26 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



Aglenus brunneus Gyllh. No doubt artificially introduced from Europe 

 with potted plants. Specimens have been found at St. Louis, Mo. , 

 and San Francisco, Cal. (Casey). It lives under vegetable debris. 



Alaudes singularis Horn. No doubt strictly myrmecophilous ; specimens 

 are known from California (Horn) and Oregon (Wickham). 



Compared with the large number of blind or nearly eyeless 

 Coleoptera known from Europe, the North American fauna 

 appears to be an extremely poor one. The absence of blind 

 Staphylinidce and Curculwniake * is more especially noticeable. 

 Regarding the cavernicolous species, it may be said that a suf- 

 ficently large number of our caves have been explored by com 

 petent investigators to show that we cannot reasonably expect 

 any important additions to our fauna. A few new species of 

 Anophthalvms will probably still be discovered, but hardly any 

 new or striking genera such as Lcptoderus, Pholeuon, etc., of the 

 European fauna. As to the non-cavernicolous species, how 

 ever, the scarcity of species in our fauna is no doubt largely 

 due to the lack of proper and careful investigation. Many of 

 the most interesting blind species have been found in Europe 

 under large and deeply interred rocks a mode of collecting 

 which, to my knowledge, has never been attempted in North 

 America and I venture to predict that the southern parts of 

 the Alleghany Mountains, southern California and other por 

 tions of the Southwest will, in future, yield many interesting 

 additions to our list of blind Coleoptera. 



Mr. Schwarz had introduced some general remarks on the 

 blind insects of other orders, in the discussion of which Mr. 

 Howard stated that two of the three genera of eyeless Chal- 

 cididae belong to the Fig insects, and that in ants, in many 

 genera, one or other form is blind, and in Eciton the workers 

 are blind. 



In this connection, Mr. Schwarz called attention to the fact 

 that the soldiers in termites are always blind. He also 

 stated that there are but two blind Diptera known, aside 

 from the many blind fleas. In Hemiptera blind forms are 

 limited to full-grown female Coccids and to the male of 

 L eca n iu m h esperidu m . 



* By an unfortunate clerical slip in a synoptic table, Prof. L/acordaire 

 (Gen. d. Col., vii, p. 328) places the genus Lymantes among those with 

 out eyes, but from L/acordaire's own description, as well as from those 

 given by Schonherr and Gyllenhal, it is evident that the genus is provided 

 with eyes. 



