Vol. II, No. 5.] INSECT LIFE. [November, I§§9. 



SPECIAL NOTES. 



Work of the Division on the Pacific Coast — During the past summer 

 Prof. W. A. Henry, director of the Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment 

 Station, was sent by the Secretary of Agriculture to the Pacific coast to 

 report upon certain matters connected with agricultural research in that 

 part of the country, and, Incidentally, to look into the work of the agents 

 of the Department and to ascertain the popular feeling regarding the 

 character and importance of their work. Professor Henry has just sub- 

 mitted his report to Secretary Rusk, and that portion relating to the 

 work of the Entomological Division has been referred to us. The several 

 paragraphs reproduced therefrom in another part of this issue will have 

 interest as the testimony of a man of established reputation as an orig- 

 inal investigator in practical agriculture. 



Food Habits of Snowy Tree-crickets. — We publish in this number an 

 article by Miss Mary E. Murtfeldt, in which she gives the results of 

 some detailed observations which we desired her to make, showing that 

 these insects, particularly (Ecanthus latipennis, Riley, are insectivorous 

 through all of their stages, and that when deprived of animal food they 

 invariably perish rather than jiartake of vegetable food. These ex- 

 periments will undoubtedly interest all entomologists. We have already 

 stated (see Fifth Report on Insects of Missouri, p. 120), that during 

 their early life the young crickets subsist principally upon plant-lice, 

 eggs of other insects, and even upon each other; but that as they grow 

 larger they are often content with a vegetable diet. This statement, 

 however, was made in reference to the common niveus. We may, perhaps, 

 infer from Miss Murtfeldt's observations that (E. latipennis is more 

 strictly carnivorous than nivevs, or possibly that the strictly carnivo- 

 rous habits were exceptional for this season. Full as her observations 

 are, they require verification by others, and in ditfereut seasons, to 

 enable us to lay down the law that the broad-winged species is always 



an animal feeder. 



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