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Psyche 4:233-236, 1883.

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October-December 1884.1 ps rcHZ?. 233
ENTOMOLOGICAL ITEMS.
STRAWBERRY PLANTS are damaged in parts
of Michigan by Otio~h~v?chus Z~&viiens.
WE ARE sorry to note that Science record, which its editor, Mr. J: S. Kingdey, has lately improved in many respects, has sus- pended publication.
I?. ~1x2-PALUMBO, in an article concluded in the October-November numero of I/ not- uralista siciZiano. enumerates 301 species of European lepidoptera which feed on oak.
THE ENTOMOLOGICAL club "Iris," in Dres-
den, has just reawakened to new activity and we are in receipt of numero one of its "Cor- respondenzblatt" issued for October 1884. DR. AUGUST WEISMANX of Freiburg has
been nominated as successor of Prof. K.
T. von Siebold in the University of Munich. Prof. von Siebold has been made an emd-
tvs.
AT THE June (1883) meeting of the Lin-
nean society of New South Wales, Mr. Deanc exhibited sandstone penetrated by burrows apparently dug by some l~yn~enopterous
insect.
A :NEW locality reported to be infected by phylloxera is in the vicinity of Caltagirone, in Sicily. The same insect has been found near Linz. a town on the Rhine not far from Coblenz.
DR. W. G. STEVENSON reports, in the
Transactions of the Vassar brothers insti- tute, 1883-1884, v. 2, p. 135, a capture of Papillo turm;s var. glancus at Pouglikeepsie, N. Y., in August 1882.
.
PHYLLOXERA HAS made its appearance in
the Pomological institute of Proskau (Sile- sia). It is hoped, however, that the spread of the disease may yet be prevented.-
Science, 21 Nov. 1884, v. 4. p. 481.
Miss JENNIE M. ARMS, teacher of natural
history in Boston, Mass., read a paper on "Observation lessons on insects," at the fortieth annual meeting of the Massachusetts teachers'association, 29 to 31 December 1884, in Boston, Mass.
ONE COPY of no. 4 of vol 2 of American
entomologist wanted. Also one copy of C: V. Kiley's 6th annual report of the state en- tomologist of Missouri. Riley's 3d report offered in exchange or for sale. Address, stating price, B : PICKMAN MANX, Washing- ton, D. C.
IN THE meeting of the Entomological so-
ciety of London, on I Oct. 1884, Baron C : R. Osten Sacken communicated "Facts concern- ing the importation, or non-importation of diptera into distant lands" in which con- siderable curious information about North American diptei-a was given.
EXCHANGE OF EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN
COLEOPTERA.-Mr. C. F. Lange, of Anna-
berg, in Saxony, offers to exchange Euro- pean for American coleoptera, and refers to Mr. John B. Smith, 290 3d avenue, Brooklyn. N. Y., to certify that his' specimens are well prepared and correctly nanied.
MR. S. H. SCL-DDER'S memoir upon Dr. J : L. LeConte. read before the National acad- emy of sciences, 17 April 1884, published in vol. 11 of the Transactions of the American entomological society and as a separate, contains a fine portrait of Dr. LeConte and an account of the ancestry of his family. MR. H. DONCKIER DE DOHCEEL gives a
list of the mzfh~ibidae described since the publication of Gel~lminger and Harold's cata- log of coleoptera, in the Coinpte-rendu of the Belgian entomological society for 8 Nov. 1884. Twenty-four new species and ten
new genera are accredited to North America. SANDSTONE HAS been found perforated in
all directions and to a considerable depth by an undetermined species of bee in New



