Eighth Report of the State Entomologist. 177 



where, after their changes, they were found. The larva? coukl not feed 

 upon the salt, nor could it be of any particular service to them in any 

 manner. Their presence Avould not in the slightest degree impair the 

 value of the salt for use. The pupae would be readily seen; the beetles 

 would at once escape, and no eggs would have been deposited in the salt. 



The insect has not been figured by any of our writers. The accom- 

 panying illustrations of its larval, pupal, and perfect stages are from 

 Curtis' Farm Insects. In shape and general appearance the beetle is 

 much like T. obscurvs Fabr., but while that is of a dead opaque-black 

 color, this is of a shining black. Its larva " is about an inch long, 

 cylindrical, smooth and glossy, with the terminal segment semicircular, 

 slighly serrated on the edges, and terminated in a single point" 

 (Packard). Curtis describes it as " cylindric, smooth, ochreous, with 

 bright rusty bands and a few scattered hairs; two small horns, six 

 pectoral legs, and two minute spines at the tail." 



It is a common species in the Old World, a^d has been quite largely 

 distributed by commerce in all commercial countries. It is said to have 

 been recently introduced, intentionally, in Chili for the purpose of using 

 its larva? for bird-food.* Dr. Packard's remark, " that it is found in all 

 its stages about corn- and rye-meal, and is frequently swallowed with 

 food," finds apparent confirmation in a notice entitled, "Larvae of 

 Tenebrio molitor in a Woman's Stomach,"f in which two insects 

 reported by a physician to have been ejected from the stomach, are 

 identified as the above, and the statement accepted as probable, with 

 the suggestion that the larvje may have been swallowed without under- 

 going mastication in corn-meal mush; the irritation that their move- 

 ments would occasion, would naturally excite vomiting and their 

 ejection. 



Another account of this same insect, which is quite amusing, is related, 

 where the scratching sounds caused by a number of the beetles 

 which had bred within a pin-cushion filled " with coarse shorts," led the 

 guest at a hotel to believe, and make complaint, that the room to which 

 he had been assigned, and in which he had passed a sleepless night, was 

 haunted. J 



Pulvinaria innumerabilis (Rathvon). 



The Maple-tree Scale Insect. 



Referring to the notice of this insect in the Sixth Report on the 



Insects of New York, Mr. Andrew S. Fuller, in a communication to 



me, under date of February 20th, 1891, has written as follows of its 



* Insect Ufe, i, 1888, page 154. \Id ., page 379. t ^ ii-, 1890, page 148. 



23 



