October, ’24] 
CURRENT NOTES 
617 
The corn borer investigational work under way at Sandusky, Ohio, almost com¬ 
pletely escaped the effects of the terrific storm which swept over that locality in the 
latter part of June. The most serious result of the storm was the partial wrecking 
of one of the motor boats assigned to the corn borer control work, which was cap¬ 
sized and sunk in shallow water. Arrangements have been made to raise and repair 
the boat. 
The U. S. Civil Service Commission announced an examination for assistant ento¬ 
mologists, applications closing August 12. This examination is for the purpose of pre¬ 
paring a list of eligibles to fill vacancies in the Bureau of Entomology at an entrance 
salary of $2,400.00 a year. The duties of the position are to conduct experiments 
with insecticides in the control of Japanese beetle grubs, and in the utilization of 
bacterial and fungous diseases against the Japanese beetle. 
During the month of July, Dr. W. D. Funkbouser returned to the U. S. National 
Museum the last lot of Membracidae belonging to the Goding collection. The Goding 
collection had been sent to Dr. Funkhouser for study in three different lots. Dr. 
Funkhouser has kindly examined each specimen, corrected the identification, and 
prepared a very complete report, so that it will be possible to incorporate this collec¬ 
tion with the rest of the Museum material of the family Membracidae. 
Mr. J. S. Houser of the Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station was a visitor at the 
Vincennes, Ind., laboratory of the Bureau of Entomology on June 30 and July 1. 
Mr. Houser was completing a trip through the fruit sections of Arkansas, Missouri, 
Illinois and Indiana for the purpose of making at first hand a study of the San Jose 
scale situation and the striking control of the scale which had been obtained by the 
use of lubricating-oil emulsion. 
Mr. J. R. Douglass of the Bureau of Entomology, who is conducting experiments 
on the Mexican bean beetle at Estancia, N. Mex., reports that the beetle injury is 
greatest near the mountains in which the insects hibernate—the heaviest damage 
being caused to bean plantings opposite the mouths of canyons. From these data 
Mr. Douglass believes that on emerging from hibernation, the beetles follow the 
canyons on their way to the large valleys in which beans are grown. Flight tests are 
now being conducted. 
Messrs. August Busck and Carl Heinrich left Washington for Amherst, Mass., on 
June 26, to pack the collection of Microlepidoptera formed by the late Dr. C. H. 
Fernald. The U. S. Department of Agriculture has recently purchased this collec¬ 
tion from Dr. H. T. Fernald to be added to the already extensive collection of Micro¬ 
lepidoptera. The collection contains not only the Fernald types, but also much valu¬ 
able material identified by the older microlepidopterists, and will be one of the finest 
additions to the collection of Lepidoptera in recent years. 
Dr. M. W. Blackman, Professor of Entomology at Syracuse University, has been 
working since June 15 in the Division of Insects, U. S. National Museum, on the 
collections of bark-beetles belonging to the superfamily Scolytoidea. It is hoped that 
Dr. Blackman will be able to rearrange the entire collection, placing most of it in 
trays, and probably have an opportunity to do critical work on one or two smaller 
groups. He brought with him the collection of the subfamily Micracinae, which he 
has critically studied during the last four months. 
Prof. George A. Dean of the Bureau of Entomology visited Boston July 6 for the 
purpose of inspecting the northern edge of the corn borer infestation in Maine and 
