230 



psrciiE. 



[October— Dcccmbt-T 1884. 



those insects from which the tea-gardens of 

 Assam most suffer. He says the tea-bug or 

 'mosquito-blight,' and the tea-mite or 'red 

 spider,' are the only two insects which are at 

 present known to do such injury as to materi- 

 ally diminish the profits of the owners. Both 

 these insects pass their whole lives on the 

 tea-plant, and have never been found on 

 any other plant. Such, at least, is the result 

 of the most careful investigation. The mite 

 lives in societies on the upper portion of the 

 full-grown leaves, beneath an exceedingly 

 delicate web which it spins for itself as a 

 shelter. It punctures the leaves, and then 

 pumps out the liquid contents of the epi- 

 dermis. The only remedy which has been 

 discovered to check their ravages, and it has 

 not proved very effectual, is to sprinkle the 

 affected bushes with muddy water. The 

 tea-bug is still more destructive, and particu- 

 larly to the trees of the milder juice; for 

 those which afford a strong and rasping 

 liquor enjoy an almost complete immunity 

 from its attack. Mr. Wood Mason appends 

 to his report engravings of these destructive 

 creatures. — Science, 31 Oct. 1884, v. 4, p. 426. 



At the meeting of the French entomolo- 

 gical society held 23 July 1SS4, M. G. .\. 

 Poujade made the following remarks: 



"Prof. Edouard Bureau has stated (Ann. 

 soc. entom. Fr., 1S54; Bull., p. 22) that in 

 lepidoptera of the genus Biephos, specimens 

 which had been dried six days showed evi- 

 dent spontaneous movements of the genital 

 organs, which continued two days, but toward 

 the last part of the time these movements 

 were only produced when the extremity of 

 the abdomen was touched. I have observed 

 the same peculiarity in a R/iodocera rhamni ^ 

 the extremity of the abdomen still moving 

 when the rest of the insect was perfectly 

 dry. 



A few days ago some one gave me a male 

 Lucaiiiis cervits which had been killed with 

 vinegar five or six days before ; the flabbiness 

 of the joints left no doubt as to the death of 

 the animal, — the penis alone, which was 



partly cxserted, had very evident movements 

 which lasted two or three days longer. 



These facts, as M. Bureau has said, prove 

 the predominance of the genital functions 

 above all other functions, and it is not with- 

 out interest to compare these observations 

 with another well-known fact, the prolonga- 

 tion of life among insects that have not 

 paired." 



Among xati;ralists who have been more 

 or less interested in entomology we have 

 lately noticed announcements of the follow- 

 ing deaths : Dr. Alfred Edmund Brehm, born 

 in 1S29. in Renthendorf, Germany, where he 

 died II Nov. 1SS4; well-known as the editor 

 of the "Illustrirtes thierleben." Dr. Ernst 

 Carstanjen. professor of chemistry in Leip- 

 zig university and lepidopterist, died 13 July 

 1SS4. in the forty-ninth year of his age. 

 Auguste Chevrolat, a Parisian coleopterist 

 and author of many entomological papers, 

 died 16 Dec. 1S84, in the eighty-sixth year of 

 his age. C). J. Fahraeus, a coleopterist of 

 Stockholm, Sweden, died in that place, 28 

 May 1884, aged eighty-eight. Leopold 

 Joseph Fitzinger, zoologist, born 13 April 

 1S02, in Vienna, Austria, died 22 Sept. 1SS4, 

 in Ilietzing, near Vienna. Dr. Arnold 

 Fdrster, professor in Aachin. Germany, and 

 hymenopterist, born 21 Jan. iSio, in Aachen, 

 died 13 Aug. 18S4, in the same place. A. 

 Keferstein. lepidopterist, died 28 Nov. 1S84, 

 in Erfurt, Germany. Johann Gottfried Gott- 

 lieb Miihlig, lepidqpterist, died 12 .\pril 18S4, 

 at Frankfort-a.-Main, Germany, nearly seven- 

 ty-two years old. Joseph Antoine ^Laxiini- 

 lian Perty, professor from 1S34-1875 in the 

 university at Berne, Switzerland, died at 

 Berne. 8 .\ug. 1SS4, nearly eighty years old. 

 Edmond Tomosvdry, a Hungarian naturalist, 

 died 18 Aug. 1SS4, at Deva. Ernst Wehncke, 

 a merchant in Harburg. Germany, and a 

 specialist in dytiacidac and hydiopliilidae, 

 born 15 March 1S35, died 19 Nov. 1SS3. in 

 Harburg. 



Nos. 124-125 were issued 3 Nov. 1884. 



