354 



PSYCHE. 



[ October — December 1SS5. 



houses, or in snow banks, by aid of friends 

 in the northern states mostly, but last fall I 

 heard of a large room called a "cooler" at 

 the Sanitarium at Clifton Springs, New 

 York, in which meat and vegetables are kept, 

 the temperature averaging 40° F. all the year, 

 and my application for a little space was 

 kindly received. In October, I sent on two 

 boxes by express, in which were a large num- 

 ber of larvae, some of them very rare. Of 

 these were Argynnis ialcyone, just from egg; 

 Siityrus c/taion, also just out of egg. These 

 small larvae were in paper pill boxes, inside 

 tin. There were also a few larvae of CJiiono- 

 bas chryxiis, Hip. ridiiigsii, Colias alcxandia, 

 Pkyciodes picla, in stages from second to 

 fourth ; and several Mclitaea tuibcunda, 

 past third moult from Vancouver's.Island, and 

 [il/.] phaeton at same stage. Early in March 

 I received the larvae per express. On open- 

 ing the box nearly every one of the young 

 larvae first named were alive, and in a few 

 moments were moving. The larger part of 

 rubiciinda and phaeton were in good con- 

 dition. One alexandra out of two was 

 healthy, and one picta out of three. The 

 chiyxiis. past third molt (one), and the rid- 

 ingsii, past first (one), were dead. On the 

 whole, there was scarcely any loss from the 

 four months seclusion. The CAionobas, I 

 am disposed to think, died in transit to me. 

 from rolling about in its box, as it was 

 stout and healthy looking when I received it. 

 Probably all the satyrid larvae would have 

 done better if they had not been allowed to 

 feed in the fall, but had on hatching been 

 subjected to the cold. I had no plants ready 

 for these larvae on their arrival except grass, 

 and on this I placed part of the ckaron, who 

 very soon began to eat along the edges of 

 the leaves. The remainder of all species I 

 put on ice. or under rocks in the woods, to 



stay till I could force food-plants for them. — 

 W: H: Edwards (Can. entoni.. Jime 1SS5, v. 

 17, p. 113-114)- 



Anatomy of Macrotoma pllmbea. — 

 " Ueber Alacrotoma plumbea. Beitrage zur 

 anatomic der poduriden " is the title of a 46- 

 page inaugural dissertation, by Albert Som- 

 mer, from the Gottingen university, also 

 published, with a plate, in the Zeitsc/irift 

 filr -vissenschaftlichf zoologie. The author 

 studied carefully the histological structure of 

 the ventral tube vs'ith its pocket-formed, eva- 

 ginable lobes for attachment of the insects to 

 objects beneath them, and finds that unicel- 

 lular glands furnish the tube with the secre- 

 tion necessary for attachment, and make it 

 a remarkably good adhering organ that en- 

 ables the little animal to move on vertical 

 smooth surfaces. The egg is formed, by the 

 union of yolk-substance, from an aggregate 

 of cells at first of uniform shape which have 

 their origin in the germarium: a germinal 

 vesicle is lacking; a condition which calls to 

 mind the eggs of viviparous dipterous larvae 

 studied by Ganin. The observation is inter- 

 esting that even the adult insects still molt 

 every two or three weeks. In molting the 

 old hairs are stripped from the new layer of 

 skin; the scales, on the other hand, are shed 

 without connection with the new ones. A 

 gregarinid occurs as an almost constant par- 

 asite in the chvlific ventricle; outside the 

 digestive tract occur pseudonavicellae. cysti- 

 cercae similar to tho-'^e described by Stein 

 from the digestive tract of Teiicbrio molitor, 

 and nematods rolled up spirally. It would 

 have been better to have replaced the name 

 Macrotoma, used in the cerambycidae since 

 1S32, by Tomoccriis fi\co\et 1S41. — Entom. 

 nachrichtcn,]u\y iSS.v jahrg. 11, p. 221-222. 



Nos. 135-137 were issued ;i Feb. 1SS6. 



