56 



each trying to seize with its mandibles the mouth-parts of the other. Occasionally 

 one would thus seize one of the mandibles of its opponent, and would shake the 

 head and forepart of the body of the latter from side to side, somewhat as a terrier 

 shakes a rat, and sometimes his jaws would lose their hold and come together with 

 such force as to produce a distinct clicking sound. They never attack the soft 

 parts of the body, the objective point being the mouth-parts, and these do not 

 appear to become injured in these attacks. Size does not count for much, since a 

 small larva will, without the slightest hesitation, attack one that is twice as large 

 as itself. They appear to enjoy these fights very much; I have seen two of them 

 fight almost continuously for fully ten minutes. Sometimes three of them would be 

 thus engaged, two at a time, changing around so that neither of them would be idle 

 for any great length of time. They do not appear to be very great feeders. Dur- 

 ing the past four days the above larvse have devoured only a portion of the Black 

 Scale. 



The following is from a later commnnication (July 11) : 



I have finally succeeded in obtaining fertile eggs and young larvse of Thalpochares 

 cocciphaga. The egg is turnip -shaped, about twice as broad as high, and with a deep 

 concavity on the upper end, in the center of which is a rounded tubercle ; the sur- 

 face is covered with raised lines forming shallow cells of various shapes and sizes. 

 The eggs are deposited singly. The recently hatched larva, like the full-grown 

 one, is provided with only two pairs of abdominal prolegs, these being on the eighth 

 and ninth segments. The moths remain at rest during the daytime, and become 

 active early in the evening. I have now quite a number of these moths, so that the 

 introduction of this species into California is pretty well assured. 



LOCUSTS IN ALGERIA. 



We have already published a notice of the locust invasion of Algeria 

 during the past two or three years, and have briefly described the 

 methods employed by the French Government to check their ravages. 

 From a press clipping dated May 19 it appears that the locusts are re- 

 turning this year in greater numbers than ever, and it is now thought 

 that they come clear across the desert from the Soudan. Great clouds 

 of the locusts, sufficiently numerous in places to fairly darken the sun, 

 have already been seen on the northern edge of the Sahara, and it is 

 believed that they have journeyed northward from the Niger Eiver, in 

 the Soudan, where, about a month before, similar clouds of the insects- 

 were reported. 



CHANGES OF COLOR IN ScJiistocerca peregrina OL. 



In the '' Bulletin des Seances de la Societe Entomologique de France'^ 

 for January 27, 1892, M. Kiinckel d'Herculais, whose investigations in 

 Algeria of the Migratory Locusts of Africa we have previously alluded 

 to, has an article upon the changes of color which ScJiistocerca peregrina 

 Oliv. undergoes after attaining maturity. Since the inquiry of M. 

 Selys-Longchamps in 1877, on the European appearances of migratory 

 locusts, it has been generally held that S. peregrina is represented by 

 two varieties, the one yellow, originating in the north of Africa, and 

 the other rose-colored and originating in Senegal. Olivier himself, in 

 his original description of the species, remarks upon this rose-colored 



