30 



The species chosen in the present case is the JSitzschia pulicare, which is 

 almost invariably to be found in abundance on the common chimney swift 

 (Chcetura pelasgia.) This bird is an abundant resident of the building in which 

 my laboratory is located, and being readily obtained on occount of its tendency to 

 fly in at the windows, I suggested to Mr. P. H. Rolfs, a graduate student in 

 biology, that he attempt the rearing of larvae from eggs with a view to determine 

 length of developmental period in connection with studies of its embryology. 



For this first purpose he secured on two separate occasions a number of the 

 eggs, and kept them, part in a tight paste-board box, which was kept warm by 

 the heat of his body, the others were enclosed in cotton-plugged tubes under a 

 hen that was kept in the laboratory at the time for incubating eggs for embryo- 

 logical work. Of the first lot, all kept in pocket, secured July 27th; two eggs 

 hatched August 4th, five between August 8-13th, one August ICtb, the last giving 

 twenty days, the longest period. 



Of the second lot secured, August 8rd, six hatched between the 8th and 

 13th, four hatched August 14th (three in box and one in tube), two August 15th 

 (one in box and one in tube), part not hatching, and the longest period in this 

 case being thirteen days. 



Assuming that those requiring the longest time had been deposited but a 

 short time before the experiment began, we should have from fifteen to twenty 

 days as the ordinary time required for the eggs to hatch for this species. 



Mr. F. S. Earle presented some interesting notes upon the injurious insects 

 of the season in Southern Mississippi. Diahrotica 12-punctata was a very 

 abundant insect, and in addition to its well known food plants, it had been a 

 serious pest to peach trees and cabbages. Leaves of the latter, bitten by the 

 insect, at once decayed from the point of injury. Cut-worms were very 

 destructive in gardens, and cucumber and melon vines were much injured by a 

 plant-louse. Potatoes had been much attacked by a black flea-beetle, and the 

 tomatoes by the boll-worm in the fruit, and on the leaves by the sphinx' larvae. 



Prof. Cook would like to hear the experience of those present as to a prac- 

 tical remedy for the attack of the boll-worm upon the fruit of tomatoes. 



Prof. Osborn said that Mr. Tracy had tried arsenical mixtures with some 

 success, and also had attracted the perfect insects to light. 



SOME EXPERIENCES IN REARING INSECTS. 

 Miss M. E. Murtfeldt read the following paper r 



In rearing insects, as with many other enterprises in life, we climb the ladder 

 to success by the rounds of successive failures, having in many cases to exhaust 

 an almost infinite range of " how not to do it " before arriving at its happy 

 converse. 



Many and great are the disappointments of the entomologist ; bnt does he 

 succumb ? Never ! What single point in the biology of a species has been 

 relegated to the absolutely undiscoverable ? I do not know of one, no matter 

 how obscure the subject or how little advance has yet been made in the direction 

 of its elucidation. 



" Hope springs eternal " in the breast of the entomologist, and patience and 

 perseverance have in him their "perfect work," until Nature relents, or is 

 caught " off guard," and the secret, so carefully hidden, is revealed. 



