350 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



industrious habits than bees, performing a larger number of 

 journeys in the same time. Ants appear to possess a dis- 

 tinct power of communicating with one another, but differ- 

 ent individuals vary greatly in this respect. 



OCCURRENCE OF A COCHINEAL INSECT IN NEBRASKA. 



Mr. Austin, in Psyche, calls attention to the occurrence of 

 a cochineal insect, in great abundance, on several species of 

 the cactus growing in the northwest of Nebraska and ad- 

 jacent portions of Dakota. He can find no evidence that 

 the Indians were acquainted with the existence of this sub- 

 stance in its practical applications as a paint ; and, indeed, 

 the fact of its occurrence there at all was unexpected by him, 

 although he has since learned that it is not uncommon in 

 Kansas and Southern California. Psyche, Dec. ,187 4, 30. 



MINERAL SUBSTANCES IN THE ARTICULATA. 



E. Hackel gives the result of a series of experiments upon 

 the localization, or heaping up, so to speak, of various miner- 

 al substances in the articulata, and its physiological results, 

 referring more particularly to the administration to various 

 species, especially cockroaches and crabs, of a diet consisting 

 of metallic arsenic and flour. After feeding with this sub- 

 stance for forty days the animals were dissected, and arsenic 

 found in the coeca of the stomach, as also in the Malpighian 

 tubes, in the latter the indication being most decided. 6 ./>, 

 August 24, 1874, 513. 



CAPTURE OF INSECTS BY " FLY-CATCHING " PLANTS. 



Much attention has lately been attracted to the so-called 

 fly-catching plants, and the object of the various provisions 

 by which the capture of insects is rendered possible, whether, 

 as in the Venus fly-trap (Z>io?icea muscipula), by the bring- 

 ing together of two lamina) of a leaf, with a row of spines 

 around the margin, or by attracting them into a cup-shaped 

 receptacle, as in Nepenthes and Sarracenia, or by the pres- 

 ence of organs secreting a viscid juice, as in Drosera, or sun- 

 dew, which holds an insect whenever it alights upon the 

 surface. Professor Bailey, of Providence, has lately called 

 attention to a similar function of the latter nature in the 

 Azalea viscosa, or swamp honeysuckle, which has its corolla 



