298 FOBTY-FTRST REPORT ON TSE IStATE MuSEUM. 



successfully resorted to by the agriculturist— by rotation of crops. It also gives com- 

 prehensive notice of several of the more injurious insects with which the horticulturist 

 must contend. 



The same author has also issued a carefully prepared illustrated paper, of 36 pages, 

 on the Insects affecting the Corn Grop, extracted from the Indiana Agricultural Report for 

 1885. Of the fifty species of corn insects noticed, several are accompanied with useful 

 bibliographical lists. 



Insects Injurious to the Apple, is the title of a paper, by Prof. B. F. Koons, extracted 

 from the Report of the Connecticut Board of Agriculture, for 1885. The claims for the 

 study of entomology are well presented in it. 



A paper upon Gut Woryns, read before the New York State Agricultural Society (pp. 25, 

 flgs. 20), and one entitled Sorne Injurious Insects of Massachusetts, read before the Massa- 

 chusetts State B oard of Agriculture, by the State Entomologist of New York, have been 

 published in the annual reports of the societies named, and also as separates. 



The Fourth Report of the New York Agricultural Experiment Station narrates (pp. 

 216-223) experiments made at the station with insecticides upon some of our more inju- 

 rious insect pests ; and contains, also, a notice of a very interesting fungus attack upon 

 Phytonomus punctatus (pp. 258-262), which is believed to have been communicated 

 through the agency of a fertilizer employed. The fungus is named by Prof. Arthur, 

 botanist of the station, Entomophthora Phytonomi. 



The Fourth Report of the Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station for 1885, devotes six 

 pages to experiments with insecticides, and the best method for their application. 



An Experiment in Silk Culture, by Prof. T. J. Burril], made under the direction of the 

 Illinois University, is published in the proceedings of the sixth meeting of the Society 

 for the promotion of Agricultural Science. The experiment terminated in the study of 

 a contagious disease that broke out in the larvae that were being reared, which was 

 believed to be identical with the flacherie of the silk-worm in France, observed by 

 Pasteur. The disease had never been previously recorded as existing in this country 

 but is now thought to have long prevailed among our native Lepidoptera, and to have 

 been the cause of a recent epidemic in the Piei-is rapce larvae. The ca.uses that may 

 have led to the outbreak of disease among the silk-worms attempted to be reared, are 

 considered in the paper. 



In the same publication, is an abstract of a paper by Prof. C. V. Riley, on Grasshopper 

 Injury. A periodicity in wide-spread locust injuries averaging about every eleven 

 years is accepted. It is claimed to be possible to predict the degree of destructiveness. 

 Thus, increasing injury for the years 1886 and 1887 may be expected should the weather 

 favor; but even under the most favoring conditions, these injuries can never again be 

 so wide-spread, it is asserted, as between I87i and 1877. 



Prof. S. A. Forbes, who has for some time, been paying special attention to the diseases 

 of insects with a view of their propagation for the destruction of injurious species, has 

 published in a Bulletin of the Illinois State Laboratory of Natural History (vol. ii., pp. 

 257-321) an elaborate paper entitled Studies on the Gontagious Diseases of Insects. In it he 

 discusses flacherie in the cabbage-worm, Pieris rapce, describing the disease minutely, 

 its characteristic bacteria, the evidence of its contagious nature and of the ability of 

 conveying it by an artificial culture of the Micrococcus. In the same painstaking man- 

 ner, jaundice, found associated with flachei'ie in the silk-worm, by Professor Burrill, is 

 also discussed. Flacherie in Batana Angusii is described, with its characteristic 

 bacteria, their artificial cultures, and contagious nature. The paper concludes with a 

 notice of the aid rendered by muscardine in arresting wide-spread desolation in forests 

 and orchards, in Southern Illinois, in 1883, caused by a remarkable prevalence of the 

 forest tent-caterpillar, Glisiocampa sylvatica. 



The Insects of Betula m North America, by Anna Katherina Dimmock, of Cambridge, 

 Mass., contained in Psyche, iv, pp. 239-213, 271-286, is an admirable compilation, and may 

 justly serve as a model for similar lists. It is not a simple record of the 107 species 

 noticed as feeding on Betula, but valuable notes are given upon each insect— of develop- 

 ment, habits, history, etc., the other plants upon which it is known to feed, with refer- 



