30 
The species chosen in the present case is the Nitzschia pulicare, which is 
almost invariably to be found in abundance on the common chimney swift 
(Chetura pelasgia.), This bird is an abundant resident of the building in which 
my laboratory is located, and being readily obtained on occount of its tendency to 
fly in at the windows, I suggested to Mr. P. H. Rolfs, a graduate student in 
biology, that he attempt the rearing of larvee from eggs with a view to determine 
length of developmental period in connection with studies of its embryology. 
For this first purpose he secured on two separate occasions a number of the 
eggs, and kept them, part in a tight paste-board box, which was kept warm by 
the heat of his body, the others were enclosed in cotton-plugged tubes under a 
hen that was kept in the laboratory at the time for incubating eggs for embryo- 
logical work. Of the first lot, all kept in pocket, secured July 27th, two eggs 
hatched August 4th, five between August 8-13th, one August 16th, the last giving 
twenty days, the longest period. 
Of the second lot secured, August 3rd, six hatched between the 8th and 
13th, four hatched August 14th (three in box and one in tube), two August 15th 
(one in box and one in tube), part not hatching, and the longest period in this 
case being thirteen days. 
Assuming that those requiring the longest time had been deposited but a 
short time before the experiment began, we should have from fifteen to twenty 
days as the ordinary time required for the eggs to hatch for this species. 
Mr. F. S. Earle presented some interesting notes upon the injurious insects 
of the season in Southern Mississippi. Diabrotica 12-punctata was a very 
abundant insect, and in addition to its well known food plants, it had been a 
serious pest to peach trees and cabbages. Leaves of the latter, bitten by the 
insect, at once decayed from the point of injury. Cut-worms were very 
destructive in gardens, and cucumber and melon vines were much injured by a 
plant-louse. Potatoes had been much attacked by a black flea-beetle, and the 
tomatoes by the boll-worm in the fruit, and on the leaves by the sphinx larve. 
Prof. Cook would like to hear the experience of those present as to a prac- 
tical remedy for the attack of the boll-worm upon the fruit of tomatoes. 
Prof. Osborn said that Mr. Tracy had tried arsenical mixtures with some 
success, and also had attracted the perfect insects to light. 
SOME EXPERIENCES 1N REARING INSECTS. 
Miss M. EK. Murtfeldt read the following paper: 
In rearing insects, as with many other enterprises in life, we climb the ladder 
to success by the rounds of successive failures, having in many cases to exhaust 
an almost infinite range of “how not to do it,’ betore arriving at its happy 
converse. 
Many and great are the disappointments of the entomologist; bnt does he 
succumb? Never! What single point in the biology of a species has been 
relegated to the absolutely undiscoverable? I do not know of one, no matter 
how obscure the subject or how little advance has yet been made in the direction 
of its elucidation. 
“ Hope springs eternal” in the breast of the entomologist, and patience and 
perseverance have in him their “perfect work,” until Nature relents, or is 
caught “off guard,” and the secret, so carefully hidden, is revealed. 
