51 



bugs. He claimed that the records back to 1834 verified his theory, 

 and the chain of drought and chinch bug years he gave as 1834, 1841, 

 1847, 1854, 1801, 1807, 1874, and 1881. Following this supposed law, 

 he i)redicted chinch bugs in 1887, and, as the writer showed in Bulletin 

 17 of the Division of Entomology, his prediction was verified. Tlie 

 year 1894, coming at the end of the following septenary period, has 

 also verified the supposed law of this unknown writer. He claims that 

 the rainfall increases from each drought year up to the third or fourth 

 year, and then decreases. The chinch bugs increase as the drought 

 increases, reach their climax in the climax drought year, and are killed 

 off by the heavy riintalls of the following spring. 



THE LEAF-FOOTED BUG ATTACKING PLUMS. 



We are very much interested iu a recent letter from Prof. K. H. 

 Price, of the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, which is accom- 

 panied by specimens of the leaf- footed bug {Leptoglossus phifllojms). and 

 in which he states that these bugs have done considerable damage to 

 plums during the last two years, injuring them, in fact, more than the 

 plum curculio. The bugs puncture the buds for food, and the fruit 

 becomes knotty. It will be remembered that Mr. Hubbard, in his 

 "Report upon Insects Affecting the Orange," describes a similar habit 

 on the part of this insect in the orange groves of Florida. Mr. Hub- 

 bard ascertained that the normal food-plant of the insect was a large 

 thistle which grows commonly through the South, and he states tliat 

 both young and old are frequently found in large numbers upon the 

 head of this thistle. We have urged Prof. Price to search for this 

 plant in the vicinity of the plum trees, and if found to destroy the bugs 

 upon it with pure kerosene. The thistle may be used as a trap crop 

 for this purpose. 



IS ICERYA AN AUSTRALIAN GENUS? 



In a paper just received from Mr. W. M. Maskell, entitled '' Further 

 Coccid Notes," from the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute 

 for 1893, the author shows that Icerya {vgyptiacum (Dougl.) has been 

 re(!eived by him from Mr. Froggatt, taken in Sydney on Goodenia ovata, 

 and I. rosoe E. & H. from the same locality on Hakea gihhosa. The 

 latter he describes as "var austraUs,^^ since it diifers slightly from the 

 typical specimens described by Professor Kiley and the writer from 

 Key West, Fla. He says, in conclusion, "the question now arises 

 whether Australia may not be the original home of all Iceryas. There 

 is scarcely any doubt about I. purchasi; 1. loehelei is certainly Austra- 

 .lian; I. (vgyptiacum and I.rosw are found there; I. montserratensis 

 seems to be possibly a variety; I. seychellarton has as yet been reported 

 on sugar-cane only from Mauritius, and T. palnicri on grape from ]Mex- 

 Ico; but even these may, after all, turn out to be Australian also." Sub- 

 sequent facts may show Mr. Maskell to be right m this supi)ositiou, 



