maker on the leaves of species of Salix, of which the male had apparently not hitherto been observed. From 500 or 600 galls collected in 1875 he had obtained multitudes of females and two males; a similar result in 1876 had resulted in one male. He was of opinion that by persevering from season to season, it was possible to obtain the male of this and of other allied species of which this sex is practically unknown, though these might occur at rare intervals, the female being capable of continuing the species without (of necessity) immediate male influence.-Ent. Monthly Mag., Sept., 1876.

AMERICAN FOSSIL INSECTS.

A fossil cockroach and an earwig (Labidura) from South Park, Colorado, is described by Mr. S. H. Scudder in the Sixth Bulletin of the United States Geological Survey of the Territories.

THE ARMY WORM OF THE NORTH,

A full account of this destructive caterpillar is given by Mr. Riley in his "Eighth Annual Report on the Injurious Insects of Missouri." It is very destructive to wheat and other cereals and to grass. Living unnoticed until they are more than half an inch in length, they begin to travel in armies and devastate our fields early in August. Mr. Riley has found that the females lay their eggs in strings of fifteen or twenty along the inner base of the terminal blades where they are yet doubled. The caterpillars hatch on the eighth or tenth day after deposition, and they moult five times be fore turning to chrysalids.

ADULT INSECTS WITH LARVAL HEADS.

A curious research has been made by Dr. H. Hagen on a butterfly (Morpho) from Brazil, which, though perfect in other respects, had the head of the caterpillar instead of the butterfly's head. It seems that a few other examples of such deformities are known, viz.: four butterflies and seven moths, three beetles and one fly. The presence of the head on the winged adult seems due to the weakness of the caterpillar or larva in casting the skin, that of the head becoming adherent after that of the rest of the body has been thrown off-Memoirs of the Mus. Comp. Zool., May, 1876.

HATCHING SILK-WORMS BY ELECTRICITY.

Silk-worms hatched by electricity are now being reared in Italy. The superintendent of the experimental silk-worm farm at Padua has found that the hatching of silk-worms may be accelerated ten or twelve days, and a yield of forty per cent. of caterpillars secured by exposing the eggs to a current of negative electricity from a Holtz machine for eight or ten minutes. It is suggested to apply the same method to hens' eggs, and to hastening the germination of seeds.— Popular Science Monthly, November, 1876.

PRECOCIOUS TRANSFORMATION

OF A SILK-WORM INTO THE MOTH.

In 1792 Mr. Farini, of Forli, Italy, convinced himself of the fact that caterpillars may directly transform into moths without passing through a chrysalis state. He saw two boards filled with caterpillars of Bombyx mori transform into moths without having spun cocoons. In 1811 he received from a correspondent two such winged specimens. Dr. Hagen adds that the fact would be a rather interesting one if it were beyond doubt. As silk-worms are raised every year by millions, it would be supposed that the observations would have been oftener made and published.- Memoirs of the Mus. Comp. Zool., May, 1876.

A PARASITIC MOTH.

An extraordinary case of parasitism has been noticed by Professor Westwood. The notes concerning this very unusual instance of parasitism by a moth were received by him (with specimens) twenty-six years ago from Mr. J. C. Bowring, of Hong Kong. It is a species of arctian moth, of the family of Bombycida, named Epipycops anomala by Bowring. The caterpillars were found attached to the dorsal surface of the Fulgora candelaria, the Chinese Lantern-fly, and as they grew had a cottony covering, which also occurred in the pupa state (a period very variable in duration). The whole circumstantial evidence tended to prove that it was upon the waxy secretion of the Fulgora that the larva fed, and that of this the cocoon of the pupa was formed. Entomologists' Monthly Magazine, September, 1876.

REPRODUCTION OF THE ARMY-WORM.

An important announcement has lately been made by Professor Riley, the eminent entomologist of St. Louis, in regard to the eggs of the army-worm, Leucania unipuncta, in a paper lately read before the Academy of Science of that city. Dr. Riley states that at first view it seems singular that the eggs of an insect that appears in such countless myriads, from Maine to Georgia and from Virginia to Kansas, should have remained undiscovered either by farmers or entomologists. Stimulated by this rather discreditable fact, he made special efforts to solve the problem, which have been recently crowned with success by his having witnessed the mode of oviposition on the blue grass. The eggs, as he had supposed, were secreted, being either glued in rows of from five to twenty in the groove which is formed by the folding of the terminable grass blade, or in between the sheath and the stalk. Sometimes they were pushed into crevices in the ground, especially at the base of the grass stalk. The eggs are white, slightly iridescent, spherical, and only two hun dredths of an inch in diameter. They are fastened to each other and to the leaf, and covered along the exposed portion by a white, glistening, viscid substance.

