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The Potato Beetle in the South. 



The Potato Beetles herewith should have been sent you some weeks ago. They 

 are from Madison Station, Madison County, Miss., the beetles occurring in several 

 potato fields at and within a mile of the station. This is the first year I have seen 

 them in Mississippi. If they have been here at an earlier date you may, perhaps, 

 know it. I send them as a note of the spread of the beetle so far south. — [Dr. D. L. 

 Phares, Agricultural College, Mississippi, May 11, 1889. 



Reply. — I beg to acknowledge the receipt of yours of the 11th instant, with 

 accompanying specimens of the Colorado Potato Beetle ■. (Doryphora W-lineata). I 

 believe that this is the first time they have been noticed so far south in your longi- 

 tude. I will make a note of this matter for Insect Life.— [May 18, 1889.] 



Swarming of Urania boisduvalii in South America. * 



I take the liberty of mailing to you two specimens of butterfly captured at Colon, 

 Republic of Colombia, March 18 and 25, 1839. When within a few hours of that port 

 these insects were seen flying from the mainland in a northerly direction across the 

 bay. This migration continued daily from the date of arrival, March 18, for nearly 

 a week. When the flight began I could not ascertain. Its duration daily was from 

 just before sunrise until sunset; it was protracted, however, uutil late at night on 

 three evenings near and at full of the moon. The point which attracted my atten- 

 tion was the vast number of the insects. The air was actually full of them. It 

 resembled an unremitting shower of forest leaves in autumn. I could learn nothing 

 of its family history from the residents, but it is doubtless familiar to you. The 

 excavations in each specimen were beautifully done by the Red Ant (Formica rufa ?) 

 in spite of the suspension of the tray in which the butterflies were placed from the 

 ceiling by one string, and the saturation of said string with turpentine and castor 

 oil.— [Dr. S. A. Davis, 107 West 47th street, New York City, May 9, 1889. 



Reply. — Your letter of May 9 transmitting specimens of a " butterfly " c aptured at 

 Colon, United States of Colombia, has been received. The insect sent is not a but- 

 terfly but a moth, and is known as Urania boisduvalii. It bears, however, a striking 

 resemblance to some of the large swallow-tailed butterflies of the genus Papilip. 

 Your note concerning the abundance of this insect is very interesting. — [May 20, 1889.] 



Letter on the proposed "American Entomologists' Union." 



* * * I see in the March (1889 ) number of Insect Life you ask for ideas con- 

 cerning the proposed Society of Economic Entomologists. I do not think ray views 

 on the subject are worth much, but such as they are, they are as follows: I should 

 like to see an organization founded, with members in every State in the Union (and 

 I do not see why not also in Canada and Mexico), with the headquarters at the De- 

 partment of Agriculture at Washington. Such a society to be called, perhaps, the 

 "American Entomologists' Union," and to appoint a secretary in every State at least, 

 and in the case of big States, like Texas aud California, two or more ; these to collect 

 all the information they can relative to insects, especially from an economic point of 

 view, and forward each one a report, at stated intervals, to Washington. These re- 

 ports to be preserved aud examined by a committee appointed, aud the essence of 

 them printed in Ixsect Life or as a special bulletin. This I think would (1) bring 

 economic entomologists in touch with one another ; (2) enable them to benefit from 

 one another's discoveries; (3) aud especially the facts thus collected might be seen 

 often to have a significance which would be totally lost were they to remain isolated 

 among their discoverers ; (4) although apparently adding to t he work of tbe Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture it would really diminish it, as you would have only the secre- 

 taries' reports to deal with, aud it would be their duty to receive and collate reports 

 of others within the boundaries of their own States. — [Theo. 1). A. Cockerel!, West 

 (Mill, Custer County, Colo., May 1 J. L839. 



