379 



presenting Mr. Koebele with a testimonial in recognition of his services 

 in importing the insect enemies of the Fluted Scale, and we learn from 

 the Rural California^ of April that the sum of $232.50 was raised dur- 

 ing the recent convention at Los Angeles. The subsidiary statement 

 which is being quite generally made and which has caused his friends 

 no little anxiety, viz, that Mr. Koebele's health was ruined by his trip 

 to Australia has, w T e are happy to state, no foundation whatever. Mr. 

 Koebele writes that his health is perfect, and that he is good for three 

 such trips, and it is due him to announce that the statement above- 

 referred to and which has placed him in a false light, was started by 

 secretary of the the State board of horticulture, upon his own confes- 

 sion, "for effect"! 



A PARADOX. 



It may seem very much like a contradiction in terms to speak of a 

 white black scale, yet this is what we have recently received from Mr. 

 Ooquillett. In the midst of a normally colored colony of the Black 

 Scale (Lecanium olece) on oleander he found a full-grown individual of 

 a uniform perfectly white color. Mr. Ooquillett considered this color 

 to have been due to the fact that the specimen had recently molted, 

 but so far as we know the Lecanii have no distinctive molts. It is 

 probably an instance of albinism, and the first one of the kind which 

 has ever come to our notice amons the Coccidse. 



A RARE SPHINGOID. 



We have just received for the National Museum collection from Mr. 

 W. G. Henry, of the 0". S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, a specinien of 

 the female of the rare Pseudosphinx tetrio. Mr. Henry gives us an inter- 

 esting account of its capture, which we may quote : 



The insect referred to was captured at sea, on January 19, while the Blake was at 

 anchor on a current station in the Gulf of Mexico, about 160 miles south of the Mis- 

 sissippi River mouth, and about half way between the Louisiana coast and the Cam- 

 peche Banks (Yucatan coast), I noticed the insect (I presume it was the same) sitting 

 on the boom, under the awning, and tried to catch it, but it flew away as lightly and 

 easily as a bird and took a straight westerly course across the sea until it was out of 

 sight, and I saw it no more that day. The next day (January 20), I was sitting on 

 deck aud saw the insect (presumably the same) come in a straight course from 

 westerly across the sea and alight on board, and, after repeated efforts, it was capt- 

 ured. The Blake had been at sea (out of sight of land) for six days, having left the 

 Mississippi on January 13, and the insect was so shy and hard to approach that I 

 thiuk it could not have been on board the ship all that time without being disturbed 

 and seen. For a week previous to its capture there had been no high wind from any 

 direction which could have blown the insect off to sea, and it is therefore natural to 

 suppose that its flight across the sea was entirely voluntary. I sent the insect to you 

 from New Orleans on January 24. 



On February 1 (I think) we again left the Mississippi and ran across the Gulf of 

 Mexico to the Campeche Banks, and began to re-occupy the current stations, at in- 

 tervals of 60 miles, on a line across the Gulf from Campeche Banks to mouth of 

 Mississippi. On February 9 we arrived at and anchored on the same station where 



