48 
- The following paper was read: 
ADDITIONS TO OUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE CABINET BEETLE 
(ANTHRENUS VERBASCI Linn.). | 
By HENRY L. VIERECK, New Haven, Conn. 
While at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station the 
writer made some observaticns on this species which seem to be new. 
Larve of Anthrenus verbasct had been kept in a tube with cotton 
fibers during the winter. After subsisting on the cotton the speci- 
mens were transferred, in the spring, to Syracuse watch glasses, lined 
with black woolen cloth, where they could be readily watched and fed 
with dried insects. 
One day a female specimen was observed with an egg partly pro- 
truding from its ovipositor. When first seen it had the ovipositor, 
with the egg, inserted in the woolen cloth; then it seemed disturbed, 
for it walked around with the egg nearly all the 
way out, but made no apparent effort to drop it. 
A short time after this observation the egg had 
been dropped. The laying of this egg could not 
have taken more than five minutes. Eggs were 
first noticed about March 1. On March 15 four 
egos were put on a piece of cloth, which was 
pinned into a Schmitt box with no insecticide m 
it; another lot of four eggs was put on a piece of 
cloth and pinned into a box containing three 
naphthalin cones. April 7 the eggs in the box 
without naphthalin had hatched and the larve 
were lively. In the box with the naphthalin two 
eges had matured embryos or young larve; one 
meas Wee of Anthre: larva had eaten the end off the egg preparatory to 
nus verbasci, greatly emerging, but there died; the other did not suc- 
enlarged (original) ceed in cutting through the cover, though it was 
apparently as far advanced in development as the ‘first specimen. 
The second embryo had evidently inhaled the fumes of the naph- 
thalin through the thin membrane or the micropyle. This experiment 
seems to demonstrate that naphthalin does not retard the growth of 
the embryo in the egg, but does prevent the young larva from emerg- 
ing. When laid, the eggs are soft, with a membranous covering con- 
taining the whitish granular fluid, and measures 0.60 mm. In length 
and 0.29 mm. in width. They are bare, except at the blunt end, 
where hairs occur. At the time the larva emerges everything in the 
ego has been taken up and only the thin outer membrane or skin re- 
mains as a wrinkled tissue. The accompanying sketch (fig. 3) will 
help to convey an idea of the characters presented by the egg. 
