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Psyche 4:351-?, 1883.

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October-December I&.] l'SX5Y23. 351
ENTOMOLOGICAL ITEMS.
APICAL APPLICATION OF APIS. "Sir John
Lubbock says bees are not sympathetic. It may be stated, accordingly, that the warmth of their reception doesn't come from the heart."
PRIZE WORK ON TACTILE ORGANS. The
French academy, on 21 Dec. 1885,granted the grand prize for anatomical and physiological research to Dr. Joannes Chatin, for his work (not yet published) on the tactile organs of insects and crustacea.
TENACITY m LIFE IN CALLIPHORA VOMITO-
RIA.-At the meeting of the Soci&entomoio- gique de France, 8 July 1885, as reported in its Bulletin, Mr. Paul Audolent remarked that he had lately had an opportunity of proving the vital power of larvae of Catlipliora vomitoriu. Many of these larvae, which he had given as food to tritons, remained alive two days at the bottom of the water, and in fact pupated there. He had collected these pupae to see if they would reach the perfect state.
BIRDS NESTING IM HORNETS' NESTS.-In
a Setter to Nature, 12 March 1885, v. 31, p. 438, on birds nesting in ants' nests, Mr. W. Davison says of Halcyon chlo~iS, a species of kingfisher, which also nests in ants' nests: At Mergui, in South Tenassftrim, I found E nest of H. ckloris in a hornets' nest, and although I saw the birds repeatedly enter the hole they had made in the hornets' nest the hornets did not seem to mind it, but they re- sented in a very decided manner my attempt to interfere with the nest.
LIFE OF DR. DZIERZOK.-D~. Oskar Kran-
cher contributes to the Dewiscier Sienes- freund for January 1885, an account of the life of Dr. Johann Dziefzon, well-known for his contributions both to the theory of bee- life and to practical apiculture. Dr. Dzier- zdn, or as he was commonly designated,
Pastor Dzierzon, was born 16 Jan. 1811, in Lowkowitz, near Kreuzburg, Upper Silesia. Shortly after finishing his studies at Breslau, he became, in 1835, pastor inAKarlsmarkt, near Brieg, in Silesia, where he remained until -lately, having just returned to live in the town where he was born.
STRUCTURE OF BYES OF DIPTERA. Pro-
fessor C. V. Ciaccio,-of Bologna, published in the last volume (ser. 4, v. 6, fasc. I) of the <Memorie della R. accademia dell' Ietitu to di Bologna" a series of excellent illustratione. of the minute structure of the eye of diptera. The paper, published under the title of "Fig- ure dichiarative della minuta fabbrica degli occhi de' ditteri," consists of twelve large plates with explanatory text (28 pages), and gives microscopical details (enlargement from 190 to 410) of eyes of hippuboscidue, oestvidae, syrphtdae, miiscidae, emftidae, leptidae, ad- idae, Smn bylidue, tahanidae, cAirofto?~idae, tipulidae and fidicidae--Edam, nuckrich- ten. May 1885, jahrg. 11, p. 144.
STKIXTURH; AND HABITS OF OEDEMATO-
PHAGA AEGUSALIS. E : MEYRICK (Trans. En- torn. soc. Lond., 1884, p. 73-74) makes a new genus, Oedemafophagu, for Pyralis ae/rnsalis Walk., "correcting" the specific name aegalis. 0, aegttsafis is a curious insect, having as one of itsgeneric characters "Anterior femora in male with anexpansible tuft of hairs," a char- acter recalling a peculiarity of certain species of Cdocala. The larvae feed gregariously "in large, very irregularly spherical, rough galls, three or four inches in diameter, on the branches of a phyllodineous Acaeia," . . ."the larva eats galleries through the substance of the galls, ejecting a good deal of the excre- ment from holes in the surface.
DIPTEROUS PARASITE OF THE RHINO-
CBROS.--D~. Friedrich Brauer describes and figures in the Verhandlungen der zoolog.- botaniachen gesellschaft Sn Wien (1884, v. 34, p. 269-qt, pi, 10) the larva of a new genus and species of oesfridae from the
stomach of Rhinaceyos sutnatresisis. The larva differs strikingly from that of Gasiro' $Ailus in having the arcades of the posterior stigmata forming on each side. three bands,



