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Psyche 4:297-300, 1883.

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April-June 1885.1 PS~X'HLT. 297
ENTOMOLOGICAL ITEMS.
MR. W. M. MASKELL has lately described
a curious species of coccidae from New Zea- land under the name of Rhizococczis fossor. The female of this species, which lives on SantoZum ciwzingItumii, does not cover her- self with a scale, but sinks herself bodily in a circular pit in the substance of the leaf and there lays her eggs.
ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY or LONDON.-
This society, on the fiftieth year of its ex- istence, 1883, decided to take measures to obtain a royal charter. This charter has now been granted the society under date of 20 July 1885. and ensures the society a legal existence and increased privileges and re- sponsibilities.
ZEALAND.
The attempts to introduce hum-
ble-bees (Bombus) into New Zealand, in
order that they may fertilize the red clover, have been hitherto unsuccessful, but this year a few have been landed alive in that country, having been brought in their dor- mant winter condition from England, and
set free upon awakening.
ELECTION OF HONORARY MEMBERS. At the
session of the Entomological society of France, 11 March 1885, E. de Sdlys Longchamps, of Liege, Belgium, S. A. de Marseul, of Paris, and Dr. G. H. Horn, of Philadelphia, Pa., were elected honorary members of that socie- ty, and at the session of 8 April 188.5, Dr. Auguste Puton, of Remiremont, ~rance, was also chosen an honorary member.
TYPES OF LEPIDOPTERA TRANSFERRED
TO CAMBRIDGE. Dr. Hagen informs us that
the collection of lepidoptera heretofore at the Peabody museum, Salem, Mass., is now in
his charge at Cambridge. The move is a
good, and very necessary one. The collec- tion contains many of Dr. Packard's and some of Mr. Morrison's types, and was slowly
going to dust and Aiithrenzis when we last saw it.-Entom. americana, June 1885, v.
GROTE AS A COMPOSER.- Mr. A : R. Grote,
the American lepidopterist, now residing in Bremen, has not only published numerous
papers on moths, but several American mag- azines have printed verses by him.
Shortly
before leaving America he published a philo- sophico-religious essay, and he now takes the field as a composer of music, Fischer, of Bre- men and New York, publishing his op. 2,
which consists of Vier mannerquartette, dedi- cated to Herr C. 0. Ruyter.
CHEVROLAT'S COLLECTION OF COLEOPTE-
RA.-T~~ large collection of coleoptera be- longing to the late Auguste Chevrolat is offered for sale, divided into families, by H. Deyrolle et Cie, of Paris. The prices vary from 10 francs for the box of thorictidae, of which there are 11 species represented by 30 specimens, up to 9000 francs for the curd- ionidae which are represented by- species and 29000 specimens. The collection of cur- czdionidae is said to be the largest excepting that of the museum at Brussels.
-At a recent meeting (July 2) of the Lon- don entomological society, Mr. C. 0. Water- house exhibited various species of phytopha- gous beetles to show the extraordinary effect that exposure to light had produced on their colors. Fiery red had turned to bright
green, pale yellow to brown, blue to black, and green to purple. The specimens ex-
hibited had been in the public galleries of the Bristol museum for twenty-five years.- Amer. natural/'.?/, Jan. 1885, v. 19, p. 80. TRIMEROUS SILPHIDAE.-Mr. D. Sharp
describes a new species of the genus Scofo- cryptas (siZåīp/;idae in the Comptes-rendus de la SociGt6 entomologiq~~e de Belgique for 7 Feb. 1885. This species, S. obscums, like 5. melfponae, the one on which Girard
founded the genus in 1874, is from Bahia, South America. The species of Scotocryj- tus are blind, but are still more interesting structurally from the fact that they have all the tarsi three-jointed, a character not com- mon among coleoptera and otherwise un-