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South Wales. Mr. J. Norton exhibited
specimens of this perforated sandstone, from Springwood, Blue Mountains. nt the July
meeting of the ~in'nean society of New
South Wales.
MR. A, C. HORNER notes in the Entotno-
Iogist for October 1884 that PterosiicJws melaiioritis, an English species, attacks straw- berries. find T. H. Hart, in the November mimero of the same periodical, among other notes on phytophngic cara.5iiittc, mentions having seen "three specimens of Gambits
violitceus .disputing possession of a half-rot- ten apple."
IN A pnper read before the Linnean society of New South Wales, Oct. 29 last, Dr. Len- denfeld contests the views of the French physiologists, that the position and move- ments of the wings of insects are merely the results of the mechanical influence of the resisting air, and gives instances -where mus' cular contraction had been clearIy proved.- Scietice, 19 Dec. 1884, v. 4, p. 563
AT THE June meeting of the Linnean
society of New South Wales, Mr. William
Macleay exhibited, on behalf of Mr. Wilkin- son. "a number of HcIix-like sheSlfi, wound spirally round the leaf-stalks of a species of Eucalyptus, nt Branxton, on the Hunter.
These shells, though cnIcnreons, were pro- nounced not to be the production of any
molluscous animal, and the general opinion was that they must be egg-cases of some
insect."
MR. JAMBS J. WALKER reports, in the
Eitfomologi'st's moui?i!y mayazi~~c for Dec. IS+ that he found Dennestcs vx+siiis, Ne- cro8i'a rri/i^es, Corynelcs vioiaceus and Al- fiitobiss $item in amazing abundance in a bone-boiling establishment in Sheppey, Eng- land. The first species literally blackened the whitewashed walls of the rooms, and
their larvae did much damage by riddling the woodwork of the building with holes in
which they pupated,
THE COMPOSITION and properties of the
light emitted by insects of the Pyrophore genus form the subject of a paper recently presented to the Paris academy of sciences by Anbes-t and P. Dubois. The spectrum of the light, examined by the spectroscope, is very beautiful, but destitute of dark bands. When, however, the in tensity diminishes, the red and orange disappear, and the green and yellow only remain.- Science, t6 Nov. 1884, !-. 4, p. 505.
PROP. A. J : COOK read a paper before the Natural-history society of the Michigan
agricultural college, on YZ Sept., on extra- floral necliir. "Bees had been noticed to be extensively at work on the heads of grasses. These proved to be covered with the sweetish secretion due to ergot. The honey made
from this material was very agreeable to the taste, ranking with the best, while honey made from the secretions of plant-lice is often very poor and disagreeable."
ACCORDIKG TO Science for 21 Nov. 1884
(Bulletin, p. 51, at the meeting of theTren- ton natural-history society "Prof. Austin C. Apgar detailed his experiments with nnph- thalin on Anthrc111cs scrofhiZa7iae. Larvae left an infested object, and far two weeks lived in an air-tight case, in vapor bo dense that it crystallized on the cover-glass. Even then they only apparentiy died, for, on
reinoval, one revived and walked may.
Herbarium mites were killed in halt" a11 hour in a tumbler loosely covered."
THE PRIZE offered by M. Adrien Dollftis
for anatomical work on insects (see PSYCHE, May 1834, v. 4, p. 17;;) was divided between Ph. Franpis, of Poitiere. and A. Lameere, of Brussels, whose papers were judged equal- ly worthy of the prize. M. Francois' paper treated of the anatomy of the larva of - Vanessa ~d~vclitoros, and was published, with a plate, in the Fezdle desjwues nat- nralisfes for November 18%; Mr. Lameere
described the anatomy of the larva of Lasio-



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October-December 1884.1 PSYCHE. 235
c.ami)a'pofatoria, and his article appears in the December numero of the same period-
ical. G: D.
MISS MARY H. HINCKLEY, in her &'Notes
on the peeping frog, Hyla å´pickerhzgii Le- conte" (Mem. Bost. soc. nat. hist., May 1884, v. 3, 110. IO), p. 317, writes in regard to enemies of this species that the tadpoles "are constantly being lessened in number by their enemies, the newts, water beetles, and the larvae of the beetles and dragon flies. On two occasions I have seen a spider (Dolome- des sex'puncfatus') run along the surface of the water, suddenly dive, seize, and drag out on land a full-grown tadpole of this species ; the spider coming out dry, evidently as much at home in as out of water."
IN THE new Hungarian entomological peri- odical, Rova~/rz?zi la$ok (v. I, p. 171; Resume, p. 2), Dr. 0. Tom~svAry records
his observations "that two myriapods in cap- tivity, a Lithobius forficatus and a Geofhilus foveolatzts, attacked each other with violence but soon withdrew. The latter species,
during the attack and retreat, emitted from the extremity of its abdomen a light of bluish violet color, feeble, but nevertheless very perceptible in obscure light. This lumi- nosity was visible scarcely a minute because the shining animal hid itself beneath the leaves at the bottom of its prison."
AT THE October meeting of the Natural
science association of Staten Island, Mr. Davis exhibited a specimen of one of our green grasshoppers, Conoc@halus dissimilis, which he had found without any head, and stridulating while perched upon a blade of grass. When touched by the finger, the
insect did not close its wings tightly, as usual, but let them remain far apart. It had evidently not been long decapitated : for, when captured, the muscles in the thorax had their normal appearance. But gradually the tissues dried, and on the third day of its captivity it died without having stridulated again, though every means thought of was employed to induce it.-Science, 7 Nov. 1884, v. 4, P. 448-
THE INVESTIGATIONS of M. Carlet enable
him to affirm that the poison-apparatus of the hymenoptera is always composed of two distinct glandular systems, the one with a strongly acid, the other with a feebly alkaline secretion. These two systems unite at the sheath of the sting. The resultant venom is always acid. The action of this venom upon some animals, as rabbits, frogs and cer- tain beetles, is slight. but the domestic fly and the flesh fly are killed immediately by it. The inoculation of a fly with the secretion of one of the glands does not produce death until after a considerable time, but death follows very quickly if the same fly is subjec- ted to a second inoculation, this time with the secretion of the other gland.-Amer.
nd., Dec. 1884, v. 18; p. 1270.
ACCORDING TO J. Murie's report of the
meeting of the Linnean society of London, 7 Feb. 1884, printed in the ZooloNcher amei- yer for 3 March 1884. "Mr. B. J. Lowne gave an interesting communication embodying his researches on the compound vision of insects- He compares the structures of the simple ocellus with those of the compound ocelluh (common in larval insects) and with those of the compound eye. The compound eye ac-
cording to him is but composed of aggrega- ted compound ocelli, 01- the latter in the larval inject is merely equivalent to a single segment of a compound eye. He refers to
the development of the compound eye and
points out that in many larvae during molt- ing stages the "segregate" retina is finally replaced by another. He describes a deep spindle-like layer in intimate connection with the nervous structures and which he regards as playing an important part in the phenom- ena of compound vision, rather than that this kind of vision is solely dependent on the number of cornea! facets."
MR. WOOD MASON of the Calcutta Indian
museum has recently drawn up a report on



