826 General Notes. [October, 



shrivelled skin. In the authors accessible, I can find no reference 

 to these elastic bulb-like sacs at the base of the mandibles, nor 

 to the peculiar structure of the thorax, which admits of its ex- 

 pansion and contraction as referred to. — William Saunders, Lon- 

 don, Out., read before the A. A. A. S., at Montreal. 



Moths Attracted by Falling Water. — Mr. J. Starkie Gard- 

 ner records in Nature, March 9, 1882, his observation made in 

 Iceland, that the gleaming water-falls seem to be as attractive to 

 moths as artificial light — moth after moth flying deliberately into 

 the falling water. This fact can, of course, be observed best in a 

 country like Northern Iceland where there is no night during the 



A new museum pest.— Mrs. A. E. Bush, an esteemed corre- 

 spondent of San Jose, Cal., complains lately in her letters of the 

 ravages of a Dermestid in her insect collection, and from speci- 

 imens, larvae and imagos, lately sent to us, wc find that the species 

 in question, is the handsome Perimegatoma variegatum Horn. 

 We do not find that this species was ever known before as a mu- 

 . seum pest, and there is danger that it may become distributed in 

 insect collections all over the country, just as have the other 

 species of the same family, which are so well-known and dreaded 

 by entomologists. 



Fleas feeding on Lepidopterous larv/e. — Mr. Chas. I. 

 Boden records in the (London) Entomologist for March 1882, p. 

 71, that he observed fleas feeding upon Lepidopterous larvae. 

 The great abundance of fleas in our Southern States, in places re- 

 mote from human habitations and where there are presumably 

 few warm-blooded animals or none at all, may perhaps find 

 explanation in this insect-feeding habit. 



ANTHROPOLOG-Y. 1 



British Anthropology. — The York volume, 1881, of the 

 British Association is at hand, and enables us to see what our 

 brethren are doing. That portion of the work interesting to the 

 readers of the Naturalist will be the following: 



The presidential address by Sir John Lubbock was a resume 

 of the progress of science during the fifty years of the associa- 

 tion, and, as might be expected, contains valuable allusions to 

 anthropology. 



Professsor W. H. Flower chose as the theme of his opening 

 speech before the department of anthropology, The low state ot 

 interest in anthropology in Britain 'compared with other 



The following papers are reported in abstracts : 



The Viking's ship discovered in Sandefjord in Norway, 1880. By J. Harris Stone. 



