THE MEDITERRANEAN NATURALIST 
43 
Insect plagues around the Mediterranean. 
Insect plagues seem especially active this year, 
though agriculturists had hoped that the hard 
winter would have killed most of their enemies. 
The Bavarian forests are being perfectly devastat- 
ed by the caterpillar of the Nun-Moth, which 
eats right through the wood of strong trees, 
especially of firs and pines. The various officials 
give the people lectures on the moth and the means 
of its destruction, while even the school children 
are employed to kill the pest, and special prayers 
are offered in church for the arrest of the plague. 
Hitherto the large sums of money spent on various 
methods of killing the moth, have produced little 
result. So, too, with the locusts in Algeria, which 
defy all efforts to restrict their advance. The vines 
are the worst sufferers and while the masculine 
population of the various districts burn the eggs, 
cover the various insects with lime and so forth, 
the women and children march about with old 
trumpets, gongs, drums, and tin pans making a 
hideous noise to frighten the 'locusts away. 
In the central Sahara, the locusts have cleared 
the pasture lands so completely that the Tomareg 
Arabs have been driven out of their haunts 
towards Tunis for lack of food. In E^ypt the 
plague is more under control, but great alarm is 
felt nevertherless. Graphic. 
NEWS OF THE MONTH 
On the night of June 30th. various parts 
of the province of V erona were visited by 
a recurrence of strong earthquakes. 
At Tregnago, where the recent shocks 
were especially severe, and at Cogolo, seve- 
ral walls, and the wooden supports of a 
number of houses collapsed. 
The people at both places rushed from 
their houses in alarm, and sought safety in 
the open fields. No loss of life is reported. 
A new work on “The South Italian Vol- 
canoes,” edited by Dr. Johnston- La vis is 
about to be published at Naples, It will con- 
tain an account of. the excursion that was 
made under the auspices of the Geologists’ 
Association of London in 1889; and also 
papers, descriptive of the different localities 
visited, written by Messrs Johnston-Lavis, 
Platania,Sambon,Zezi, and Madame Antonia 
Lavis. A bibliography of the volcanic dis- 
tricts will be appended. 
Prof. Marion has founded a marine station 
at Endoume near Marseilles, for the purpose 
of making a special study of the fishes of 
the Mediterranean; and Dr. K. Dubois, 
Professor of Physiology in the Faculty of 
Science at Toulon has opened a marine 
station at Tamaris, near Toulon. 
The Atmospheric effects, that the clear, 
translucent air of the Mediterranean often 
gives rise to, were particularly exemplified 
on several occasions during last month. 
During the clear weather that prevailed in 
the middle of July the phenomenon of 
irregular diffraction was especially shown 
by the raising of the line of sight to such 
an extent, that objects at great distances, 
that are at other times completely concealed 
from view, were apparently raised so much 
above their true position as to be clearly 
discernible from the shores of Malta and 
Gozo. The cliffs of the coast- line, and the 
undulatory contour of the mountains of 
Sicily were to be seen distinctly with the 
naked eye on the 11th. and 12th inst: 
while the outlines of Etna stood boldly out 
against the clear, azure sky, and though 