By the seventh day after deposition the brown head of the embryo shows distinctly through the shell. The larva hatches the eighth to the tenth day, being less than two millimeters in length, of a dull translucent white color, with a large brown-black head. On account of its extremely small size, and the color resembling the pale bases of the grass stalks near the ground, it is almost impossible to find them even where there are dozens to the square foot.-Proc. Acad. Nat. Sc., St. Louis, May 8, 1876, 1111.

STRUCTURE AND DEVELOPMENT OF MITES.

These animals, represented by the cheese and itch mite, are exceedingly numerous in species, and much attention has been lately paid to them, judging by the memoirs published in 1876 by French and German authors. Of the first impor tance is an elaborate work by A. L. Donnadieu, entitled "Recherches pour servir à l'histoire des Tétranyques," published in the Annales de la Société Linnéenne de Lyon, with

twelve plates. The internal anatomy and metamorphosis are quite fully given, particularly the different modes of disposition of the air-tubes and their stigmata; also the varying form of the digestive canal, which in one instance (Tetranychus plumistoma) sends branches even to the extremities of the feet and the palpi. In Troschel's Archiv there are several papers of less importance on other families of mites by Dr. Kramer.

COLORING MATTER OF THE MUREX SHELL.

MM. de Negri state that, as the result of careful investigation into the coloring matter of certain mollusks, the Murex trunculus contains two coloring principles, one of which is perfectly equal to indigotine. This is obtained by exposing the coloring principle of the mollusk to the air until it assumes a violet tint; then washing it with crystalline acetic acid, which dissolves the tint. Water is then added to the acetic solution, and the whole shaken up with chloroform, which dissolves the purple. The chloroform solution leaves behind, after evaporation, the residue, which is violet. Washed in ether, this is deprived of the red principle contained in it, and the remainder is redissolved in alcohol. It is well known that the ancients preferred the secretion of the Murex brandaris to that of the M. trunculus. It is found that the secretions of these two species are by no means the same, and that their products from solution are different. In fact, the secretion of M. brandaris is photogenic; that is to say, it does not become colored by the deprivation of light, while that of M. trunculus becomes violet by contact with the air. In reference to the studies of the coloring matter found in the A. viridis, they remark that they have found chlorophyl in other mollusks, identical with the coloring matter of vegetine.-3 B, December 23, 678.

EIGHTH REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST OF MISSOURI.

The eighth annual report on the noxious, beneficial, and other insects of Missouri, by Charles V. Riley, state entomologist, has just been received, and, like every thing from this writer, contains much matter of interest to agriculture and entomology. The noxious species to which special attention has been directed in this report are the Colorado potato

beetle, the canker-worm, the army-worm, the Rocky Mountain locust, and the grape-vine phylloxera. There is a special division upon innoxious insects, under which is mentioned the yucca-borer, which, according to Dr. Riley, is the only butterfly the larva of which has the boring habit. Under the head of the Colorado potato-beetle, we learn that it has become extremely abundant in the East, and that it lately swarmed to a remarkable extent on Coney Island; also, that a sprinkling of Paris green continues to be one of the most important means of preventing its ravages. From the experiments of Profess ors Kenzie and M'Murtrie it is shown that, contrary to the anticipations of some, there is no danger to be apprehended to the soil from the introduction of this poison. An extended article upon the Rocky Mountain locust contains the comforting assurance to the farmers of Missouri that no danger need be apprehended from it during the year 1876. In regard to the grape-vine phylloxera, which is now threatening the destruction of almost the entire system of the European vineyards, Professor Riley states that it has comparatively little effect on the American vines, and that the demand for these for exportation to Europe far exceeds the supply. Numerous well-executed wood-cuts add greatly to the interest and value of this important report.

METAMORPHOSIS OF THE CRUSTACEA.

From a study of the larvæ of thirty-eight genera of stalkeyed crustacea, Mr. C. Spence-Bate has become convinced of the existence of a unity of character throughout the various forms and changes of crustacea; that variety in form is never inconsistent with homological truth; that parts suppressed or rendered abortive for want of use are never absolutely lost, and may be reproduced under conditions that may require them. The eyes of those crustacea, such as Alpheus, that inhabit dark places are reduced in power according to the condition of their habitat. But these organs are, in their larval state, as well developed, if not more so, as those of any species whose life is passed in the bright sunshine of the surface of the ocean. The blind Deidamia, brought from the depth of four miles below the surface of the Atlantic by the dredges of the Challenger, differs in no respect from Poly cheles, taken by Heller in the comparatively shallow Adriatic