2o6 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [October, 



DEPARTMENT OF EGQKOMie ENTOMOLOGY. 



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



It is the intention of the editor of this department to keep the readers 

 of the News informed of the main hnes of work done and results ob- 

 tained by the economic entomologists, as evidenced in the Bulletins and 

 Reports received. It is also desired to make it a means for the commu- 

 nication of new results attained by workers, which can be given here in 

 brief in advance of the more detailed accounts in the Experiment Station 

 publications. The object is to give results or abstracts, rather than de- 

 tailed accounts of experiments, and co-operation is invited, to aid in 

 making this feature not the least valuable part of the News. 



The "Horn Fly," Hceniatobia serrata, is still spreading, and has cov- 

 ered a vast new territory during the past year. It now extends from 

 Florida to Canada, and westward nearly to the Mississippi, causing alarm 

 wherever it makes its appearance. There are none of the sensational 

 accounts so common when it first appeared, but the facts are sufficiently 

 bad. One curious, and somewhat encouraging fact is, that in New Jersey, 

 which was one of the first, if not the first State invaded, the pest has verj' 

 decidedly decreased in numbers, and is very seldom complained of It 

 seems now no mOre abundant than the common native cow-fly, Stomoxys 

 calcitrans, and, indeed, in some of the localities most infested two years ago. 

 is now scarcely noticed. There has also been a decided change in habit in 

 New Jersey. That peculiarity which induced the common name " Horn 

 Fly," has almost entirely disappeared. Nowhere did I observe any clus- 

 tering about the base of the horns during the present season, and none 

 of the farmers have noticed it. They now frequent the flank or the 

 shoulder in company with Stomoxys. As to remedies, little that is new 

 has been discovered. Spraying the cattle with the kerosene emulsion 

 has proved very successful in some hands, while fish oil with an admix- 

 ture of carbolic acid is a favorite with others. Spreading the droppings 

 in the pasture every two or three days makes a cheap and certain way of 

 preventing the larvse from attaining maturity. In tiie stable, the drop- 

 pings may be mixed with land plaster to absorb the liquid and make the 

 mass too dry to serve as food for the maggots. 



Among the imported pests, Zeuzera pyrina is causing great injury in 

 Central Park, New York. Mr. E. B. Southwick exhibited, at Rochester, 

 some very interesting specimens of the injury caused by this larva: trunks 

 and branches of considerable size being completely girdled. Like so 

 many introduced species, it is far more injurious in its new home, than it 

 ever was in its own country, and the very great number of species of 

 trees and shrubs attacked, makes it particularly obnoxious in a large park 

 which depends so much for its beauty and attractiveness upon the variety 

 of vegetation contained. No very effective means of combating this 

 insect have been discovered as yet. 



