285 
The cheap arsenite referred to is amixture of 1 pound of the commer- 
cial white arsenic to 2 pounds of lime, made by boiling them together 
for half an hour in 2 to 5 gallons of water, and then diluting to the re- 
quired volume, say 100 gallons. 
THE CORN ROOT APHIS. 
As Article XII, Vol. III, of the Bulletin of the Dlinois State Labora- 
tory of Natural History, Dr. Clarence M. Weed publishes his “ Sixth 
contribution to a knowledge of the life history of certain little-known 
Aphidide,” giving in this seven-page instalment a partial account of 
the biology of the Corn Root Aphis (Aphis maidis Fitch). He estimates 
that there 1s no connection between the root and aérial forms of Aphis 
maidis and gives a Summary of the life-history of the former, describing 
for the first time the wingless male (taken i copula with an oviparous 
female) and the egg. To consult this series of six contributions which 
Dr. Weed has now published the student will have to examine two num- 
bers of ‘‘ Psyche,” two bulletins of the Ohio Agricultural Experiment 
Station, one number of INSECT LIFE and one number of the Bulletin 
of the Illinois State Laboratory, a fact which is to be regretted. 
MOSQUITO LARVA AS SUPPOSED INTERNAL PARASITES. 
The idea that the larve of the mosquito may occasionally become true 
internal parasites of man has been brought forward by an Italian author, 
E. Tosatto, and has been adopted by Prof. R. Blanchard in the second 
volume of his * Traité de Zoologie Médicale” (Paris, 1890). The matter 
would hardly deserve mention were it not stated in a general work of 
the high character of Blanchard’s, but the fear lest it should become 
adopted by other authors of books of reference has induced Dr. Eugenio 
Ficalbi to carefully review the evidence brought together by Tosatto 
in a recent number of the Bullettino della Societa Entomologica Ital- 
iana.* Dr. Ficalbi was not contented with showing the weakness of the 
evidence upon which Tosatto founded his claim, but tested the matter 
by himself swallowing at different times eggs, larvee in all stages, and 
_pupe of the mosquito. He adds: ‘ It is useless to say that I have di- 
gested them all completely without being in the least disturbed and 
without inducing any parasitism.” (‘‘ Inutile dire che ho digerito com- 
pletamente tutto cio, senza provare mai il minimo disturbo esenza andare 
incontro a parassitismo.”) The author does not deny that Tosatto found 
the mosquito larve in the feces of his patient, but explains this on the 
eround that the feces had been diluted with water which contained 
larve or else the receptacle had been rinsed with water infested with 
larve. 
*Bullettino della Societa Entomologica Italiana. Anno 22. (Firenze 1891) pp. 
227-230. 
