402 



Brittain (W. H.) & Saunders (L. G.). Notes on the Black Apple 

 Leaf-Hopper {Idiocenis fitchi, Van D.). — Canadian Entomologist, 

 London, xlix, no, 5, May 1917. 



This paper gives a systematic description of the Hfe-stages of 

 Idiocenis fitchi. Van D. (black apple leaf-hopper), which is of little 

 importance as a fruit pest, having been taken on thorn bushes and 

 crab-apples, though in Nova Scotia it swarms on pears and apples in 

 spring and early summer. There is only one brood a year, the winter 

 being spent in the egg-stage. 



Smit (C. W. H.). Note on the Feeding Habits of a Ladybird Larva.— 



S. Afr. Jl. Science, Cape Toivn, xiii, no. 7, February 1917, 

 pp. 302-306. 



Observations on the feeding habits of Scymnus casstromi, Muls., 

 which attacks the potato aphis, are recorded in this paper. The 

 ladybird larva, having seized the aphis, injects a small amount of green 

 fluid into the body of its victim, which in about three minutes is 

 seen to flow back towards the larva. Thereafter, a steady flow of 

 liquid is maintained from and to the larva, the amount increasing 

 until the aphis is alternately drained to translucency and engorged 

 almost to bursting. At each successive injection the fluid obviously 

 contains a larger proportion of the larva's digestive juices, until finally 

 the aphis is sucked dry. As many as 50 regurgitations have been 

 counted in the process, the duration of the meal in this case being 

 1 hr. 3 mins. Another species of ladybird, Hyperaspis hottentota, has 

 been observed to have similar feeding habits. 



Griddle (N,). The American Crow in Relation to Agriculture. — Agric. 

 Gazette of Canada, Ottawa, iv, no. 6, June 1917, pp. 446-450. 



The crow is generally condemned as a destroyer of eggs and young 

 of domestic and wild birds and a devourer of grain. The author 

 suggests however that there is probably a balance of usefulness from 

 the farmer's point of view in the crow's favour. While grain is 

 undoubtedly eaten in autumn when other food is scarce, this is very 

 often gathered from burnt stubble-fields. In the destruction of noxious 

 pests the crow is undoubtedly an important factor, constantly following 

 the plough, cultivator or harrow and clearing up the larvae of cutworms, 

 wireworms and white grubs that are exposed, the latter being reduced 

 in some cases by more than 50 per cent, by the crows, while other 

 means of destroying them are almost impossible. Army-worm and 

 locust infestations have often been largely checked by the attacks of 

 crows, which prove their usefulness also by killing mice and removing 

 carrion. 



J. F. The Beet Fly. — Gardeners' Chronicle, London, no. 1593, 

 th July 1917, p. 4. 



Pegomyia hyoscyami {Anthotnyia hetae) has proved more trouble- 

 some this year than in any other year within memory. The 

 method of squeezing the leaves to kill the larvae is so efficacious that 

 it is the only one adopted by some growers. However, dusting the 



