354 



Bulletin No. 19 of the Massachusetts Station.*— In this bulletiu the lead- 

 ing article, upon the Gypsy Motli, is by Prof. Fernald, he having been 

 appointed entomological adviser to the Gypsy Moth committee of the 

 State Board of Agriculture. The article is a full descriptive account of 

 the insect in its different states, with a summary of its present distri- 

 bution and its food-plants, also an interesting paragraph on the para- 

 sites of the species, in which are mentioned as feeding upon the eggs 

 Tromhulium hulhipes Pack., Notlirus sp. near ovivorns Pack., and a spe- 

 cies of Phloeothrips. As issuing from the pupa Theronia melanocephala 

 Br. and Pimpla pedalis Cr. — both Ichneumonids — are mentioned, also 

 an undescribed Chalcidid of the genus Meraporus. In addition to 

 these, several undetermined species of Biptera were reared, and a Sol- 

 dier Bug {Podisns spiiiosus Dall.), black ants and spiders were found 

 destroying the larvte, while ten different species of birds were also 

 observed to feed upon them. In Bulletiu 26 of this Division, Mr. Hen- 

 shaw has recorded, upon page 81, a few additional focts upon the nat- 

 ural enemies of Ocneria; no other true parasites, however, being men- 

 tioned. The article is illustrated with the five excellent plates and the 

 map which were used in the Eeport of the State Board of Agriculture. 

 The bulletin also contains a summarized account of "Barnard's insect 

 trap," experiments with Paris green on apple trees, especially against 

 the Tent Caterpillar, and closes with an account of cranberry insects, 

 studied from the Massachusetts standpoint, the accounts of the insects 

 so far treated agreeing in general with those by Prof. John B. Smith, 

 whose bulletin on cranberry insects we reviewed in Vol. ii, upon page 

 337. 



Contagious Diseases of the Chinch Bug.t— Prof. F. H. Snow, in his first 

 annual report as Director of the Experiment Station, University of 

 Kansas, gives a complete summary of his work upon the contagious dis- 

 eases of the Chinch Bug, preliminary accounts of which have appeared 

 in Insect Life (Vol. iii, pp. 279-284, and Vol. iv, pp. 69-71). The report 

 includes about 110 pages in brevier type, devoted to the reports of 

 farmers and others who have experimented with Prof. Snow's diseased 

 bugs, and the reports as a whole are favorable to the conclusion that 

 the disease can be successfully disseminated. To these reports is added 

 a consideration of the meteorological conditions governing the increase 

 of the Chinch Bug, and a history of the literature on microphytous dis- 

 eases of the Chinch Bug in the United States. We can see no reason 

 for changing the opinions which we have already advanced upon the 

 practical aspect of this subject and in spite of the great length of its 

 present treatment the all important point of the possible coincident 

 orighi of the disease without artificial infection is by no means settled. 



* Hatch Experiment Station of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, Bulletin 

 No. 19, Report on Insects, May, 1892. Amherst, Mass., 1892. 



+ University of Kansas. Experiment Station. First Annual Report of the Director 

 for the year 1891. Topeka, April, 1892. 



