Vol. XXvi] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 281 



Notes and. News. 



ENTOMOLOGICAL GLEANINGS FROM ALL QUARTERS 

 OF THE GLOBE. 



Entomologists in the War Zone. 



A letter from Dr. Karl Jordan, dated Tring, April 8, 1915, to Dr. 

 Henry Skinner, states that Dr. Walther Horn, Dr. H. Schoutcden and 

 M. Guillaume Severin are well and at their posts in their respective 

 museums (Berlin-Dahlem, Tervueren and Brussels.) The writer had 

 been unable to get into communication with Dr. Anton Handlirsch in 



Vienna. 



A Mistake of a Butterfly (Lep.). 



Mr. E. E. Barnard writes in Nature, April 15, 1915, that, while looking 

 at a bright-colored "eye" of a peacock's feather in the band of a man's 

 hat, he saw a butterfly floating above. It suddenly alighted on the 

 "eye" and apparently began trying to extract food from it. After 

 several minutes it flew away as if satisfied that it had made a mistake. 

 It was evidently guided entirely by sight in seeking food in this case. 



Cerambycid in Bedstead (Col.). 



Recently one of my students brought in a larva which he found 

 working in the bedstead in his room. The larva had bored into the 

 rail, apparently from the inside, and was still working when found. 

 It was evidently a Cerambycid, but in order to determine the species, 

 the specimen was sent to Dr. L. O. Howard at Washington, who writes 

 that Mr. F. C. Craighead, Specialist of Forest Insects, identified it as 

 the larva of Eburia 4-geminata Say. This insect commonly feeds in 

 seasoned oak, ash, hickory, etc., but the interesting question about this 

 particular case is when did the larva get into the bed rail and how 

 long has it been there? 



In tracing the history of the bed, I find that the present owner pur- 

 chased it in LaFayette nearly twenty years ago, and it has been in 

 constant use since that time. Another board in the bedstead shows 

 unmistakable signs of having been "worm eaten" when put into the 

 bed, and that would seem to indicate that these eggs were laid before 

 the lumber was worked up. If so, this larva is at least twenty years 

 old. Dr. Lintner makes mention, in his Fourth Report, of instances 

 where members of this family have been known to escape from furni- 

 ture many years after the furniture was made up, and while it is 

 generally known that the absence of moisture and lack of air, caused 

 by polishing and varnishing of the lumber, will retard the rapidity of 

 development of the larvae of borers to a certain extent, it hardly 

 seems possible that the larval period would be prolonged for eighteen 

 or twenty years, as in this case ; and yet I cannot account for it in 

 any other way, as the excavations all indicate that they were made 

 from the inside. This species is quite rare in Indiana, and is the 

 only species of Eburia found in the State. J. TROOP, Purdue Univer- 

 sity, LaFayette, Indiana. 



