156 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [May, 



Some of the ' ' unsolved questions' ' referred to by Baron Osten 

 Sacken have, since he wrote, been solved, or a way to their full 

 solution discovered, but fields vast enough for a life-time of 

 study remain to be explored. 



THE Sugar Ant (Formica omnivora Linn.) appeared about the year 

 1760 in Barbadoes, and caused such devastations that, in the words of 

 Dr. Coke, "it was deliberated whether that island, formerly so flourish- 

 ing, should not be deserted." In 1763, Martinique was visited by these 

 devastating hordes; and about the year 1770 they made their appearance 

 in the island of Granada. Barbadoes, Granada and Martinique suffered 

 more than any other island from this. plague. Granada, especially, was 

 reduced to a state of the most deplorable desolation; for, it is said, their 

 numbers there were so immense that they covered the roads for many 

 miles together; and so crowded were they in many places, that the im. 

 pressions made by the feet of horses, which traveled over them, would 

 remain visible but for a moment or two, for they were almost instantly 

 filled up by the surrounding swarms. * * * Notwithstanding the myriads 

 that were destroyed by fire, water, poison and other means, the devasta- 

 tions continued to such an alarming extent; that in 1776 the government 

 of Martinique offered a reward of a million of their currency, for a remedy 

 against the plague; and the legislature of Granada offered ^"20,000 for 

 the same object; but all attempts proved ineffectual, until the hurricane in 

 1780 effected what human power had been unable to accomplish. 

 Cowan's Curious facts. 



THE Kermes-dye, or scarlet, made from the Coccus ilicis Linn., an insect 

 found chiefly on a species of oak (Q. ilex} in the Levant, France, Spain 

 and other parts of the world, was known in the East in the earliest ages, 

 even before the time of Moses, and was a discovery of the Phoenicians in 

 Palestine. Tola, or Tho/a, was the ancient Phoenician name for this 

 insect, and dye, which was used by the Hebrews, and even by the Syrians. 

 To the Greeks this dye was known under the name of Coccus, as appears 

 from Dioscorides and other Greek writers. From the epithets kermes 

 and coccus, and that of vermiculus or venniculum, given to the Kermes 

 in the middle ages when they were ascertained to be insects, have sprung 

 the Latin coccineus, the French carmesin, carmine, cramoistand vermeil, 

 the Italian chermisi, cremisino and chermesino, and our crimson and 

 vermillion. Cowan's Curious Facts. 



IN the "American Naturalist" for April (p. 400, i), Mr. Nathan Banks 

 holds that the maxillae of insects represent the first maxillae plus the max- 

 illipedes of the Chilopods, and that the labium of insects equals the second 

 maxillae of Chilopods. He also suggests that the meso- and metathorax of 

 insects are each composed of two segments, so that the entire thorax 

 would consist of five segments, whereof one, three, and five bear legs, 

 while two and four are provided with wings. 



