361 



THE EGYPTIAN ICERYA IN INDIA. 



Mr. Robert Newstead, of the Grosvenor Museum, of Chester, England, 

 a well known student of the Coccida^, writes us that he has recently 

 received from Miss L. E. Tomlin, of Nuugumbalcum, Madras, a number 

 of specimens of Icerya wgyptiacum, which has hitherto been known only 

 from Alexandria and Cairo, Egypt. The specimens when received by 

 Mr. ISTewstead were swarming with minute parasites, specimens of which 

 he forwarded to us. The finding of this scale-insect in India, and par- 

 ticularly the tact that it is so extensively parasitized there, creates a rea- 

 sonable possibility that it is indigenous to that country, and we exam- 

 ined the parasites with great interest only to find that they belong to 

 the genus Tetrastichus, all the species of which, so far as we know, are 

 secondary in their liabits. The presence of this insect, however, argues 

 the existence of an important primary jjarasite in India, and we have 

 written to our correspondent there, Mr. E. C. Cotes, of the Indian Mu- 

 seum, Calcutta, to search for the latter, and have also asked Mr. New- 

 stead to request Miss Tomlin to do the same. No parasites of the 

 Egyptian Icerya have been discovered in Egypt, and this fact partially 

 accounts for the extraordinary spread of the species in the gardens of 

 Alexandria and Cairo. 



CARBON BISULPHIDE FOR HEN EICE. 



A new use for the bisulphide of carbon has been pointed out by Dr. 

 Schneider in the Journal de V Agriculture, of Paris, of recent date. Dr. 

 Schneider recommends tying a few small bottles of bisulphide of car- 

 bon to the perches in the henhouse, the bottles being unstoppered and 

 the liquid allowed to evaporate. The hens roost over the bottles, and 

 the vapor of the bisulphide kills the lice. The recommendation is 

 founded upon careful experiment, as the following extract will show: 



The very next day after using it I was agreeably surprised to find that the enemy 

 had left, leaving none but dead and dying behind, and on the following day not a 

 single living insect was to be found, while my birds were sitting quietly on the 

 roosts, enjoying an uuwoutedlj' peaceful repose. This lasted for twelve days, till 

 the sulphide had evaporated. Twenty-four hours later a fresh invasion of lice had 

 put in an appearance under the wings of the birds in the warmest portions of the 

 house, where there were no currents of air. I replenished the supply of sulphide, 

 and the next morning only a few of these were remaining. The next morning every 

 trace of vermin had disappeared. Since that time I have personally made a great 

 number of fui'ther trials with the sulphide, with immediate and absolute success. 

 I should recommend the sulphide of carbon to be put in small medicine vials hung 

 about the pigeon house or poultry roost. When it has about three parts evaporated 

 the remainder will have acquired a yellowish tinge, and no longer acts so completely 

 as before, but if it be shaken up afresh it will sufiSce to keep the enemy at a distance. 



THE LONG SCALE NOT BROUGHT FROM MEXICO TO CALIFORNIA. 



On page 281 of the last number of Insect Life, under the caption 

 ^' Introduction of the Long Scale into California," we quoted from the 



