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The following paper Avas read: 



ADDITIONS TO OUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE CABINET BEETLE 

 (ANTHRENUS VERBASCI Linn.). 



By Henry L. Viereck, \<ir Hitrrii, Conn. 



While at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station the 

 writer made some observations on this sjjecies which seem to be new. 

 Larva^ of Anthremis cerhasci had been kept in a tube with cotton 

 fibers during the winter. After subsisting on the cotton the speci- 

 mens were transferred, in the spring, to Syracuse ^vatch glasses, lined 

 with black woolen cloth, where the}^ could be readily w^atched and fed 

 Avith dried insects. 



One day a female specimen was observed with an *?gg partly pro- 

 truding from its ovipositor. When first seen it had the ovipositor, 

 with the egg. inserted in the woolen cloth ; then it seemed disturbed, 

 for it walked around with the egg nearly all the 

 way out, but made no apparent effort to drop it. 

 A short time after this observation the egg had 

 been dropped. The laj'ing of this egg could not 

 have taken more than five minutes. Eggs were 

 first noticed about March 1. On March 15 four 

 eggs were put on a piece of cloth, which was 

 pinned into a Schmitt box with no insecticide in 

 it ; another lot of four eggs was put on a piece of 

 cloth and pinned into a box containing three 

 iia})hthalin cones. April 7 the eggs in the box 

 without naphthalin had hatched and the larva^ 

 were lively. In the box with the naphthalin two 

 eggs had matured embryos or young larva?; one 

 larva had eaten the end ofl' the egg preparatory to 

 emerging, but there died; the other did not suc- 

 ceed in cutting through the cover, though it was 

 apparently as far advanced in development as the first specimen. 

 The second embryo had evidently inhaled the fumes of the naph- 

 thalin through the thin membrane or the micropyle. This experiment 

 seems to demonstrate that naphthalin does not retard the growth of 

 the embryo in the egg, but does prevent the young larva from emerg- 

 ing. When laid, the eggs are soft, w4th a membranous covering con- 

 taining the whitish granular fluid, and measures 0.00 mm. in length 

 and 0.29 mm. in width. They are bare, except at the blunt end, 

 where hairs occur. At the time the larva emerges everything in the 

 egg has been taken up and only the thin outer membrane or skin re- 

 mains as a wrinkled tissue. The accompanying sketch (fig. 3) will 

 help to convey an idea of the characters presented by the egg. 



Fig. 3.— Egg of Anthre- 

 nus verbasci, greatly 

 enlarged (original). 



