301 



MoREiRA (C). Entomologia Agricola Brazileira. — Minist. Agric. 



Ind. Comm., Inst. Biol. Dcfcsa Agric, Rio de Janeiro, Serie 



Divulga9ao, Bol. 1, 1921, 182 pp., 25 figs., 60 plates. [Received 

 3rd April 1922.] 



In this bulletin on the pests of agriculture in Brazil the various 

 injurious insects are divided according to their food-plants, and while 

 the measures appropriate to each case are described, insecticides 

 and their use are treated more fully at the end of the work. Most 

 of the information has already been noticed from previous publications 

 by the author and others, but this volume incorporates a mass of 

 scattered information and is thus of practical value. The copious 

 illustrations are mostly reproductions of photographs. 



De Stefani (T.). La Sulla ed alcuni del suoi Insetti dannosi. [Maltese 

 Clover and some of its Insect Pests.] — AUevanienti, Palermo, 

 iii, no. 3, March 1922, pp. 85-86. 



Maltese or soola clover {Hedysarinn coronariinn), a most important 

 forage plant in hot countries, is severely injured in Sicily by a Buprestid, 

 Sphenoptera lineata, F., which oviposits on the young plants. The 

 larvae live in the roots and are protected against damp by the sealing 

 of their entrance-holes, in the main root near the collar, with debris 

 and excreta. Transformation into the adult stage occurs during the 

 winter. The beetle emerges with the advent of warm weather. The 

 clover is not attacked during the first year after sowing, probably 

 because the main root is too slender, and as the crop is cut in May and 

 June of the second 3^ear, the complete cycle from egg to adult must take 

 place in about nine months, from September or October to May or 

 June. There is no known remedy, but the destruction of infested 

 plants from February to April should decrease the number of individuals. 

 In Tunisia an allied species, believed by Marchal to be S. laticollis, 

 Oliv., does similar important damage. Aegeria (Sesia) ichneumoni- 

 forniis, S.V., is a Lepidopterous pest infesting the roots of clover in 

 Sicily. 



Boas (J E. V.) & Thomsen (M.). Oldenborrernes Optraeden i 

 Danmark i Aarene 1904-1919. [Cockchafers in Denmark in 1904- 

 1919.] — Den Kgl. Veterinaer- og LandboJi</)jskole Aarsskrifi, 

 [Copenhagen], 1922, pp. 56-65. [With a Summary in English.] 



In a paper published in 1904 the varying occurrence of Melolontha 

 melolontha {vulgaris) and M. hippocastani in Denmark from 1887 to 

 1903 was recorded. The present work covers the period from 1904 

 to 1914 and is compiled from the official returns. The previously 

 noted decrease of M . melolontha has continued, the brood appearing in 

 the adult stage in the year preceding leap-year having now almost 

 ceased to exist, while another brood, appearing in the year before 

 this, has also decreased, though not to the same extent, so that the 

 damage done by the larvae is of local importance. 



M. hippocastani, which has a five-year generation in Denmark, is 

 found in many parts of Jutland, expecially Vendsyssel, where the 

 brood appearing in the adult stage in the years ending with 1 and 6 

 is the most important— or at any rate was so a few years ago. 



