391 



farmers in a given district. The beetles should be shaken into a large 

 tank made of packing cloth, the ends of which are kept in position by 

 poles of flexible wood. Between 4 a.m. and 7 a.m. a very large number 

 may be collected in this way at one time, but later in the day they 

 must be enclosed in a sack to prevent their escape. After being caught, 

 they may be destroyed in various ways, the commonest being by 

 plunging the sack into a vessel of boiling water, or by burning them in 

 a wood fire sprinlvled with paraffin. They are killed only with difficulty 

 by drowning or by fumigation, and undoubtedly the best method 

 consists in digging a ditch about 3 yards long and 1| yards 

 wide and deep, beside which are placed tubs containing milk of lime. 

 The insects are poured into these from the sacks and the liquid is 

 stirred to prevent their escape. When sufficient have been caught the 

 tubs are emptied into the ditch and a little lime is sprinkled over it 

 and then a layer of earth about 10 inches thick. A compound is thus 

 formed of considerable manurial value, since it is calculated that 

 3| oz. of these insects contain about ^ oz. of nitrogen, about ^^ oz. of 

 phosphoric acid, and gV to gV oz. of potash. This is equal to that of the 

 best manure as regards phosphoric acid and potash, and is 8 times 

 richer in nitrogen ; 100 lb. of cockchafers would thus be equivalent 

 to 800 lb. of manure of a value of about 3s. Other methods of control 

 consist in trapping the insects by means of light- traps ; destroying 

 the eggs laid in the soil by means of naphthaline, which is practicable 

 only on a small scale owing to its expense ; by ploughing in 

 the eggs to the depth of about a foot, trap-plots of light and very well 

 tilled soil being left, as the females cannot oviposit in hard clay soils. 

 The larvae, against which no complete control has yet been discovered, 

 may be destroyed by fumigating the soil with benzine, potassium 

 sulphocarbonate or carbon bisulphide, by irrigating with crude 

 naphthaline, by manuring with superphosphate, which is also an 

 insecticide, by planting trap-crops (especially lettuce), and by hand 

 picking during the spring ploughing. 



Dash (J. S.). Crop Pests. — Ann. Rept. Dept. Agric, Barbados, 

 1915-16, p. 36. [Received 28th June 1917.] 



The subject matter of this report has already been noticed from an 

 article which appeared in the Agric. News, Barbados, xvi, no. 393, 

 19th May 1917 [see this Revieiu, Ser. A, v, p. 365]. 



Rabaud (E.). Sur les Hym6nopteres parasites des Ooth^ques d'Orthop- 

 teres. [On the Hymenopterous Parasites of the Oothecae of 

 Orthoptera.] — Bull. Soc. Eiitom. France, Paris, no. 10, 23rd May 

 1917, p. 178. 



In the February 1917 part of the Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. of the United 

 States a new Chalcid, Lepidoscelio viatrix, is described, which was 

 observed in the adult stage attached by its mandibles to the abdomen 

 of an Acridian, Colemania splienarioides, BoL, four females having been 

 found on the same host. It is supposed that the Hymenopteron 

 adopts this habit in order more readily to attack the eggs of its host, 

 and this fact and hypothesis are published as something new among 

 the Orthoptera. But the author points out that as long ago as 1877 

 Xambeu found specimens of Podagrion p)acliymerus beneath the wings 



