354 



percentage of those forming cocoons very small, and the weight of silk 

 produced only about half that from individuals fed on mulberries. 

 In countries where the climate is not adapted to the cultivation of the 

 mulberry, it might be advisable to attempt to produce a strain of 

 siUiworms adapted to feeding on Scorzonera ; but in countries such as 

 France and Italy, where the mulberry thrives, this would not be worth 

 while. 



Feytaud (J.). Note sur les Vers gris. [Note on the Caterpillars of 

 Feltia exdmnationis.^ — Rev. Viticulture, Paris, xlvi, no. 1190, 

 19th April 1917, pp. 247-248. [Received 8th June 1917.] 



The larvae of the Noctuid moth, Feltia exdamationis, destroy 

 cereals, vegetables, beet-root, tobacco, weeds, and in the spring, when 

 the ploughing has deprived them of the last-named, they attack and 

 destroy the young vine-shoots. They are naturally controlled in the 

 larval stage by moles, shrews, hedgehogs, Carabid beetles, a wasp 

 {Ammophila sp.), and by parasitic Hymenoptera and Diptera, and in the 

 adult stage by bats. Artificial means of control include spraying with 

 Bordeaux mixture, or with nicotine and arsenical solutions ; leaving 

 trap-strips of weed-covered soil unfilled and unploughed ; hand- 

 picking at night with lanterns ; light-traps and molasses bait-traps ; 

 placing handfuls of weeds at the roots of the vines as traps ; cutting 

 of trap-trenches ; and by lightly passing the finger through the 

 surface soil at the foot of the vines, where the caterpillars lie hidden 

 during the day-time. 



(P. L.). Cochenilles de la Vigne en Hongrie. [Vine Coccids in Hun- 

 gary.] — Rev. Viticulture, Paris, xlvi, no. 1191, 26th April 1917, 

 p. 270. [Received 8th June 1917.] 



The vine is cultivated in Hungary on the sandy plains, where it is 

 free from Phylloxera, and also in clay soils suited to American vine- 

 stocks. In the same soils Robinia pseudacacia also occurs and this is 

 the food-plant of the Coccid, Eulecanium, robiniarum, which spreads to 

 the vines. The vine in Hungary is also hable to occasional infestation 

 by Pseudococcus citri, Pulvinaria betulae attacking the old wood of 

 trellis vines, and Eulecanium persicae. These scales are controlled by 

 close pruning and by crushing the insects and their eggs. 



GoDAED (A.). Les Insectes Carnivores et la Vigne. [Predaceous 

 Insects and the Vine.] — Rev. Viticulture, Paris, xWi, no. 1192, 3rd 

 May 1917, pp. 280-282. 



The author pleads for the protection of birds rather than for the 

 introduction and propagation of insects, as the natural means of con- 

 trolling insect pests. An immense number of very harmful insects 

 entirely escape the attacks of other invertebrates, while insects useful 

 in controlling others may themselves cause damage, e.g., earwigs 

 and wasps that destroy other insects, but also damage fruit. Out- 

 breaks of pests in agriculture always coincide with the disappearance 

 of birds, and this is more felt in agriculture and viticulture than in 

 forestry, woodland birds being less hable to destruction. A bird 

 should not be condemned because of the damage done by it to a single 



