CURRENT NOTES. 131 



of the insects are not fully determined. The principal enemies of 

 Cacao in the Philippines are a Cicadid which attacks the roots ; 

 a Cerambycid larva and Termites which destroy the trunk and 

 branches ; and various caterpillars and aphides ravishing the 

 leaves. 



In a monographic paper on the " Flora of Norfolk Island " — 

 a small island almost equidistant from New Zealand and New 

 Caledonia — Maiden (13) notes (pp. 769-70) that at present the 

 islanders are little cursed with insect-pests. He noticed " mealy 

 bug" on oranges and lemons, and "black scale" on Lisbon 

 lemons. Onions are liable also to the attacks of a scale-insect, 

 while water-melons are attacked by aphids. White ants are 

 absent, and mosquitoes very rare. 



Washburn's latest Bulletin (14) contains much information 

 upon various entomological topics ; the coloured plate contains 

 fourteen drawings of larvae of Lepidoptera and Hymenoptera. 

 Ballou (15) discusses at some length the recent serious outbreaks 

 of the cotton-worm {Aletia argillacea) that have been experienced 

 in the West Indies, St. Vincent being the only cotton-growing 

 island to escape. D. Sharp (16) describes a new beetle which 

 has severely ravaged young palms in Beraia ; " the insect 

 deposits its eggs upon the young shoots of the plant upon which 

 the larvae feed." 



The same author collaborates with F. Muir (17) in an im- 

 portant and well-illustrated paper on the metamorphoses of 

 certain Coleoptera. 



Marlatt (18) notes that the Cocciuellid Vedalia cardinalis is 

 maintaining its usefulness in California, being regularly bred up 

 by Mr. Craw and others. " The rapidity with which a colony of 

 scales is cleared up by these insects is something marvellous, a 

 few weeks only being sufficient for it to clear up a considerable 

 area of infestation." Of more recent importations, Scutellista 

 cyanea " is apparently duplicating against the black scale the 

 wonderful work of the Vedalia against the white scale in Cali- 

 fornia." 



0. F. Cook (19) has discovered a formidable enemy in Guate- 

 mala of the destructive cotton-boll weevil {Antlwnomus grandis). 

 This foe is an ant, which spreads over the cotton-fields, and, 

 attacking the weevils, paralyses them after the manner of so 

 many other Aculeate Hymenoptera. Arrangements are appa- 

 rently being made to introduce this beneficial insect into Texas, 

 where the ravages of the weevil have been so appalling. 



Sasaki (20) concludes that the Chinese wax-scale is a native 

 of both China and Japan. His excellent paper is illustrated by 

 two fine plates. Miss Bemis (21) adds nineteen species of 

 Aleyrodidae to the North American fauna, these being described 

 in, mostly, all their stages very fully. Pergande has (22) un- 

 ravelled a vast amount of confusion in certain Aphidae. He has 



