491 



Ealaxd (C. a.)- Insect Enemies. — London, Grant Richards, Ltd. 1916, 

 xiii -f223 pp., .>3 fi^js., Svo. [Price O.s. iiet.| 



This book is devoted to British injurious insects and surveys the 

 more important pests of forestry, agriculture and horticulture, as 

 well as those of domestic animals and of stored products, with a chapter 

 on insects which are specially injurious to man himself. The intro- 

 duction, which contains a large amount of useful information, including 

 an outline of the orders of insects, should do something to diminish 

 the general apathy with which the subject of economic entomology 

 is regarded by the public About 20 pages are given to each group 

 of pests, a few well chosen examples being selected in each case for 

 illustration. An appendix deals briefly with the methods of using 

 various insecticides, and a bibliography, arranged according to the 

 natural orders of insects, gives a Ust of more or less readily accessible 

 works to be consulted by those desiring further information. The 

 index shows that some 200 pests are mentioned in the book, a large 

 proportion of which are dealt with in the text at sufficient length to 

 give the reader substantial information as to their habits and life- 

 history, the nature of the damage caused by them and brief practical 

 indications as to how they may be best dealt with. This book will be 

 found exceedingly readable even by the uninitiated, and the fact of its 

 publication may, it is hoped, be taken as some evidence of growing 

 public interest in a subject which so intimately concerns the welfare 

 of mankind. 



Storey (G.). Simon's Hot-Air Machine for the Treatment of Cotton 

 Seed against Pink Boll Worm. — Minist. Agric, Cairo, Tech. & 

 Scient. Service, Bull. no. 11 (Entom. Sect.), 2.5th June 1916, 

 10 pp. [Received 2nd October 1916.] 



A machine designed for drying malt was tested for its suitabiUty in 

 treating cf)tton seed against the pink bollworm (Gelechia gossypiella) 

 ] see also this Review, Ser. A, iv, p. 472]. The machine is described 

 and details of the experiments are given in three tables. The optimum 

 temperature for this machine seems to he between 131° and 133° F., 

 Ijut at all the temperatures tested, a small percentage of larvae appear 

 to succeed in surviving the treatment, and a small percentage of seed 

 is damaged. As it is scarcely practicable, at present, to destroy by 

 any method more than 98% of the larvae left in the bolls in the fields, 

 if this percentage can be eliminated by this machine, it should be 

 sufficient for practical purposes, except when the seed is to be exported 

 to a cotton-growing country where G. gossypiella does not yet occur. 

 With regard to the seed, a loss in germination of 5% is of little im- 

 portance in view of the method of sowing adopted by the native 

 cultivator in Egypt, and in commercial seed is of no importance 

 whatever. The machine in its present state gives the above results 

 and therefore seems to fulfil all practical requirements, though some 

 minor improvements may be made in it. Its initial cost in Egypt, 

 exclusive of the engine and other accessories, is between £205 and £2-56. 

 No extra labour is involved, the seed being sacked as it comes from 

 the machine instead of from the gins. It is compact, easy to manage, 

 continuous in action and entirely devoid of danger. Its output is 

 To bushels an hour. 



(C327) a2 



