October, '15] 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES 



507 



Miller, Josef Bnmner, W. D. Edmonston, T. E. Snyder, F. C. Craighead, and A. B. 

 Champlain are now changed to read assistant in forest entomology. Similarly, the 

 official titles of S. A. Rohwer, W. S. Fisher, Carl Heinrich, C. T. Greene, and A. G. 

 Boving were changed to specialist on forest Hymenoptera, forest Coleoptera, forest 

 Lepidoptera, forest Diptera, and coleopterous larva^, respectively. 



Excellent success has been reported from the use of the poisoned bran bait against 

 grasshoppers from the West Springfield (IMass.) laboratory, Bureau of Entomology, 

 where large areas along the Merrimac and Connecticut Rivers have been cleared of 

 grasshoppers, 95 per cent having been killed at an expense of from 7 to 10 cents per 

 acre. Equally good results have been secured in California by Mr. Urbahns, of the 

 Pasadena laboratory, and also equally satisfactory results have been obtained at 

 Fellsmere, Fla., by Mr. R. N. Wilson of the Gainesville (Fla.) laboratory. These 

 three separate results were obtained from work carried out against entirely- different 

 species. 



There has been a severe outbreak of the three-hned blister beetle (Epicanta lemnis- 

 cata Fab.) in Louisiana. It has attacked principally potato and tomato. The first 

 record of its occurrence was on May 17, when the beetles were reported stripping 

 plants in parts of fields of Irish potatoes. On tomatoes they work in the same 

 manner, doing much damage to young plants. At Jeffris, they were reported May 

 21 to be doing great injury. A correspondent wrote that they destroyed acres of 

 potato vines and that no crop resulted and that they were seriously handicapped, 

 since unless the insects could be controlled it would be useless to plant Irish potatoes 

 in that vicinity. Mr. Thomas H. Jones, Bureau of Entomology, reported that the 

 favorite food plant was the spiny amaranth (Amaranthus spinosus), and where this 

 weed was growing between the cotton rows it was attacked to a small extent. 



The entomological collection of the Bureau of Science at Manila has been trans- 

 ferred to the University of the Phihppines, and is now located in ample quarters at 

 the College of Agriculture, Los Banos, Laguna, P. I., 65 kilometers from Manila by 

 railroad. This collection, which contains most of the types of Phihppine insects, 

 described by European and American speciahsts during the past twelve or thirteen 

 years, and containing, at present, more than 300,000 pinned specimens, together with 

 alcoholic and biological material, will be materially increased in value by the collecting 

 of faculty and students in the exceedingly rich faunal regions of Los Banos, Mt. 

 MaquiUng and Mt. Banahao. Mr. Charles S. Banks, associate professor of ento- 

 mology and chief of the department, writes that entomologists visiting the Phihp- 

 pines will be cordially welcomed to the laboratories and every facility for 

 comfort will be placed at their disposal. 



Scientific Note 



The Corn-silk Beetle, Luperodes varicornis Lee, and its Control. About 

 July 1, 1915, the small Chrysomehd beetle, Luperodes varicornis, appeared in enor- 

 mous numbers in many corn fields of several counties in Mississippi. One corres- 

 pondent wrote: "They attack the corn, completely eat the silk entirely back to the 

 grain. Several hundred may be picked from one ear of corn." Another corres- 

 pondent sent in a bottle containing ninety-fom- beetles which he said had aU been 

 taken from the silk of one ear. R. L. Saxon of Franklin County, Mississippi, esti- 

 mates that one third of the corn crop in that vicinity had been lost because of the 

 work of the beetle. The silk is eaten just as it grows out from the ear and 



