194. THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 
eight plates (beautifully drawn) of various species of fruit 
fly, in addition to a large number of others of general inter- 
est, spread throughout the volume. The report is divided 
into three parts. Part 1—General Report deals with: (1) The 
Commercial Value of Introduced Parasites to deal with In- 
sects that are Pests; (2) The Range and Spread of Fruit- 
Flies and the Methods Adopted in Other Countries to Check 
Them; (3) The Value of Parasites in Exterminating Fruit- 
Ilies; (4) Habits of Cosmopolitan Insect Pests. Part II.— 
Notes on Parasites or Insects that have been introduced from 
Foreign Countries to Check or Exterminate Injurious In- 
sects. This part deals with parasites, and their value and 
limitations in controlling injurious insects of the garden and 
orchard. Part II.—Fruit Flies. In this part we have a gene- 
ral account of the flies belonging to the family Trypetidae, 
that damage sound fruit, with descriptions of the different 
species (of which some are new to science, and are now de- 
scribed for the first time), and their habits, range and sug- 
gestions for destroying them. There is also a list of Wal- 
ker’s species (with references and localities) of the genus 
Dacus, together with a list of other species of the same genus 
by other authors from a wide range of localities, and which 
were not represented in any of the collections inspected dur- 
ing the author’s tour. 
Cray Ceti Burtr py a Cicapa.—An interesting specimen 
has been received by the secretary of the Society from Mr. 
Hugh Dixson, of Abergeldie, Summer Hill, consisting of a 
curious clay cell, containing a dead pupal cicada with a horn 
on its head. ‘The clay cell is very interesting, and is formed 
by the pupal cicada before coming out as a perfect insect 
above the hole in the ground. Though these clay caps are 
rare in Australia, in some parts of the forest lands of the 
United States the Seventeen-Year Cicadas sometimes cover 
the ground with thousands of little turrets, or caps, above 
the tunnels by which they have come up to the surface. These 
have been described as ‘‘Cicada Cities.’ It has been sug- 
gested that for some unknown reason the cicadas are not 
ready to cast their larval skins when they reach the surface, 
so they construct these covering clay caps to shelter them 
from their enemies until they crawl out to emerge as perfect 
insects. The cicada sent by Mr. Dixon was attacked by thy 
fungus known as Cordiceps, common on _ the root-eating” 
larvae of wood moths, and which turn them into what nre 
popularly known as ‘‘vegetable caterpillars,’ but in Gray’s 
paper on ‘'Fungoid Parasites’? (1858), there is a drawing 
of an infested cicada among a number of other insects.— 
W. W. lroccatr. 
