1 62 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [October, 



hope is entertained of saving the man's life.— A subscriber wishes to know 

 if any reader of the News has knowledge of an authentic case of death 

 from the bite of a tarantula ? 



A NUMBER of the joints of the ordinary cactus of the plains {Opuntia 

 missouriensis), containing pupse, were recently sent from Colorado to the 

 Kansas University and placed in the breeding cases. Although the pupae 

 have not yet transformed, a number of puparia have, within the past few 

 days, disclosing two allied Syrphids, Copestylum marginatum Volucella 

 fasciata. The puparia were lodged deeply in cavities within the stem, — 

 evidently the feeding place of the larva. The puparia of the two species 

 are scarcely distinguishable, both having a short, conjoined stigmatic tube 

 and two slender anterior projections. The former species has the singular 

 habit of continually keeping an alternate up and down movement of its 

 remarkable antennae while walking. — S. W. Williston. 



This June while on a tramp in quest of Coleoptera I was going through 

 a patch of woods and I noticed on my path one of the larger predatory 

 Diptera which so closely mimic a bumble-bee, and kindly determined for 

 me by my friend, Mr. Wm. T. Davis, as Dasyllis thoracica Fabr. He 

 was carrying away a Longicorn beetle. On attempting to pick him up he 

 flew away carrjing the beetle with him, which, nevertheless, he dropped 

 upon being struck with my hand and settled in the grass a few feet dis- 

 tant, where he was easily captured. The proboscis of the fly had sepa- 

 rated the elytra and penetrated the abdomen between the second and 

 third segments. I have often noticed this fly preying upon soft insects, 

 as Lepidoptera, etc., but never before upon a hard bodied beetle. 



J. C. Thompson, Clifton, L. I., N. Y. 



W. G. Wright, a naturalist of San Bernardino, Southern California, is 

 spending a few weeks in this section (Sitka, Alaska) for the purpose of 

 collecting plants and insects. He finds much of a novel character to in- 

 terest him, and considers that Alaska presents a wide field for investiga- 

 tion. On Thursday, in company with Fred. E. Frobese, he ascended 

 Mount Verstovia by way of the Jamestown Bay trail, and remained on the 

 summit for some six hours, during which time he secured a large number 

 of species of plants and grasses growing above the timber-line. Mr. 

 Wright has secured several species of flora which he believes to be as yet 

 unknown to botanists. The Alaskan grasses in Mr. Wright's collection 

 will be presented to the Department of Agriculture at Washington, and 

 •the flowering plants will be given to the Academy of Sciences at San 

 Francisco and the State University of California, located at Berkeley. 

 Very few insects have as yet been found by Mr. Wright during his search, 

 and those discovered are of no particular value or interest. 



Locusts in Morocco. — Some curious information in regard to locusts 

 in Morocco is contained in the last British Consular report from Mogador. 

 During the Spring the country was ravaged by immense swarms of the 

 insects, which were first reported from the southern province of Soos 



