343 
AMERICAN TERTIARY APHIDID®. 
Mr. 8. H. Scudder has sent to his correspondents, as an extract from 
the thirteenth annual report of the U.S. Geological Survey, a pam- 
phlet comprising some account of the Tertiary Aphididie of North 
America. It is astonishing that these soft-bodied and delicate- 
winged insects should be preserved in the rocks, yet Mr. Scudder has 
seen, from the Florissant beds alone, 107 specimens. The American 
forms comprise 32 species, divided into 15 genera, while in Europe but 
19 nominal species are known. There seems to be an extraordinary 
variation in the wing-neuration of these fossil species, which necessi- 
tates a large number of genera. Most of them fall into the sub-family 
Aphidinie, only a few of them being placed in the Schizoneurine, The 
genera and species receive treatment by means of synoptical tables, 
and bibliographical references are given, many of the forms being 
shown in careful plates illustrating the fossils exactly as found and 
also reconstructions of the wings. 
THE CARNATION TWITTER. 
In response to our inquiry requesting information about this disease 
of the Carnation, published on page 45 of the current volume of INSECT 
LiFe, Mr. William Falconer, editor of Gardening, writes us that the 
insect which troubled Mrs. Thaxter’s plants is plainly not the one 
which produces the condition known as “twitter” and concerning 
which we quoted an item from Peter Henderson’s late handbook. 
Twitters, says Mr. Falconer, is caused by what is probably a true 
Thrips. The most active ones are yellow and the more mature ones, 
apparently, are black. Tobacco smoke, he says, will kill them, but the 
plants must be brought into the greenhouse or into a pit to be fumiga- 
ted, and the fumigation will have to be repeated several evenings in 
succession to be effective. For outdoor work he recommends mulching 
with fresh tobacco stems and dusting fresh tobacco dust or snuff upon 
the dew-moistened plants. 
It will be remembered that the insect which attacked Mrs. Thaxter’s 
carnations was an Anthomyiid larva, as determined by specimens 
which she sent to the Division, and our query has called forth a card 
from our English friend and correspondent, Mr. R. McLachlan, who 
reminds us that he published on page 155 of the Entomologists’ Monthly 
Magazine for May, 1892, a little note concerning a similar damage to 
Carnations and Picotees in London. Anthomyiid larve are there 
described as living beneath the rosette of leaves forming the crown of 
the plant and also as boring into the stem below the crown, in some 
instances causing the crown to drop off. The perfect insect was deter- 
mined as Hylemyia nigrescens Rnd. It is nearly allied to H. cardui, 
which feeds in the flower heads of thistles. Mr. McLachlan writes us, 
20393—No. 4——d 
