58 
NOTES FROM THE MUSEUM OF THE INSTITUTE OF JAMAICA. 
We have recently received from Prof. Townsend Museum Notes Nos. 
42, 43, and 44, dealing with various entomological matters of interest 
on the Island of Jamaica. No. 42 adds a new scale insect to the local 
enemies of the vine in Diaspis lanatus, which has been found very 
abundantly upon the grape about Kingston, but which has a wide 
range of food habit. In No. 43 an enemy of the Casuarina tree is 
recorded, this plant having been supposed hitherto to be free from 
insects. The pest is a twig-girdler, Oncideres pustulata, a native spe- 
cies, as identified by the Entomologist from specimens received through 
Mr. Fawcett from Little London. No. 44 is a general note regarding the 
plague of ticks which the island is now suffering from. The species is 
doubtfully referred to Hyalomma dissimile Koch, and request is made 
for the sending of specimens. Mr. Townsend intimates that the exces- 
sive abundance of the tick is probably due to the interrelations of the 
Mongoose with the natural enemies of the tick, viz, native birds, 
reptiles, etc., and he suggests that the tick may be controlled by the 
importation of these natural enemies or the artificial breeding and 
encouragement of the native ones. 
We may add, in supplement to Note 43, that in Australia Casuarina 
has a number of insect foes. 
NOTE ON CEUTHOPHILUS EATING CURTAINS AND OTHER FABRICS. 
In a note in INSECT LIFE (April, 1893, pp. 222-223) my statement 
made in the Canad. Entom. (January, 1893) that Ceuthophilus pallidus 
frequently eats holes in lace curtains in southern New Mexico, is ques- 
tioned as abnormal and accidental. I can only reassert that it has 
been reported to me on several occasions as doing such damage, speci- 
mens of the insect seen in the act accompanying the information. I 
have also found it doing the very same injury in my own house in Las 
Cruces. The species is quite often found within doors in that region 
in the summer months. 
As further confirmatory of my previous statement, I may quote the 
following information on an allied species, taken from a letter which 
was written me by Mr. Cockerell: 
‘‘T believe I told you that Ceuthophilus pallidus, which you reported 
eating curtains in New Mexico, had similar habits in Colorado. On 
looking up my notes I find it was not C. pallidus, but C. maculatus I 
was thinking of. C. maculatus was complained of as eating various 
clothes, ete., which had been hung out to dry after washing. It is a 
species of the higher altitudes (7,000 to 10,000 feet). I did find C. palli- 
dus in Colorado, but only in the foothills of Pueblo County.”—[C. H. 
Tyler Townsend. 
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