50 



Mr. Kellogg- advances the theory that when the odors can not be made 

 out in the case of certain androconia the fact is probably due to the 

 limitations of the human ear! 



DEATH WEE OF YOUNG TROUT. 



Many years ago one of the numbers of the American Entomologist 

 contained an article under this caption, in which attention was called 

 to the destruction of young" trout in lish hatcheries by the larval web 

 of Simulium (the ''black fly"). Our attention has only recently been 

 called again to this matter by the Hon. Marshall McDonald, U. S. Com- 

 missioner of Fisheries, who has sent us a report from Mr. PI M. Eobin- 

 son, superintendent of the tish hatcheries at Green Lake, Me., stating 

 that at the time when the young salmon were batching in the troughs, 

 the larva' of Simulium appeared in large numbers. Any considerable 

 number, as Mr. liobiusou wrote, in a hatching trough will, in one night, 

 fill it almost entirely full of fine web. The web sometimes gets around 

 the neck of one of the fry and chokes it to death. The Simulium larva 

 were accompanied by specimens of one of their great enemies of the 

 genus Hydropsyche, and these Hydropsyche larvfe were reported by Mr. 

 Robinson to feed ui)on dead fish, after they had been killed by the web 

 of the Simulium. This seems to be a perversion of habit on the part 

 of the Hydropsyche, and a most unfortunate one, as it diverted them 

 from their normal and beneficial habit of in'eying upon the Simulium. 

 Damage of this kind is only possible when the fish are just hatching, 

 as a few weeks later the fish themselves feed upon the Simulium larvse 

 and practically turn the tables. 



POLLINIA COST^E IN CALIFORNIA. 



In the Annual Report of the Department for 1892, Prof. Riley an- 

 nounced the appearance of a peculiar olive scale, well known in south 

 Europe, upon a few olive trees in the vicinity of Los Angeles. This 

 scale had been described by Prof. Targioui-Tozzetti as Pollinia costw, 

 and as it is a very difficult one to destroy, its immediate eradication by 

 burning was urged. We learn from the Rural Californian of May, 

 1894, that, although the insect was supposed to have been destroyed, it 

 has recently been discovered by the State quarantine olficer, Mr. Alex- 

 sinder Craw. Fortunately it seems to have spread but little during the 

 ])ast two years, and heroic measures have been taken to stanii) it out. 

 Orcus chalybeus was reported to have been seen devouring this scale, 

 but it was stated later that this was a mistake. 



A PREDICTION VERIFIED. 



A person signing the initials ''J. C. H, S." wrote from Sedgwick 

 County, Kans., in 1882 to the Prairie Farmer in regard to rainfall and 

 the chinch bug, showing from records which he had kept that at the 

 end of six and seven year periods comes a severe drought with chinch 



