Report of the State Entomologist 253 



Of two specimens taken early in December from a cavity in a poplar 

 in Clairborne county, Tenn., he has written : 



When received, about three weeks after being taken [from their 

 cases when they were "soft and white"], the male was assuming the 

 greenish hue, and in three weeks more was normally colored. The 

 female was entirely brown, and in four weeks had changed to nearly 

 black; the black then began to fade, and in about four weeks more 

 the beetle had taken on the greenish tint, with the usual brown 

 maculre. No further change in color has occurred till the present, 

 April 6th. It may be possible that the brown males and females 

 mentioned by writers are immature individuals, as it would appear 

 from the above that it requires from two to three months to perfect 

 the colors. 



Early Observations on the Insect in Pennsylvania. 



Say, in his description of the beetle in 1824, remarks that " it is so 

 extremely rare in Pennsylvania, that the late Kev. F. Y. Melsheimer, 

 the pai-ent of entomology in this countrj' and a very industrious col- 

 lector, found but two individuals in eighteen years." 



Dr. S. S. Rathvon, a veteran entomologist, whose name, although not 

 now frequently quoted, should long be held in grateful remembrance 

 for the service that he rendered to entomological science in its earlier 

 days, and who is still living at the advanced age of nearly eighty 

 years, at Lancaster, Pa., although withdrawn from active labors 

 through the heavy burden of serious bodily infirmities resting upon 

 him* — has kindly given me in a recent communication some recol- 

 lections of his first acquaintance with Dynastes Tityus in Pennsylva- 

 nia, from which I extract : 



"The Rhinoceros beetle," Dynastes Tityus! How far back my 

 memory runs in connection with that gigantic subject of Coleopterous 

 realms. 



The first specimen I ever saw (a female) was in the possession of 

 the late Judge Libhart of Marietta, Pa., in 1839, and was captured 

 near Wrightsville, York county, Pa. Twenty years later, I received a 

 male specimen that was captured in the same county opposite Mari- 

 etta, which is about three miles above Wrightsville. In the mean- 

 time I had received a male and female from Kentucky, and a male 

 from Virginia. 



In 1859 or 1860 a large willow tree was blown down by a storm, at 

 the village of Safe-Harbor, in the county of Lancaster. The trunk, 

 inside, was much decayed, and in it were found about twenty speci- 

 mens, and a number of larvse. I did not learn of this for a week or 

 ten days thereafter, and was only able to secure a single pair, from a 

 person in Lancaster city who obtained them on the spot. Perhaps 

 half a dozen were secured and the others permitted to escape. I sub- 



* Dr. Kathvon died at Lancaster, Pa., on March 19, 1891. 

 33 



