348 



ically recogaized. If, as we believe, the insect is not elsewhere found 

 in this country, every effort should be made to stamp it out upon the 

 few trees which it infests at present. 



A NEW PLANT-LOUSE ENEMY. 



Mr. Webster sent us early in April specimens of a small slug which 

 which he had found feeding u.pon plant-lice u];)on the leaves of Dock. 

 We sent the slugs to Mr. W. G. Binney, Burlington, N. J., who de-' 

 termined the species as Limax camjyestris Binney, and stated that he 

 had never known the species to feed in this way before. 



" Still," he remarks, " slugs will eat almost anything that presents 

 itself — vegetable matter usually, but in captivity they prey upon one 

 another — will take sponge cake, strawberries, flour, lettuce, etc. The 

 marginal teeth of their lingual membrane are aculeate. In the true 

 carnivorous slugs all the teeth are such." From this it appears that 

 the instance observed by Mr. Webster was exceptional, and probably 

 does not promise any particular benefit. 



THE TWIN-SCREW MOSQUITO. 



One of the best of recent newspaper hoaxes was that which appeared 

 in the New York Sun early in March, concerning a new product of the 

 New Jersey marshes, which it is proposed to dub the Twin-screw Mos- 

 quito. Some hundreds of specimens of this creature were '' shot " by a 

 party of hunters on the Hackensack Meadows. They are described as 

 resembling two mosquitoes with the bodies united behind, thus giving 

 a piercing apparatus to each end. A long, pseudo-technical descrip- 

 tion, reputed to come from Prof. George Hume, of Jersey City, accom- 

 panied the article, and a very good illustration of a male and female 

 mosquito in copulation pictures the new terror. 



ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY IN NEW SOUTH WALES. 



The Agricultural Gazette of New South Wales for December, 1891, 

 contains an excellent article upon the Plague Locust, by Mr. A. S. Olliff, 

 and some entomological notes by the same author. Mr. Olliff attacks 

 the locust xDroblem from the standpoint of American writers, and gives 

 a careful review of the work which has been done by the Entomological 

 Commission of this country, adopting the recommendations of the com- 

 mission, and urging thorough study of the permanent breeding grounds 

 of the Australian species. This j)lau would be quite in accordance 

 with our own ideas, and the locust problem in Australia can receive no 

 intelligent treatment without a j)reliminary survey of this nature. The 

 entomological notes include some consideration of the Spinning Mite or 

 Red Spider of Australia, which is a species of Tetranyclms allied to T. 

 telarius, and an announcement of the fiict that tbe Entomologist is 

 about to begin the study of the Australian ticks. 



