o ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [January. 



DEPARTiMENT OF EGONOMIG ENTOMOLOGY. 



Edited by Prof. JOHN B. SMITH, ScD., New Brunswick, N. J. 



Papers for this department are solicited. They should be sent to the editor. Prof. John 

 B. Smith, Sc.D., New Brunswick, N. J. 



A Gorrestion. — The peculiar combination of letters in the title of Mr. 

 Johnson's note in the News for December, page 324, is intended for 

 Ephestia kuhniella. I have been afraid to try to pronounce what the 

 letters, as they are printed, actually do spell; but of course the mistake is 

 chargeable against the " devil." The word "sprouts" in the same article 

 should read "spouts." 



Honocrepidlns vespertinns Injuring Beans —In the December number is 

 a short note in the proceedings of the Feldman Collecting Social, made 

 by Mr. Wenzel, to the effect that the above species was found at Dacosta, 

 N. J., feeding on beans in such numbers as to ruin the crop for market 

 purposes. This insect is not usually a very common one in general col- 

 lecting; but according to Mr. Wenzel's story, corroborated by Mr. Bland, 

 any number of them were to be found in this field of beans. They were 

 feeding upon the pods, nibbling little holes here and there, around which 

 a black spot then made its appearance, causing the beans to become unfit 

 for market. I have never had such a case brought to my attention before, 

 and have never found these insects in any numbers on cultivated land. It 

 seems an exceptional habit; but possibly there may be other records that 

 I have not noticed, and if so, this department of the News would be a 

 good place to call attention to them. I have frequently seen black spots 

 on wax beans, but these have been always due to the "Bean spot," a 

 fungus disease. 



A new way to use Kerosene. — A few days ago, after lecturing to my class 

 on scale insects and the best methods to be adopted for their destruction, 

 one of the students informed me that he had a very much simpler method 

 of using kerosene than that described by me, and which always proved 

 throroughly successful. According to him, when a tree on his father's 

 farm became scaly, or covered with lichens or other vegetable growth, 

 the trunk was drenched during the Winter with kerosene, to which they 

 then set fire. The kerosene burnt off clean, taking with it scales and all 

 abnormal vegetable growths and leaving it perfectly clean to the sound 

 bark. He assured me that in no case were trees thus treated injured; but 

 also said that it was the trunk and perhaps a few larger branches only 

 that were treated in this way. I happened to have a number of twigs 

 and branches that were badly covered with the Scurfy Scale, in my labo- 

 ratory, and on two of these I tried the experiment. I dipped the speci- 

 mens into pure kerosene and almost immediately set them afire, placing 

 them upright on the steam radiator. The kerosene burnt oflf without 



