359 
As a fact not generally known it may be stated in this connection 
tbat the unity in habit is not maintained in the North American spe- 
cies of Canthon, since one species, C. viridis, never rolls balls of dung, 
but lives exclusively under layers of decayed leaves. It larva has not 
been observed, but feeds, no doubt, on vegetable mold in the manner of 
several species of Ataenius. — E. A. S. 
MARGARODES IN THE UNITED STATES. 
At the May, 1894, meeting of the Entomological Society of Washing- 
ton, as mentioned upon page 380, vol. vi, of Insect Life, Professor 
Riley read an interesting paper upon the very curious Coccida3 of the 
genus Margarod.es, two species of which he had studied in his then 
recent trip to the West Indies. In the West Indies these species are 
known as "ground pearls," and are found in many localities under the 
surface of the ground. The large pearly- white species found in the 
island of Montserrat Professor Kiley stated to be probably identical 
with Margarodes formicarum Guilding, described by the Rev. Lans- 
downe Guilding in the early thirties as found upon the island of St. 
Vincent. Another species Professor Riley had bought, made up in the 
form of necklace, in Jamaica. The Jamaican form seemed to differ from 
the Montserrat form, the necklace being composed of smaller specimens, 
which, instead ot being light pearly-yellowish in color, were more golden 
brown. So far as we know no species of this genus has ever been found 
m the United States until the present season. Early in January, how- 
ever, we received a small package from Mr. W. T. Swingle, of the 
Division of Vegetable Pathology, who collected them on Key Largo and 
Elliott's Key, in Florida. The specimens received were small in size, 
golden brown in color, and resemble those composing the necklace 
bought by Professor Riley in Jamaica. 
Mr. Swingle writes that in some places over an area ten feet or more 
in diameter the soil (what there is of it between the coral rocks) is 
composed very largely of these roundish laminated bodies. Those on 
the surface are clean and beautifully iridescent, while those buried 
more deeply are dull in color. Mr. Swingle was informed by several 
persons that such patches of soil occurred in the uncleared hammocks, 
and on one occasion he saw some of them along a path leading through 
a hammock. He saw them at several points on Key Largo and Elliott's 
Key, and his boatman informed him that he had seen them at Key 
West. Ail local observers called them " singers' eggs." Mr. Swingle 
found them at a depth of over a foot, composing over half the soil. 
NOTES FROM CORRESPONDENCE. 
The Scale-insects of Arizona.— We learn from Prof. J. W. Tourney, of the 
University of Arizona, that the only s^ale-insects so far collected in Arizona are 
Asjyidwtus perniciosus, on apple, pear, peach, and apricot ; Lecannun pruinosum, «u 
