168 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



NOTES ON CURRENT ENTOMOLOGICAL LITERATURE. 



Economic Entomology. — Miss Eleanor A. Ormerod, F.M.S., is not 

 inclined to leave her " insect enemies " much peace. This energetic lady 

 issues one report after another so rapidly, that before long she ought really 

 to stir up her bucolic constituents to some sense of their duty, not only in 

 trying to remedy the insect plagues of their neighbourhood, but also to 

 furnish her with such observations as may help the Royal Agricultural 

 Society's Consulting Entomologist to formulate the life-histories of these 

 insects, and so be better able to suggest remedies for the prevention of their 

 ravages. ' Keport of Observations of Injurious Insects for 1881 ' has been 

 issued, containing 107 pages, with many woodcuts. The turnip-fly, Phyllo- 

 treta nemorum, occupies a large portion of the report. This subject has 

 also been treated separately, in a " Report " of 51 pages, with woodcuts. 

 How important is the subject may be gatliered from the statement that the 

 financial loss varies in different districts from £2 to i'5 per acre. The 

 total loss may be roughly estimated when we state, that acreage of turnips 

 and swedes under cultivation were returned on June 4th, 1881, as 

 1,149,768. These reports are well worthy of examination, and are so in- 

 expensive as to be within the reach of all. Following up this work. Miss 

 Ormerod recently gave another lecture before the Royal Agricultural College, 

 Cirencester, ' On the Turnip Fly.' This is issued in pamphlet form. All 

 these works may be obtained from W. Swan Sonnenschein & Co., London. 



Artificial Destruction of Insects. — In ' Smithsonian Report, 1880,' 

 just issued, are some remarks, where the following occurs (p. 253] : — " It may 

 be recalled that at the Portland (1873) meeting of the American Association 

 for the Advancement of Science, Dr. Le Conte suggested that an efficient 

 mode of checking the devastations of the insects injurious to agriculture 

 might be the 'production of diseases' from parasitic fungous growths. He 

 mentioned ' an instance in which from the communication of the disease by 

 some silk-worms, the whole of the caterpillars in a nine-acre piece of woods 

 were destroyed.'" Experiments have been made upon various forms, and lately 

 on potato-beetles. Those inoculated with the fungous disease died in from 

 eight to twelve days, while others in the same room, but which were not so 

 treated, hved through the winter. Plant-lice were killed in a hot-house by 

 similar means " 



Fossil Entomology. — Mr. S. H. Scudder has compiled ' A Biblio- 

 graphy of B'ossil Insects,' which appears as No. 13 of the ' Bibhographical 

 Contributions,' issued in the ' Bulletin ' of Harvard University. There are 

 nearly one thousand references, with explanatory notes in most cases. To 

 those who take interest in the insects which occurred in this world before 

 man took to making excursions " with a green net and killing bottle," this 

 compilation will be most useful. 



Newspaper Entomology. — That " oldest evening paper," ' The Globe 

 and Traveller,' devoted one of its daily essays (May 20) to " Insect Col- 

 lectors." The writer has clearly views of his own upon entomologists, but 

 whether tbey coincide with those of the latter is quite another matter. The 

 entomologists might even go so far as to suggest the essayist should look 

 up his subject a little more carefully before he writes "pot-boilers." In the 

 same paper (May 26) upwards of a column is devoted to an article on insect 

 dealers, founded upon that on ' British Lepidoptera' which recently appeared 

 in these pages (Entom. p. 111). This latter writer seems to know more 

 of the subject, and thereforemakes his subject more interesting. 



J. T. C. 



