1 89 1.] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. l8r 



from the crushed insects. Examination of the new insects shows a re- 

 semblance to what is known as the electric light bug, though the new 

 comer is much larger. 



The outer shell of the back is about the size and shape of half an egg- 

 shell, which, when crushed by the engine wheels, gave out a crackling 

 sound like the explosion of a toy torpedo. The shell is black, of a slatey 

 structure and very brittle. It is supposed to be a species of lithedome — 

 a rock-boring mollusk — crossed with some kind of predatory insects. 



To secure the shipment of the freight to-night it became necessary to 

 let the loaded train from above in the quarry come down the grade of the 

 cut. Gathering momentum all the time, its impetus, when it came to the 

 obstruction, carried it by the bugs. — Boston Daily Traveller. 



Sprayed Gr.\pes are Harmless. — Albany, September 29th. State 

 Entomologist, John A. Lintner, regards the recent activity of New York 

 City's Board of Health as misdirected, and thinks the grape growers and 

 dealers whose grapes were seized and condemned, have a good cause of 

 action against the health officers. He declares that the grapes were not 

 poisoned, and those having the most suspicious spots could have been 

 dipped in a solution of water and vinegar and thoroughly cleansed. 



Prof. Lintner says that last Winter he met the grapegrowers of the Hud- 

 son Valley, and together they discussed the best methods of killing insects 

 that infest grape-vines, and decided in favor of this Bordeaux mixture. 

 Its only bad feature was that it clung to the grapes after maturity. The 

 mixture contains copper, but in such minute quantities that a person would 

 have to eat a ton of grapes to get enough poison in his system to kill him. 

 Hence he considers the wholesale destruction of the grapes in New York 

 City as foolish in the extreme and not warranted by any consideration for 

 the public health. — Evening Star. 



" In Nature," notes Mr. R. T. Lewis, on the authority of a correspon- 

 dent in whose trustworthiness he has entire confidence, gives a curious 

 account of the appreciation with which the song of the Cicada is heard 

 by insects other than those of its own genus. The correspondent has 

 frequently observed in Natal that when the Cicada is singing its loudest, 

 in the hottest portion of the day, it is attended by a number of other in- 

 sects with lovely gauze-like, irridescent wings, whose demeanor has left 

 no doubt on his mind that the music is the attraction. The Cicada, when 

 singing, usually stations itself upon the trunk of a tree with its head up- 

 permost, and the insects in question, to the number sometimes of fifteen 

 or sixteen, form themselves into a rough semicircle at a short distance 

 around its head. During a performance one of the insects was observed 

 occasionally approach the Cicada and to touch it upon its front leg or an- 

 tennae, which proceeding was resented by a vigorous stroke of the foot 

 by the Cicada, without, however, any cessation of its song. The insects 

 composing the audience are extremely active; and so wary that they take 

 flight at the least alarm on the too near approach of any intruder. Some 

 of them, however, have been captured; and on examination these proved 



