224 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



amounted, in 1879, to 500,000 francs, and 

 this will be increased during the present 

 year by supplementary grants to 969,750 f. 

 Of this amount 200,000 f. are devoted to 

 the treatment of diseased vines in the 

 districts specified by the superior commis- 

 sion, while 250,000 f. will be given to 

 doubling the grants voted by the various 

 departmental and municipal bodies. Socie- 

 ties and comjjanies formed for the investi- 

 gation of the disease will also be assisted 

 by bonuses to the aggregate amount of 

 300,000 f. A further sum of 100,000 f. is 

 set aside towards encouraging the propa- 

 gation of American vine stocks and the dis- 

 tribution of new plants and cuttings from 

 the Agricultural School at Montpellier. 

 Rewards to the amount of 100,000 f. will be 

 given for furthering microscopic researches, 

 while 50,000 f. are left for dealing with in- 

 dividual cases. — Nature. 



We still omit all book notices, having 

 been at our desk but a single week during 

 the past two months. 



Extracts from Correspondence. 



Winged Phylloxera in California. — To-day I 



send j'ou 6 specimens of winged Phylloxera which 

 have hatched from a recent lot of infected roots 

 from Sonoma Valley. Although I got a large lot 

 the last time, yet I have only found 7 specimens, 

 of which I send you the 6. I send you these 

 lest the others sent before majf not reach you in 

 good order. We arc an.xious to learn whether 

 any of these are of the fertile kind. I think I will 

 go again to Sonoma Valley (25 miles) and get 

 another lot of roots. The first lot I took from 

 vines that had begun to perish ; but I took the 

 last from vines that were apparently strong and 

 not affected, but on examination 1 found more 

 ipsecis on them than on the others. As you 

 look at the vines where the insects are working, 

 you see, first the dead vines, next those that have 

 shoots six or eight inches long, then in the next 

 row they may be one to two feet long, and in one 

 or two more rows you cannot see any signs of 

 their work: yet I found the most insects on those 

 just in advance of the decaying vines. In some 

 places the insects spread ("rom different centres 

 in the same vineyard. It strikes nie that they 

 are often carried by the plow and cultivator as 

 they pass through both infected and healthy 

 vines in cultivating. When the soil is deep and 

 rich, they advance only about 50 to 75 feet in a 

 j-ear where I examined them. On light, poor 

 soil they spread more likeafire. If there happens 

 to be a spot of rich ground in the midst of the 

 poor, the vines are good, although on the out- 



skirts the insects are numerous and steadily ad- 

 vancing each year. 



From what I have seen in Sonoma Valley, I 

 come to this conclusion : that if the vines were 

 utterly destroyed as soon as they were known to 

 be infested, and also one or two rows outside of 

 those, so as to make sure of cutting awav healthy 

 tissue, as a surgeon would in removing a cancer, 

 and then avoid passing from the infested to the 

 healthy portion in cultivating, then the progress 

 of the insect would be very slow on rich soil in 

 this State. If I find anything of interest in my 

 next lot of infected roots, I will send them to you. 

 Could you send me the best history of what is 

 known of this insect, or tell me where I can get 

 it? — J. S. Hyde, Fountain Grove, Santa Rosa, 

 Cal., Aug., 6th, 1880. 



[It will be remembered by the readers of the 

 American Entomologist that from the slow 

 spread of the grape Phylloxera in the Sonoma 

 Valley, and from the fact that no winged females 

 had so far been detected there. Prof. E. W. 

 Hilgard had been led to conclude tliat the climate 

 of California had possibly produced such modi- 

 fication in the insect's charactaristics, that 

 the winged female was not produced, and that 

 the sexual individuals were habitually produced 

 from wingless hypogean females, as they were 

 known to be exceptionally in Europe and east of 

 the Rocky Mountains — in other words that the 

 exception in other countries became the rule on 

 the Pacific (See American Entomolocist, III, p. 

 3). The discovery of the winged female by 

 Mr. Hyde dissipates this rather hopeful delusion. 

 We notice from recent communications by Prof 

 Hilgard to the Pacific Rural Press, that he still 

 hopes that the more rapid spread of the insect by 

 the winged female may not take place there, 

 having decided that the specimens so far found 

 are " sterile." We quote : 



The insect is the winged phylloxera, of course, 

 But all of the five insects sent are of the sterile 

 variety, which is produced occasionally else- 

 where, and was first believed to be the male in- 

 sect. If the presumption raised by this fact 

 should turn out to be generally true, the slow 

 progress made by the pest in California would 

 be completely explained. For, of course, the 

 sterile-winged form would be more capable of 

 carrying the infection to a distance than if, as I 

 have heretofore conjectured, the winged form 

 were not produced at all. 



Your discovery is most important, and it now 

 becomes more especially interesting to collect 

 as many specimens as possible, and examine 

 them as to their form. In the fertile, egg-laying 

 form, the body is about half as long as the whole 

 insect, wings included, and the abdomen is of a 

 tapering, rounded shape. In the sterile the body 

 is barely one-third the length of the whole, and 

 the abdomen is so short as. to form almost the 

 two sides of a triangle. There is, therefore, lit- 

 tle difficulty in distinguishing the two forms, and 

 the distinction is of vital importance to the 

 grape-growing interest in the State. — Pac. Pur. 

 Press, Aug. 7, 1880. 



In the report of my remarks on the winged 

 phylloxera found by Dr. Hyde, in your last is- 



