596 General Notes. [July, 



Spanish mackerel." The mouth of the adult shad is practically 

 toothless, and multitudes of small copepods are caught in the 



meshes of its branchial arches. The new Acalephs from the 



Tort u c^s and Key West, and also from the east coast of New 

 Zealand are described and well illustrated by Mr. J. W. Fewkes 

 in the Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology. Vol. 

 x. Nos. 7 and 8. 



ENTOMOLOGY. 1 



Repelling Insects by Malodorants.— Mr. J. A. Lintner, 

 State Entomologist of New York, has recently published an in- 

 teresting paper, in which (assuming that the parent insect is 

 guided to her food-plant, or to that destined for her offspring by the 

 sense of smell), he advocates the use of strong-smelling or malo- 

 dorous substances, as counter-odorants to prevent noxious species 

 from laying their eggs on cultivated plants This theory is put 

 forth as a " new principle, in protection from insect attack." 



As remarked in a notice of the paper elsewhere, we have one 

 serious criticism to make of it, viz : that it lacks both proof and sub- 

 stantial foundation in fact. To give force to the theory, Mr. Lint- 

 ner has to assume that substances like kerosene, coal-tar, naphtha- 

 line, carbolic acid, gas-lime, bisulphide of carbon, smoke, etc., repel 

 by their odor ; whereas the ordinary belief that they repel because 







attempts to prevent the oviposition of the Cotton-worm motn, 

 the Colorado potato-beetle, the apple-tree borers, and the Plum 

 curculio, by the odor of carbolic acid and of coal-tar, of infusions 

 of Ailanthus, Walnut, and decoctions of Horehound, or cabbage 

 worms by the odor of creosote, have proved unavailing. Those 

 of others in the same direction, and notably of Mr. I. W. Taylor, 

 of Poland, N. Y., with such pungent odors as musk, camphor, 

 spirits of turpentine, asafcedita, kerosene, etc. {Rural New Yorker, 

 Nov. 2, 1872), used especially to prevent the oviposition of Puns 

 rapes, equally failed of the intended result; so that, so far as 

 experience will warrant an opinion it is adverse to the " new prin- 

 ciple." The senses of sight, touch, and taste, which are more 

 palpable and readily located, plav their part in insect economy, 

 and both experiment and observation would indicate that, except 

 perhaps for certain special families, particularly of L-:\> ■dopteni, 

 this part is greater than that represented by the sense of smeii, 

 even in guiding the female to lay her eggs.— C. V. Riln'- 



Habits of BlTTACUS APTERUS.-Baron Osten-Sacken commu- 

 nicates in the Wiener IinLr>tolo<risehe Z /////.; (May i]ll ' u ']^J u 

 123) an interesting note on the above named Ncuro ot r ■>.^ . lllS j Ie ' 

 which is not rare in open grassy places in parts of California. 

 states that the insect replaces the want of wings by a great aex^ 



