Article beginning on page 170.
Psyche 5:170, 1888.

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PSYCHE. [February-March 1889.
oughly with the luminosity of lamftyridae, says the eggs can be luminous only on account of some external substance which they derived from their mother, or on account of light- giving power of the young larvae within
them. Again, Laboulbbne and H. Lucas
have published (Bull. entom. Soc. entom. de France, 12 Sept. 1888, p. 133-134) the fact that the eggs of Lamjiyris noctiluca, as well as its larva, are luminous, and Laboulbfene states that the luminosity lasted about a week.
G: Dimmock.
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PHOSPHORESCENCE OF MYRIOPODS.-M. J.
Gazagnaire has lately studied the phosphor- escence of Orya iarbarica,an Algerianspecies of geo/hi/idae, and finds that it is caused by a viscid secretion from the pores on the ven- tral side of the whole length of the body. This is contrary to the view of Dr. R. Du- bois, who supposed the phosphorescence to have its origin in the epithelial cells of the digestive tract. M. Gazagnaire has further found that the phosphorescence does not oc- cur at all times, but that its appearance is during the time that the genital organs of the geojihiltdae are in a state of activity. G: Dimmock.
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THE MECONIUM OF BUTTERFLIES : - M.
Theodore Goossens communicated a notice
to the Society entomologique de France, 11 April 1888, on the above subject. We trans- late the notice in full from the Bulletin euto- mologique of that Society.
'*If the rearing of larvae affords gratifica- tion in studying, as far as possible, their habits, it sometimes gives one bitter disap- pointments. Sometimes all the caterpillars, almost full-grown, die at once without a trace of diarrhoea or of fungi, that is to say of other causes than flhcherie or muscardine. After having sought in vain the cause of the trouble, one forgets it until a similar acci- dent happens."
"Chance taught me one of the unknown
causes of this mortality.
For several years
I have reared different caterpillars in colored boxes for the purpose of determining the in- fluences of refrangibility upon lepidoptera. The blue being, among the simple colors, the one that favored best their development, I had placed some pupae of Vanessa prorsa in a blue box. There were already in this box some half grown caterpillais of Fidonia
atomaria, but they were in a tube and the tube had a cork stopper. A Vanessa frorsa emerged, expanded itself, and, ready to take to flight, discharged the meconium which it had accumulated during the pupal state.
This meconium fell upon the stopper of the tube and immediately the twenty caterpillars were dead. It was difficult to ascribe such a power to the meconium. A second Vanessa
again furnishing this liquid, I took some of it on a brush, and put it in another box where there were some caterpillars of no value to me. In a short time they likewise died: but other caterpillars touched with dry meconium lived as usual.
'It seems then, that it is the vapor of this substance, composed mostly of uric acid, that has the property of killing caterpillars, and that when we rear caterpillars in thesame ves- sel in which chrysalids are already formed, we subject ourselves to the same accident with- out suspecting the true cause."
G: DZmmock.
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HOUSEHOLD PESTS.- The editor of Good
housekeeping' received a considerable number of letters in competition for the prizes men- tioned on p. 59, of this volume of Psyche, and the decision as LO the merits of the vari- ous remedies proposed was left to Dr. C : V. Riley. The numero of Good housekeej'ing
for 27 Oct. 1888, gives Dr. Riley's
letter in
reference to the remedies proposed, and
quotes not only the letters of the prize-win- ners, but all those mentioned by Dr. Riley as meritorious. This collection of letters is an excellent symposium on remedies for
household insects. G: Dimmock.




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