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'CHE. {October-December 1885.
curving in zigzag, and not three concentric semicircles, from which peculiarity the author has given the insect the generic name Gyro- siipmu, The entire larva., the mouth-parts, and posterior stigmata of G. sumatrensis, the new species in question, are figured.
POSTURE OF NEWLY EMERGED BUTTER-
PLIES.-Mr. Joseph Andereon called atten- tion, severs! years ago, in the Entomologist\ to "a ~inguiar habit of A-ftaiuru fris upon emerging from the papariitm,-to wit, its clinging to the empty case with the head uppermost for five or eix hours, and then reversing the position (still keeping hold of the chrysalis) and remainingwith head down and wings upward for a similar time." Since that time Mr. Andereon has learned from Mr. P. N. Pierce, of Liverpool, that Vaaessa polychloros has a similar habit, except that it leaves the pupal case and clings to a branch. In a note in the Entomologist for September iBSj (v. 18, p. 241-242), Mr. An- derson asks the reason for this curious habit of two butterflies, which thus differ in habit from Vawesaa 10, V uurticue, V. cardni, and Erebia medea.
EROSIOIT OF GLASS. -Under this title
William M. Ord commnnicates to Nature, 19 Feb. 1885, T. 31, p. 360, the results of some experiments upon the erosion of glass by alkalies in connection with colloid substances. These experiments were undertaken with
especial reference to the question of how "white-nut mud" was capable oferodinggla~s. Mr. Ord thinks that "the white-ant mud must consist of a mixture of some colloid with car- bonate of lime or some other salt capable of taking spherical form." In conclusion he adds, as a result of his experiments, "It suf- fices, at the moment, to indicate that the sur- face of a glass slide may be eroded in a way to suggest the action of an acid, such as hy- drofluoric acid, when no free acid is present; and that erosion may occur when the glass is brought in contact with alkaline fluid, a col- loid, and crystalline substances capable of assuming, in the presence of a colloid, sphe- roidal form."
EWDAMUS T~TYRTSS FRYING AT NIGHT.-
On the evening of 5 Aug. 1885. at 9 h. ~orn., I removed a mosquito netting from a window near which I was sitting, to close the window for the night, when a butterfly flew in. It fluttered very littie in the room, and suppos- ing it to be a moth I paid no particular atten- tion to it at the moment. About ten minutes later, however, happening to approach the gas chandelier, I saw the butterfly suspended to one of the screws holding a glass globe around one of the gas-jets. It was stationary, but frequently uncoiled its tongue so that only the tip remained between the palpi, and then slightly coiled and uncoiled it so as to rub the tip between the palpi. It would sud- denly wii the tongue up completely, and
then
soon resume the former motion. Upon
my attempting to capture it, after watching it some time, it uncoiled the tongue so aE to free the tip completely from the palpi, and then beat against the globe as a moth would to get at the flame. Finally it got inside the globe' and scorched its wings and fell to the floor, but fluttered frantically when I tried to pick it up. It proved to be Eudamus tityrus, and is sent herewith.-B: Pickman Sffama, at meeting of C. E. C.. 1 I Dec. 1885.
PARASITES NEMATODB.-M. Henri Gadeau
de Kerville, at the meeting of the Soci4t6 en- tomologique de France, 9 Sept. 1885, report- ed the finding of three species OF nematods in arthropods, which are interesting additions to the lists of arthropods in which parasitic vermes have been found. The species of ne- mittods were determined by A. Villot, of Grenoble, as follows : Gordius e-marginatus Villot, of which the determination is doubtful because the caudal extremity of the specimen was partly hidden in the digestive tube of a Lithobiuf forffcatws, its host, from which M. Villot did not wish to completely extract the worm; Mermis acuminata Siebold, from a larva of Dsipetes so~diduiu Fab.; and




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October-December 1885.1
Mermis nigrescens Dujardin, of which a young individual was taken from a larva of Hyher- nia defoliaria L. Gordius has not been known hitherto as a parasite of a myriopod.
In this connection attention is called to a work on these parasites, which seems to be little known in America. This is Linstow7s Compendium der helminthologie . . . . 1878 [Rec., 31191, in which one is able readily to trace the literature of most species of parasi- tic worms if either the name of the host, whether vertebrate or invertebrate, or that of the parasite is known.
TOMATO-PLANTS AS REPELLANTS OF IN-
SECTS.-According to the Colonial mail, a statement comes from the Cape Colony
which is deserving the attention of botanists. It is alleged that insects shun the land on which tomatoes are grown ; and the cultiva- tion of the Lyco$ersicum esczdentum is
accordingly recon~n~ended in all cases where it is possible to grow it-under fruit trees, for instance, since the tomato will thrive in the shade of other trees, which few other plants will do-for the sake of the virtues attributed to it as prophylactic against the inroads of insect pests. It would be interest- ing to know whether the tomato has been
observed to exercise any such effect upon insects elsewhere-in Canada, for instance, where the fruit is so popular-or whether it is only in warmer climates, like that of the Cape, that its peculiar powers are brought into play.-Nature, I Jan. 1885, v. 31, p. 202. It may be sufficient to state that the use of tomato leaves as repellants of insects was recon~mended in France and in the United States at least as long ago as the year 1846, but that experiments properly made have
shown the inefficacy of the remedy. The
roots, stems, leaves and fruits of this plant are eaten by numerous species of insects. There is no reason to suppose that the Cape Colonists are any less ready than their north- ern relatives to jump to the conclusion, on insufficient grounds, that because a plant has certain qualities noxious to man, it is there- fore also noxious to insects.
FOSSIL THYSANURA. -At the meeting of
the Sociktk entomologique de France, 27 May 1885, as reported in its Bulletin, Mr. C : Bron- gniart made the following communication : ' Claus places the thysanura among the
orthoptera ; they are generally considered to be the primordial type of insects. No one has recorded them from the paleozoic strata. "Nevertheless they existed as early as the coal period, for forty-five specimens have been found in the schists of Commentry. It is difficult to see the number of joints of the tarsi, palpi and antennae, but these organs are distinguishable on many specimens. The body is cylindrical, slender at the posterior part, and ends in a multiarticulate filament as long as the body. The antennae and tarsi are thickish. The head appears quite broad. The prothorax is very short, and the meso- thorax and metathorax are equal in length and much longer than the prothorax. The
abdomen has ten segments, equal among
themselves ; the terminal one, which bears a multiarticulate filament, is a trifle the longest.
There seemed to me to be abdomi-
nal laminations upon one of the specimens, as there are in Machilis. The whole animal (antennae, feet, thorax, abdomen) is clothed with very thick and very short hairs. The body, including the abdominal filament,
varies in length between 15 and 22 mm.
This insect resembles morphologically
&$isma and MachiZis; it differs from them by many characters, but principally in the presence of a single abdominal filament in the fossil form.
I designate this ancestor of the living
thysanura under the name of DasyZe$tus
(dasys Zeptos) Zucasi, dedicating it to Mr. Hippolyte Lucas, of the Natural history mu- seum of Paris."
ON CARRYING HIBERNATING LARVAE
THROUGH THE WINTER.-I have sometimes
so carried larvae in ice boxes, or in ice



