March— April iSS.;.] 



PSrCHE. 



39 



ENTOMOLOGICAL ITEMS. 



According to the daily press, buffalo 

 gnats [Simih'inn sp.] are doing great damage 

 to live stock in Deslia and Chicol counties, 

 Arkan.'^as. 



The Euffalo society of natural sciences 

 has had a bequest from Dr. Haves, said to 

 amount to $150,000, which is not, however, 

 a\-ailahle at present. 



Prof. J. T. Reinh.^^rdt, who died 23 Oct. 

 1S82, is succeeded, in his place as inspector 

 of the zoological museum in Copenhagen, 

 by Dr. Christian Liitken. 



The French association for the advance- 

 ment of the sciences will hold its annual 

 congress. 16 August, this year, at Rouen. 

 The section of zoology will be presided over 

 by Dr. Joiisset de Bellesme. 



Benj.\.min Cooke, for several years Presi- 

 dent of the Northern entomological societv 

 and later Vice President of the Lancashire 

 and Cheshire entomological society, died at 

 Southport. England. 4 Feb. 1SS3, aged 66 

 vears. 



Count H. zu Solms-Laubach has lately 

 published a pamphlet on the origin, domes- 

 tication and cultivation of the fig-tree, which 

 contains much of interest on the subject of 

 caprification. An abstract of the pamphlet 

 is given in Neiv Remedies for April 18S3. 



Rev. Henry C. McCook. of Philadelphia, 

 is engaged upon an illustrated book on ''Am- 

 erican spiders and their spinning work," and 

 hopes to have a volume on tlie •■Industry 

 and habits of orbweavers" ready b_v midsum- 

 mer. — Science. 23 March 18S3. v. i. p. 207. 



The Paper by Prof F. H. Snow in Psy- 

 che ( vol. 3, no. gS) on Trngoderma tarsale 

 is noticed in the American naiiiralist (or Feh. 

 1SS3 (p. 199), where it is stated that this spe- 

 cies is "the most cominon museum pest in 

 this country." and that it is by far the most 

 dangerous enemy to collections of insects in 

 Washinijton. D. C* 



Embryology ok the silk-worm. — This 

 has been studied by S. Salvatico, who finds 

 that the amnion appears as a membrane with 

 large nucleated cells like those of the serous 

 membrane, but without pigment. The mal- 

 pighian vessels originate in the ectoderm. 

 He did not note the early appearance of the 

 rudiments of the genital glands, which Ava^ 

 observed by Balbiani in Tinea criiiella. — 

 Amcy. iiat., April 1SS3, v. 17, p. 444- 



Prof. X.wer Landerer writes, in the 

 Deiilsc/i-A merikanischc Apotkeker-Zeitung 

 for I March 1S83, that "the largest and heav- 

 iest grasshoppers are sought out in Arabia, 

 Egypt, etc. The wings, feet, heads, etc. are 

 torn off and the remaining fleshy part put in 

 vinegar and used as pickles. In Abyssinia I 

 had such sour grasshoppers prepared with 

 aromatic herbs, set before me, and they tast- 

 ed finely and would be eaten with appetite 

 by all who did not know what they really 

 had before them." 



Prof. F. W. Maeklin died January Sth of 

 this year at Helsingfors, Finland, at the age 

 of 61 years. He was known to American 

 coleopterists by his papers on Strongylitim 

 and Statira, and by his descriptions of a 

 large number of coleoptera (mostly Siaj>ky- 

 linidac) from the extreme north-western 

 portions of our country. One of his earlier 

 and little known papers, a dissertation on re- 

 presentative ( vikarierande ) forms among 

 northern coleoptera (published in the Swedish 

 language, Helsingfors, 1S55) is quite interest- 

 ing to American coleopterists, and was trans- 

 lated into German by F. von Sacken in the 

 Stettiner Entomologische Zeitung for 1857. — 

 Amer. iiaturalis/, April 18S3. v. 17, p. 424. 



VVe are indebted to Mr. G. Barricelli. of 

 Holden, Mo., for several numeros of his 

 '• Silk-culture directory," and for two nos. 

 of tlie "American silk and fruit culturist" 

 containing articles by him. Mr. Barricelli 

 evidently has a good practical knowledge of 

 silk-raising, notwithstanding some of the cu- 

 rious statements, from a purely scientific 

 standpoint, made in his papers. His "Silk- 



