THE ENTOMOLOGICAL RECORD FOR 1885, 



By t^. A. FORBES. 



To the economic entomologist the season of 1885 was not espe- 

 cially noticeable, except for an extraordinary outbreak of two or three 

 of our common species of grasshoppers in the western part of the 

 State. It seems, hov/ever, not impossible that the year will be 

 remembered also for the first indications of one of the cus- 

 tomary periodic uprisings of two of our most destructive insects, 

 viz : the chinch bug and the army worm, both of which were evi- 

 dently upon the increase in certain parts of the State, and likely to 

 multiply injuriously another year, provided the weather is favorable 

 for their reproduction. 



Frequent complaint having reached me of injuries to lawns by 

 ANTS of the various species which throw up mounds of earth, I have 

 recommended the use of bisulphide of carbon to destroy these colo- 

 nies, invariably, according to the accounts of my correspondents, 

 with success. A hole six inches deep should be made through the 

 middle of the mound, an ounce or more of bisulphide of carbon be- 

 ing afterwards poured in. Tlie hole sliould then be filled and packed 

 with earth. The volatile poisonous fluid will rapidly evaporate with 

 deadly effect upon the ants. Thinking it likely that gasoline might 

 be substituted for this somewhat expensive, dangerous, and highly 

 disagreeable fluid, we experimented with the former liquid upon a 

 colony of these insects at Champaign. Placed under a bell jar 

 and exposed to the fumes of gasoline, the ants commenced to 

 die in eight minutes, although not all had perished at the end of 

 two hours. In sixteen hours, however, all were dead. Tried in the 

 field, the experiment was a practical failure, three ounces of gaso- 

 line poured into a hole made in the middle of an ant hill having, 

 practically, no effect at the end of twenty-one hours. This result was 

 confirmed by a second trial. Although the odor of the gasoline lingered 

 in the earth two and a quarter hours after the application, the ants 

 were apparently not incommoded. It is possible, however, that larger 

 quantities might produce the effect sought for. 



The European cabbage worm {rieris rapce) has clearly been less 

 abundant during the past season throughout that part of the State 

 under our observation, than during the year preceding. The 

 same scarcity was noted by several of my correspondents. Dr. Go- 

 ding, for instance, writing from Livingston county on the 24th July, 



