349 



LIVING VEDALIAS AT LAST REACH EGYPT. 



It will be remembered that we have been endeavoring for some time to 

 send living Vedalias to Alexandria, Egyiit, in order to ascertain whether 

 this species will destroy Icerya (nji/ptiacum, which is doing considera- 

 ble damage to the Fig and Orange trees in the gardens of that city. 

 Several sendings ha\ing failed we have at last been informed by our 

 esteemed correspondent, Kear Admiral R. N. Blomfield, R. N., that of 

 a lot shipped by Mr. Coqnillett from Los Angeles, Cal., and repacked 

 in Washington, D. C, about March 6, six adult beetles and several 

 larvae reached Alexandria alive. They have been liberated upon an 

 infested orange tree, but we have not yet been informed as to whether 

 they have begun to breed and feed upon the Egyptian Fluted Scale. 

 The Yedalia is so uniform in its tastes and we have failed so signally 

 to induce it to feed upon anything but Icerya purchasi that there is 

 some little doubt as to the success of this experiment. We have never, 

 however, tried it upon a congeneric species before, and it may be on 

 account of the very close relationship of the Egyptian to the California 

 and Australian insect that the Vedalia will find in it appropriate food. 



SELF-MUTILATION IN ORTHOPTERA. 



It has often been observed that many animals, when kept in captivity, 

 develop certain unnatural traits. One of these is a tendency to self- 

 mutilation — an instinct on the j^art of the animal which impels it to 

 devour the extremities of its own body. 



Dr. Franz Werner, of Vienna, Austria, has recently published* some 

 interesting observations in this direction on European Orthoptera. 

 From a number of species kept under observation Dr. Werner con- 

 cludes that a tendency to self-mutilation does not prevail in the truly 

 phytophagous families, such as the Acridiidie and Gryllid;e, but that 

 it seems to be confined to the raptatorial species and that it is most 

 strongly developed in certain predaceous Locustidje with poorly devel- 

 oped wings. In all observations ample nourishment was provided, but 

 this did not prevent the specimens from eating first their tarsi, espe- 

 cially those of the anterior pairs of legs, then the tibite, and finally 

 the females commenced to eat their own ovipositors. Among the 

 species observed the rare Saga serrata excelled all others in its avidity 

 to devour its entire legs, while Mantis religiosa was contented with 

 chewing up its tarsal joints. Of Barbitistes serricauda Dr. Werner was 

 not able to collect perfect examples, for as soon as a captured specimen 

 is held between the fingers it bites off its own front legs with great 

 rapidity. In most instances the chewing is deliberate and evidently 

 without sensation of pain. 



i 



Zool. Anzeiger, xv, No. 384, Feb. 15, 1892, pp. 58-60. 



