76 Miscellaneous. 



muscles of the elytra and wings, which remain in a feeble condition 

 and incapable of continuous action, and they induce atrophy of the 

 internal organs of generation. The intensity of the arrested deve- 

 lopment and atrophy is, we may conceive, proportional to ihe 

 number of larvae that are contained in the body-cavity of the 

 victim ; but, at any rate, the infected Acridians perish immediately 

 the Muscid larvte have left them ; the exit of the larvae, which is 

 effected at the junction of the head with the thorax, or of the thorax 

 with the abdomen, from the tympanic cavities or the intervals of 

 the abdominal rings, is always accompanied by mortal lesions. 



The presence of Sarcophagid larvae consequently occasions in 

 Acridians, by a kind of rachitis, apteny (cnrri^t', flightless), to use a 

 neologism which it seems to me useful to create, and parasitic 

 sterilization (" castration parasitaire "), to employ the happy expres- 

 sion of Prof. Giard *. 



To the already long list of gonotomous parasites, furnished by this 

 naturalist, we shall have to add the larvae of entomobious Diptera. — 

 Comjites liendus, t. cxviii. no. 20 (May 15, 1894), pp. 1106-1108. 



The Distribution o/Coccidae. By T, D. A. Cockerell, 

 Las Cruces, New Mexico f. 



It would be difficult to point to any group'of insect pests the ravages 

 of which have been more seriously increased by human interference 

 than the Coccidae. As a general rule when one finds Coccids under 

 strictly natural circumstances they are local in their distribution, 

 and their attacks are confined to one or two species of plants. But 

 now that we continually carry plants from one country to another, 

 we take with them Coccidaj of many kinds ; and already some scale- 

 insects are so cosmopolitan by human introduction, that it is very 

 difficult to guess where they originally came from. 



It is a matter of common knowledge amongst economic ento- 

 mologists that the evils thus arising are on the increase ; and I 

 would submit that the outlook is a very serious one +. Even in the 

 temperate zone we have become familiar with the injuries done by 

 Coccidae in countries where they are not indigenous ; but in the 

 tropics the state of affairs is beyond anything one could easily 

 imagine without having seen it. Coming to New Mexico from 

 Jamaica I experienced a kind of surprise at not seeing the leaves of 

 the roadside trees spotted with Diaspinae and Lecaniinae, although 

 I knew quite well that such appearances were not to be looked for 



* A. Giard, " La Castration parasitaire et son influence sur les carac- 

 teres exterieurs chez les Criistaces decapodes " (Bull. so. du Depart, du 

 Nord, 2" s^rie, 10^ ann(5e, 1887, nos. 1 and 2, p. 1) ; " La Castration para- 

 sitaire : nouvelles recherches " (Bull. sc. de la France et de la Belgique, 

 3' s^rie, t. xix. vol. i. 1888, pp. 12 et seq.). See also the subsequent 

 memoirs upon the same subject. 



t Read bv the secretary, in the absence of the author, at the Fifth 

 Annual Meeting of the Association of Economic Entomologists, held at 

 the Lniversity of Wisconsin, Aug. 14, 1893. 



\ I here assume that anything which decreases the food-supply of the 

 human race is disadvant<i<reous. This is not the place to discuss those 

 artificial conditions whereby abundance is made a cause of scarcity, and 

 the wealth of some depends upon the want of others. 



