- 81 - 
mortality during about the s?^e period this year (January 6 
to February 13, 1325) is placed at approximately 17 per cent 
of the 5,163 adult female scales examined. These periods are 
reckoned 16 days after the lowest temperature of each -inter ras 
recorded, since it took this length of time for the scales to 
react sufficiently to the cold to afford accurate identification 
as to the causa cf mortality. The percentage of dead adult 
female scales from all causes during the four weeks before the 
freeze of 1924 was about 28; the dead this -inter for the same 
period was about 13 per/cent of the 3,970 adult female scales 
examined. The lo ,_, er percentages of mortality during the past 
".'inter appear to be due to lack of freezing -ee.ther and to the 
absence of natural enemies, as comparatively few scales have 
been noticed killed by natural causes, parasites,' and predators 
in New Orleans during the winter 1924-1925. 
Therefore the camphor cc?le in Hew Orleans, the region of heav- 
iest known infestation, starts the year in -"hat may be said to be 
nearly, if not quite normal abundance. The increase during the 
coming season bids fair to be reasonably great, especially when 
viewed in the light of the fact that the season here is about two 
reeks earlier than last year. This might also be said of sou- 
thern Alabama since weather conditions there are nearly the same. 
Eradicative measures, in -hi eh 2 per cent lubricating- oil 
emulsion (standard Government formula) was to be used, -ere start- 
ed in southern Alabama last —inter, "here a successful clean-up 
in some Satsnma orchards "as secured with this material in 1922. 
Spraying of the camphor trees in the parks and along the streets 
of lie'" Orleans by. the Parking Commission, carried out -ith much 
success in 1924, is being followed this year as a general policy. 
Pruning and spraying of infested plants in Houston, Tex., under 
the direction of the Chief Nursery Inspector of the Department 
of Agriculture of that State -as started in 1924 vrith a vie- to 
eradication in that locality. Injury Vj this pest is, there- 
fore, expected only locally, especially on orivate prooerty where 
proper treatment can not or is not given the plants infested. 
FIR 
AIT APHID (Ch ermes uiceae Ratz.) 
S. '.'.. Patch (April 22): Heavy infestation on trunks of old fir 
balsams ( Abies bals~mea ) on a. place at South China. 
. EL:.: LEAP- BEETLE ( Galerucella xeuthomelaena Schr.) 
honthly Letter, Bureau of Entomology, Ho. 131 (h'arch): Tilliam 
Middleton, of this office, recently visited the Taylor estate near 
Trevilians, taking down a number of cages of elm leaf-beetles para- 
sitized to a considerable extent by the dipteron Erynn i a nitida 
?c. D. , received from Dr. 7. K. Thompson* of Hyeres , Prance. Tith 
this material it is proposed to establish the -oarasite Er^nnia 
nitida in this country. 
