158 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [May, 



NICHOLAS has made some experiments at Mount Ventoux on the re- 

 tardation of the date of hatching in Hymenoptera, produced by high alti- 

 tudes. His results are as follows : 



At the height cf 20 metres the retardation amounted to o days. 



" 600 " " " 25 " 



" 860 " " " 41 " 



1253 " " " 69 " 



1400 " " 83 " 



1700 " 98 " 



1912 " " ' " 117 " 



(C. R. Ass. Franc., 1891, pt. 2., 566.) 



W. H. HUDSON records a new case of mimicry from La Plata, on the 

 part of a grasshopper (Rhonialca), which resembles a wasp (Pepsis}. 

 This wasp is, like all its allies, protected by its sting ; but it is also fur- 

 nished with stink glands, which emit a most disagreeable odor. When 

 on the wing the grasshopper becomes the facsimile of the wasp ; more- 

 over, when taken in the hand, it has the curious habit of suddenly curling 

 the body round, as a wasp does to sting. The same author has an inter- 

 esting chapter on dragon-fly storms. In the Summer and the Autumn 

 thousands of these insects may be seen flying in a northeasterly direction 

 at the extraordinary speed of seventy or eighty miles an hour, evidently 

 in the utmost terror, before the pampero, a cold, dry, exceedingly violent 

 wind. (Naturalist in La Plata, 127.) 



NOTES ON SYNCHLCE CROCALE Edw. A note was published by the 

 writer in "Can. Ent. " (1892, p. 198) on Synchlce crocale \\ . H. Edw. 

 Two broods of the larvse are there recorded. On August 24, 1892, I 

 found a small colony of larvae of this butterfly on HeliantJnts near Las 

 Cruces. The larvse were very small, not a half inch in length ; this find- 

 ing conclusively indicates a third brood for southern New Mexico. The 

 food-plant of this butterfly here is Helianthus annmis. C. H. T. TOWN- 

 SEND. 



SCHIZURA IPOME.E Doubl. On July n, 1892, the larva of Schizura 

 ipomece Doubl. was found on a round-leafed leguminous tree, Cercis oc- 

 cidentalisTovr., in the Grand Canon, Arizona, 2500 feet below the rim 

 at Hances. It was feeding of the leaves. The colors of the larva assimi- 

 lated in a striking manner with the green of the leaves and the dark gray 

 of the bark, as it clung to the twigs when not feeding. This is apparently 

 a new food-plant for the species. The larva was determined by Dr. Pack- 

 ard. C. H. T. TOWNSEND. 



COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS, STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 

 GYPSY MOTH DEPARTMENT. The committee in charge of this De- 

 partment desires to again call your attention to the danger which menaces 

 the orchards, gardens, shade trees, narks and woodlands of Massa- 

 chusetts by reason of the presence within her borders of one of the worst 

 insect pests of Europe. 



