Article beginning on page 144.
Psyche 5:144, 1888.

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144 PSYCHE.
[November-December 1888.
ENTOMOLOGICAL ITEMS.
TWO SUGGESTIONS TO STUDENTS OF ENTO-
~o~o~~--Sonie years ago we used the follow- ing method for studying the venation of
the wings of small lepidoptera. We have told it since to many friends, but believe it has not been published. It is in some respects preferable to the so-called "Dinimoch pro- cess" and particularly as a time-saver. It is also in this respect preferable to denudation with a brush. The wing is removed and moun- ted upon a slide in Canada balsam, which should be preferably rather thick. The slide is then held over the flame of an alcohol lamp until the balsam spreads well over the wing. Just as it is about to enter the veins, however, the slide is placed on ice, or, if in the winter time, outside the window for a few moments. This thickens the balsam immediately and prevents it from entering the veins, which remain permanently filled with air and appear black with transmitted light. With a little practice one soon becomes expert enough to remove the slide and cool it at just the right time, when the scales will have been ren- dered nearly transparent. by the balsam
while the veins remain filled with air.
We have done this satisfactorily not only with torfyicidde and tz'neiilae, but with noc- tuids of the size of Aletia and Leucania. The mounts are permanent., and we have
some which have remained unchanged since 1880. Professor Riley had for some years beforethis been in the habit of mounting wings
in balsam, in which, of course, the
scales cleared after a time. With aphids and coccids, which are covered with an
abundant waxy secretion which can not be readily brushed away, we have adopted the plan of melting the wax. We place the
insect on a bit of platinum foil and pass it once over the flame of the alcohol lamp. The waxmelts at a surprisingly low tempera- ture and leaves the insect perfectly clean for study. This method is particularly of use in the removal of the waxy cocoon of the pupae of male coccidae, and is quicker and more thorough than the use of any of the chem- ical wax solvents which we have tried. L. 0. HOWARD, in Insect Life, Nov., 1888, p. 151-152.
HABITS OF TERMITES.-Mr. P. H. Dudley,
in an article read before the New York mi- croscopical society and published in its Jour- nal for July 1888, describes some of the habits of white ants, especially of those found on the Isthmus of Panama. He writes of a slide of woody fibre, or pulp, from a termites' nest: "The wood has been so thoroughly com-
minuted, that it is doubtful whetherit could be recognized as woody particles under the microscope. unaided by chemical reagents. "A study of similar slides throws some
light upon their work of destruction on many kinds of wood, in structures.
'The particles of wood do not have as
sharp, angular corners as one would naturally expect of chips cut from solid wood; on the other hand, they seem as tho made from
softened wood, or that undergoing decay. The particles have more the appearance of little pellets than cuttings, which in some measure is doubtless due to the form, motion and pressure of the mandibles. After they aremt the next step is not clear. Some cut- tings serve as food for the insects, as they are found in the alimentary canal. Others are mixed with some substance which causes the particles to adhere, and then are fash- ioned into the walls, which form the galleries of the nest.
The walls are built up of a number of
thin layers of the cuttings. give evidence of being prepared with great care, and become quite hard and solid.
A fragment thrown
into water does not disintegrate by soaking, and after many hours it requires trituration to separate the particles.
" On turning a piece, nearly all of the
substance is consumed ; the residuum, how- ever, being much more than the natural ash of the wood-some clay is present. Phloro- glucin gives a reaction, showing some lignin is still in the woody particles. In many of the specimens I found fragments of the my- celium of a fungus, and upon examining the stick of yellow pine, 6X 11 inches, which con- tained the nest, found it was in process of decay at the point of attack." . . .
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No. 149-150 were issued 9 Nov., 1888.




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