FIELD AND FOREST. 



55 





ment or go to" pack and press it firmly 

 down with his head; more dust kicking 

 andm repacking, until the hole was filled, 

 and then he bustled around collecting all 

 the larger straws and sticks he had before 

 laid aside and strewn them in a careless, 

 natural sort of way over the surface. So 

 complete a "cache" was made against 

 marauding insects as ever wily Indian or 

 hunter did of his powder and dried meat, 

 every attention being paid to make the 

 surface look as natural and undisturbed 

 as possible. All being snug he started off 

 promptly in search of fresh game. These 

 Ichneumon flies are, I should think, the 

 farmer's friends, being the deadly foes to 

 larva?, caterpillers and insects so destruc- 

 tive to vegetation — -Rev. A. Lakes, Gol- 

 den City, Colorado. 



Lead Boring Insects. — I was very 

 much interested to find in a late number 

 the "Singular Insect Injury" communica- 

 tion. Although there exist some communi- 

 cations of similar facts, they are indeed is- 

 olated, and as I have given attention to 

 them through many years, perhaps you 

 will find it of interest to know them. I 

 should state first, that it seems to be sure, 

 that the boring is not done by the larvae, 

 but mostly by the perfect insect intending 

 to come to the open air. 



Lead balls in the cartridges have been 

 gnawed through in the arsenal in Turin 



.(Brenn, 1833) and in the Crimean War 

 (Motschoutsky and Vaillant) by Tirex 



juvlndus. 



Lead plates covering the roofs of 

 houses were eaten by Callidium bajulus 

 in P'rance (Ai|idouin, 1833,) in Prussia 

 ( Hagen, 1844, Troschel, 1857, by Bos- 

 trichus in France (Emy, 1833.) Cisterns 

 lined with lead have been gnawed through 

 in England (White,) by Anobium stria- 

 tum; in manufacturing sulphuric acid in 



Austria (Kollar,) and in the imperial mint 

 in Vienna (Kollar.) Type metal has 

 been bored by Apate capurina inLimoyes 

 (Uesmarest.) The oldest known obser- 

 vation of lead injury by insects dates from 

 1697, by Nebel. — Dr. H. A. Hagen. 

 Cambridge, Mass. 



GLEANINGS. 



Stated meetings of the Cambridge 

 Entomological Club will be held at 19 

 Follen street on the second Friday of 

 each month from October to June, at 7:45 

 p.m., viz.: October 12, November 9 and 

 December 14, 1877; January 1 1, Feburary 

 8, March. 8, April 12, May 10 and June 

 14, 1878. — Benjamin Pickman Mann, 

 Secretary. 



A peculiar kind of industry, that of 

 breeding maggots, has lately been tried in 

 Paris. Over the soil were spread large 

 quantities of stale fish, dead lobsters, odor- 

 ous poultry, and other refuse of the mar- 

 kets, as much as half a ton of large fish 

 being taken on the premises in a single 

 day. The maggots, which soon became 

 abundant, were carefully picked out and 

 packed in casks of galvanized iron, and 

 finally were sold for fish bait and chicken 

 food. The remaining refuse was con- 

 verted into manure. Proximity to such an 

 establishment could not have been very 

 pleasant, and exposed provisions in the 

 neighborhood suffered largely from the 

 visits of numberless flies. The police 

 stepped in and suppressed the manufac- 

 ture. — Nature. 



Two living specimens of the Colorado 

 beetle were found in Liverpool docks 

 last week ; one was taken on Wednesday 

 on board the Spanish S. S. Carolina, which 

 arrived about a week previously from New 

 York, bringing sixty head of large cattle 



