December 13, 1912] 



SCIENCE 



825 



Professor C. F. Baker, of the department 

 of biology of Pomona College, has resigned to 

 accept a professorship in the University of the 

 Philippines. He will be at the College of 

 Agriculture, Los Banos, Philippine Islands. 



The Coutts Trotter Studentship at Trinity 

 College, Cambridge, founded for the promotion 

 of original research in natural science (espe- 

 cially physiology and experimental physics), 

 has been divided between Mr. E. D. Adrian, 

 B.A., and Mr. A. E. Oxley, B.A. 



The council of the University of Paris has 

 elected M. Andoyer, professor of physical as- 

 tronomy in the faculty of science and member 

 of the council of the Nice Observatory, as suc- 

 cessor of the late M. Henri Poincare in the 

 professorship of mathematical astronomy. 



DISCUSSION AND COBBESFONDENCE 



INSECTS CONTRIBUTING TO THE CONTROL OF THE 

 CHESTNUT BLIGHT DISEASE ' 



Investigations during the summer of 1912 

 by the Bureau of Entomology have brought 

 to light some very important relations of 

 insects to the chestnut blight, of which one 

 of the most striking is that certain insects 

 contribute to the natural control of the spread 

 of the disease by feeding on and at the same 

 time destroying the fruiting bodies. 



During the winter of 1911 the writer ob- 

 served many cankers with the pustules eaten 

 out and the diseased bark infested with small 

 larvse. Later adults of the species were reared 

 from these larvae, one a Cerambycid, Lepto- 

 stylus macula Say, the other a Colydid, 8yn- 

 chita fuUginosa Melsh; both were observed 

 while caged to eat the pustules and stroma, 

 the latter even to eat conidial threads. 



At the Forest Insect Field Station 9, Char- 

 teroak, Pa., an extensive outbreak of the dis- 

 ease was found where a large percentage of 

 the pustules were eaten. Investigation showed 

 both species to be present but L. macula doing 

 most of the work. Other insects collected and 



' Bead before the Biological Society of Wash- 

 JDgton, November 16, 1912. 



caged were found to eat the pustules as fol- 

 lows: 



Family BuprestidK — Agrilus bilineatus Web. 

 Family Chrysomelidse — Bassareus pretiosus Melsh. 

 Family Trogositidse — Thymalus fulgidus Er. 



A number of experiments were made by 

 Mr. E. D. Spencer, of the Chestnut Blight 

 Commission, working with the writer, in cul- 

 turing the stomach contents and excrement 

 of L. macula, but in no case did the spores 

 germinate. 



Following these observations, a study of the 

 chestnut throughout its northern range showed 

 the same conditions everywhere the bark dis- 

 ease occurred. In many localities 50 per cent, 

 to 75 per cent, of the pustules were eaten. In 

 some cases scarcely a single perfect pustule 

 could be found on a badly diseased tree and 

 in such localities there was evidence of a 

 marked decrease in new infection. 



The fruiting bodies are eaten cleanly and 

 deep into the bark, both pygnida and perithecia 

 being destroyed. During the last summer a 

 perceptible increase in the destruction of the 

 pustules by insects was noticed. This shows 

 that they have acquired a taste for the fungus 

 which points toward increased destruction of 

 the spores. 



These insects, though not checking the 

 growth of cankers already formed, play a 

 most important part in controlling the dis- 

 semination of the disease. 



F. C. Craighead 



Branch op Forest Insects, 

 Bureau of Entomology, 

 TJ. S. Department of Agriculture 



A possible cause of accidents TO aviators 



To the Editor of Science: I think that 

 your valuable paper is in a position to render 

 a very important service in aiding to lower 

 the death rate among aviators. 



Probably if we knew all the causes of dis- 

 aster we should see that they are of many 

 kinds. 



To mention only one of the possible causes, 

 take the gyroscopic effect of the revolving- 

 cylinder motor. 



Among your readers there are very many 



