ATROPOS DIVINATORIA: ITS POSSIBLE SOURCE. 



them. One hundred doUars would be no temptation to me to pass 

 through such a trial again, even if I have suceeded now in subduing 

 them. I had cared for the room twenty-three years, and never saw any 

 thing of the kind before. It was not sc? when the men retired, and was 

 literally alive an hour after their departure. I know that it seems in- 

 credible, but my testimony can be fully substantiated. There are some 

 that ^ar/ so that I cannot trap them. It seems to me that they are in 

 different stages of development, or perhaps different varieties." 



The Possible Source of the Insects. 



I know of no other instance in which A. divinatoria has occurred in 



this country, in an abundance equal to the above, nor am 1 able to offer 



vx' ^ n , any explanation for its sudden appear- 



^^ " " ance. The only suggestion as to its 



source that presents itself is this; its 

 possible introduction with the straw 

 used in filling the straw-ticks, not- 

 withstanding the statement that other 

 beds filled with straw from the same 

 source were not infested. Species of 

 Psocidce are known to abound in 

 barns. Dr. Hagen informs me that he 

 had, on one occasion, found more 

 than half of the refuse material left 

 in a barn after threshing the grain to 

 consist of a small species of Psocus. 

 Mr. McLachlan, of London, England, 

 has found " myriads " of this same spe- 

 cies, Atropos divinato>'ia , in the straw 

 bottle envelopes in the wine cellar of 

 his house, associated with Clothilla picea. Examples of Clothilla pulsa- 

 toria (to be noticed hereafter) have been sent to me for name, taken 

 from cattle-stalls, in Warren, Ohio, where they were abounding, and 

 from the locality that they occupied, were supposed to be cattle-lice. 



Description of the Insect. 

 The American forms of this species have been found by Dr. Hagen 

 to differ in several particulars f^om the European ones, but as these 

 differences are mainly colorational, they are regarded as identical. They 

 have been minutely described by Dr. Hagen in " Beitrage zur Mono- 

 graphic der Psociden — Familie Atropina," in Entomologische Zcitutig, 

 entomologischeti Vcreine zu Stettin, 44, 1883, pp. 285—332, and figured in 

 the same publication (Plate ii. Fig. 4) of the preceding year. To these, 

 26 



f I o o 



y\'i. 0(1.— Atropos divinatoria: a, var. citcur 

 hilfv.\ 6, side-view of basis of antenna ; c, eyes 

 <?, claw ; f, tarsus of nympha : /, A. divwaloria 

 drawn from life. 



