54 Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society lo/. viii 



The ultimate fate of Say's collection makes one regret that 

 he did not sell every specimen. After his death his whole collec- 

 tion of insects was put in a wagon and sent from New Hamiony 

 to Philadelphia, during which journey, no doubt, the damage 

 from jostling was great. By some remarkable oversight the great 

 pile of boxes was stored unopened in Philadelphia and forgotten ! 

 Nearly twenty years later it was resurrected and sent to 

 Thaddeus W. Harris, State Entomologist of Massachusetts, and 

 a very notable man. It was thought that Harris could put it in 

 shape better than anyone else, as he was certainly the best general 

 entomologist in the country. The second trip of the collection 

 was by ship to Boston, thence by wagon to its destination. Dr. 

 Harris found it so infested with Dermestes and Anthrenus that 

 it was too dangerous to take it into his own house to carry infesta- 

 tion to his own collection. Say's boxes were home-made, loose, 

 and (from rough usage, etc.) more or less dilapidated. So Harris 

 stored them in the College Library and wrote to Philadelphia 

 asking authority to buy new boxes, etc. Either the letter miscarried 

 or there occurred another unaccountable piece of neglect. Three 

 years later Dr. Harris received a letter from Philadelphia asking 

 for the return of the collection. When it arrived it was a mass of 

 pins, labels, wings and dust, with more cast skins of Dermestes 

 than anything else. In this way probably 3,000 insect types — 

 the most notable collection possible in American history — were 

 lost to science. 



A Hemipterous Cannibal. — While carrying on some of my 

 breeding experiments I noticed a very queer conduct of Cos- 

 mopepla carnijex. I had collected for observation about 1 5 speci- 

 mens of this species and placed them in a tumbler covered with 

 muslin. 



In a few days a cluster of eggs had been deposited on the food- 

 plant (moth mullein) , and to my surprise five of these eggs had been 

 completely drained, and only the caved-in transparent shells re- 

 mained in place of the greenish-yellow eggs. 



I concluded that something unusual was taking place, and it 

 was now for me to find out who the wretched beast was. Un- 



