Vol. XXvii] ENTOMOLOGICAI. NEWS. 157 



Deciding to see how long this action would keep up I left the 

 specimen and on returning at six o'clock that night the mangled 

 specimen was as active as before, whereupon I crushed it with 

 my foot as I was satisfied that it was fated for several more 

 hours of torture whether painless or otherwise. 



Calosoma sycophanta Linn. (Col.). 



While collecting at light in Hemlock Grove on ]^,Iay 14, I 

 took a specimen of this beautiful European beetle which has 

 been imported to fight the g}'psy and brown-tail moths. This 

 insect is reputed to be a good climber which seems to be upheld 

 by the fact that the specimen was more than halfway up an 

 electric light pole when captured. Mr. Britton, of the Con- 

 necticut Agricultural Experiment Station at New Haven, 

 states in a letter concerning the specimen, "Apparently you are 

 correct in regard to the specimen of Calosoma sycophanta 

 Linn. I did not suppose that it had yet reached a point so far 

 west as Meriden. A colony was liberated in Stonington in 

 1914. None were planted in the town of Thompson but the 

 beetles were found there in moderate numbers in 1914 as the 

 result of spreading from Massachusetts towns." 



Curious Food Habits of Musca domestica (Dip.). 



Having occasion to use a quantity of gummed labels in the 

 course of some work on my collection I was surprised to find 

 that any uncovered labels which T left on my table over night 

 would be minus the mucilage in the morning. Sometimes the 

 mucilage was removed in spots and blotches but almost always 

 the paper was entirely cleaned as though v.-ith a vacuum 

 cleaner. This condition and its cause baffled me for quite 

 awhile and I was on the point of laying it to a cockroach which 

 I knew to be in the room when, happening to go to the study 

 after dark one evening. I was astonished to discover a group 

 of house flies on the labels. Aftc watching them a few min- 

 utes I was convinced that they were feeding on the sticky sub- 

 stance. The weather being quite warm the mucilage on the 

 labels was somewhat soft, allowing the flies to remove it. Not 

 having heard of this habit of the housefly before I record it 

 here. 



