THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



199 



Campodea fracilis Meinert. — This lit- 

 tle animal, described in the Annals and 

 Magazine of Nat. H., 1867, p. 377, and 

 " frequent in the neighborhood of Copen- 

 hagen, in moist black earth, under stones, 

 etc.," exists here at Ithaca, N. Y., where I 

 have found it (June 8, 1880) in damp sandy 

 earth. Meinert says, " It lives, at least 

 partly, on dead insects, as I have often 

 found in its stomach scales of butterflies 

 and other remains of insects, which it could 

 not have attacked or overcome alive" (/. c). 

 Lubbock's Monograph of the Collcmbola 

 and Thysaiiiira gives us nothing additional, 

 and I doubt if it has been observed in 

 America before. Since this genus is re- 

 garded by some as the connecting link 

 between the Myriapoda and the Insecta pro- 



[Flg. KM 



[Fig. 105. 



I find plentiful in our gardens here. — W. 

 S. Rarnard, Ithaca, N. Y. 



Degeeria lanugi- 

 nosa (after Barnard). 



Campodea fragilis 

 (after Barnard). 



per, and as representing the original stock 

 (see Lubbock, Origin and Mctanwrplioscs of 

 Insects), from which all the orders of insects 

 have been derived, its species have an un- 

 common interest like that of the Anuvba 

 or of AmpJiioxiis. These creatures possess 

 only the most essential marks of insects, 

 and are especially peculiar by having the 

 chewing organs in a mouth-cavity, while 

 they have no metamorphosis and do not 

 develop eyes or wings. Their habitats are 

 obscure, and their habits difificult to study, 

 yet we hope to learn more anon. Closely 

 related to this is Degeeria lanuginosa, 

 Nicolet, the " Spring-tail " so common in 

 Euro[)ean gardens (" Dans les jardins, sur 

 la terre ; assez commun." — Nicolet), which 



Every Coleopterist ajipreciates the value 

 of Harold and Clemminger's " Catalogus 

 Coleopterorum hucusque descriptorum," an 

 admirable work, which is as perfect as 

 works of this ch;iracter well can be. In 

 consequence of the great activity in de- 

 scriptive coleopterology, the work soon 

 became incomplete, because of the many 

 species described subsequent to its pub- 

 lication. Baron von Harold himself does 

 not contemplate publishing a new edition 

 of this work ; nor is it likely that any 

 other coleopterist will be willing to take 

 upon himself the difficult and laborious 

 task of completing and preparing a new 

 edition. But this work might be done by 

 the cooperation of specialists, and we are 

 glad to see that M. E. Candeze, the well- 

 known author of the Moiwgrap/iie des Elati!- 

 rides, is publishing, in the Comptcs-rcndus 

 des Seances de la Socic'te entotnologique de 

 Belgiquc of this year, a.^'' Listc des Elat^- 

 ridcs dc'crits poste'rietiremcnt aii Catalogue de 

 Munich," thus bringing the catalogue up to 

 date in at least one family. It is to be 

 hoped that other competent specialists will 



follow his example. 



* — * 



Parasitic Rove-beetle : Aleochara 

 ."^NTHOMVi.E, Sprague. — This beetle, de- 

 scribed in the American Entomologist II, 

 370, as developing in, and bred from, the 

 pupae of the Cabbage-fly {Antliomyia bras- 

 sicce), is now very abundant at Ithaca, 

 N. Y. Since the description of this new 

 species and its astonishing parasitic habits, 

 nothing concerning it has come to my 

 notice. As my beetles are twice as large 

 as those described, I think the original 

 measurement may possibly have been made 

 from specimens shrunk in alcohol. They 

 are often seen running from one young 

 cabbage to another, or entering holes, but 

 more commonly close about the stalk. 

 Half of our young cabbages here, last year 

 and this, have been killed by the maggots, 

 and now on pulling up an infested stalk, 

 these beetles often come out, sometimes 



