320 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



economic importance easily and quickly girdle the earth. It has, 

 therefore, no especial significance when these orange scales are 

 discovered in the botanic gardens of Australia, Tahiti, Fiji, Cey 

 lon, India, and other distant colonies of the British Empire 

 where the importation of living plants is actively carried on. 

 The researches of Mr. Maskell and the official entomologists of 

 the various stations give a very clear idea of the character of the 

 indigenous coccid fauna of Australia and the islands of the 

 Indian Ocean, and it appears that while our typical orange scales 

 have been introduced into many of these countries they have no 

 place in their original fauna, but are represented there by inter 

 mediate species, or perhaps only varieties of one species, which 

 unite three principal types of Mytilaspis scales that in the 

 Northern Hemisphere have become more fully differentiated and 

 form as many distinct species, viz. : the apple scale, Mytilaspis 

 pomvrum, having the thickest scale and darkest color ; Jl/. cit- 

 ricola, with an equally broad scale, but thinner and lighter in 

 color ; and M. gloveri, with linear form and still thinner and 

 paler scale. Mr. Hubbard showed that these variations in the 

 scale covering were necessarily accompanied by differences in 

 the structure of the insect, and pointed out that the thin and elon 

 gate forms were adapted to life in tropical thickets ; that the 

 broader form and thicker scale was better suited to existence in 

 uplands where there is greater exposure to sun and air and less 

 moisture ; and finally that the heaviest and darkest coverings 

 were necessary to resist the sudden changes of winter. He sug 

 gested the hypothesis that a tendency to vary in these three 

 directions on the part of an originally tropical species of Myti 

 laspis had in the North produced as three distinct species the 

 apple scale, the purple scale, and the long scale, while in the 

 Southern Hemisphere, and in islands like Japan, the preponder 

 ance of water and the abrupt termination of the land areas, giv 

 ing a more restricted range into colder regions, these variations 

 had not become fully differentiated and still existed as varieties 

 of the original species. 



Dr. Stiles exhibited a Dermestes larva from a corpse from 

 three to six months after death. He also called attention to the 

 French work entitled " La Faune des Cadavres," by P. Megnin. 

 This author divides the period from the burial of the corpse to 

 its final dissolution into eight portions, and states that during 

 these different periods a different series of insects infests it, and 

 that in some instances the insects present in one period may be 



