THE MEDITERRANEAN NATURALIST 
167 
The second number of the “Rassegna delle 
Scienze Geologiche in Italia 5 ’ has come to hand 
and its contents are quite as interesting and as 
valuable as those of the first number. 
Besides the brief digests of the papers on 
Italian geology, that were published during the 
year 1891, there also appears the continuation of 
Prof. A. Goiran’s paper on the Veronese earth- 
quake of June last, and a short paper by Sig- 
Pietro Zesi on the travertine and the water in 
theMeighbourhood of. We again recommend it cor- 
dially to our readers notice. 
It is now the humble earthworm, exalted by 
Darwin to the .position of the soil-tiller’s benefac- 
tor, that is destined to become the dread of nervous 
folk. Pasteur showed about a dozen years ago 
that the bacterium of char bon may be taken up 
from corpses by these creatures, and carried for 
a considerable time in their bodies. Two other 
French biologists, Lortet and Despeignes, have 
since experimented on the line thus suggested, 
and have satisfied themselves that these animals 
can become the hosts for months of the tubercle 
bacillus, which loses none of its virulence by its 
change of abode. It is thus possible that earth- 
worms — so universal and so active— may become 
the means of spreading one of the most terrible 
scourges of mankind. The work of these experi- 
menters has a further interest in being the first 
recorded demonstration of the “tubercularization” 
of an invertebrate. 
The Tunisian Locust Plague. 
Some interesting notes bearing on this subject 
appear in the current number of the “Garner. 55 in 
the course of which the writer informs us that 
Acridium peregrinum. is the name of the locust 
which invaded Tunis last year. The eggs hatch 
in from 25 to 40 days. For the first 5 days after 
being hatched the larval locusts are collected in 
large masses on bushes and plants; they are then 
easily destroyed by crushing or burning. They 
are at first grey then black, and then greenish. On 
the sixth or seventh day after being hatched the 
immature locusts commence assembling for their 
migratory march. They are only able to crawl in 
this stage of their existence, and at first progress 
at the rate of about 60 yards an hour; subsequen- 
tly they march at a more rapid rate. 
This crawling stage lasts for from 45 to 50 days, 
and then the immature locusts turn reddish, and 
attaching themselves to leaves assume their full 
metamorphosis. 
In the past year the locusts first appeared in 
February flying from the south in a northerly direc- 
tion. In April they reached the agricultural dis- 
trict in the vicinity of Susa where they settled in 
enormous numbers, depositing their eggs among 
the olive plantations where the ground was parti- 
cularly favourable for the purpose. On the thir- 
teenth of April the locusts took to wing again and 
went across the large cultivated plains of the 
Engida, in Kaurwan, and then on to the wooded 
and rock}?- hills of Zaghoum where the largest egg 
deposit took place. 
In May they were on the rice plains to the north 
of Zaghoum, and the environs of Tunis and Bjesta 
were invaded by large flights wfliich left consider- 
able deposits of eggs. 
The Government granted £ 4,166 to defray the 
expenses of their destruction. The method found 
most effective was drawing screens made of cotton 
texture bordered by oilcloth across the line of 
march, and twenty-five miles of those screens were 
used and by their means the streams of young 
locusts were diverted into trenches dug for their 
reception lined with zinc, out of which they were 
unable to crawd. A mixture of sixty parts of 
creosote oil to forty of water was used for asphyx- 
iating them, and was found the most effective for 
the purpose. 
In dealing with the mature swarms the beating 
of tin cans by a regiment of soldiers was found an 
effective way of scaring them from the crops. 
Samos. Its Fossils and then' Age. 
Mr. 0. E. Forsyth-Major gives us some interest- 
ing notes bearing on the history of the prehistoric 
Mediterranean in his paper, “Sur l’age de la faune 
de Samos,” which was published in November 
last in the “ Compiles rendus hebdom de FA cud. 
dcs Sciences CXIII. p. 708. The author there 
informs us that of 43 species of mammals found 
in Samos, 25 are found in Pikermi, 7 in Baltavar, 
7 at Mt. Lerberon, and 13 at Maragka. From 
