196 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



RETARDED DEVELOPMENT IN A BLISTER 

 BEETLE. 



The exceptional 'length of time required 

 in the development of certain individuals 

 of a particular species, is one of the most 

 interesting phenomena in nature. 



In the month of October.iSyy.wehatched 

 a number of triungulins from the same 

 batch of eggs laid by a female of the 

 Striped Blister-beetle {Epicaiita vittatd), 

 and fed them on the eggs of the Differential 

 Locust {Caloptcfius differentialis). Several 

 of the resulting beetles issued the following 

 summer; three of them passed a second 

 winter in the coarctate larva state, and 

 issued asbeetles the second summer ; while 

 one remained unchanged during this second 

 summer of 1S79. We examined it from 

 month to month, always finding it healthy, 

 but began to fear, as the present summer 

 approached, that it must have been injured 

 and was really dead. It was unchanged 

 on the 3d of May of the present year, but 

 on looking at it again on the 15th of June, 

 we were gratified to find that it had left its 

 rigid skin and presented itself in the form 

 of the final or third larva. It had trans- 

 formed to the true pupa on the ist of July, 

 and would undoubtedly have given out the 

 beetle two weeks later had we not preferred 

 to preserve it in the pupa state for our 

 cabinet. 



In this case the individual, though sub- 

 mitted to exactly the same conditions as 

 the other specimens, which had simulta- 

 neously hatched with it— but which went 

 through all their transformations within 

 either one or two years — remained dormant 

 for nearly three years, with their repeated 

 changes of season and temperature. With 

 the exception of the first winter, when it 

 was kept indoors without freezing and when 

 development should have been presumably 

 hastened, the specimen was kept in a tin 

 box buried the proper distance beneath the 

 ground out of doors, so as to be as nearly 

 as possible under natural conditions. 



What is the secret of such great differ- 

 ences in time of development of individuals 

 submitted to exactly similar conditions ? 

 Who can tell ? 



OX-EYE DAISY AS AN INSECTICIDE. 



Among the different weeds that we have 

 desired to try for possible properties de- 

 structive to insect life, is the Ox-eye Daisy 

 [LcKcanthcmum viilgare). The following 

 report of some experiments made at our 

 recjuest by Prof. W. S. Barnard, do not 

 give much hope of it : 



" It takes a long time to get the daisies 

 dry enough for grinding to a powder. For 

 several days I have had them in the sun, 

 except at night and when raining, but they 

 are not yet dry. Artificial heat is hardly 

 better, and I have not dared to use much 

 heat for fear of driving off the volatile poi- 

 sonous element which they are supposed 

 to contain. My flowers are hardly ready 

 yet for grinding. 



"But I have improved the time, closely 

 trying the tea and alcoholic extracts from 

 the flowers and from the stems. I crushed 

 the parts thoroughly in alcohol in a mortar, 

 and then used a 5-foot glass tube in a large 

 bottle at a gentle heat for a half day with 

 each extract. These extracts should be 

 about as effectual as though made from the 

 powder, so I do not expect anything better 

 from it. I have no evidence that they will 

 prove of any practical value, after having 

 atomized them on to many specimens of 

 larval potato-beetles, aphides, young grass- 

 hoppers, Mamestra picta, Picris rapa, and 

 other caterpillars." 



Dr. H. Hagen, of Cambridge, Mass., has 

 a short paper entitled " Essai d'un Synopsis 

 des larves de Calopterygines," in the An- 

 nales de la Soc. Ent. de Belgique, pp. Ixv 

 — Ixvii, giving short diagnoses of the 

 larvae of the Neuropterous genera Calop- 

 teryx, HctcBrina, Eiiphaa, and Cora (?). 

 The larvae, in several instances, have been 

 determined by exclusion. Of special in- 

 terest are the larvae of Eup/uea, as they are 

 provided with lateral abdominal branchife, 

 a character recurring in the genus Sia/i's, 

 but unique in the family Odonata. 



Prof. C. L. Kirschbaum, of Wiesbaden, 

 the distinguished naturalist, and well-known 

 to the entomological world by his papers 

 on Hemiptera, died on March 2d, at the 

 age of 69 years. 



