Article beginning on page 405.
Psyche 5:405-406, 1888.

Full text (searchable PDF)
Durable link: http://psyche.entclub.org/5/5-405.html

The following unprocessed text is extracted from the PDF file, and is likely to be both incomplete and full of errors. Please consult the PDF file for the complete article.

August-October ~Sgo.] PSYCHE. 405
ENTOMOLOGICAL NOTES.
Dr. William Patten has been appointed
professor of biology at the University of North Dakota at Grand Forks.
Dr. Clarence M. Weed, of the Ohio exper- iment station, has editorial charge of the department of entomology of the American naturalist.
Mr. Jerome McNeill of Moline, Ill., has
been chosen professor of biology and geology at the State University of Arkansas at
Fa~etteville.
CORDULINA.-In a note to Dr. 1-1. A. Hagen the Abbe Provancher writes that he has not visited Mt. Yamaska since 1877. So far as known his original specimens of Epitheca yasmanka~zeiists are the only ones extant. Mr. Lintner also writes that he has not taken Corddia Zintneri since his first catch.
KOLBE'S
Gur~~.-Part 4 of Kolbe's Ger-
man Guide to the knowledge of Insects, p. 177-224, is entirely devoted to the antennae and mouth-parts with a large number of
simple but instructive and mostly original figures. This excellent work was originally announced to be completed in six or eight parts, but as the author has not yet covered more than one-sixth of the ground lie laid out in his prospectus, it is more likely to continue to twenty.
GREENLAND INSECTS. - A~~rivillius has
begun in the Handlingar of the Swedish
Academy a study of the insert fauna of
Greenland, which he is undertaking with his usual thoroughness, at the first instalment, including the lepidoptera and hymenoptera, shows. It is accompanied by three plates. and several excellent figures in the text. He records 28 species of lepidoptera and 17 of hymenoptera. The most numerous genera
of lepidoptera are Agrotis, 5 species, Plusia and Hadena, 4 species each. The only new species are one each of Anarta, Pimpla and Banchus.
EARLY LAST AUGUST a green cockroach
of considerable size, Pancftlo~,a ni'vea(Lin n.) , was found alive, with a multitude of young ones just hatched, in the bath room of a house on Lafayette St., Salem, Mass'., and sent to Mr. S. H. Scudder for determination by Prof. E. S. Morse. It is a native of Cuba aud Central America. It is curious that Mr. Scudder has also in his collection a specimen marked as found flying in a store in Boston, 26 December, 1878, on the authority of the late Dr. Samuel Kneeland.
is the subject of an elaborate report by Prof. F. L. Harvey of the Maine State College. ?,
Ihe investigations were made in 1858 and 1889 chiefly at Orono, though the dale and place of publication are not noted. The
species is described and figured in all its stages and its life-history and habits are given in detail. As the larvae do not leave the fruit until it falls from the trees the thorough and universal destruction of wind- falls is recommended as the best remedy. LEPIDOPTERA INDICA. --Three parts of
Moore's Lepidoptera Indica. including So pp. of letter press and 24 plates, have now ap- peared and the author has not vet more than half completed tlie euploeiaae with which he begins his work and of which thirteen genera and thirty-five species are so far character- ized; this gives a lively impression of the difference between that fauna and our own. The additions to our knowledge of the earlier stages are interesting; the caterpillars and chrysalids of seven species are given (from one to three figures of each)
of as inany genera,
and their peculiarities certainly seem to sup- port the closer subdivision of these Eastern ezqbloeinae of which Mr. Moore has been the foremost supporter. About half of these
same species have before had their earlier stages figured, but of these as well the illus- trations are new; never before have the ezi- å´ploeina been so well illustrated in their earlier life. All the figures appear to have been put upon the stone by Mr. Moore's son.



================================================================================

406 PSYCHE. [August-October 1890.
WHAT is THE CAUSE of the gradual exter-
miriation of insects in certain places?
Is it
the changes incident to growth of population ? It is well known
that Chryso-phanus disfcir
formerly found in England is now no longer known there; as the French might say, dis- par has disparu.
Mr. Jenner Wier writes that
Ajoi,ia rrataeyi was a common species in several parts of Sussex, notably at his fa- ther'&, about 8 miles from Lewes, where it was to be seen in numbers every year, but now for forty years he has seen but one
specimen ; nor do his Sussex friends take it. lie states that it has albo disappeared from the New Forest where he used to take it up to ten jears ago, and from Monmouthshire, where it was once common.
THE TENTH PART of the current series of
Edwards's Butterflies of North America deals with two species from the eastern half of the continent, two from the western, both of the latter species of Argynnis, of which little more than the bare description is given in the text. Of each of the eastern species, however, Argynnis alcestis and Satyrodes ~f2?2thns, a full life-history is given with abundant illustration, and, of course, of the highest excellence as Mr. Edwards deals with no other. The statements regarding the dif- ference of behavior and coloration of differ- ent caterpillars of the same species is full of interest and shows the necessity for repeat- ed observations. The exceptional autumn
activity recorded of the joung caterpillar of A. alccsfis may possibly have been due to an unwonted climate, as they were transferred while in the egg-state from Chicago to Coal- burgh.
While one does not like to find fault
with a work of such marked excellence, it is a pity that the author cannot find a better way of describing the position of the tuber- cles of the caterpillar than that employed, which often reads like a multiplication table, locates them vaguely at best, and omits mnch that is distinctive.
from Yucatan, which is used as an ornament to the dress in Central America by being belted and chained with gold; the natives call them Makatch and they are popularly supposed to live on air. They were received from Stephen Salisbury Esq. of Worcester who has had them alive for five years.
They
have been kept in a wire cage in which is a large piece of half decayed wood. which they evidently gnawed more or less, making some chips, but whether or not they devoured it was a matter of doubt until some birch fungi were introduced ; these seemed to meet with more favor and especially one which had a partially black interior; it was soon seen that some of the chips were of a darker color, and examination showed in all, both gray and black, a remarkable uniformity in size; closer scrutiny showed them to be un- questionably faeces, all being of the same form and made up of a pressed agglomeration of vermiforni series of particles. The amount however is ridiculously small, for a dozen of these beetles together would not furnish a thimble full in a year.
NOTICE ov MEETING, ASSOCIATJON OF
OFFICIAL ECONOMIC ENTOMOI-OGISTS.
The second annual meeting of the Asso-
ciation of Official Economic Entomologists will be held at the university buildings, Champaign, Ill., November 11th to 15th
proximo, at the same time and place as the meeting of the Association of Agricultin-a1 Colleges and Experiment Stations. The
committee on Entomology of the latter asso- ciation will meet at the same time.
Members expecting to attend, will confer a favor upon the officers if they will announce the fact, and will send titles of papers to be read 01- topics they desire discussed to the Secretary.
All are earnestly requested to be present if possible.
JOHN B. SMITH, Secretary,
New Brunswick, N. J.
LONG-LIVED ZOPHERUS.--Mr. S. H. Scud-
der has in his possession four specimens of ZotJierus bremii, one of the tenebrionidae No. 169 was issued 10 May, 1890.
' 170 was issued 11 July, 1890.
' 171 was issued 19 August 1890.




================================================================================