THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 211 



pitcher does not iinfrequently take place, for I )r. ^Nlellichamp writes under 

 date of June 27, as follows : *' Most old leaves now examined — I might 

 almost say all- -instead of being bored, seem ripped or torn, as if by 

 violence, apparently from without. You see occasionally shreds of the 

 leaf hanging. Surely the legless larva of Sarcophaga cannot do this ! 

 What then — toads, or frogs, or crawfish aboundinp^ in these moist, pine  

 lands ? or rather is not the fat maggot the occasion of the visits of the 

 quail, which lately I have observed here ? " 



These two insects are the only species of any size that can invade the 

 death-dealing trap with impunity while the leaf is in full vigor, and the 

 only other species which seem at home in the leaf are a minute pale mite 

 belonging apparently to Holothyrus in the Gamasidae, and which may 

 quite commonly be found crawling within the pitcher ; and a small Lepi- 

 dopterous leaf-miner, which I have not succeeded in rearing. There 

 must, however, be a fifth species, which effectually braves the dangers of 

 the bottom of the pit, for the pupa of Sarcophaga is sometimes crowded 

 with a little Chalcid parasite, the parent of which must have sought her 

 victim while it was riotinsr there as larva. 



No other insect, so far as we now know, can crawl up the slippery 

 belt, but tumble into the tube and there meet their death. 



Certain questions very naturally present themselves here : First, 

 What gives the flesh-fly more secure foothold on the slippery pubescence 

 than the common house-fly exhibits ? Second, "What enables the larva 

 of the flesh-fly to withstand the solvent property of the fluid which 

 destroys so many other insects ? Third, What gives the Sarracenia moth 

 and its larva similar security ? I can only offer, in answer, the following 

 suggestions : The last joint of the tarsus of the common house-fly has 

 two movable, sharp-pointed claws, and a pair of pads or " pulvilli." These 

 pads were formerly supposed to operate as suckers, and all sorts of 

 sensational accounts of this wonderful sucker have been given by popular 

 writers, who forgot that there are an}' number of minute insects having no 

 such tarsal apparatus, which are equally mdifterent to the laws of gravita- 

 tion so far as walking on smooth, upright surfaces, or on the ceiling, is 

 concerned. In reality, these pads are thickly beset on the lower surface 

 with short hairs, most of which terminate in a minute expansion kept 

 ■continually moist by an exuding fluid — a sort of perspiration. Take the 

 soft human hand, moistened by perspiration or other means, and draw it, 

 with slight pressure, first over a piece of glass or other highly-polished 

 surface, and then over something that has a rougher surface, such as a 



