388 



JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 



[Vol. S 



ference on April 28-29. Dr. E. F. Phillips was chairman of the beekeepers' con- 

 ference. 



Mr. E. R. Sasscer, chief inspector of the Federal Horticultural Board, reports as a 

 result of his inspection of the Introduction Garden at Miami, Fla., the finding of a 

 new and dangerous scale insect infesting mangoes, namely, Lecardum (Coccus) 

 ■mangiferop. Incidentally he saw something of Mr. Yothers' work in Florida and 

 reports as an eye witness some remarkable demonstration results from spraying, in 

 which the fruit output was enormously increased and the quahty much improved as 

 a result of the treatment. 



A considerable collection of books and magazines has been amassed by the State 

 Entomologist and Director of the Ilhnois State Laboratory of Natural History, 

 Professor Stephen A. Forbes, by purchase and exchange during the past twenty or 

 more years. This collection has been supplemented in recent years by extensive pur- 

 chases by the Library of the University of Illinois. There has been spent during 

 the past biennium alone over three thousand dollars in the purchase of books on 

 entomology and nearly six thousand dollars for zoological publications, many of 

 which contain articles of great interest to the entomologist. 



Messrs. H. G. Champion, of the University of Oxford and the Indian Imperial 

 Forest Service, and T. E. Snyder of the Bui'eau of Entomology, spent some ten days 

 during January touring lumber miUs in the high mountains of West Virginia in the 

 study of the industry and the insects involved, ^^'^hile visiting the Union tannery at 

 Davis, W. Va., they were informed by the manager that, following recommendations 

 to prevent injm-}^ by the tanbark borer {Dinuderus substriatus Payk.), they used aU 

 hemlock tanbark before it was fom- years old. Dr. A. D. Hopkins visited this tannery 

 in 1901 and found that out of a total of 20,000 cords of bark about 10,000 were badly 

 damaged by this beetle. On close investigation he fomid the damage was practically 

 confined to bark that was from two to seven years old, and no appreciable damage was 

 done in bark less than three years old. Accordingly, he recommended that, in order 

 to avoid this loss, older bark be used first, and that no bark be kept for a longer 

 period than three years. Thus, by following the suggestion then made, enormous 

 loss has been prevented in this tannery alone. 



The Mediterranean fruit-fly force at Honolulu now includes, in addition to the 

 leaders, Dr. Back and Mr. Pemberton, also Messrs. Willard, Banks, and Maxwell, Ah 

 Fook, a Chinaman, and Muto, the Jap. Aside from Muto, these men are all con- 

 nected with the inspection service. The present arrangement puts Mr. Willard m 

 general charge of this service under Dr. Back. Mr. Willard is a graduate of the 

 Massachusetts Agricultural CoUege, who came to the islands as instructor in agri- 

 culture and farm superintendent at the MiUs Institute, Honolulu, and is reported by 

 Dr. Back as being a very useful and serviceable assistant. Dr. Back, with Mr. 

 Pemberton, will be engaged during the next three months in an investigation of the 

 fruit-fly as affecting coffee, and other coffee insects of the Cona district, Island of 

 Hawaii. This is the great coffee district of Hawaii. The pulp of the coffee berry is 

 a favorite food of the Mediterranean fruit-fly and frequently as man}?' as a dozen 

 maggots of this fly can be taken from a smgle coffee berry which is no larger than a 

 medium-sized cherry. Of vast interest to the coffee industry and to the fruit-fly 

 control on the island is the fact reported by Dr. Back, that one of the parasites re- 

 cently introduced on the island through the agency of the Territorial board of agri- 

 culture is already parasitizing the maggots in coffee berries to an average of upward of 

 50 per cent, in some instances reaching as high a x)ei'centage as 96. The parasite in 

 question is Opius humllis. This seems to be another one of the many successful 

 parasite introductions which have been carried out on these islands. 



Mailed June 30, 1915. 



