59 



servers that the flies have beeu seen to oviposit on the skin, and it is eas- 

 ily conceived that the young grubs will more easily travel and get pur- 

 chase to enter the skin where persons are clothed than otherwise. The 

 absence of cattle or people from the locality on the Sinu is not necessa- 

 rily an argument in favor of oviposition upon vegetation, since the in- 

 sects may, and undoubtedly do, breed in wild animals. It is hkely that 

 the species concerned is Bermatobia noxiaUs^ commonly known in the 

 Spanish Americas as Ver macaque. 



A NEW TABANID. 



In Psyche for March, 1892, Mr. J. M. Aldrich, of Brookings, S. Dak., 

 describes a new genus and species of Tabanidje, Goniops hippohoscoides. 

 The general appearance of the fly is that of a particularly tine, large, 

 silvery Hippoboscid with brown wings, but an examination showed it 

 to be a true Tabanid. Its habits are stated to be unknown, but from 

 its appearance the conclusion is j)robable that it lives like a Hippo- 

 boscid upon some bird or mammal Figures of the adult fly, of a side 

 view of the head and of an antenna, are given. 



THE CHINCH BUG IN ILLINOIS, 1891-1892. 



Under the above caption Prof. S. A. Forbes i^resents an interesting 

 article in Bulletin 19 of the University of Illinois Experiment Station 

 (pp. 11-48). He refers to the almost uniformly high temperature of the 

 past two summers (1890-1891), accompanied with a very small rainfall, 

 in northern and central Illinois, which favored unusually the develop- 

 ment of the Chinch Bug in these sections, and make it reasonable to 

 expect considerable loss for the present summer should similar condi- 

 tions prevail. 



The facts concerning the distribution of the Chinch Bug in the central 

 counties of the State are given, and also for the center of the northern 

 or rather northeastern counties of the State, where the prospect for 

 further injury is more serious. The facts brought out show that the 

 cereal crops of a considerable part of Illinois are in danger in the imme- 

 diate future unless the conditions of the weather are very unfavorable to 

 the multiplication of the Chinch Bug. 



The article concludes with a summary of the practical measures of 

 defense, consisting in the destruction of the bugs by fire before they 

 leave their winter quarters ; the support of the infested crop by the use of 

 fertilizers; the destruction of the insect in small grains when they appear 

 very abundantly in patches ; arresting their movements and destroying 

 them as they pass from field to field at harvest, and taking steps to 

 promptly disseminate their natural contagious diseases. 



Referring to the latter measure, he says that the subject of the use of 

 contagious insect diseases is still in the experimental stage, the relation 

 of this method to various weather conditions being as yet particularly 