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298 PSYCHE. [ April-June 1885.1
known among .åī;il$hidue S. meliponae
inhabits nests of Melt'fona scz~tellaris; the habits of S. obscures are unknown.
FOOD-HABITS AND VESICATING POWER OF
CANTHARIS. H. Beauregard, who has lately been completing his studies into the life-his- tory of Canthan3 micatoria, has succeeded in finding its pseudochrysalids in the sand about the cells of species of Colletes. upon the honey of which the larvae had subsisted. In the Com$tes rendns for 8 June 188.5, he also states that he has proved by direct experiment the inaccuracy of Neutwich's assertion that the vesicating power of Cantha~is is only devel- oped after copulation. As previously shown by Beauregard the cantharidin is chiefly lo- cated in the generative organs of these beetles, but experiments with the generative organs of specimens just emerged, and that cer- tainly had not copulated, showed the presence in them of strong vesicating power.
INFUSORIAL PARASITES OF WHITE ANTS. In
a paper read before the Royal society of Tas- mania, 17 Nov. 1884, Mr. W. Saville Kent described a new species of infnsorian belong- ing to the genus Tt+hozynz$ha of Leidy,
and which Mr. Kent names T. lei41li. This species differs but little from the species (7'. agilis) on which Leidy based the genus. and is found swarming in the intestinal canal of a Tasmanian species of terinitidae, which has not yet been determined. Leidy recoin- mends that. for the observation of thece infu- soria, the contents ofthe intestine of the white ant be emptied into a little white of an egg; Kent recommends milk for the same pur-
pose. Kent further says "Of the two remain- ing infusoria found by me in the Tasmanian white ant the one is apparently referable to Dr. Leidy's genus Pyrsouyi~zf~ while the other belongs to Stein's multiflagellate genus Lofhomonas, so far recorded as a parasite only of the orthoptero~~s insects Blatta and GM- lotalf a. "
INSECTS MISTAKING LEAVES FOR FLOWELS
At the meeting of the Enton~ological society of London, I April 1885, according to the Entomologists monthly magazine, for May
1885, v. 21, p. 278;-"Mr. R. M. Christy
(present as a visitor) exhibited a drawing of the larva of the local form of Platysamiacolzim- bia, known as nokomis: he had found the
larva in Canada feeding on Elaeagnas
argentea, the peculiarly silvery appearance of which was strikingly in accord with
the color of the larva, which latter was probably protected thereby.
He also showed
faded leaves of Betula g~fnddosa, and said he had observed Pafilio asterias settle
on similar patches of leaves, apparently mistaking them for flowers on account
of the bright coloring. Mi-. [ J: J.] Weir said he had observed white butterflies settle on patches of variegated leaves in his own ,,
garden, and he alluded to the well-known case of bees coming to artificial flowers on a lady's bonnet."
PRESERVATION OF INSECTS.-A~~O~OS of
the different notes upon the preservation of insects, that have been addressed to us, Dr. Jacobs states that he has recommended, in the Bulletin de la SociLtd entomologique de BeZ'ique (1879), the use of a solution of naphthalin in benzin. The insect is immersed in it, and, afterdrying, the crystals of naphtha- lin which are formed on the surface of the body are removed with a small brush. The solution penetrates the interior of the insect, where the presence of the naphthalin can be recognized. This process can be used for coleoptera, but not for the diptera, bees, and other hairy insects, for the brush removes the hairs and spoils the insect.
Mr. Charles Zuber employs liquid ammonia to remove the salts of copper which form upon the pins; this process does not injure the insects. It is of course understood that the insects should not be replaced in their boxes until completely dried.-Fenille des jemes natur., April 188';. ann. 1.5. p. 81.



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April-June iSS5.J
ENTOMOLOQIT DURING THE YEAR 1883.-
An examination of the index of new genera which were established in the year 1883, as given in the lately completed + # Zoologischer jahresbericht fiir 1883, herausgegeben von dm Zoologiechen station zu Neapel," under the careful editing of Dr. Paul Mayer and Dr. Wilhelm Giesbrecht (abtheilung I, 1885 ; 2, [arthropodu], 3,4, 1884), Leipzig, W. Engel* mann, shows how rapidly our knowledge of insect forms progresses, and consequently also our collections are enriched by new spe- cies. According to this index the majority (455) of the 625 new genera among the in- sects belong to the coleoptsra and lepidop- tern, to the former 254, to the latter 201 ; the remaining 170 being divided as follows : the hymenoptera p, herniptera 46, neuroptera and arnphibiotica 27, diptera 18, orthoptera and thysanura 8 genera.
This certainly astonishingly high number of new genera for a single year must attract all the more attention because all the other divisions of the animal kingdom together can boast only of 446 new genera during the
same year.-Eniom. nadiridten, June 1885, jahrg. It, p. 191.
WHAT IS INVOLVED IN THE PRODUCTION OF
A KILOGRAM OF HONEY.-Alexander Wilson,
of Dublin, has iately published interesting details upon the amount of sugar contained in the nectar of different flowers, and upon the harvest which honey-collecting insect's make. He calculates that 12; heads of clover btos- mms, containing about 60 (towers in each head, or 7,500 blossoms, yield about I grani of 6UDr; the nectar from 7,500,000 flowers is dry therefore to furnieh a kilogram of
; but as out of every rod parts of honey y 75 parts are sugar: a kilogram of honey hausts in round numbers 5,600,0030 flow- s; and the bees of a hive must visit this enormous number of flowers to collect
kii-
gram of honey. - Desitfcker bienenfreusd, Feb. ibSs, p. 60.
Since a colony of bees may make 30 or 40 kilograms of honey in a season of 90 days they must at this rate visit more than 2,000,000 flowers a day, but as a colony often contains 40,000 worker* and a worker bee often visits 50 flowers in less than half a day, this calcu- lation is not unreasonable. The amount of nectar in Bowers varies very much with the flowers, and with conditions of weather and other conditions. A. y: c.
The almost unnoticed work of domesticated honey bees produces more than 15 million kilograms of honey yearly, in the United States, which, at the above estimate, implies an amount of labor hardy to be imagined. NEW TEXT-BOOK OF ENTOMOLOGY.-~W~~,
Sonnenschein & Co., Paternoster square,
London, announce the publication of "An
elementary text-book of entomo1ogy," with 87 plates by Mr. W. F. Kirby, of the British museum. The publishers, in their circular, which is accompanied by a specimen of the first seven plates, containing So well-executed wood-cuts of coleoptera, mnke the following statement: "The object of the author of this book has been to prepare a portable hand- book, freely illustrated, in which a number of the most typical and remarkable insects of all parts of the worid should be popularly de- scribed and figured. Previous works of this nature have generally treated only of a lim- ited group of insects, or of British insects. Unnecessary technicalities have been care- fully avoided, and sufficient space has there- fore been gained to give a short and readable, though necessarily somewhat condensed, ac- count of all the more important families of insects. The classificatory and illustrative character of the work has been carefully made its chief aim throughout." The price in cloth, gilt top, is fixed at 15 shillings. G: D.
LYCAENID LARVAE IN ANTS' NESTS.
The
Kntomologhk lidskrift for 1% (p. 227) re- cords that at the meeting of the Entomologi- calsociety ofStockholm. held i Oct. 1884, Prof. C. Aurivillius "communicated the discovery



