June, 1914.] Miscellaneous Notes. 173 



Here at Cincinnati, Ohio, they seem to be on the job all the year 

 around. By crumbling the fungus into a sifting net and sifting the 

 debris over paper, arranging it so the warm sun will shine on the 

 paper and cause the insects to move, they can be picked out. Bunches 

 of fungus can be gathered in woods at any time and carried home 

 in paper bags, placed in a suitable degree of temperature and moisture, 

 and the beetles will hatch and begin feeding. They are frequently 

 very numerous in individuals. From the fungus I found growing on 

 a large log (poplar) which I crumbled and broke into small pieces 

 and sifted, I gathered over 1,000 specimens of nine species viz.: Two 

 of Cis, two Xestocis, two Ceracis, one Ennearthron, one Octotemnus 

 and one new genus. This patch of fungus would have yielded 

 perhaps 5,000 if so many had been wanted. To study the little organ- 

 isms they should be clean and have antenna and foreleg drawn out 

 and a few males mounted ventral side up. It is necessary to examine 

 them with a compound microscope to count antennal joints, etc., with 

 accuracy. The Cioidx are often confused with some of the Scoly- 

 tidae, but the characters given will enable them to be recognized. 

 There are other more minute characters, some of them of great value, 

 but they are difficult to see. In the above definition, I have excluded 

 the Rhipidandrinae which form a tribe in the family Tenebrionidse. I 

 cannot find any evidence of their being of any economic importance. 

 In the botanical museum of the Lloyd's in the department of mycology 

 they eat up the specimens of Polyporus, and allied fungi, if the speci- 

 mens have not been first baked or poisoned before placing them in 

 the collection. I have heard the curator make remarks decidedly un- 

 complimentary to the whole beetle tribe in this respect. — Chas. Dury. 



Reactions of the Spider, Pholcus phalangioides. — During a ten 

 months' cruise in a New Bedford whaling vessel, which sailed from 

 Barbados, W. I., as far south as the latitude of Cape Horn, the 

 writer observed that numerous long-legged spiders, specimens of 

 which have since been identified by Mr. James H. Emerton as the 

 widely distributed house spider, Pholcus phalangioides, were constant 

 inmates of the ship's cabin. They occupied rather shapeless webs in 

 shelves and low corners. Their food supply was a mystery, since the 

 only flying insects ever seen on the vessel were minute Diptera 

 brought on board with fruit at the Cape Verde Islands and at Fer- 



