86 



important part in its destruction. All stages are attacked, especially 

 the adults, including many females before oviposition. Experiments 

 on its transmission in the laboratory proved valueless, as the controls 

 were all found to be infected. Egg-masses are often found which are 

 of the same red colour as locusts killed by this fungus, and it seems 

 probable that their colour is derived from the infected female, as hoppers 

 hatched from these die soon after emergence. A wet monsoon, w^ich 

 favours the rapid hatching of the eggs, also favours the fungus, which 

 under these conditions spreads rapidly. Two insect parasites of 

 C. nigricornis are described. Mylahris pnstulaia, Thb., appeared in 

 1915 in large numbers in connection with locusts. The adult beetles 

 do some damage to cultivated plants ; they live for many months 

 and the female lays many hundred eggs in the upper layer of the soil, 

 the larvae destroying large quantities of locust egg-masses. The 

 second egg-parasite is Scelio javanica [see this Review, Ser. A, iv, p. 480], 

 which also destroys large numbers of eggs. It is uncertain whether 

 there is more than one generation of this Hymenopteron in the season. 

 Zimmerman kept the egg-masses in open boxes so that the parasites 

 could escape, while the hoppers died from starvation, and there is no 

 doubt that the application of this system on a larger scale, using boxes 

 covered with wire gauze, would be of value. The habits of C. melano- 

 cornis do not permit of the use of the ordinary mechanical methods of 

 locust control to any great extent, though they should not be neglected. 

 If early information as to the appearance of the hoppers in quantity is 

 obtained, they can be driven into fires or trenches in the usual manner, 

 and men with sprayers should follow the drivers and spray the insects 

 with petroleum emulsion to prevent them from climbing bushes, etc., and 

 so escaping. The systematic collection of the egg-masses is a thoroughly 

 practicable and effective method of arresting the spread of the pest, and 

 in the district of Salatiga on three plantations alone 1,100,000 egg- 

 masses were collected ; the operation is simple on cultivated areas, but 

 on waste land and in the bush it is far from easy. The various sprays 

 and poisoned baits which have been used against locusts are discussed 

 at length, but these can only be used successfully in open ground, 

 whereas the whole difficulty of dealing with the Java locust lies in its 

 chief breeding places being in the teak forests and the bush between 

 and around them. A list of the more important papers and reports 

 on locust control concludes this paper. 



Benzin (V.). BpeflMiejiM aepna m wyKM, aaroToenfleMbix-b Ann apwiiM 



BTj 06naCTM BOMCKa flOHCKOro. [Pests of Grain and Flour 

 purchased for the Army in the Province of Don.] — « 3eMJie- 

 AtilbMeCKan ra3eTa.» [The Agricultural Gazette], Pefrograd, 

 no. 3 (119), 29th January 1916, pp. 61-63. [Received 5th 

 December 1916.] 



Grain kept in the warehouses at the railway stations in the province 

 of Don proved to be heavily infested with Calandra granaria, L., in the 

 spring of 1915. This had not been observed prior to the war, as the 

 grain remained only a short time in the warehouses and was con- 

 stantly removed and shipped abroad. In some places recourse was 

 had to cleaning of the grain by means of machinery and on one elevator 

 alone nearly 300 tons of offal containing the weevils were burned 



