282 Forty-ninth Report on the State Museum 



If they can be traced to their nests in the ground they can be de- 

 stroyed by bisulphide of carbon, but if located within the walls, they 

 may be baited with some poisonous substance, or attracted to a 

 sugared sponge to be dropped in hot water wlien the ants gather on 

 it. How chalk lines may be used as barriers against them, 

 [Extended in pages 109-114 of this Report (xi).] 



A Friend, not a Foe. (Country Gentleman, for September 19, 1895, Ix, 

 p. 685, c. I — 8 cm.) 



A supposed hop vine pest, from Port Kent, N. Y., is the larva of a 

 lady-bug, Hipp )damia convergens. It is one of the best friends of the 

 hop-growers. Importance of knowing our insect friends, so as to pro- 

 tect them as far as possible. Lady-bugs may be so abundant in hop- 

 yards as to render spraying for the aphis unnecessary. 



A Humbug Insect Cure. (Country Gentleman, for September 19, 1895, 

 Ix, p. 687, c. I — 18 cm.) 



Reply to an experience related with the Elm Inoculation Company, 

 for protecting trees from the elm-leaf beetle. 



The absurd ty of the method employed by the ctjmpany is com- 

 mented upon. The uselessness of the " remedy " is shown. Reference 

 is made to f >rmer exposures, and to the statements regardmg the in- 

 efficiency of the material used by the company, made at the recent 

 meetinij; of the American Association of Economic Entomologists at 

 Springfield, Mass. 



The Squash Bug. (Country Gentleman, for September 19, 1895, Ix, p. 

 687, cols. 2, 3 — 24 cm.) 



[n reply to inquiries from Athens, Pa., relating to the injuries of 

 Anasa tristis, the two best remedies, viz., trapping the hibernated bugs 

 and destroying the eggs, are named, and directions for the same given; 

 also, its egg-laying habit and period of oviposition. The seriousness 

 of the injury to the plant is explained as due to the poison injected 

 through the proboscis of the insect. 



Squash Bugs — Squash-vine Borers. (Country Gentleman, for October 

 3, 1895, Ix, p. 719, cols. I, 2, 3 — 31 cm.) 



Gives the comparative injury to crops from the two insects ; the 

 general distribution of the eggs of the squash-vine moth over the 

 plant, and the large number of larvae that may occur on a single 

 plant; the greater desirability of preventing attack than applying a 

 remedy ; the importance of collecting and killing the moths before 

 egg-laying. 



Frail Children of the Air : Excursions into the World of Butterflies : by 

 S. H. Scudder. (The Nation, for October 17, 1895, No. 1581, pp. 

 280-281, cols. 3, I — 10 cm.) 



The thirty or more chapters of this volume are drawn from the 

 series of " Excurses " contained in the costly volume of " Butterflies of 



