254 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



movements while in there, and its hiding in its gallery under 

 the surface while exposed to the light, proved its nocturnal 

 habits. 



Up to January ist it was moving nearly always upon the 

 sandy surface, often seen standing upon its hind legs trying to 

 reach the roach above it on the wall of the glass jar, but on 

 the 4th day of January it had retired to a space which it had 

 previously dug out about an inch under the surface where it 

 intended to hibernate, for it had shut off the canals which 

 communicated with the surface. The form of this subter 

 ranean retreat is worth a fuller description. The room itself 

 in which it hibernates is about half an inch high, and forms 

 quite a large, wide chamber. The entrance is a narrow canal 

 leading gradually from the surface to the chamber ; on the op 

 posite side of the chamber a similar passage leads to the sur 

 face ; the whole structure is close to the glass wall of the jar, 

 and every movement is therefore visible to the outside. I thus 

 noticed that the animal is not in a dormant state, during what 

 I consider the hibernating period, but is standing on its legs 

 quietly, in a corner of the chamber, and it remained in this 

 position until about April ist, when it opened communication 

 with the outer world, and was ready to receive its food of 

 roaches as before. 



It is still alive, and I intend to keep it in this state as long as 

 I can. Should anything new and interesting occur during 

 the curriculum, I will duly record it to the Society. 



Datames caspari. n. sp. A young friend of mine whose 

 father possesses silver mines in Villaldoma, Mexico, sent me in 

 April a beautiful specimen of a Galeodes, belonging to the 

 genus Datames, with a very interesting account of its life 

 habits. 



Although the order of Galeodes is well represented in North 

 America, both in the United States and Mexico, there is abso 

 lutely nothing known about its life history. I quote my 

 friend's statement literally : "I found it in an ant hole de 

 vouring ants by the wholesale ; the movement of its jaws was 

 a peculiar one, for they would move up and down, and would 

 also open with regular jaw movements after securing an ant ; 

 the motion would be a sort of rubbing or grinding as if you 

 should place your hands together in front of you and first 

 move one away from you and then the other towards you. 

 After grinding its food and taking the juice it would drop the 

 remains and go in for more." 



This is, so far, all that has been observed by my friend ; it 

 was known before that this insect was nocturnal, but it seems 

 by this report, that it also seeks its food in daytime. 



