50 PROCEEDINGS ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



piece of rotten wood near Prag and placed it in a glass dish to examine 

 occasionally for luminosity. It remained nonluminous for a fort- 

 night but then, when shaken in a dark room flashed, to his amaze- 

 ment, with many fine points of light the flashes lasting from sev- 

 eral seconds to half a minute. Knowing the light of fungi to be 

 constant and spontaneous, i.e., not subject to stimulation, he con- 

 cluded he must have an animal organism to deal with and, although 

 difficult on account of the minute size, was able to ascertain that 

 the light eminated from the little springtails. When isolated in a 

 small tube these insects would flash on being shaken, but after a few 

 repetitions the faculty of producing light seemed exhausted until 

 after a time at rest, when they would again respond to mechanical 

 stimulus with a sudden flash. He cites Dubois (1898) and con- 

 cludes that other forms of the Collembola may also be found 

 to be luminous. 



1904 Ludwig, Promethus, Jahrgang 16, pp. 103-107, cites 

 Allman, Dubois (1886) and Molisch and gives a lengthy discussion 

 of the possibility of luminosity being a result of feeding on, or living 

 in contact with luminous fungal or bacterial growths. 



1905 Putter, Zeitschr. f. allegemein. Physiologic, Sammel- 

 referate, 1905, p. 23, in a long article on luminosity in general, 

 refers to Molisch's discovery. 



1910 Mangold, Winterstein's Handbuch der Vergleichenden 

 Physiologic, vol. in, 2, p. 290, in his long article "Die Produktion 

 von Licht" leaves the Thysanura with the groups of insects doubt- 

 fully luminous, and gives a condensed paragraph referring to the 

 Allman, Dubois, and Molisch observations. 



Under the heading of short notes Mr. A. N. Caudell presented 

 the following: 



On October 1 of the present year I collected at Rosslyn, Virginia, 

 seed heads of a species of Bidens many of which were infested with 

 weevil larvse, a single larva to the head. The larva lay hidden 

 beneath the withered ends of the seeds it had consumed, Further 

 search revealed some pupae also, and later adults issued, proving 

 to be Conotrachelus geminatus Fabr. This weevil is not common 

 and its habit of pupating in seed heads seems unusual. The late 

 Mr. Ulke collected specimens here in the District and the National 

 Museum collection contains material from New York, New Jersey, 



