534 



Bodkin (G. E.). A Note on the Recent Froghopper Outbreak.— J/. 

 Bnt. Guiana Bd. Agric, Georgetown, xi, no. 3, July 1918, 

 pp. 96-97. 



Tomaspis jlavilatera, Urich (Demerara sugar-cane froghopper) has 

 increased enormously in numbers during recent months in three 

 widely separated districts, owing to the abnormal climatic conditions 

 obtaining. Continued heavy downpours of rain caused the soil to 

 become waterlogsfed, and the canes were backward and even stunted. 

 The pest under these favourable conditions did such damage, that the 

 only treatment possible was thorough flooding after total destruction, 

 by fire or otherwise, of the trash. 



Good results were obtained by children collecting the adults with 

 hand-nets in the cane-fields during the daytime. The use of trap- 

 lights and the introduction of the green muscardine fungus 

 '\_MetarrJiizium anisopliae] should also prove beneficial. 



The Food of Australian Birds. — New South Wales Dept. Agric, Sydney, 

 Sci. Bull. no. 15, July 1918, 112 pp. [Received 7th October 

 1918.] 



In this Bulletin, which has been compiled from the investigations 

 •of J. B. Cleland, J. H. Maiden, W. W. Froggatt, E. W. Ferguson and 

 C. T. Musson, is incorporated a great deal of information from various 

 sources regarding the food of wild birds in Australia. In an intro- 

 duction by Dr. Cleland it is explained that the data collected, which 

 include much information obtained in the course of blow-fly investi- 

 gations, should prove of value to breeders of sheep, as well as to orchard- 

 ists, wheat growers, gardeners and those in charge of forestry work. 

 The facts have been arranged in various ways for the convenience 

 of those consulting the bulletin. There is a short summary of the 

 food of, and a verdict on, various birds or groups of birds, in the 

 order of their importance. This is followed by lists of birds that feed 

 on particular kinds of food of more or less economic importance, and 

 these include both injurious and beneficial species. An appendix 

 gives a tabulated examination of the contents of the stomachs and 

 crops of each species of bird examined, while more detailed information 

 in further appendices shows the actual food found in the case of each 

 individual. 



MiLLEE (D.). Limitation of Injurious Insects by Beneficial Species. — 



New Zealand Jl. Agric, Wellington, xvii, no. 1, 20th July 1918, 

 pp. 12-18. [Received 8th October 1918.] 



It is a well-known fact that when new territory is opened up for 

 agricultural purposes it frequently happens that new conditions are 

 estabhshed favourable to the development of some indigenous insects, 

 the ravages -of which rapidly increase until their control becomes a 

 serious problem. The reason is that in older countries, where regular 

 cultivation has been carried on for a long period of years, an equilibrium 

 has been estabhshed between the injurious insects on the one hand 

 and their natural enemies and other controlHns; factors on the other. 



