Article beginning on page 378.
Psyche 3:378, 1880.

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378 PSYCHE.
intima. Is it not possible that tracheal boscis pressing the cover-glass; and by pressure may distend these cells like blad- focnssing the microscope on this, I found ders, and thus facilitate the aeration of the that with every pulsation there was a uir- tissues? The conditions for their &ten-
cle of flashing lights along the margin
tion seem to be present at every pulsation, of the proboscis, as if air was rhythmi- though under dissection they are always
cally injected into such sacs. It is easy collapsed. I have found such terminal to understand how euch distension would enlargements of the tracheae numerously promote the function of the tracheae aa developed in the disti-proboscis of the carriers of gases between the tissues and house-fly. On one occasion I got a fly the outer world. in a live-cage with the tip of its pro- h t o n , 24 Now. 18S2, CLUSTER-FLIES.
BY BENJAMIN PICKMAN MASK, WASHINGTON, D. C. At a meeting of the Biological society
which were probably of the same species, of Washington, held 13 Oct. 1882, Mr.
and had similar habits. Dr. Baker stated W: H. DnU exhibited specimens of flies that as many of the people in Maine still which had been sent him from New York kept up the custom of the home-production state with an account of their habit of con- of yarns and spun goods, and these goods, gregating in large numbers in unused apnrt- of loose texture, retained upon them a mentsof houses, under table-cloths, in pil- considerable quantity of their natural low-cases, and wherever si~ilarsnugplaces grease, the flies were in the habit of bur- of concealment could be found. These flies rowing into such goods, to feed on the were found from late fall until late spring grease, and were supposed to cut the fibres. in such situations, but during the summer Dr. Riley did not seem to credit the flies they disappeared. Specimens were piitinto with this hfibit, but there seems to be no the hands of Dr. C: V. Riley, who made a reason to doubt the possibility of such iu- communication upon t.hem at the meeting jury, and not much improbability about it. of the same society, 10 Nov. 1882, dwei- The flies were stated to attach themselves ling upon the difficulty of identifying the sometimes in clusters suspended from mil- species of the fly and stating that it wns ings and other supports, and were on this the PolUnia rud'i, described by T. W :
account called iLcluster-fIies.'' Mr. Dall's Harris as Slusca fo,mi!ioris, and making hfomiint stated that the flies were proof, further remarks upon the synonymy. At at least to a great extent, against the influ- this meeting Mr. Dali read a letter, received ence of pyrethrum powder, but Dr. Baker since the presentation of his first cornmu- said that if the powder was diffused in an nicntion, from the parties who hiid sent the apartment, and the flies were then caused specimens, giving a highly colored account to bestir tliemseh-es, and to fly about, they of the actions of the flies. Dr. Frank succumbed to the influence of the powder Baker made a more rational statement in
as readily as other flies. Such a difference regard to the occurrence of flies in Maine, in observations isnot surprising, for it may



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PSYCHE.
be observed in other insects that when'they are sluggish or at rest they are not so
readily affected by medicinal agencies as when in a state of motion or excitement. I remember that, during one or two
years, at a certain season, which, as far as my recollection serves me, was in
April, I noticed numerous specimens of
Microdon globosus, a syrphid fiy, issue
from a nail-hole ID the plastered wall of an apartment in a dwelling-house, as
though the flies had the winter
within the walls of the house. Numerous
instances, which will occur to experienced entomologists, might be cited of the con- gregation of winged insectfi in eheitered situations for the, purpose of hibernation, this habit being only a modification of the geiaeral habit in hibernating insects to seek a place for individual shelter.
Washington, 11 Nov. 1982.
PROMOTING LOCUST RAVAGES.
BY BENJAMIN PICKMAST MANS, WASHINGTON, B. C. It is well established that the year
has already been made for the state of Ne- 1874 was characterized in the state of Kan- braska by Prof. S. Aughey in the 1st sas by the most extensive ravages of the report of the U. 5. entomological cormnis- so-called Rocky Mountain locust, Culopte- sion. Mr. Brown says :- was spretas, which insects flew into the "After a twelve year's residence in east- state from the west and the north, and
era Kansas, I left that excellent state in stripped large areas bare of vegetation. the fall of 1875.
The devastation in that year occurred pin- "After raising a fine crop of corn and cipally in the western and central portions seeing it destroyed by the locuets before it of the state, but, as Dr. C. V. Riley says was ripe, or advanced sufficiently for gath- in his 8th report as state entomologist ering, I was, in common with many thous- of Missouri,
"the greatest hulk of the and others, much discouraged. eggs were [was] laid as the locusts "Settlers who had lost all their crops, approached the eastern limits of the state." with very little to subsist upon, found it In 1875 " the damage done was by the necessary to hunt prairie chickens, and to young locusts, which hatelied in enormous sell them for the' necessaries of life, and numbers in the eastern part of the state." many, for sport as well, made a business The purpose of this note is that I may during the entire winter of killing and publish a commnnication sent to me by chipping not only prairie chickens, but also Mr. J. P. Brown, formerly, for twelve quails and other birds. years, a resident of eastern Kansas, from "I took pains to gather from cornrni~sion which state he removed, discouraged by merchauts of Leavenworth; Kam., and of the ravages of the locusts, in the fall
Kansas City and St. Joseph, Mo., and
of 1875.
This concummication explains from the express companies, such data as sufficiently at least one of the causes of the I could at the time, and estimated that enormous prevalence of young locusts in duringtthe winter of 1874 the enormous that siate, in 1875. A similar showing
quantity of 1000 car-loads of birds were



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