426 
into the trap. The editor of the Canadian Live-Stock Journal, accord- 
ing to the Press account, saw twenty-eight cows put through this con- 
trivance in twenty-eight minutes, including the placing of the device 
at three barn doors. 
THE BUFFALO GNAT. 
In volume n of Insect Life (pp. 7-11) was published a report of 
a trip to investigate buffalo gnats, which was written by Mr. Marlatt. 
His investigation resulted in finding that the buffa'lo gnats about 
Frier son's Mill, La., were largely due to the occurrence of a great raft 
of logs in the Bayou Pierre which was formed in 1872-73. The raft 
furnished excellent breeding places for the larvae, and dammed the 
stream to a certain extent, causing the flooding of the adjacent lowland, 
furnishing additional foothold for larvae and also driving the adults to 
the higher land every spring. The raft originated in an attempt of 
the United States Government to close Tone's Bayou, which connects 
Bayou Pierre with the Eed Biver, and to confine the water of Bed 
Biver to its own channel. From the outlook in 1889 it seemed that 
unless Bayou Pierre were cleaned out, at an expense of some $25,000, 
the gnat would continue to be a great nuisance. The present spring 
Mr. L. S. Frierson has written that for the first time since 1889 there 
were no buffalo gnats. He further stated that last year for the first 
time the water almost ceased to run through Bayou Pierre, and became 
so stagnant in and about the raft of logs that a green scum was formed 
upon the surface. The nuisance has thus corrected itself without the 
apparently necessary removal of the log raft or dam. 
a newly imported scale insect. 
When Mr. Koebele stopped at Hawaii on his second Australian mis- 
sion, he collected among other things a new species of Pulvinaria, which 
occurred on guava. This, with other material, he sent to Mr. Maskell, 
who in 1892 described the species in the Transactions of the Xew Zea- 
land Institute (p. 223) as Pulvinaria psidii. The adult female of this 
insect is yellow or yellowish brown, sometimes with a greenish tinge, 
and secretes an ovisac consisting of a mass of dry, cotton-like wax, 
which is often accompanied by a black fungus. Correspondence during 
the past two or three years with persons in Hawaii, especially Mr. Wil- 
liam G. Wait, of Kailaua, IS". Kona, Hawaii, indicates that this insect does 
a great deal of damage to coffee plantations in the Sandwich Islands. 
In June, 1894, specimens of a Pulvinaria were received from Mr. 
Samuel B. Parish, of San Bernardino, Cal., which he stated had recently 
appeared on his plum trees, infesting the leaves and to some extent the 
branches and immature fruit. Up to that time he had found it only 
upon a few trees of the wild goose variety, which were scattered among 
other plums of American and Japanese races. He found only old trees 
infested, the younger ones being free. The affected trees bore a sickly 
appearance, and the fruit was inclined to drop. Specimens sent at that 
