1 6 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [January, 



which may raise the question in the minds of some whether this Fair was 

 anything but an unmitigated nuisance. On the enormous number of 

 plants that were brought together from all parts of the country, and indeed 

 from other climes and from other countries with similar climate to our 

 own, can we be sure that no insects were introduced on them? We can 

 question this at present; but time alone can answer the questions asked. 



Handbook of the Destrnctive Insects of Victoria. Part II.— This little 

 work by Mr. C. French, the government entomologist, is at hand. It 

 contains rather more than 200 pages of te.xt prepared with great care, and 

 colored plates numbered from 15 to 36, illustrating all of the species 

 treated in the book, and most of them in all stages; structural details 

 being also given in some instances. The plates are generally good, so 

 far as appearance is concerned, and undoubtedly add very largely to the 

 value of the book for the agriculturist. The figures very frequently* lack 

 in detail, and are of inferior value to the the scientific student; but they 

 are fully sufficient from the standpoint of the farmer, for whom, after all, 

 they were prepared. It is to be regretted, perhaps, that we cannot in our 

 own country illustrate our publications somewhat more in this same style; 

 but, really, good colored plates are with us so frightfully e.xpensive as to 

 be quite beyond the reach of our Experiment Stations, and to be possible 

 only to the National Government; even here it is necessary to limit the 

 number because of the cost. There is an appendix to the book treating 

 of spraying devices, and there are a considerable number of plates in 

 black and white, illustrating this appendix, and showing machinery, 

 pumps and nozzles of all kinds — good, bad and indifferent. It is a matter 

 of some interest that twelve oC the colored plates illustrate insects that 

 are also injurious in our own country, including among them such pests 

 as the plum cucurlio, the cabbage louse and others of like ilk; only a very 

 few of the species bemg really characteristic of the country in which they 

 are troublesome. This illustrates one of the points which is worth while 

 considering in our speculations concerning remedies, and that is that a 

 certain number of species seem, in the provision of nature, to occur in a 

 certain abundance each year, and the natural checks, such as they are, 

 are intended to leave a very wide margin for the increase of the species. 

 In cases of this kind we must entirely ignore the so-called natural checks, 

 and must act as if none such were in existence. 



Insect's deadly sting (appearance of a winged spider in Kentucky). 

 — Newport, Ky., August 3. — A deadly insect has appeared about the 

 electric lights. People stung by the insect suffer intensely. A sudden 

 swelling and a peculiar somnolent condition follow the bite. Michael 

 Ryan was stung Saturday and died last night. Judge Helm, of the Cir- 

 cuit Court, is laid up with his neck swollen to twice its normal size. Harry 

 Clark, another victim, is in a precarious condition. Local entomologists 

 describe the bug as a sort of winged spider. — Newspaper. 



