November 4, 1892.] 



SCIENCE. 



257 



{Pieris brassicae L) in den Vereinigten Staaten. Warum also 

 nicht auch die NiitzHnge ? 



Mr. A. D. Hopkins that wohl sehr gut, sein Augenmerk auf 

 Europa zu riohten. 



Und in der That haben wir io Clerus formicarius L. einen 

 Kafer, der nicht nur in seinem Aeusseren, in Grosse und FSrbung, 

 seinetn amerikanischen Bruder, Clerus dubius F. , iiberaus ahnelt, 

 sondern dem Letzteren auch in seinen Lebensgewohnheiten 

 gleicht. Er ist, sowohl als Larve, wie als Imago, ein scharfer 

 Feind der Nadelholz-Borkenkafer, gleichviel ob sie auf Kiefer 

 oderTanne leben, und dabei recht zahlreich. 



Diesen wahlte Mr. Hopkins zur Einfikhrung nach Amerika. 



Um sein Ziel aioher zu erreichen, setzte er sich mit dem durch 

 seine klassische Monographie beriihmten Scolytiden-Specialisten 

 Eichhoff und rait mir in Verbindung und kam im August nach 

 Europa, bier die Lebensbedingungen des Thieres zu studiren und 

 zu sammeln. 



Mr. Eiclihoff schrieb mir, wahrend Herr Hopkins im Elsass 

 sammelte, dass derselbe "mit seltenem Geschick und grossem 

 Gliick " arbeite, und icb selbst konnte dies sehr bald aus eigener 

 Anschauung bestatigen, als ich mit Mr. Hopkins gemeinschaft- 

 lioh mehrere Tage in den sachsisohen Waldern auf Cleriden fahn- 

 dete. Wir fanden die Larve in alien Stadien des Wachsthumes, 

 die Puppe, die eben entschliipfte Imago, und den kraftigen, leb- 

 haften Kafer in ihrem kunstvoUen Winterquartieren innerhalb 

 der Rinde. 



So kann denn Mr. Hopkins zufrieden auf den Erfolg seiner 

 Reise blicken. denn er nahm eine stattliche Zahl Cleriden in alien 

 Stadien, der Sicherheit halber in vertchiedener Weise verpaokt, 

 mit nach Hause. Und da es wohl keinem Zweifel unterliegt, 

 dass der weitausgrossere Theil der in der Winterruhe befindlichen 

 Thiere gesund ankommt, — -wenn nicht iibertriebene Cholerafurcht 

 etwa Herrn Hopkins Schatze durch Disinfection verdirbt, — so 

 kann im Friihjahre mit dem Acclimatisationsversuche begonnen 

 werden. 



Fiir genugenden Nachsohub wird von mir eventuell gesorgt 

 werden, um Mr. Hopkins's Experiment gelingen zu lassen. 



COLI.VS EDUSA AND COLIAS HYALE. 



BY A. HEATH, LONDON, ENGLAND. 



Great Britain this year has been favored with an abundance 

 of these beautiful insects; from every part come reports of in- 

 numerable captures, especially of C. Edusa, many insects being 

 taken at one throw of the net. C. Hyale has also been, I may 

 say, plentiful when we consider its comparative rarity here; 

 friends of mine report taking during a few days as many as four 

 or six this season. I have myself taken four fine specimens in as 

 many days. The first specimen I took in June, but it was the 

 only example of Oolias that I saw until August ; as a rule these 

 insects are never taken in England until August. In 1886 we had 

 a similar year; enormous numbers of C edusa were to be seen, 

 one entomological friend told me he had seen a certain field in 

 Kent yellow with them. It seems most extraordinary that this 

 year we should have had such an abundance of this particular 

 insect, when last year scarcely one was to be seen even in their 

 favorite localities. 



Some entomologists believe that they come across the English 

 Channel (over 30 miles of water) in swarms, but if this were the 

 case, surely someone would see them arrive or on their arrival 

 before they scattered over the country. Then, if this were so, 

 why do we not get an annual visit in quantity ? The insect is 

 always in abundance on the continent of Europe, and there is also 

 an abundance of many other kinds of butterflies that we seldom 

 or never see here. My idea respecting these occasional abundant 

 swarms is that butterflies' eggs are indestructible, and will lie on 

 the ground for years until a favorable season arrives. 



