347 
enriched in its entomological department by the donation of the col- 
lection of Mr. James Angus, of West Farms, N. Y., containing, it 
is said, 10,000 specimens of 1,700 species of Lepidoptera and a number 
of insects of other orders. The excellent collection of the late Mr. 8. 
Lowell Elliot has also been donated to this museum by his widow. 
Mr. Elliot’s collection is particularly valuable, for the reason that the 
specimens (mainly Lepidoptera) were nearly all reared and are in prime 
condition. The addition of these collections, together with that of the 
late Henry Edwards, mentioned in our last number, will place the 
American Museum on an excellent footing in the order Lepidoptera. 
It is to be hoped that the trustees will see that the material receives 
competent care. 
THE USE OF ELECTRICITY AGAINST MIGRATORY LOCUSTS. 
Mr. Andreas Schmidt, of Bucharest, Roumania, has forwarded to the 
Secretary of the Interior a description and photographs of a device for 
the destruction of migratory locusts by electricity. One method of 
applying the invention consists in the erection of a rampart of earth 35 
centimeters high, surrounding the infested area, a ditch being left by 
the removal of the earth to form the said rampart. Along the top of 
this earthen wall and inclining over the ditch, run two conductors, posi- 
tive and negative, insulated and separated from each other by a thin 
strip of rubber, which is necessary to prevent the current from leaping 
across. The idea is that, the current being ‘‘on,” the grasshoppers 
will crawl up the wali, complete the circuit by their own bodies, and 
instantly drop dead into the ditch. Flags are placed at intervals along 
the top of the wall to give warning of its presence. In another appli- 
cation of the same idea, the grasshoppers crawl up the inclined plane 
formed by a sheet of cloth sloping to the ground.. If the positive and 
negative conductors can be brought so close together that the grass- 
hopper’s body will form a bridge from one to the other every time, death 
is certain. The inventor claims that the expense of such an installa- 
tion as he proposes is extremely small, and that the method, for rapidity 
and certainty, throws all others into the shade, as applied to grass- 
_ hoppers. 
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ANOTHER IMPORTED SCALE-INSECT. 
The Olive in Europe suffers from the attacks of several destructive 
scale-insects. Two of these, Lecaniwm olew and Aspidiotus nerii, have 
already made their appearance in this country and are also known in 
other localities where the Olive is cultivated, as in Australia. <A third, 
Pollinia coste, a curious form, the female of which is a degraded, almost 
amorphous creature, covered with a dirty waxen test, has recently made 
its appearance in California upon certain Olive trees which wereimported 
direct from Italy five years ago. Specimens of this insect were sent 
to us from Los Angeles recently by Mr. Coquillett, and at once specif- 
