180 Forty-first Report on the State Museum. 



The Prairie Farmer maintains an Entomological Department, averaging two columns 

 weekly in extent, under the editorship of Clarence M. Weed. 



The same department, in the Fruit Growef)'s' Jownal, of Cobden, Illinois, containing 

 weekly contributions, is edited by Professor G. H. French. 



To the American Agriculturist, occasional contributions are made and inauiries 

 answered by Professor Riley. 



The Spirit of the Farm, of Nashville, Tenn., is publishing a series of entomological 

 articles, by the entomological editor. Prof. E. W. Doran. 



The Pacific Rural Press keeps its readers well-informed of the active entomological 

 work being prosecuted in California, in the struggle for the preservation of the fruits 

 of the State from the onslaught of, thus far, an i^ivincible army of scale-insects. 



The New England Homestead, of Springfield, Mass., encourages the observation of insect 

 habits and injury, in the publication of much valuable information in this direction. 



The Country Gentleman, of Albany, N. Y., receives many inquiries of insect attacks, 

 which are answered, often at considerable length, by the State Entomologist of New 

 York. 



Interesting Entomological Studies, Abroad. 



In addition to the preceding notice of the publications of our entomologists, may I be 

 permitted to refer to some studies of particular interest which have been given us dur- 

 ing the year, outside of our country, to which general attention may not have been 

 drawn. 



Recent studies of Eorel, Kraepelin, Hauser, and others, had placed almost beyond 

 question, the location of the sense of smell in insects, in the antennae. Later, the study 

 has again been taken up by Prof. V. Graber, of the University of Czernowitz, Austria, 

 with results that serve to reopen the question, and invite to further investigation. 



In a late number of the Comptes-Rendus of the Societe Entomologique de Belgique, 

 his conclusions are summed up as follows: 



1. The perception of odors is not confined to the antennae, for ants and Lucilia Ccesar, 

 deprived of their antennae, retained the perception. 



2. The antennae are perhaps more sensitive to odors than other parts of the body. 

 SHiiha thoracica deprived of its antenuce, was affected by some odors but not by other 

 weaker ones. 



3. The palpi may be more sensitive to odors than the antenna;, as would appear from 

 some experiments made with Gryllotalpa vidgaris. 



i. In a large series of experiments with a iMcanus which followed the odorous mate- 

 rial employed, sometimes the palpi and sometimes the antennae, were the more rapidly 

 excited. 



5. The perception of odors may also lie in the anal stylets, as shown in a decapitated 

 Perlplanata. (This idea had been previously advanced by Dr. Packard, Amer. Nat, iv, 

 1870, p. 620.) 



6. Insects have no special organ of smell. 



The studies of Exner, communicated to the Vienna Academy in 1875, led to the rejection 

 of the mosaic theory of vision in insects as necessarily attendant upon their compound 

 eyes, and to its replacement by the theoretical deduction that they do not distinguish 

 the form of objects, but that their vision consists mainly in the perception of move- 

 ments and of colors. Their faceted eyes are not complete visual organs, but simple 

 organs of orientation. 



In a subsequent communication by Plateau, to the Royal Academy of Belgium, he has 

 presented the following conclusions drawn from studies of Diptera, Hymenoptera, 

 Lepidoptera, Odonata, and Coleoptera. 



In diurnal insects with compound eyes, the simple eyes offer so little utility that it is 

 right to consider them as rudimentary organs. 



Insects with compound eyes do not notice differences of form existing between two 

 light-orifices, and are deceived by an excess of luminous intensity as well as by the 

 apparent excess of surface. In short, they do not distinguish the form of objects, or if 

 they do, they distinguish them very badly (American Naturalist, xx, p. 69). 



