88 



noticed them eatiug young cotton only, and a few years back tbey be- 

 gan to eat sweet jiotatoes. ^ow tbey eat peas and tobacco, and have 

 attacked our gardens. Our parish is composed of small farmers who 

 lack means. * * We find that rapid cultivation, large gangs of 



poultry, and numerous birds keep them in check, but they are becom- 

 ing too numerous in spite of ail we can do." 



Beyond doubt in a case like this the best remedy will be found in the 

 use of a poisoned bait, and I have no doubt but that the bran, sugar, 

 and arsenic wash, which proved so effective against the Devastating 

 Locust in California in 1885, and which is described in my annual re- 

 port for that year (Report Department of Agriculture for 1885, page 

 300), would prove attractive to the crickets and would accomplish the 

 destruction of large numbers. 



This mixture is usually prepared in wash-tubs or half-barrels. 

 One of them is filled about three-fourths full of dry bran, and to this 

 is added about 5 pounds of arsenic, which is thoroughly stirred through 

 bran with a spade or shovel. Five pounds of sugar is next thrown into 

 a pail, which is then filled with water, and the sugar stirred until it is 

 dissolved, when this sugar water is added to the bran and arsenic and 

 the three well stirred; more water is added and the stirring continued 

 until every portion of the wash becomes thoroughly saturated. This 

 should be placed about the infested fields iu table-spoonfuls. 



Freshly cut grass or other green vegetation, sprinkled with Paris 

 green or London purple and scattered at intervals throughout the fields, 

 will also produce good results, and be less expensive. (0. Y. Eiley, in 

 Florida Dispatch, June zO, 18S7, vol. 7, p. 576.) 



A NEW ENEMY TO HONEY BEES. 



Several predaceous bugs have been recorded from time to time as 

 feeding upon honey bees, and in Bulletin 12 of this Division (page 44) 

 we mention the fact that the common Wheel Bug {Prionidus cristatvs) 

 was in the habit of lurking about the hives and preying upon the bees 

 at Winchester, Ya. Last summer we received information from Mr. J. 

 W. Lanford, of Lawrence County, S. 0., that another bug had been ca[)t- 

 ured by him in the act of piercing the honey bee, and that his neighbors 

 had noticed the same insect lurking about their liives. The specimen 

 captured in the act was forwarded to us, and proved to be Euthyrhyn- 

 chus floridanus, a species which is rather common throughout the South. 



AN UNPUBLISHED HABIT OF ALLORHINA NITIDA. 



To Mr. W. W. Meech, of Vineland, N. J., the well known authority 

 on quinces, is due the credit for the discovery that the ways of this 

 common beetle are not altogether bad. He found the adult beetles eat- 

 ing the fungus RoestUia aurantiaca upon his quince trees. They even 

 alighted upon it in the basket wh<^n he was gatliering the fun,i>us and 



