182 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



hairs which were longer at each extremity. A number of these larvae were 

 collected and fed upon pieces of carpet, and their transformations carefully 

 watched until the disclosure of the perfect insect, when it proved to be a 

 member of that very destructive family of beetles known to Entomologists 

 as the Dermestidae. This insect, which proves to be a European species, 

 has probably been imported from Europe with carpets brought to New 

 York and Boston, at which ports its destructive efforts first attracted 

 attention. The beetle, the parent of all this mischief, is a very small one, 

 being not more than one-eighth of an inch long, and one-twelfth of an 

 inch broad ; it is nearly oval, black, with faint red and white markings. It 

 does not confine its attention to carpets, but will eat any sort of woolen 

 goods, but does not appear to injure those of cotton. In Europe it is 

 said to destroy furs, clothes, collections of animals, insects and plants, and 

 is sometimes very injurious to leather. A more detailed description of 

 this insect and its workings, as furnished by Prof. Lintner's observations 

 in his recent " Entomological Contributions," will be given in the annual 

 report of our Society. As this insect has for some time past been com- 

 mitting great ravages in Buffalo, N. Y., it is not likely that we shall be 

 long free from it ; indeed it is altogether probable that it is already in our 

 midst, although 1 am not aware that it has yet been brought under the 

 notice of any of our Entomologists. Unfortunately it is a very difficult 

 pest to destroy. The ordinary applications, such as camphor, pepper, 

 tobacco, turpentine and carbolic acid, have, it is asserted, been tried with- 

 out success, and no effectual means for its destruction has yet been 

 devised. 



Strange that so many of our most injurious insects have been brought 

 from Europe, and that when introduced here they multiply to a far greater 

 extent than in their native home. This rapid increase doubtless arises 

 from the fact that they have numerous parasites in the place of their 

 nativity which prey on them, and that these parasites are rarely imported 

 with them, and hence it becomes a question of great practical importance 

 as to whether these parasites might not by special effort be introduced, and 

 thus materially lessen the losses which these scourges inflict on the com- 

 munity. We are indebted to Europe for the Codling Moth of the apple, 

 Carpocapsa pomonclla ; the Currant Worm, Nematus ventricosus ; the 

 Oyster-shell Bark Louse, Aspidiotus coiuhifonnis ; the Cabbage Butterfly, 

 Pieris rapa. ; the Currant Borer, sEger/a iipulifonnis ; the Hessian Fly, 

 Cecidomyia destructor; the Wheat Midge, Diplosis tritici ; the Grain Wee- 



