24 Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society Voi. viii 



full of the beetles, or "dor-bugs," as Parkman terms them. Be- 

 sides, they were flying about just above the tops of the grass blades 

 making a droning sound as if twenty bee-hives had been over- 

 turned at once, while the ground was thickly perforated with holes 

 from which the beetles were supposed to have emerged. A little 

 later in the evening they invaded the tents of the travelers, hum- 

 ming over their heads like bullets, getting down their necks and 

 marching over their faces during the night, while in the morning 

 several dozen were found clinging to the inner folds of their 

 blankets. The cook, who had evidently left melted grease in his 

 frying pan over night, found the bottom covered with beetles 

 firmly embedded in the hardened grease. Multitudes of the beetles 

 were also found lying parched and shriveled among the ashes of 

 the campfire of the previous evening. 



On the Endurance of Swarms of Cimex lectularius L [Hemip]. 



By C. E. Olsen, Maspeth, N. Y. 



In preparing some specimens of this bug for microscopic 

 examination I was astonished at the degree of endurance they dis- 

 played. On July 4th I brought home about twenty individuals 

 in small vials ; they soon began to breed and many eggs and young 

 were obtained in the first two weeks. They were then laid aside 

 and not again examined until September 2nd. At this time I still 

 found life in some of the adults, and many of the young were very 

 active. They were again put aside until October 12th, when all 

 the full grown ones were found to have died as well as some of the 

 young in the first instar and all of those in the second instar, but 

 there were still some very active young in the first instar. I ex- 

 posed these to cyanide for four or five minutes and removed them 

 in the supposition that all were dead, but I was much mistaken, 

 for they became very lively in a short time. I then immersed them 

 in denatured alcohol, and here again was greatly surprised at the 

 resistence shown. As a rule it required at least fifteen minutes to 

 kill them by this method, and one particular specimen resisted 

 death for nineteen minutes, having been immersed at 12 :29 P. M., 

 and not ceasing all activity until 12:48. 



Mr. H. G. Barber recently mentioned having discovered this 