The eggs of Colias are laid on the food-plant, various forms of 

 Trifolium ; this is not only their food, but the food of every kind 

 of four-footed animal, domestic and otherwise, inhabiting this 

 country (except carnivora), and the whole field or crop of Tri- 

 folium is eaten either in a green or dry state. What, then, be- 



comes of the eggs deposited? They must be eaten up almost 

 entirely, and if not indestructible they would be destroyed. This 

 seems not to be the case, and it is probable that they can pass 

 through the animal uninjured by the heat of its body, and so be 

 again distributed over the ground. Without some such theory it 

 seems almost impossible to account for the large numbers found 

 in a cultivated country following a year of scarcity like last year, 

 especially when we remember the enormous number of larvae 

 destroyed by ichneumon and other countless enemies, bad sea- 

 sons, etc. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



The New York Academy of Sciences has recently organized 

 a biological section which will hold monthly meetings. At the 

 opening meeting, Oct. 17, Professor Henry F. Osborn acted as 

 chairman. The following papers were presented. Bashford 

 Dean, "On Dionsea under its Native Conditions near Wilming- 

 ton, N.C.," the results of experiments emphasizing the plant's 

 erratic sensibility and its special adaptability for capturing 

 ground insects; N. L. Britton, " On a species of Hieracium; " E. 

 B. Wilson, " On the Artificial Production of Twins and Multiple 

 Embryos in Amphioxus." The paper dealt mainly with the pecul- 

 iarities of double monsters produced (as in Driesch's experiments 

 on Echinus) by shaking apart the blastomeres of two- and four- 

 celled stages (V. Anatomischer Anzeiger, 1893). Every gradation 

 exists between two perfect and separate bodies, each half the 

 normal size, and four in which the only indication of duality con- 

 sists of a bilobed condition of the archenteron. In the double 

 gastrulas the long axes of the two halves may form any angle 

 with each other, and the two blastopores when separate may be 

 turned in any direction. In cases where the two blastopores face 

 each other, the two bodies are united by a bridge of tissue at one 

 side, essentially as in the double gastrulas of certain earthworms. 



— As cottonseed meal is gradually coming into use in Ohio as 

 a valuable adjunct to the ration for dairy cows, and as the scar- 

 city and consequent high price of corn the present season may 

 tempt some farmers to add this meal to the pig ration, it seems 

 advisable to call attention to bulletin 31 of the Texas experiment 

 station (located at the Agricultural and Mechanical College of 

 Texas, College Station P. O.). In this bulletin Director G. D. 

 Curtis reports the results of a long series of experiments in feeding 

 cotton-seed to pigs, from which he comes to the conclusion that 

 there is no profit whatever in feeding cotton-seed in any form to 

 pigs, whether the seed be boiled, roasted, or ground. The ground 

 seed seems to have produced the worst results, causing the death 

 within six to eight weeks of a large proportion of the pigs to 

 which it was fed, and especially of the medium and small-sized 

 shoats. The boiled seed was less injurious, but roasted seed was 

 almost as fatal as the meal. These pigs were fed alongside of 

 similar pigs which had corn instead of cotton-seed, and the corn- 

 fed pigs remained in perfect health. The symptoms produced by 

 the cotton-seed are described as follows: The first sign of sick- 

 ness, appearing in from six to eight weeks after cotton-seed meal 

 is added to the ration, is a moping dullness of the animal, with 

 loss of appetite and tendency to lie apart. Within the course of 

 twelve to thirty-six hours, often within the shorter time, the ani- 

 mal becomes restless ; staggering in his gait; breathing labored 

 and spasmodic; bare skin showing reddish inflammation; sight 

 defective, and both the nervous and the muscular systems feeble 

 and abnormal in action. The fatal cases all show " thumps" — 

 spasmodic breathing, and in many instances the animal will turn 

 in one direction only, following a fence, or building wall, so 

 closely as to strike his nose against projections in a vain endeavor 

 to push outward in that one direction which he tries to take. If 

 no fence or building intercept him he may travel in a circle — 

 large or small according to the mildness or acuteness of the 

 malady in his particular case. When exhausted by his efforts the 

 animal drops down suddenly — sometimes flat upon his belly, 

 sometimes dropping on his haunches with his fore legs well apart 

 to keep from falling over — almost always with the evidence of 

 more or less acute internal pain. At death a quantity of bloody 

 foam exudes from mouth and nostrils. 



