Report of the State Entomologist 277 



by careful inspection of the surface, or, what would be preferable, 

 opening a number and examining their interior. 



It is evident, in the light that we now have, that this pest may not 

 be exterminated from a locality by the refraining, by common consent, 

 for a year or two, from the culture of the bean, as we have previously 

 recommended, for the insect may be safely " tided over " during that 

 time by continued generation within the stored crops, or in the house- 

 wife's bag of beans carefully laid aside and protected in some bye and 

 forgotten drawer. 



The Tracy house. — Perhaps in no way could as much be accom- 

 plished toward arresting the spread of this insect, as in the use, by 

 all extensive bean-growers, of the " Tracy house," or "bug-house," 

 which, according to Professor A. J. Cook, was largely used by the pea- 

 growers of northern New York for the arrest of the ravages of the pea- 

 weevil, when not long ago the pea interest was threatened with destruc- 

 tion. Professor Cook has given the following description of the house 

 and the manner in which the bisulphide of carbon is used in it:* 



"The house is made air-tight; even the door is made very close- 

 fitting; and is made still closer by pasting paper over the edges upon 

 closing it, after filling the house with sacks of peas. An air-tight flue 

 at one end opens at the very top into the building, and at the bottom 

 out of doors. A sort of shoot with an adjustable air-tight valve is 

 arranged for the turning in of the liquid. The liquid is turned in till 

 the odor shows that the vapor is pouring out at the bottom of the 

 flue. Then, of course, the air has all been forced out by the vapor, 

 when the valve is closed. It is left closed for three days; then the 

 doors are opened that the vapor may escape, when all the weevils will 



be dead." ♦ 



What Should be the Insect's Name ? 



During the preparation of this paper, I have been led to question 



the propriety of retaining for it, Say's name. There is certainly 



reason for doubting its being the species which he has briefly and 



insufficiently described as having been bred by him from the seeds 



of Astralagus in Indiana. I offer the following considerations : 



1. For many years after its discovery at Providence, R. I., it was 

 only observed along, or not far from, the Atlantic seaboard — quite 

 remote from "Indiana" and " Louisiana. "f lis westward distribution 

 seems to have been quite gradual, in later years. 



2. No one has since bred the Bruchus from Astralagus. As a rule, 

 the Bruchidce confine themselves to a single food-plant. Dr. Horn, in 



* Bulletin No. 58, Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station, St. Agricul. Coll., Ap 

 1890. Insectides. (Bisulphide of Carbon, pp. 8-12.) 

 t Say gives Louisiana as the habitat of B. ohtectus. 



36 



