Vol. xxii] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS 227 



PLATYPSYLLA CASTORIS Rrrs. IN CALIFORNIA. Prof. Joseph Grinnell, 

 of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology in Berkeley, has been kind enough 

 to send me a bottle with 46 specimens of this curious beetle. The bot- 

 tle had the following label : "Taken from fur around nose and face of 

 Beaver (Castor canadensis) from Graycom, Stanislaus Co., Calif, (on 

 San Joaquin R.) March 25, 1911." 



DR. A. FENYES, of Pasadena, California, recently elected a Fellow 

 of the Entomological Society of London, has presented four boxes con- 

 taining an admirable collection of North American Aleocharinae 

 (Coleoptera) to the Society which, in the absence of any collections 

 belonging exclusively to the Society, have been transferred to the 

 British Museum of Natural History. ENTOMOLOGIST (London), Jan- 

 uary, 1911. 



I shall be pleased to exchange specimens of this interesting species 

 for beetles of the Staphylinid subfamily Aleocharinae, in which latter 

 group I am especially interested. ADALBERT FENYES, M.D., Pasadena, 

 California. 



MIASTOR LARVAE. These remarkably interesting larvae, reproduced 

 by pedogenesis, are available for laboratory work to a marked degree 

 and must be widely distributed as well as allied forms. Very little is 

 known concerning American species, largely because their habitat is 

 one rarely explored by entomologists. They breed mostly in decaying 

 vegetable matter. We have been very successful in finding them under 

 partially decayed chestnut bark of stumps, fence rails and sleepers 

 which have been cut one or two years earlier. European species have 

 been observed under the bark of a variety of trees and even in sugar 

 beet residue. These Dipterous maggots with diverging antennae have 

 a flattened, triangular head quite different from the strongly convex, 

 usually fuscous head of the Sciara larvae occurring in a similar envir- 

 onment. They have a length of from 1-20 to ]4, of an inch and may 

 be found in colonies containing a few large, white larvae with numer- 

 ous smaller, yellowish individuals, though the latter appear more com- 

 mon at the present time. Early spring with its abundance of moist 

 bark appears to be the most favorable season for finding the larvae. 

 The writer would welcome the co-operation of entomologists and 

 others in searching for these forms in different parts of the country. 

 He will be pleased to determine specimens found under various con- 

 ditions, make rearings therefrom if possible, and thus add to our 

 knowledge of the sub-family Heteropezinae, a group which should be 

 fairly abundant in North America and one deserving careful study.- 

 E. P. FELT, State Entomologist's Office, Albany, N. Y. 



[Dr. Felt has published a more extended note on Miastor larvae in 

 Science for Feb. 24 1911, page 302. ED.] 



