494 



manure. The adults have a peculiar habit of sunning themselves 

 on ant-hills during the warm days of winter, pointing to the existence 

 of some comrection between this beetle and ants, the adults being 

 always more abundant near ant-hills than elsewhere. The larva works 

 at night and on cloudy days and owing to its voracious appetite and 

 omnivorous habits it has been called the Kaiser worm in central Texas. 



A Manual of Dangerous Insects likely to be introduced in the United 

 States through Importations. - U.S. Dep. Agric, Washington, 

 D.C.. 15th August 1917, 256 pp., 50 plates, 107 figs. [Received 

 16th September 1918.] 



This valuable manual, which is edited by W. D wight Pierce, has 

 been prepared by the U.S. Bureau of Entomology at the request of 

 and in co-operation mth the Federal Horticultural Board, to supply 

 such information as is required by its officers and others in the enforce- 

 ment of quarantines and the safeguarding of the country against 

 foreign insect pests. The plants yielding vegetable products are 

 arranged alphabetically under the American common name, with the 

 scientific name attached, and a brief sketch is given of each of the 

 more important insects attacking these. It is pointed out that 

 inspectors should not attempt to make final determuiations by the 

 use of this work ; the book merely indicates the insects likely to be 

 found with importations. References are given under each species 

 to such foreign literature as affords the best or most easily available 

 source of additional information. Inspectors finding important 

 insects not already familar to them are requested to transmit specimens 

 immediately to the Bureau of Entomology at Washington. The 

 scientific names used throughout the manual are those current in 

 European literature, though many of these will undoubtedly be changed 

 as the result of future studies. * A list is given of over 100 important 

 insect pests that have been introduced in the past ; many hundreds 

 more are mentioned that are liable to be introduced at any time. 

 The lists of insects included in the manual are necessarily incomplete ; 

 many important introduced species are omitted because they are now 

 so generally distributed that the importation of a few additional 

 individuals will have no effect upon existing economic conditions. 

 Frequently the literature on dangerous species is so meagre as to 

 make it impossible to determine the importance of the pest. The 

 handbook is well illustrated. 



Jones (T. H.). The Southern Green Plant-Bug. Z7. <S. Dcpi. 

 Agric, Washington, DC, Bull. no. 689, 30th July 1918, 27 pp., 

 14 figs. 



Nezara viridula, L., known in Louisiana as the southern green 

 plant-bug, severely injures various vegetable and cultivated crops 

 in the southern portion of the cotton belt of the United States, 

 particularly attacking tomato, beans, potato, sweet potato, okra, 



* [The generic name Mylahris, Geoffr., is used in this work for the pea 

 and bean Bruchids, but this is incorrect; Geoffroy in hi< 1762 edition 

 did not adopt the i)inomial system of nomenclature and his names cannot 

 be accepted. Mylahris, P., should properly be applied to the blister 

 beetles. — Ed.] 



