THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST, 249 



Argas makes any use of these leaves ; it neither increases nor diminishes 

 in size, nor has it, as yet, moulted, although under such conditions the 

 latter was to have been expected. Very similar to the above was the 

 case of a specimen of the large and beautiful scarlet Trombidium seri- 

 ceum — an egg parasite of Caloptenus spretus. P^ number of these mites 

 were sent to me by a lady who had received them from Texas. They 

 were put into a glass jar upon an admixture of sand and garden soil. 

 Some young locusts were also placed in the jar as food, since I was not 

 able to obtain egg pods of the latter. None of the mites, however, seemed 

 to feed, and in the course of a month or six weeks all the smaller speci- 

 mens had perished. One, however, that was considerably larger than the 

 others, was found to have buried itself in the earth, and when turned out 

 seemed to be perfectly healthy and not in the least shrunken. Upon 

 being restored to the jar it at once burrowed into the earth, tunneling to 

 the bottom. 



In this way, hidden from sight, except as I turned it out about once 

 a month, it survived, without food, until the following December, when, 

 the temperature having fallen quite low in the room in which it was kept, 

 it succubmed to cold and perished. 



.• . 



It was stated that Dr. Riley had kept a specimen of this tick alive 



without food for seven years, and that during that time it had repeatedly 

 moulted. 



Mr. Mann stated that he had kept a bombycid larva without food for 

 ten weeks. It did not moult during that period. 



Dr. Marx stated that Argas breeds also on cats and dogs as well as 

 cattle, and is not confined to pigeons. He showed by blackboard sketches 

 how, when some of the ticks are full fed, the family characters become 

 obscured. Where the head is normally retracted under and concealed by 

 the dorsal surface, when gorged with blood, this character disappears, and 

 it is hard to distinguish them from the Ixodidce. 



Mr. Smith stated that he then had a Trogoderma larva alive in a vial 

 closed with a rubber stopple, in which it had lived without food for more 

 than a year. At irregular intervals it moults, but does not seem to change 

 much otherwise, and does not eat the cast skins. 



The following paper was read by the Secretary ; — 



