REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



345 



employes of Hudson's Bay Company, against the "black fly" of the 

 Northern woods, and the fact that long experience has shown it to be 

 preferable to pennyroyal or any of the common prophylactics, suggests 

 a simple and easily applied wash which we have for several years 

 recommended to our correspondents. A quantity of coal-tar is placed 

 in the bottom of a large shallow receptacle of some sort, and a small 

 quantity of oil of tar, or oil of turpentine, or any similar material, is 

 stirred in. The receptacle is then filled with water, which is left stand- 

 ing for several days until well impregnated with the odor. The ani- 

 mals are then washed with this water as often as seems to be neces- 

 sary. A number of other washes have been recommended and are in 

 use, but this seems to be the most satisfactory. 



Suggestions. — These smudges and washes are simply preventive in 

 their character, and by their use the numbers of the insects are not 

 lessened in the slightest degree. This article can only be considered as 

 introductory to a more extended investigation either by this Bureau or 

 by the persons directly interested. It places before the latter all the 

 known facts concerning the life-history of allied species, and is intended 

 to indicate lines of investigation which should be followed up. 



With the descriptions and figures already given it ought not to be 

 difficult to find the larvae and pupae of the Southern Buffalo Gnat and 

 its breeding places. It seems unlikely to us that it breeds in the Mis- 

 sissippi River itself, but rather in the smaller tributary streams, in the 

 shallowest and swiftest water. Such breeding-places once ascertained, 

 it ought not to be difficult to kill the insect in its earlier stages on a 

 large scale by the introduction of some poisonous substance, even at 

 the expense of the food-fishes. If it should be found, on the other 

 hand, as is not impossible, that the larvae live attached to the stems of 

 the water plants in the Mississippi itself, attempts to prevent the multi- 

 plication of the species will have to be abandoned as impracticable. 



It seems to be a fact, from the evidence of European writers, that the 

 Columbatz fly swarms during bad weather in the mountain caves, in 

 hollow trees, and in other similar sheltered places. Such swarming 

 places should be searched for with a view of destroying the insects en 

 masse when found. 



Experiments should also be made with a view of trapping the gnats, 

 if it can be ascertained that they are attracted by fires or by any food 

 substance. 



These suggestions are simply thrown out as possibilities, which future 

 study will have to prove or disprove. 



THE ANGOUMOIS GRAIN-MOTH. 



(Gclechia cerealclla, Oliv ) 

 Order Lepidoptera ; Family TinudjC* 

 (Plate VI, Figs. 2, 3.'| 



PAST HISTORY AND DISTRIBUTION. 



A very important insect at the South to-day is the so-called Angou- 

 mois Grain-Moth. It abounds in the Southern corn-fields and granaries 

 to an alarming extent; but as we go North its numbers lessen and its 

 injuries decrease. It is difficult to give its native home with certainty, 

 but the probabilities are that it was originally a South European insect. 



