THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



127 



northward with the advancing season the 

 subsequent year, leaving the colonies mean- 

 while in the south. The experiment, the 

 results of which were looked forward to 

 with a good deal of interest by the apiar- 

 ists of this country, has been abandoned 

 as unprofitable, and our old-time friend, 

 M. M. Baldridge of St. Charles, 111., has 

 made arrangements to take charge of most of 

 the colonies during the season. The bees 

 laden with stores are too apt, in crossing 

 the water, to fall short of reaching the 

 barge. They are also liable to be chilled 

 by the cool, shifting breezes that prevail 

 near large bodies of running water. Thus 

 large numbers of them perished. The 

 bees (some 600 stands) will be moved in 

 future by rail. 



American Staphylinid.b wanted. — 

 The French entomologist, Mr. Albert 

 Fauvel, so well known by his papers on the 

 Staphylinidce of the Old World as well of 

 Central and South America, published 

 about a year ago the first part of his paper 

 on the StaphylmidcB of North America. 

 This volume of 100 pages is invaluable to 

 the Coleopterists of this country A 

 speedy continuation of the work is prom- 

 ised by M. Fauvel, who appeals to Amer- 

 ican collectors to furnish him with mate- 

 rial, so as to render the work as complete 

 as possible, the specimens — named or un- 

 named — to be sent per post to M. Fauvel 

 (rue d'Auge r6, Caen, France), who will 

 return them authentically determined. 



Probable Parthenogenesis in the 

 Hessian Flv. — Dr. Hagen gives, in the 

 March number of our contemporary the 

 North American Entomologist, reasons to 

 believe that parthenogenesis may occur in 

 the common Hessian Fly {Cecidomyia de- 

 structor^. He also raises the question as 

 to whether this insect is still common and 

 injurious in this country. It is beyond 

 doubt less injurious in the older wheat 

 growing sections of the country than 

 formerly; for the ravages of the insect 

 have extended westward with 'the well 



known movement in the same direction of 

 wheat culture. In the great wheat-grow- 

 ing States its ravages continue and the 

 agricultural journals give just as much 

 space to its consideration as of yore. As 

 with nearly all insect enemies of our 

 crops it prevails more in some years than 

 in others — especially in hot and moist 

 ones — but during our residence in Mis- 

 souri there was no year when it was not in 

 some sections reported. The fact that it 

 is scarce in entomological cabinets may be 

 explained on much the same grounds that 

 insects like the common Mosquito and 

 House Fly are equally rare in such cabinets. 

 Cecidomyia destructor is represented in our 

 cabinet in all stages, either mounted dry 

 or in balsam. 



Raspberries destroyed by Weevils. — 

 A species of weevil or snout-beetle, the 

 Otiorhynchus picipes, has of late years been 

 very destructive to raspberry plantations 

 in England. In 1878 a fruit-growe.r in 

 Cornwall, reported the destruction of two 

 acres of plants, and since that time the pest 

 seems to have spread quite rapidly, and 

 the past season many plantations were at- 

 tacked in different parts of England. The 

 weevil not only strips the leaves from the 

 plants, but destroys the tender shoots and 

 eats the bark from the growing canes. 

 Gathering the beetle with a sweep-net 

 after dark, has thus far proved to be 

 the most efficacious method of destroying 

 this pest. Our importers of plants should 

 be on their guard against introducing this 

 weevil, as it would no doubt flourish in 

 this country, as we have already several 

 closely allied species belonging to the same 

 genus. 



Errata. — Page 98, col. i, line 19, for 

 '''habillarde" read ''^babillarde {Curruca gar- 

 rula Briss);" col. 2, line 13 from bottom, 

 for "so minute a prey" read "such minute 

 prey." Page 99, col. 2, line 26, for "cut- 

 worm or green worm" read "cut-worms 

 or green worms." Page 97, col. 2, line 8 

 from bottom, for "attracting" read "at- 

 tacking." 



