36 



way from the effects of tlie latter, and that tlie beetles were always 

 present, though rarely injuriously abundant. 



Mr. Howard said that it is well known that in the absence of sickly 

 trees Scolytus will attack healthy and vigorous trees, and that the 

 present large numbers of Scolytus are therefore a constant menace. 



Mr. Smith said he had been informed by Mr. Schwarz that the beetles 

 will enter healthy, vigorous trees, but are unable to successfully jirop- 

 agate in them. 



Mr. Lintner said that Professor Peck had found scolytids attacking 

 perfectly healthy spruces. 



Mr. Smith, referring to the climbing cutworms, said that lie had been 

 frequently called on to determine for correspondents moths described 

 as having been bred from climbing larvae. He had received several 

 such from Mr. Slingerlaud. He questioned if they did not adapt them- 

 selves to differing conditions, sometimes assuming the climbing habit, 

 while x^erhaps normally working on the ground. 



Mr. Howard reported that the species Mamestra suhjuncta and Agro- 

 tis scandens had been repeatedly sent in this year as climbing cut- 

 worms. 



Mr. Sirrine asked if all cutworms did not climb as young larv;e, giv- 

 ing his experience with cabbage cutworms as sustaining that view. 



Mr. Smith said that this is the habit of Carneades messoria on onions. 

 In this connection he urged the value of personal observation to impress 

 one with the true significance and importance of the working habits of 

 insects. In illustration of this he referred to his having recently wit- 

 nessed a grasshopper invasion in the West, which had brought to him 

 a realization of the possibilities of this insect to which before he had been 

 a stranger. He said also that the Hessian fly, commented on by Mr. 

 Davis, had proved very much more numerous in Kew Jersey this year 

 than in years recently past. 



Mr. Lintner said this fly was also very abundant in western IS"ew 

 York. 



Mr. Howard said this is distinctively a Hessian fly year, and that 

 the division of entomology had recently fonnd it necessary to issue a 

 circular to facilitate answering the numerous inquiries received on the 

 subject. 



The following paper, by Mr. Chittenden, Avas read by Mr. Sirrine: 



HERBIVOROUS HABITS OF CERTAIN DERMESTID-ffi. 



By F. H. Chittenden, JFasMngton, D. C. 

 [Author's abstract.] 



The DermestidiB, as is well known, feed chiefly upon dried animal 

 substances. Certain species, however, are reported to have injured 

 vegetable material, and a few recorded instances of damage of this 

 character were cited. Until very recentl}^ the various species of house- 

 hold Dermestidae had not been suspected of actually breeding in other 



