1890.] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 39 



his room than he knew himself, but an inspection soon showed 

 that the books were stored upon a board resting upon a barrel 

 filled with old bran. Evidently the larva?, in search for suitable 

 quarters to transform, had wandered about and had mistaken the 

 covers of his books for the loose bark of trees, their usual abode-. 



An Interesting Method of Egg Deposition. 



BY J. E. IVES. 



Some time since I received from Mr. J. C. Saltar, of Pember- 

 ton, N. J., what appeared to be a dried-up mass of dead flies, 

 about the size of a man's fist. Throughout it were scattered light- 

 colored fragments, which had somewhat the appearance of empty 

 egg-cases. The whole mass was very brittle, and readily crum- 

 bled to pieces. It was obtained from the under surface of the 

 trunk of a tree overhanging a small stream. 



Being unable to obtain any information as to the nature of this 

 peculiar structure, I sent it to Dr. Williston, of Yale, with the 

 request that he would kindly examine it. He has done so, and 

 writes that the flies are the females of a species belonging to the 

 genus Atherix, probably to Atherix variegata Walk. He draws 

 attention to the fact that, in the Standard Natural History, p. 418, 

 he makes the following reference to the subject: "The eggs of 

 Atherix are deposited in large, pear-shaped masses, attached to 

 dried branches overhanging water. Not only do numerous fe- 

 males contribute to the formation of these clusters, but they re- 

 main there themselves and die; the newly-hatched larvae escape 

 into the water." 



The instinct which leads to the formation of such a mass is a 

 very peculiar and interesting one. 



-o- 



NOTES ON BOMBUS. 



BY C. ROBERTSON. 



In a letter addressed to me in October, 1888, Mr. Cresson ex- 

 pressed the suspicion that Apathus? elatus Fab. was not a true 

 Apathus, but that it was probably a Bonibiis, and in a letter of 

 November he expressed the hope that I would obtain some- lij^ht 

 on the subject during the following summer. Accordingly, in 



