NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 265 



its peculiar taste, selecting with unerring instinct the right kind of 

 egg — generally that of an injurious insect — in which the female lays 

 one of its own eggs, which in due time hatches or develops into an 

 active maggot." The number of British species is given as thirty- 

 five, and these are distributed among the eleven genera as follows : — 

 Ooctonus (4), Gonatorerus (5), Alaptus (2), Litus (1), Eiistochus (1), 

 Mymar (1), Cosmocoma (8), C'araphractus (1), Anaphes (7), Anagrus (4), 

 Camptoptera (1). 



Reaking Bombyx eubi. — As a rule, considerable difficulty is ex- 

 perienced in obtaining imagos of this species from larvae that have to 

 be kept in confinement throughout the winter. In an interesting 

 article on rearing B. rubi (E. M. M., Sept., pp. 199-201), Mr. Robson 

 tells us that he collects the larvre during fine sunny days in the early 

 months of the year, and so avoids the trouble of preparing hybernating 

 quarters for them. Instead of putting the larvfe together in a breeding- 

 cage, he encloses each one in a separate paper box about two inches 

 square. The results appear to be very satisfactory. 



Destroying Insects by Steam Power. — In America, machines 

 constructed something on the plan of a steam fire-engine are employed 

 to repel the attacks of insects on the foliage of shade trees, and the 

 attention of growers of fruit on a large scale is called to this new 

 method of dealing with insect pests. For further particulars and 

 illustrations of these engines of destruction, the reader is referred to a 

 pamphlet on the subject, entitled, ' The Use of Steam Apparatus for 

 Spraying,' by L. 0. Howard, Ph.D. 



Studying Neuration without Removing the Scales of the Wings. — 

 In an article on this subject (' Canadian Entomologist ' for August), 

 Professor Skinner points out that in the present day " Neuration can 

 be studied with the greatest ease and accuracy, and permanently re- 

 corded in a photograph, or, more strictly speaking, a radiograph. The 

 anatomy of a living chrysalis may be studied without removing the 

 cocoon, and also the internal anatomy of the thorax and abdomen can 

 be fairly well seen, and in time the process may be improved for this 

 work. With the aid of the Rontgen or X-rays and the photographic 

 plate one could make a picture of the neuration of the beautiful, rare, 

 and curiously shaped (hiiithoptcrd parcuUsea , and not disturb a scale on 

 its superb wings. W^ith the fluoroscope one could doubtless see all the 

 neuration without even going to the trouble of making a picture." 



Photography without Shadow. — Some time ago the 'Canadian 

 Entomologist' gave a method of photographing insects without shadow. 

 It was done by fixing the camera in a perpendicular position so as to 

 look down upon a sheet of glass placed horizontally below, and beyond 

 that a white screen, the insect being pinned to a small piece of cork 

 attached to the glass. By this process the shadow was thrown through 

 the glass on to the white screen at an angle quite out of the line of 

 vision. Now I believe that professionals find considerable difficulty in 

 adjusting their heavy apparatus to the perpendicular position, and I 

 therefore suggest that it can be done quite as effectively by using the 

 camera horizontally, and placing the insect on a piece of cork fixed to 

 a perpendicular sheet of glass, with a white screen, also perpendicular. 



