4 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



and securely tied. These sacks were kept in the same room 

 as several hundred others containing timothy and other grasses 

 not only from about Washington but from most of the States 

 east of the Rocky Mountains. They were not opened until 

 May 16, 1906, nearly ten months afterwards, when great 

 numbers of these beetles were found alive in the sacks from 

 Arlington, but in none of the others. It is difficult to see how 

 the beetles could have been introduced into these sacks in any 

 other way than with the hay, and had they gained access 

 thereto during the time the timothy was in storage it is diffi- 

 cult to see why they should not have entered other sacks also, 

 but among the hundreds of boxes of grains and grasses they 

 have not since been encountered. 



It seems rather strange that we should, in our hundreds of 

 experiments in breeding insects from other points in this 

 immediate vicinity as well as from other States, have en- 

 countered this imported beetle but once, and then confined 

 exclusively to these varieties or strains of timothy. 



Specimens of the adult were exhibited. 



Mr. Schwarz said that this beetle feeds on the various 

 species of molds such as infest seed and herbarium specimens. 

 Although described first from Madeira, it is now cosmopolitan, 

 being found occasionally as a pest in herbaria. In regard to the 

 published statement that it has been found " among Alaskan 

 Lepidoptera " it should be noted that the baskets containing 

 the Lepidoptera (some geometrid) wrapped up in papers, were 

 detained at San Francisco for several weeks, and upon their 

 arrival at Washington many of them were found to be in- 

 fested by a mold, upon which the Adistemia was feeding. 



Doctor Hopkins said that the food habit of these beetles was 

 particularly interesting in this case, because it probably ex- 

 plained the apparently peculiar facts noted by Professor 

 Webster. One of the varieties of timothy is known to be 

 infested with a destructive fungous disease, and it is prob- 

 ably from this variety that Professor Webster obtained his 

 specimens. 



As an additional note, Doctor Hopkins stated that the 

 varieties of timothy are differently affected by both diseases 

 and insects, indicating that some are more susceptible to attack 



