AucusT 19, 1915] 

NATURE 
687 

of this “fairy tale.’ We require to see an cestrid 
catch a mosquito and lay its eggs on the abdomen of 
the latter. We also require (with pocket lens) to see 
a mosquito with eggs attached biting, and then to see 
the larva emerge and enter the skin. The larve 
when grown and in situ are best chloroformed; they 
an then be fairly easily expressed. : 
Beri-beri.—A practical demonstration of the view 
now generally accepted that beri-beri is due to the 
absence of the subpericarpal layer in polished 
rice, was afforded by the result of an _ expedi- 
tion to the Snow Mountains, in Dutch New Guinea. 
Previous expeditions had failed except one, of only 
ten men, and in this unpolished rice was used. The 
expedition here recorded consisted of 204 natives and 
lasted seven months, There was not a single case of 
beri-beri. The daily ration in grams was :—Rice, un- 
polished, 700; fish or meat on alternate days, 150; 
kachangidju (a bean), 200; Javanese sugar, 50; coffee, 
20; tea, 5; salt, occasionally, 20. What is required 
of rice millers is to produce a “‘nice-looking”’ rice 
with the pericarp removed and the subpericarp re- 
tained. Rice millers must accept the facts and not 
deny that polished rice is a cause of beri-beri, as hap- 
pened in the writer’s experience recently. A rice con- 
taining not less than o-4 per cent. of phosphorus pent- 
oxide is a safe one, but inspection or other simple 
tests is quite enough to tell a safe from an unsafe 
rice. ‘‘Parboiled”’ rice is also safe, but many natives 
will not eat it, as it does not look nice and has an 
objectionable smell. 
Leprosy.—The successful cultivation of the bacillus 
has been claimed by various observers, but in the 
experiments detailed in this report all attempts were 
negative, although the “successful methods of other 
observers were followed.’’ The subject is at present 
in a state of hopeless confusion. 
Bilharzia.—It has been shown by Japanese workers 
that the Japanese form of this disease was contracted 
(by dogs) by immersion in water. It was thought that 
this proved the direct penetration of the skin by the 
miracidia that hatched from the egg, but Leiper and 
Atkinson have shown that it is the Cercariz which 
have passed through a molluse that are the infective 
stage. 
The appendices give evidence of the enthusiasm with 
which research is followed, but we think there might 
be some co-ordinating system linking together re- 
searches in various colonies. 

RECENT ENTOMOLOGICAL RESEARCH. 
Ne English-speaking zoologist is likely to have 
overlooked the exhaustive work on the life-cycle 
of Trypanosoma lewisi, recently published in the Quart. 
Journ, Microsc. Sci. (vol. 1x., part 4), by Prof. A. E. 
Minchin and Mr. J. D. Thomson. This great research 
involved the dissection of 1700 rat-fleas (Ceratophyllus 
fasciatus), and Prof. Minchin gives, in the last number 
of the Journal of the Quekett Microscopical Club (2, 
vol. xii., No. 76), as a kind of by-product, some details 
of the anatomy of the insect. The nervous system, 
reproductive organs, and salivary glands receive special 
attention. In the nervous system there is a curious 
sexual dimorphism, the male having eight distinct 
abdominal ganglia, while the female possesses only 
seven. The salivary glands of the larva are much larger 
than those of the adult, and the larval duct is 
provided with a reservoir, wanting in the correspond- 
ing imaginal structure; these differences are correlated 
with the well-known difference in the nature of the 
food, the flea being a blood-sucker, while the larva 
devours solid particles—commonly the excreta of the 
rat. Students of insect anatomy will be grateful to 
NO. 2390, VOL. 95] 
' Prof. Minchin for his detailed account of his simple 
and successful methods of manipulation. 
The woolly aphid of the apple, commonly known 
as ‘American blight,’’ has been the subject of many 
interesting observations recently ; for example, we have 
had Mr. J. Davidson’s careful anatomical research into 
the different forms of the species (Quart. Journ. Micr. 
Sci., vol. lviii., 1913, part 4), and Miss E. M. Patch’s 
demonstration that the elm is the normal host-plant for 
the wingless sexual stage of the species and for the 
early spring generations (Maine Agric. Exp. Sta. 
Bull., 203, 217, 220, 1912-13). Now Mr. A. C. Baker 
has published (U.S. Dept. Agric., Report 101, 1915) 
a comprehensive account of the structure, life-history, 
and economic importance of the insect in a pamphlet 
of fifty-six pages, illustrated by fifteen excellent plates. 
He believes that the generic name Eriosoma (Leach, 
1820) must supersede Schizoneura (Hartig, 1841), which 
has been universally used in recent years. As regards 
the life-cycle, he confirms the latest conclusions of 
Miss Patch that £. ulmi is identical with the currant- 
root feeding fodiens, while E. lanigera (the ** American 
blight’) is an altogether different species, with the 
elm as its normal ‘‘principal’’ host, and the apple, 
hawthorn, and rowan as alternative summer hosts. 
As a matter of fact, the virgin females of lanigera 
are commonly found on the bark or roots of apple- 
trees throughout the winter months, so that the sexual 
phase may be tending to disappear from the life-history 
altogether. It is interesting—after so many American 
writers have objected to the identification of their 
continent as the original home of this ‘blight,’ and 
have contended for its European origin—to find it here 
considered that the weight of evidence indicates the 
insect as a native of the ‘‘ New World.” 
A similar doubt as to the country of its origin exists 
with regard to another orchard insect-pest, the pear 
thrips (Euthrips, or Taeniothrips pyri), which since 
1900 has caused much damage both in the eastern and 
western United States, and in some English localities. 
A complete account of its life-history and habits in 
California, by Messrs. S. W. Foster and P. R. Jones, 
has just been published (U.S. Dept. Agric. Bull. 173). 
The adults feed in the blossom-buds, and the larve on 
the fruits, not of the pear only, but of other rosaceous 
trees; while pupation takes place in the soil, the trans— 
formation being completed about midwinter, though 
the winged thrips do not appear until some months 
later. In California all the adult individuals are be- 
lieved to be parthenogenetic females, although males 
have been foundin this country by Mr. R. S. Bagnall. 
Dr. A. D. Hopkins continues his excellent systematic 
studies of the bark-beetles, with a ‘‘ Classification of 
the Cryphaline" (U.S. Dept. Agric., Report 99), in 
which some new genera and a large number of new 
species are described, the latter not being all North 
American. This is the fourth ‘Contribution towards 
a Monograph of the Scolytoid Beetles,” the second 
having appeared in the Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., vol. 
xIviii., and the first and third as No. 17 of the Tech- 
nical Bulletins of the U.S.D.A. Bureau of Ento- 
mology. This disconnected mode of publication— 
somewhat troublesome to the bibliographer—is due to 
the discontinuance of the special series of bulletins 
hitherto issued by the Bureau of Entomology, the 
results of the work of which will apparently henceforth 
be mingled with those emanating from other sections of 
the Department of Agriculture. From this centralisa- 
tion there may perhaps be some benefit derivable that 
is not apparent to an ordinary entomologist, who 
cannot fail to appreciate its inconvenience. Report 107 
of the U.S. Department of Agriculture consists of a 
short but valuable and beautifully illustrated paper 
on the larve of long-horn beetles of the division 


