271 



believed, from South Aioerica. If relief is not soon found it is proba- 

 ble that one of the most thriving industries of these islands will have 

 to be abandoned. 



ENTOMOLOGY AT THE IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY. 



Volume II, !No. 3, Bulletin from the Laboratories of Natural History 

 of the State University of Iowa, published January, 1893, contains 

 three entomological articles by Mr. H. F. Wickham. The first of these 

 includes an account of the earlier stages of three North American Col- 

 eoptera, viz, Diccelvs splendidtis, Epipociis cinctus, and EUychnki cali- 

 fornica. The second is a rei)ort on an entomological reconnoissance of 

 southern Alaska and adjacent portions of British Columbia, which con- 

 tains an interesting account of his methods of collecting and an itinerary 

 of the journey, concluding with a list of the species captured; the list is a 

 rather long one, covering twenty pages of the Bulletin. The third ar- 

 ticle is a short one announcing the westward spread of the European 

 Aphodius fossor to Iowa City and the finding for the first time in this 

 country of the European Rliinoncus inconspectns. The first article is 

 illustrated by a plate giving structural details of the larva and pupa of 

 each of the three species of Coleoptera. The figure of Epipocus cinctus 

 corresponds fairly well with drawings which we had mside of E. piDic- 

 tatus some six years ago from specimens which we mentioned in the 

 Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington, volume i, 

 ,p. 37. 



m LOCAL NAMES FOR COMMON INSECTS. 



Several times in the columns of this journal we have solicited cor. 

 respondence with regard to local names for our commoner insects, and 

 a number of our correspondents have responded. 



The most interesting information on this head has lately come to us 

 from Mr. Alvah A. Eaton, who sends quite a list of names current be- 

 tween Xewburyport, Mass., and Portsmouth, N. H. Some of them are 

 entirely new, and are probably quite local. The Walking Stick (Dia- 

 pheromeraj is there known as " scorpion." The term '^ huckleberry 

 bug" is used indiscriminately for a species of red mite and for soldier 

 bugs, just as ^'red bag" is applied in the South to mites and the Cot- 

 ton Stainer. May Beetles and the like are called Dor Bugs, an old 

 English name for this class of Scarab^eids. '' Crackamire " and '' Xeedle 

 Ichneumon" are the names given the long, slender Ichneumon flies. 

 The large Locustid?e, or long-horn grasshoppers, are very appropriately 

 called "cradlers" from the resemblance of the ovipositor of the female 

 to a grain cradle, but most singular of all is the application of the name 

 of locust to the large Bombycid moths, such as the Cecropia, Luna, and 

 Polyx)hemus, and of lady-bird for the Sesiid or Humming-bird Moths. 



A New York correspondent writes us that the carpet beetle, Anthre- 

 nils scropliularife^ universally but incorrectly called *^ Buffalo moth," is 

 known in certain towns alonff the Hudson as "Russian moths." 



