20 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [January, 



in tli€ coffee plantations of the cultivated districts they spare the trees 

 that grow in or near their nests. In this they are like foxes that abstain 

 from molesting neighboring hen-roosts. 



A friend of mine, Commendador Pereira, of Rio, tells me that he once 

 witnessed the formation of a living bridge of Sauva ants. The insects 

 arrived at the edge of some running water with their load of leaves, which 

 they deposited on the ground. They then formed a chain, ant holding on 

 to ant, and while the individual at the lower end seized tightly a blade of 

 grass, or some other object at the water's edge, the rest allowed them- 

 selves to be floated out by the stream. They were not at first long enough 

 to reach the opposite side and were thus swept round again to the same 

 bank lower down. Other ants now joined to lengthen the pontoon, and 

 the same manoeuvre was repeated some two or three times until the outer 

 ant was enabled to obtain a hold on the opposite bank. The bridge con- 

 structed, the workers passed over with their loads and then the pontoon- 

 makers cast loose from the first bank and were carried by the current to 

 the second, where, in their turn, they took up their loads and followed 

 their companions. The ants that formed the bridge assumed oblique po- 

 sitions and swam against the stream. I made a careful note of Pereira's 

 statement, but I have met with no other observer of the same fact. As a 

 general rule, the Sauva does not like water, and trees are sometimes pre- 

 served from their attacks by surrounding them with a ditch. Nevertheless, 

 Sr. Pereira is a trustworthy man. 



Having been connected with the Gipsy Moth Commission for the past 

 season of 1894, perhaps some of the readers of the News, would like to 

 know the routine of this gigantic work. Prof. Howard, the United States 

 Entomologist, paid a visit in the Summer to Maiden, the headquarters of 

 tiie Agricultural Department Massachusetts Gipsy Moth Commission, and 

 spent a day or so, looking over the work with some of the officials, and 

 I see in " Insect Life," vol. vii. No. 2, he speaks of this work as " one of 

 the most remarkable pieces of work in economic entomology." A terri- 

 tory covering a space of about one hundred square miles is infested with 

 the Gipsy {Ocneria dispar). Three hundred and twenty-five thousand 

 dollars have already been appropriated, and nearly all spent. The confi- 

 dence of the Massachusetts people seems to be doubtful, but any one 

 knowing the fearful ravages that have been created by such a voracious 

 caterpillar as the Gipsy, and seeing the work carried on as I have, cannot 

 help but be most favorably impressed with the admirable manner in which 

 the attack has been made upon this insect, and the grand results accom- 

 plished. Sorry, indeed, will the people of the State be should they stop 

 it, and it will be almost criminal upon the part of those having the legis- 

 lative power, should they discontinue it, for the money already spent will 

 be deliberately tlirown away, and the Gipsy caterpillar will, in a few years, 

 be beyond the control of the nation. It would soon be out of the State, 

 and into all th^surrounding States, creating a havoc from which the peo- 

 ple would not soon get over, for just as soon as the State drops this work 



