144 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [May, '05 



species of fleas occurring on rats, mice, dogs, cats, and human 

 beings throughout the United States and tropical America, 

 since any well founded medical and bacteriological investiga- 

 tions of the subject must be based on a thorough scientific 

 knowledge of the fleas themselves, just as in the case of 

 the mosquitoes in their relation to yellow fever. The utmost 

 gravity of the possibilities involved not only justify but render 

 imperative a careful and complete survey. The writer has in 

 progress such a work, in continuation of extensive papers on 

 the fleas already published. Residence in the tropics and in a 

 leprosy center, together with the hearty co-operation of Dr. 

 Howard, of Washington, Dr. Lutz, of Sao Paulo, Brazil, Dr. 

 Carter, of the University of Texas at Galveston, and others, 

 has made possible a good beginning. It is hard to see how 

 anything like a complete vSurvey could be made without also 

 the active co-operation of college and medical men in every 

 part of these regions, the Hawaiian Islands, and the tropical 

 regions of the Far East. The simplicity of the apparatus 

 needed (tweezers, small homoeopathic vials of alcohol, and 

 several rat traps) and the ease with which material can be 

 gathered from rats, dogs, cats, and human beings, should make 

 possible the ready co-operation of all biologists and medical 

 men, and a hearty invitation is herewith extended to all such 

 and to any other persons interested. As large series as possi- 

 ble of specimens should be taken and full data as to locality, 

 host, etc., should be inserted in every vial. A direct report 

 will be immediately returned for all specimens sent either to 

 the writer or to Dr. Howard, Government Entomologist in 

 Washington, D. C, U. S. A., and full published credit will 

 later be given for every sending. 



It will greatly facilitate the rapid progress of the work if 

 entomological, zoological, medical, and pharmaceutical jour- 

 nals the world over will kindly copy this notice. 



Last spring I found enclosed in a cecropia cocoon between the outer 

 and the inner cover a small moth (?) with the deposit of eggs and the 

 empty cocoon of same. The cocoon of cecropia showed two small holes 

 on its side, apparently made from the outside. The larva of cecropia 

 never pupated. — William Wild, Buffalo, N. Y. (May have been Varina 

 ornata) Eds. 



