196 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIII. No. 840 



appreciation of his work and of its deep admira- 

 tion of his personal character. 



{Reid Hunt 

 George B. Wallace 

 A. N. Richards " 

 Hygienic Laboratory, 



Reid Hunt, 

 Secretary 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 the biom)gical society or Washington 



The 477th regular meeting of the society was 

 held January 6, 1911, with President David 

 White in the chair and fifty-one persons present. 



Two new members were elected and standing 

 committees announced by the president. 



Barton W. Evermann reported observations on 

 the fly-catching habits of the common brown rat. 



C. D. Marsh called attention to a report by 

 Sars on Crustacea from Lake Tanganyika, and 

 stated that the list, so far as oopepods are con- 

 cerned, fails to bear out the theory that this 

 lake is of very ancient origin. 



The following communications were presented: 

 Notes On the Aspens: I. Tidestbom. 



The speaker gave the history and relationship 

 of several American and European forms of the 

 genus Popuhis. He showed that the western 

 quaking aspen differs in several particulars from 

 the eastern, and proposed a new name for the 

 western form. A number of herbarium specimens 

 illustrated the remarks. 

 Some Nesting Habits of Water Ousels and 



Cuckoos: Ned Dearborn. 



The remarks were illustrated by photographs of 

 the birds and nests. . The observations on the 

 water ousel were made in Spearfish Canyon, S. D., 

 and in Santa Fe Canyon, N. M., during last 

 summer; those on the black-billed and yellow- 

 billed cuckoos were made at Joliet, 111., in 1906. 

 A Recently Imported Enemy of Alfalfa: F. M. 



Webster. 



The alfalfa or lucern weevil (Phytonomus 

 murinus) was introduced into this country, prob- 

 ably in the packing or in packages of articles of 

 international commerce, some time prior to 1904, 

 when it was first discovered by the entomologists 

 of the Utah Agricultural Experiment Station 

 attacking a small field of alfalfa in the vicinity 

 of Salt Lake City, Utah. From this point it has 

 since that time spread over the country north- 

 ward to near Ogden and southward to beyond 

 Provo and from a considerable distance westward 

 of Tooele, very nearly to the borders of Wyoming. 



I'he eggs are deposited chiefly in punctures 

 made in the young stems by the adult beetles; 

 the larvae, as soon as they hatch, make their way 

 to the tender growing crowns of the plants, feed- 

 ing upon the unfolding leaves and tender stems, 

 and thus prevent growth of the young plants. 

 Later on in the season, after the insects have 

 reached the adult stage, these still attack the 

 alfalfa plants by gnawing the bark from the stem, 

 thus destroying them. 



In many alfalfa fields about Salt Lake, at the 

 time for mowing the first crop of hay, the plants 

 had not made sufficient growth to admit of mow- 

 ing; while the second crop was seriously damaged 

 by the feeding of the adult beetles as just de- 

 scribed. Approximately, damage to the amount 

 of a half million dollars was caused during the 

 last year by this pest in Utah. 



No thoroughly practical measures have been 

 found for preventing the spread of the pest or 

 very materially reducing the results of its depre- 

 dations. 



The habit of the adults in hiding away in baled 

 hay, in fruit packages, or almost any other sim- 

 ilar articles of commerce, as well as their attach- 

 ing themselves to freight cars and hiding them- 

 selves in the vestibules of Pullman sleeping cars, 

 makes their diffusion by railways almost unpre- 

 ventable. Twenty-seven individuals were taken 

 from the vestibule of one sleeping ear attached to 

 a train at Salt Lake City last July. Also, tne 

 adult insects fly about freely during the summer 

 and being carried by the winds are also in this 

 manner widely diffused. 



The present indications are that the insect will 

 make its appearance in southern Idaho, southern 

 Wyoming and eastern Nevada the coming spring. 

 Fortunately, alfalfa does not enter into interna- 

 tional commerce as does cotton; therefore this in- 

 sect is not likely to affect articles of international 

 commerce. But over the western country, where 

 it seems likely to diffuse itself and carry on its 

 destructive work, there is much territory where 

 alfalfa is the only crop that can be raised, and 

 if this is destroyed the farmers will be placed 

 in sore straits and confronted with a more serious 

 problem than is brought about by any other in- 

 sect known to occur in this country. Over a good 

 portion of the country west of the one hundredth 

 meridian alfalfa is the money crop of the farmers, 

 and any influence tending to prevent or interfere 

 with the cultivation of this, will constitute a 

 calamity throughout that country. 



