cottony 

 maple scale. The sugar maple borer is another New York pest which escapes notice. 

 A chapter by Mr. Hart is devoted to miscellaneous economic insects and gives a 

 particularly valuable discussion of the green fruit worms and their identity. There 

 is an excellent opportunity for more work on these closely allied insects. The re- 

 mainder of the report is devoted to the more important insects of truck farms and 

 vegetable gardens, followed by directions for the preparation and use of the standard 

 insecticides. The discussions are brief, practical, and the text well illustrated, a 

 number of figures being original. 



A Preliminary Report on the Alfalfa Weevil, by f. m. webster^ 

 U. S. Dep't. of Agric, Bur. of Ent., Bui. 112, pp. 1-47, figs. 27, pis. 

 13. 1912. 



