407 



harm in Orej^on aud Wasliin*:ton by induciiijL; li<)i)-j'Towors to neglect 

 tliesnicst remedy and preventive, viz, the use of a few plum trees as 

 a trap crop upon which the lice can be killed by spraying with kerosene 

 emulsion in the spring before the damage to Ho]> has begun. Such 

 published statements have done their harmful work for this season, but 

 we hope that Prof. Washburn's able efforts and the corroborative testi- 

 mony which he is bringing forward will do much towards clearing 

 away these misconceptions an<l inducing proper remedial work another 

 spring. 



FOOD-PLANT AND NEW HABITAT OF THE MONTSERRAT ICERYA. 



We recently received through Mr. H. Caracciolo, of Trinidad, speci- 

 mens of Icerya montserratcHsis, which we described in Insect Life,Vo1. 

 Ill, No. 3, from specimens received from Montserrat in the Leeward 

 Islands. The type specimens, it will be remembered, occurred upon a 

 species of Chrysophyllum and upon the Cocoa Palm and the P>anana. 

 The specimens just received from Trinidad, Mr. Caracciolo informs us, 

 occur upon the Glusia alba, which they destroy. 



A disease caused by parasites in the ears of carnivora. 



We have received from the authors, MM. Eailliet and Cadiot, a 

 pamphlet extracted from the Comptes liendus des Seances de la Soeiete 

 de Biologic, February, 1802, which contains an interesting account of 

 their observations and exjierimeuts upon a parasitic disease of the ears 

 in dogs, cats, and ferrets. It is known that certain Acarids — e. g., 

 Symbiotes auricnlartnn — dwell in the auricular shell and external audi- 

 tory canal of animals, and cause the infested individuals to scratch vio- 

 lently; in one case, which came under their observation, the authors 

 attributed to this cause the death, in violent convulsions, of a female 

 cat. They conducted certain experiments with a view of ascertaining 

 the possibilities of transmission of the disease from animal to animal, 

 and found that " otacariasis," as the disease has been named by Neu- 

 mann, is easily transmitted from diseased to healthy animals of the 

 same species, but with more difficulty between the cat and the dog, 

 and that it does not take place at all between the dog and the ferret. 

 The insects were found in great numbers in the cerumen or waxy 

 secretion of the ear, and in the experiments were transferred with the 

 wax directly from the ear of the diseased individual to that of a healthy 

 one. The treatment, where any is used, should consist in cleansing the 

 ear with warm soapy water, followed by injections of potassium sulphate 

 one-twentieth strong. 



the itch caused among cats and rabbits by SARCOP'JES aii.nor. 



The question of the transmissibility of this disease of cats and rab- 

 bits has lately been investigated by M. A. Railliet, who gives the result 



