1 



60 



only 71"^ Fahr., the mercury io:se when placed among the peas to 96^ 

 Fabr., a difference of 25° ''in a few minutes." 



TiiHS difference in temperature M'as evidently due in great part to a 

 mechanical cause, the gnawing of the peas by the beetles and larvfe, for 

 subsequent tests have shown that the difference in temperature between 

 uninfested peas iu mass and the surrounding air in summer is slight, 

 varying with the time of day, the peas being cooler than the air at midday 

 and warmer after sundown. No opportunity has since offered for test- j 

 ing the temperature of the weevils alone in mass, although such compara ~ 

 tive tests would be interesting. — L. O. H. 



ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGrY IN INDIA. 



We are indebted to Mr. E. C. Cotes, first assistant to the director of 

 the Indian Museum at Calcutta, for copies of his first and second papers 

 upon economic entomology. No. 1 is devoted to a preliminary ac- 

 count of the wheat and rice weevil in India, and No. 2 considers the 

 experimental introduction of insecticides into India, with a short account 

 of modern insecticides and methods of applying them. Of the latter 

 we need not say anything, except that it is a short summary of a few of 

 the remedies now in use in this country. The first, however, is of 

 considerable interest as a consideration of the cosmopolitan Calandra 

 oryzce in a more or less tropical country in which the principal indus- 

 tries are wheat and rice. Mr. Cotes has gone over the ground of pre- 

 vious publications very carefully and introduces a great deal of inter- 

 esting correspondence. Nothing new in the way of remedies is suggested 

 and no particular experiments have apparently been made. The point 

 in his paper which interests us most is the statement of the loss which 

 1? brought about. He says : " The amount of loss occasioned by the 

 weevil is estimated by Messrs. Ealli Brothers at an average of 2^ percent., 

 the maximum being 5 per cent, and the minimum 1 per cent. Taking 

 the value of the wheat exported at £6,000,000, the annual loss oc- 

 casioned by the weevil in exported wheat alone is £150,000. This sum, 

 however, in reality represents but a fraction of the whole loss, as it 

 does not take into account the damage done to wheat consumed in the 

 country or any of the loss occasioned to the rice, which is also attacked 

 by the same weevil, besides the loss indirectly occasioned owing to the 

 difficulty of storing the grain." The species seems to be two-brooded 

 in India, the beetles appearing in June and January. 



BUFFALO-GNATS ATTACKING MAN. 



In our report for 1886 we devoted a paragraph to the consideration 

 of several cases of loss of human life from the bites of Buffalo-gnats^ 

 but our agents who have visited the region where these insects abound 

 find that rumors of such cases are hard to trace and that the newspaper 

 reports are seldom authentic. All of the agents employed on this in- 

 vestigation have been asked to verify if possible any such accounts, and | 



