276 



latter case the bee dies at once, while in the former, being unable to 

 fill the air-sacs that are necessary for flight, it is reduced to crawling. 

 The intestines, which are usually evacuated while the bee is on the 

 wing, thus become congested, leading to the former supposition that 

 the disease was a digestive trouble. By blocking the thoracic spiracles 

 of the bee with wax, all the usual symptoms of Isle-of-Wight disease 

 have been produced. The mite has not as yet been found in any bee 

 outside Great Britain, and seems to be peculiar to this country as a bee 

 parasite. It is proposed to designate the new parasite Tarsonemus 

 woodi and the name Acarine disease is suggested as being more 

 satisfactory than Isle-of-Wight disease. 



UvARov (B. p.). — A Preliminary Revision of the Genus Dociosiaurus, 

 Fieh.— Biill. Ent. Res., London, xi, pt. 4, March 1921, pp. 397- 

 407. 



The genus Dociostaurus, Fieb. {Slauronoins, Fisch.), includes several 

 species of locusts and grasshoppers injurious to agriculture, the 

 Moroccan locust, D. maroccanns, Thunb., being one of the worst 

 pests in Algeria, Tunisia, Asia Minor, the Caucasus and Turkestan. 

 The distribution of the genus is purely Palaearctic, the centre of its 

 development being in the tablelands of Western and Central Asia. 

 From there different species are spreading continually in all directions, 

 chiefly into the plains of the Palaearctic desert belt, extending through 

 northern Africa and south-western and central Asia. The present 

 paper aims at establishing a more or less natural sj'stem of the species, 

 enabling them to be identified with certainty. A key to the ten 

 species recognised and an annotated catalogue of them are given, two 

 new species being described. 



Zacher (F.). Tierische Schadlinge an Heil- und Giftpflanzen und 

 ihre Bedeutung Mr den Arzneipflanzenbau. [Animal Pests of 

 Curative and Poisonous Plants and their Importance in the 

 Cultivation of Medicinal Plants.] — Ber. Deutschen Pharmazeiit. 

 Ges., Berlin, xxxi, no. 2, 1921, pp. 53-65, 6 figs. 



The cultivation of medicinal plants on a large scale is a com- 

 paratively new branch of agriculture in Germany. In Bohemia 

 insect pests have appeared in large numbers on such crops, confirming 

 the author's view that their poisonous character is no protection to 

 them. In some cases Senft noticed that the most poisonous plants 

 and the drugs obtained from them were infested by pests, and con- 

 cluded that the latter were immune to the poisons concerned. It is 

 therefore probable that crops of native German poisonous plants will 

 be liable to attack. Besides indigenous plants a number of foreign 

 ones are likely to be grown in Germany, and those that are allied to 

 native species are also likely to be attacked. During the War the 

 cultivation of Chenopodiwn qiiinoa, a native of the Peruvian Andes, 

 proved hopeless in Germany owing to insect attack. A Micro- 

 lepidopteron, Phthorimaea {Gelechia) atriplicella, F.R., was particularly 

 harmful ; the caterpillars of the first generation fed on the flowers, 

 and those of the second on the fruits and seeds. 



The chances of introduced plants not allied to native ones are better, 

 as only insects with a very wide range of food-i)lants are likely to attack 

 them. Subterranean insects, such as the mole-cricket and wireworms, 

 are the most to be feared. 