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300 PA' YCHB . [April-June 1885.
which he had made in northern mal land of six chrysalids of Lycaevia. arfpts L. under the bark of a spruce which was inhabited by La- s h ntger. The chrysalids were found in the cavities made and frequented by the ants and had envelops of an uncommon tenuity and
transparency. As it is difficult to attribute the presence of these chrysalids in the colo- ny of ants to any fortuitous circumstance, it is likely that it has some connection with the secretion of a sugary moisture which has already been observed in some larvae of iy- caestdae. Miskin reports that the larva of Ogyrisgt-novevtt, a large lycaenid from Aus- tralia, is entertained and taken care ofbyants in the same way as are the aphides in om own country. An identical fact has also been shown in North America. It is also probitble that, as a recompense for this sugary liquid, the ants lodge the larvae of Lycaena aryus L. during their pupal state when they have their principal need for protection,"
APHIS NECTAR AVID HONEY. The nectar
secretion from aphides is a well-known pro- duct. I11 many cases, however, notably the larch plant-louse, the lice so mimic the twigs on which they rest, that their pres- ence is hard to detect, especially as the lice are often confined to the upper branches of the trees. Often this nectar is secreted so abundantly, that the leaves, and the grass beneath the trees, are covered at early mom- ing by drops so large that it is easy to collect a considerable quantity of the nectar. Suffi- cient of this nectar can be secured directly from the larch lice and the elm cock's-comb gail lice to test it. Bees are also known to gather it in large quantities. This Aphis nectar is very pleasant and wholesome, an$ unquestionabiy forms at times no inconsider- able portion of our most beautiful honey. Such honey is light-colored, pleasing to the taste, and perfectly safe an a winter food for the bees. The truth of this statement is sustained by the fact that the bees work freely on such nectar, even though the
flowers are yielding abundant nectar at the same time. The bees themselves practi-
cally proclaim the excellence of this Aphis nectar.-Science, 23 Jan. 1885, V. 5, p. 83. HABITS OF SPIDERS.
The following note
is extracted from a partial translation [Rec., 38251 of Dahl's "Beitrage zur biologie der spinnen" (Zool. anzeiger, 3 Nov. 1884, jahrg. 7, p. 591-<^gj), as it appears in the Annals ad mag-anine of natural history for Jan. 1885. '* It has often been asserted that the geo- metrical spiders do not repair old webs. This, however, is true only in a limited sense. The outer framework and some of the i-adii which have become nearly free from transverse
threads are probably always used again by Zilla s-noiaia and others. The rest is gath- ered up, worked into a bail with the mouth and thrown away. If the spider removes a lifeless object from the web, and damage^ the latter in so doing, it certainly sometimes re- produces the destroyed portion of the frame- work, the radii, and the central shelter. If we interrupt a spider in the formation of its web, by tearing away a portion of it with the corresponding part of the outer framework, all will be completed up to the part that has remained uninjured. In this case the cornpie- tion of the framework, is especially interest- ing, as this unaccustomed work is not u~ually successfully performed at once. Here we see very distinctly how reflection comes into play. I was still better able to ascertain reflection, or, what is the same thing, actual inference, in the case of &us arcua/tts Bl., when I of- fered it flies touched with oil of turpentine. Sometimes the spider despised the species of fly employed ~waalomyia canicdavis, L. ) , whilst it attacked other insects (e. g. Chirp nornus tendens, Fab.) just as before. This spider also draws similar conclusions in those cases in which it cannot overcome insects in consequence of their chitinous armor being too hard. These it usualiy attacks only once, and h then for a long time forewarned. Dan- gerous insects, however, such as small bees, it avoids, without having seen their sting. Here therefore we have an instinctive dread. Bee-like flies are equally dreaded."
-
Nos. 129-131 were issutd 4 Aug. 1885




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