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PSYCHE.
[October-December 1884.
those insects from which the tea-gardens of Assam most suffer. He says the tea-bug or 'mosquito-blight,' and the tea-mite or 'red spider,' are the only two insects which are at present known to do such injury as to materi- ally diminish the profits of the owners. Both these insects pass their whole lives on the tea-plant, and have never been found on
any other plant. Such, at least, is the result of the most careful investigation. The mite lives in societies on the upper portion of the full-grown leaves, beneath an exceedingly delicate web which it spins for itself as a shelter. It punctures the leaves, and then pumps out the liquid contents of the epi- dermis. The only remedy which has been
discovered to check their ravages, and it has not proved very effectual, is to sprinkle the affected bushes with muddy water. The
tea-bug is still more destructive, and particu- larly to the trees of the milder juice; for those which afford a strong and rasping
liquor enjoy an almost complete immunity from its attack. Mr. Wood Mason appends
to his report engravings of these destructive creatures.-Science, 31 Oct. 1884. v. 4, p. 426. AT THE meeting of the French entomolo-
gical society held 23 July 1884, M. G. A. Poujade made the following remarks :
"Prof. ~douai-d Bureau has stated (Ann.
soc. entom. Fr., 1854; Bull., p. 22) that in lepidoptera of the genus Brefkos, specimens which had been dried six days showed evi- dent spontaneous movements of the genital organs, which continued two days, but toward the last part of the time these movements were only produced when the extremity of the abdomen was touched. I have observed the same peculiarity in a Rhodocera ~hamtzi, the extremity of the abdomen still moving when the rest of the insect was perfectly dry.
A few days ago some one gave me a male
Lucanus cervus which had been killed with vinegar five or six days before ; the flabbiness of the joints left no doubt as to the death of the animal, - the penis alone, which was partly exserted, had very evident movements which lasted two or three days longer.
These facts, as M. Bureau has said, prove the predominance of the genital functions above all other functions, and it is not with- out interest to compare these observations with another well-known fact, the prolonga- tion of life among insects that have not paired."
AMONG NATURALISTS who have been more
or less interested in entomology we have lately noticed announcements of the fbllow- ing deaths : Dr. Alfred Edmund Brehm, born in 1829, in Renthendorf, Germany, where he died 11 Nov. 1884; well-known as the editor of the "Illustrirtes thierleben." Dr. Ei-nst Carstanjen, professor of chemistry in Leip- zig university and lepidopterist, died 13 July 1884, in the forty-ninth year of his age. Auguste Chevrolat, a Parisian coleopterist and author of many qntomological papers, died 16 Dec. 1884, in the eighty-sixth year of his age.
0. J. Fahraeus, a coleopterist of
Stockholm, Sweden, died in that place, 28 May 1884, aged eighty-eight. Leopold
Joseph Fitzinger, zoologist, born 13 April 1802, in Vienna, Austria, died 22 Sept. 1884, A
in Hietzing, near Vienna. Dr. Arnold
Fdrster, professor in Aachen, Germany, and hymenopteri~t, born 21 Jan, 1810, in Aachen, died 13 Aug. 1884, in the same place. A. Keferstein, lepidopterist, died 28 Nov. 1884, in Erfurt, Germany. Johann Gottfried Gott- lieb Muhlig, lepidopterist, died 12 April 1884, at Frankfort-a.-Main, Germany, nearly seven- ty-two years old. Joseph Antoine Maximi- lian Perty, professor from 1834-1875 in the university at Berne, Switzerland, died at Berne, 8 Aug. 1884, nearly eighty years old. Edmond Tomosvdry, a Hungarian naturalist, died 18 Aug. 1884, at Deva. Ernst Wehncke, a merchant in Harburg, Germany, and a
specialist in dytiscidae and hyd~ofhilidae, born 15 March 1835, died 19 Nov. 1883, in Harbu rg.
Nos. 124-125 were issued 3 Nov. 1884.




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