Notes on Insectivorous Coleoptera. 109 



ing attached only at the base and tip. If one blade of the 

 scissors be now carefully passed under this dorsal integu- 

 ment, it may be cut across and reflected (with the forceps 

 and a mounted needle) forwards and backwards and cut 

 entirely away. It will next be necessary to unroof the 

 meso- and meta-thoracic segments, which usually contain 

 at least a part of the crop. It will not be difficult to cut 

 through the crusts of these segments at eacli side with the 

 scissors-points. The terga may then be removed, as before, 

 with forceps and needle. The specimen (if not too large) 

 should now be transferred to a watch crystal, covered with 

 glycerine and placed on the stage of the microscope; (a 

 dissecting microscope is a convenience, but not indispen- 

 sable). With mounted needles the reproductive or- 

 gans, urinary tubes, etc., can be pushed out of the way, 

 when the crop, stomach and intestine will be seen, vari- 

 ously arranged according to the family and genus. It is 

 an easy matter to cut the alimentary canal loose at either 

 end and to remove it from the body, placing it upon a 

 slide in a shallow cell, with glycerine enough to mount the 

 contents. Here the superfluous structures should be picked 

 away, as far as possible, and then the stomach and intes- 

 tines may be torn open with needles, and their contents 

 spread out and picked in pieces upon the slide. After 

 the removal of the remnants, the cell may be covered and 

 the contents studied with any power necessary. The cover 

 should, of course, be finally cemented down and the slide 

 XJreserved for verification and repeated examination. 



Galerita janus. — A specimen of this insect, taken at 

 Bloomington, in September, contained but little food. 

 All that was recognized consisted of insect fragments, one 

 of which was a spinose tibia. It was impossible even to 

 tell the order of the insect eaten. 



Loxopesa atrhentris. — Four specimens of this species 

 were examined, three of which were taken in June and 

 the other in September. The alimentary canal of the first 

 was entirely empty. The second, sent me by Mr. A. S. 

 McBride, from DeKalb county, had eaten immense num- 

 bers of minute, oval bi-nucleate cells, which, believing 

 them to be spores of fungi, I referred to Prof. T. J. Burrill, 



