359 



As a fact not generally known it may be stated in this connection 

 that the unity in habit is not maintained in the J^orth American spe- 

 cies of Cantlion, since one species, C. viridis, never rolls balls of dung-, 

 but lives exclusively under layers of decayed leaves. It larva has not 

 been observed, but feeds, no doubt, on vegetable mold in the manner of 

 several species of Ataenius. — E. A. S. 



MARGARODES IN THE UNITED STATES. 



At the May, 1894, meeting of the Entomological Society of Washing- 

 ton, as mentioned upon page 380, vol. vi, of Insect Life, Professor 

 liiley read an interesting paper upon the very curious OoccidtiB of the 

 genus Margarodes, two species of which he had studied in his then 

 recent trip to the West Indies. In the West Indies these species are 

 known as "ground pearls," and are found in many localities under the 

 surface of the ground. The large pearly-white species found in the 

 island of Montserrat Professor Kiley stated to be probably identical 

 with. Maryarodes for mlcarum Guilding, described by the liev. Lans- 

 downe Guilding in the early thirties as found upon the island of St. 

 Vincent. Another species Professor Eiley had bought, made up in the 

 form of necklace, in Jamaica. The Jamaican form seemed to differ from 

 the Montserrat form, the necklace being composed of smaller specimens, 

 which, instead o± being light pearly-yellowish in color, were more golden 

 brown. So far as we know no species of this genus has ever been found 

 m the United States until the present season. Early in January, how- 

 ever, we received a small package from Mr. W. T. Swingle, of the 

 Division of Vegetable Pathology, who collected them on Key Largo and 

 Elliott's Key, in Florida. The specimens received were small in size, 

 golden brown in color, and resemble those composing the necklace 

 bought by Professor Riley in Jamaica. 



Mr. Swingle writes that in some j)laces over an area ten feet or more 

 in diameter the soil (what there is of it between the coral rocks) is 

 composed very largely of these roundish laminated bodies. Those on 

 the surface are clean and beautifully iridescent, while those buried, 

 more deeply are dull in color. Mr. Swingle was informed by several 

 persons that such patches of soil occurred in the uncleared hammocks, 

 and on one occasion he saw some of them along a path leading through 

 a hammock. He saw them at several points on Key Largo and Elliott's 

 Key, and his boatman informed him that he had seen them at Key 

 West. All local observers called them " singers' eggs." Mr. Swingle 

 found them at a depth ot over a foot, composing over half the soil. 



NOTES FROM CORRESPONDENCE. 



The Scale-insects of Arizona.— We leaiQ irom Prof. J. W. Tourney, of the 

 University of Arizona, that the only s -ale-insects so far collected in Arizona are 

 Aspidiotus j>frHicio.SM«, on apple, pear, peach, and apricot; Lecanitim pruinosum, on 



