37 



meters iu width and 4 millimeters in thickness were applied to 885 trees 

 of an average diameter of 18 centimeters, at a total cost of 27.40 marks 

 (about 80.80) includiug labor. The rings were smeared around the 

 trunks at a height of 1^ meters from the ground j if laid much higher up 

 so as to necessitate the use of ladders the cost of labor was correspond- 

 ingly iucn^ased. As stated above, the rings have in all cases proved to 

 be a perfect protection against all caterpillars that attempted to ascend 

 the trees duriug the whole season. — E. A. IS. 



UTILIZATION OF THE STING OF THK HONEY-BEE IN THERAPEUTICS. 



This old and half-forgotten subject has been brought up again re- 

 cently byDr. Al. Laboulbene at the meeting of the French Entomolog- 

 ical Society, held on March 13, 1889. Dr. Laboulbene gave then a 

 short abstract of a paper published in 1888 by an Austrian physician. 

 Dr. Terc, who seems to have made extended experiments for a number 

 of years. Dr. Terc asserts that a person stung by bees acquires thereby 

 a relative immunity for the consequences of subsequent stings; in 

 other words, that the virus of the bee sting acts like a vaccinal inocula- 

 tion against its own poison. The immunity lasts six months, sometimes 

 less, probably according to the number of stings inflicted on a i)erson. 

 Persons suffering from acute rheumatism require a larger number of bee- 

 stings to feel the usual effect of the poison, but as soon as by inocula- 

 tion of a suflBcient amount of virus they have acquired immunity against 

 its effect, they will — as long as this immunity lasts — be free from rheu- 

 matic attacks. Dr. Laboulbene suggests that, in the interest of med- 

 ical science, it would be well to thoroughly test these assertions. 



ON OTIOEHYNCHIDJE. 



In the American N'aturalist, v. 16, 1882, pp. 915, 916, Dr. Eiley gave 

 a list of the Xorth American weevils of the family Otiorhynchidce which 

 are injurious to cultivated plants, adding thereto an enumeration of 

 those species of which the food-habits were recorded. To these may 

 now be added Aramigus tesselatus, which, according to E. A. Popenoe 

 {Industrialist, May 29, 1886), infests the Sweet Potato in the West; 

 Scythrojjv.s elegans, which is enumerated by Mr. W. H. Harrington 

 (Trans, Ottawa Field Nat. Club, v. 2, 1881, p. 33) among the enemies of 

 pine trees in Canada; and Graphorliinus vadosus, the imago of which 

 feeds on the leaves of clover, according to F. M. Webster [Amer. Xat., 

 V. 16, 1882, p. 746). Of late yeavs three additional species have 

 been recorded as injurious to cultivated plants. Otiorhynchus ovatus, 

 which proved to be a not insignificant enemy to the strawberry, 

 as first pointed out by Prof. A. J. Cook, who also described its 

 earlier stages; Aragnomus griseus, which was recorded by Dr. Eiley 

 (Insect Life, v. 1, 1888, p. 16) as an enemy to pear trees in Oregon. 

 The third species is Otiorhynchus sulcatus, which occurs in both Xorth 

 America and Europe, and which, in the latter country, has been quite 



