1883.] Entomology. 423 
inal cavities were covered more or less thickly with a mite. An 
examination we were requested to make showed it to be in all 
respects identical with Cydoleichus sarcoptoides Mégnin. This 
parasite is known in Europe to inhabit the air passages of galli- 
naceous birds, giving the transparent and membranous linings of 
these passages the appearance of gold-beater’s skin speckled with 
flour. It is likewise found in the bronchial tubes and their divis- 
ions, and even in the bones with which the air sacs communi- 
cate. Mégnin believes that while the mite may be extremely 
humerous, so as to cause mucous irritation and induce asphyxia 
and congestion by obstruction of the bronchia, and that birds 
may thus die, yet it is incapable of causing, as Gerlach and Zun- 
del believe, enteritis or inflammation of the peritoneum. 
PREVALENCE OF THE SCREW-WoRM IN CENTRAL AMERICA—AI- 
though not containing anything new the following portion of a 
letter from Mr. Jose Č. Zeledon of San Jose, Costa Rica, recently 
addressed to Professor S. F. Baird, will be found of some inter- 
est: “I have mailed to you, to-day, a little box containing a 
good many specimens of Lucilia (perhaps two or three different 
species), which I hope will be of some service to Professor Riley 
in studying your species. Flies of this group are abundant 
throughout this country at all seasons of the year, but it is on 
the coast regions where they are particularly common, and there 
they constitute a very serious annoyance to cattle raisers, the 
‘arve becoming active in a few hours, owing to the high temper- 
ature of the lowlands.” 
The box contained several hundred flies, the large majority of 
which proved to be Lucilia macellaria, which is also the parent of 
the screw-worm in the United States. 
DRIED LEAVES AS FOOD FOR LEPIDOPTEROUS LARVÆ.— Lepidop- 
terists engaged in raising larvæ will be interested in a note by Mr. 
A, H. Mundt, of F. airbury, Ill., published in Papilio for January, 1883, 
e 
order to preserve the green color and the flavor. This experi- 
ence with preserved food may prove equally useful for other spe- 
cies, and promises to be of great advantage in raising larve on 
hs € obtained from distant sections. We have never tried 
'S Method of curing leaves, though we have successfully used . 
d larvae for weeks, in Washington, on food ob- 
“hay-making” should prove as successful 
