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are known to feed upon the leaves of oak, had merely, on completing 
their growth, entered the acorns for shelter while undergoing their 
transformations. 
A small Carabid larva, not yet bred, is also occasionally found in the 
debris of other insects inside the acorn, and in one of the latter which 
I recently opened were a number of minute, salmon-colored Dipterous 
larvae having the appearance of a Oecidomyiid. 
These include all the acorn insects that I have found during the two 
or three years that I have had them more especially under observation, 
but no doubt, in other sections of the country, still other species occur 
so that the list is merely locally complete up to date. 
PRELIMINARY REPORT ON SUPPRESSING THE SAN JOSE SCALE 
IN VIRGINIA. 
By D. W. Coquillett. 
The following is a brief account of an attempt recently made under 
instructions from Dr. Riley, to eradicate the San Jose Scale (Aspidiotus 
perniciosus) in the vicinity of Charlottesville, Ya. 
From examinations made it would appear that the area of infection 
is nearly in the form of a parallelogram, measuring 75 yards from east 
to west, and 350 yards from north to south. The trees upon which the 
pest was supposed to have first appeared are located nearly in the 
center of this area, and it is curious to note that while these insects 
have spread to a distance of about 175 yards, both north and south of 
the original source of infection, their distribution to the east or west 
has been only about one-fifth of this distance. This is the more singu- 
lar, owing to the fact that these insects depend largely upon the winds 
to transport them from tree to tree, and in the present instance the 
direction of the prevailing winds is from west to east, occasionally 
changing to the northwest or southwest, but very seldom or never 
blowing from the north or south. This unequal distribution is not due 
to the lack of suitable plants, since in many places both east and west 
of the infested area are growing the same kinds of plants and trees as 
those already infested. It is, therefore, very singular that these insects 
should have spread five times as far in two directions as they have in 
the other two. 
Having previously dispatched the apparatus and chemicals to be 
used in this work, I proceeded to Oharlottesville*on the morning of the 
12th of March, and interviewed Dr. 0. H. Hedges, the owner of the 
originally-infested trees, who drove me to the residence of Mr. H. L. 
Lyman, one of the members of the Yirginia State Board of Agricul- 
ture. Mr. Lyman, in accordance with a resolution adopted by the 
Board, agreed to furnish a sufficient number of men to operate the 
tents during the process of treating the infested trees with hydrocy- 