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354 PSYCHE.
[ October-December 1885.
houses, or in snow banks, by aid of friends in the northern states mostly, but last fall I heard of a large room called a "cooler" at the Sanitarium at Clifton Springs, New
York, in which meat and vegetables are kept, the temperature averaging 40å¡F all the year, and my application for a little space was kindly received.
In October, I sent on two
boxes by express, in which were a large num- ber of larvae, some of them very rare. 0f these were Aygynnis halcyone, just from egg; S(~tyrzis charon, also just out of egg. These small larvae were in paper pill boxes, inside tin. There "were also a few larvae of Chiono- bas cAryxus, Hip. r/dingsi< Colias alexandra, Phyciodes ^picto, in stages from second to fourth ; and several Melitaea ~z~i6cunda, past third moult from Vancouver's Island, and [M.] phaeton at same stage. Early in March I received the larvae per express. On open- ing the box nearly every one of the young larvae first named were alive, and in a few moments were moving. The larger part of
rzibiciinda and -phaeton were in good con- dition. One alexandya out of two was
healthy, and one ficta out of three. The chryxus, past third molt (one), and the rid- ingsii, past first (one), were dead.
On the
whole, there was scarcely any loss from the four months seclusion. The Chionobas, I
am disposed to think, died in transit to me, from rolling about in its box, as it was stout and healthy looking when I received it. Probably all the satyrid larvae would have done better if they had not been allowed to feed in the fall, but had on hatching been subjected to the cold.
I had no plants ready
for these larvae on their arrival except grass, and on this I placed part of the charon, who very soon began to eat along the edges of the leaves. The remainder of all species I put on ice, or under rocks in the woods, to stay till I could force food-plants for them.- W: H: Edwards (Can. entom., June 1885, v. 17, p. 113-114).
ANATOMY OF MACROTOMA PLUMBEA. --
" Ueber Macrotoma 'plumbed. Beitrage zur anatomie der poduriden " is the title of a 46- page inaugural dissertation, by Albert Som- iner, from the Gottingen university, also published, with a plate, in the Zeitsc+ft fur wissenschaftUche zoologic. The author studied carefully the histological structure of the ventral tube with its pocket-formed, eva- ginable lobes for attachment of the insects to objects beneath them, and finds that unicel- lular glands furnish the tube with the secre- tion necessary for attachment, and make it a remarkably good adhering organ that en- ables the little animal to move on vertical smooth surfaces. The egg is formed, by the union of yolk-substance, from an aggregate of cells at first of uniform shape which have their origin in the germarium; a germinal vesicle is lacking ; a condition which calls to mind the eggs of viviparous dipterous larvae studied by Ganin. The observation is inter- esting that even the adult insects still molt every two or three weeks. In molting the old hairs are stripped from the new layer of skin; the scales, on the other hand, are shed without connection with the new ones. A
gregarinid occurs as an almost constant par- asite in the chylific ventricle; outside the digestive tract occur pseudonavicellae, cysti- cercae similar to those described by Stein from the digestive tract of Tenebrio ?nolitor, and nematods rolled up spirally.
It would
have been better to have replaced the name Macrotoma, used in the cera?)zbycidae since 1832, by Tomocerus Nicolet 1841. -Entom. nachrichfen, July 1885, jahrg. I t, p. 221-222. Nos. 135-137 were issued 21 Feb. 1886.




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