28 '' i>\ [January, 



gall-maker, but subsequent discoveries on the continent, as well as the characters of 

 the insect, have shown it to belong to the parasitic division of the Cynipidce. — T. 

 A. Marshall, Botusfleming Rectory, Cornwall : December 12th, 1894. 



Note on an American tortoise, and the Coleoptera that follow it. — Mr. John 

 Hamilton, in a letter to me, dated October 9th, answers some enquiries of mine 

 regarding a curious Histerid, which has lately been discovered in the burrows of an 

 American tortoise. I had seen some account of it in " Insect Life," but as this 

 publication has not, I believe, a very wide circulation, either hei*e or on the conti- 

 nent, it may be of interest if I give an extract from Mr. Hamilton's letter : — 



" From what you say in your letter, I infer you have not seen Mr. Hubbard's 

 account of Gopherus Polyphemus, and the descriptions of the beetles, &c., published 

 in ' Insect Life,' vol. vi, pp. 302 — 315. 



" This tortoise grows to ten or twelve inches in length, and is supposed to live 

 100 years or more, always inhabiting the same burrow, unless compelled to dig a new 

 one. The place selected is a sandy plateau (in Florida) among dense growth of low 

 palms, scrub, live oak, &c. The top layer of white sand, where I found them, was 

 about four feet deep, and beneath this there was a deep layer of yellow sand com- 

 pacted to near the hardness of sand-stone. The object of the tortoise is to penetrate 

 the last about two feet, and there it stops. To reach it, the tortoise digs at a 

 measured angle of 35°, which, to attain a depth of about five and half feet, requires 

 a burrow about twelve feet long. If the upper sand is deeper, as it is in some 

 localities, say seven or eight feet, the burrow must be proportionally longer. The 

 turtle is a vegetable feeder, and has an intestine an inch in diameter, and its evacua- 

 tions are very large, and composed almost entirely of vegetable fibre. At the end 

 of its burrow there seems to be an excavation for the excrement, and in this the 

 beetles live. 



" Mr. Hubbard has taken double the number of species of Coleoptera I did, and 

 each species in much larger numbers, digging in July and August. He has described 

 Onthophagus polyphemi and Philonthus gopheri, and he has also a Trichopteryx 

 and three species of Brachelytra yet to describe. If you have seen Mr. Hubbard's 

 paper this may still interest you, as there are some things here which he does not 

 mention. The digging for Gophers, with the temperature nearly 100° in the shade, 

 and in such a place as I have described, is about as difficult entomological work 

 (physically speaking) as is ever encountered." 



The tortoise, or one similar to it, occurs in Mexico and other countries, so that 

 the area over which the Coleoptera may be found is a very lai-ge one, and, I think, 

 the method of hunting for them tried by Mr. Hubbard and Mr. Hamilton is likely 

 to lead to the discovery of numerous species. I saw a great many tortoises in 

 Algeria tliis spring, and although the species is not a burrower like Gopherus Poly- 

 phemus, I think it is highly probable some small stercoraceous beetles are more or less 

 attached to them.— G-. Lewis, Archer's Road, Southampton : October 22nd, 1894. 



The genus Ithaca, Olliff.— In the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New 

 South Wales, 2nd series, ii, pp. 152—154 (1888), Mr. Olliff described a supposed 

 new genus and species of (Edemeridce from Tasmania, under the name of Ithaca 

 anthina, and remarked upon the extraordinary structure of the antennae. This 



