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Address, 
HENRY SKAER, Publisher, 
Boom 38, N. W. cor. Third and Pine Streets, 
SAINT LOUIS, MO. 
Editorial Chat. 
Mr. Julius Hurter of this city has the fin- 
est private collecton of stuffed birds and 
mammals we have seen for some time. He 
has also in his possession a live male albino 
opossum, which was caught on the other 
side of the river. 
Mr. Thos. E. Bean has established an 
agency in this city for the sale of scientific 
and other books, etc. Read his advertise- 
ments on another page. 
The Key West (Fla.) Key says: "Our 
fishing smacks report a stream of fresh or 
poisonous water along our bay coast from 
two to ten fathoms out, that kills all the fish 
in its range. They report sailing for 200 
miles through dead fish, covering the sea as 
far as the eye could reach with all the varie- 
ties. Immediately on the shore the water is 
salt and natural, while less than a mile off it 
appears of a red brick color. " 
Dr. Farnesworth of Iowa, thinks that the 
present Indians are a remnant of the same 
race that built the mounds. His opinion is 
based upon a study of the anatomical struc- 
ture and modes of burial of the two races. 
To our readers who may wish to obtain 
copies of the Missouri Entomological Reports 
recently advertised by us, we wish to inform 
that we have sold the entire stock to S. E. 
Cassino, of Salem, Mass., who will be pleased 
to fill their orders at reasonable prices. 
Errata. — Various unavoidable errata of a 
minor character are scattered through the 
volume. The intelligent reader will have no 
difficulty in correcting these for himself: 
Page 6, column 2, line 28, pollen, 
p. 6, c. 2, 1. 21 and 35, abortive ovules, 
p. 8, c. 1, 1. 26, protean, 
p. 8; c. 2, 1. 53, denticulate for buticulate. 
We are indebted to the Ednia Sentinel, 
Ednia, Knox County, Mo., for the following: 
"A young man exhibited an albino opossum 
on the street Saturday, which was purchased 
for Mark Tandy, the Dallas City taxidermist. 
This is the second one of the species which 
has been caught here. Mr. Tandy secured 
the other. Since writing the above, a beau- 
tiful white rabbit has been brought to town 
and sold to Mr. Tandy's agent here. Bridge 
Creek abouuds in albinos. 
Mr. W. G. Smith in an article on the pota- 
to fungus, says that many specimens* of the 
potato aphis were found with spawn-threads 
running through their limbs and bursting 
out in parts developing the oogonia and an- 
theridia of the fungus. It is easy from this 
to see how aphides might assist in spreading 
the disease and that the presence of (infect- 
ed) aphides being concomitant with the first 
appearance of the potato disease, what would 
be more natural than to attribute it to them* 
This may perhaps explain why Mr. A. Sonee 
and other observers have so strenuously in- 
sisted that the potato disease was of msec* 
rather than fungoid origin. 
The last volume of the London Entomolo- 
gical Society, which has just reached us, 
contains a very interesting article by Mr. J. 
W. Slater in which he attempts to show that 
gaily coloured caterpillars, not provided with 
bristles or other means of defense as a rule 
dwell on poisonous plants. Although it is 
very frequently the case that they do live on 
poisonous plants, we do not think that it ha 8 
been shown that they have on this accoun 
any exemplior from parasitic enemies. 
The bright green cantharides are stated by 
Mr. MacLachlan to be particularly subject to 
f 
the attacks of beetles. Mr. Wallace was o 
the opinion that the observed correlation 
between bright coloration and distastef ulness 
was brought about by means of natural sel- 
ection. Distastefulness above would be of 
little value to larvae, but bright* colours 
would serve as a danger signal, warning all 
comers to keep at a distance. 
ments of the publishers private busines s 
have interfered materially with his devoting 
as much time to the paper as he would wish 
and have finally become so great as to force 
him to give up either one or the other. 
Though it was not to be expected that a pa- 
per of this character would afford any pecu - 
niary remuneration, in that respect, at least 
we have been fairly successful, notwithstand- 
ing the smallness of the number of working 
naturalists in the west. 
It is the intention of the publisher to re- 
commence the issue of this journal after the 
lapse of a few years, by which time he hopes 
to be able to give more time to it, and hopes 
that the number of persons interested in 
science will be materially increased by means 
of the departments of natural history which 
are being established in connection with the 
various schools and colleges throughout the 
west. 
Thanking our subscribers for their kind 
patronage for the present, we bid them fare- 
well. 
Correspondence. 
Ed. Valley Naturalist: 
Your Valley Naturalist arrived a few 
days ago. Its contents are highly interesttng 
to every friend of natural history. I see my 
friend L. Heiligbrodt is occasionally contrib- 
uting to your paper, and I will promise to 
do the same during the coming winter. I 
noticed in a german paper that a "german 
students' commers" was held at your city 
on October 12th last, and had I had a clerk, 
I would have went there to attend it, for I 
was a member of the "corps Rhenania" dur- 
ing 1867-69 in the City of Freiburg, Baden. 
But now to entomology, I send you a piece 
of boxwood, with a drawing on it represent- 
a new species of Colaspis of the family of 
ChrysomelidoQ (Coleoptera). 
I: 
To OUR Surscribers.— It is with much 
regret that we close the Valley Natural- 
ist with the present number. The exact - 
e 
It is feeding upon the leaves of Quercus 
undulata, Torrey, (see Val. Nat. p. 8, No. 2) 
and was sent to me from Grant County, New 
Mexico, in the summer of '77, together with 
some other great rarities, such as Plusiotes, 
gloriosa, Strategus cersus, etc. 
This Uolaspis is certainly a most beautiful 
Chrysomelide, being of a bright smaragdine 
color of metallic lustre, with a crimson cross 
over the elytra as figure c shows. The aver- 
age measure of the eighteen specimens was 
about 7 mm. in length and 4 mm. in width. 
Body above rather coarsely and confluently 
punctured. The elytra are somewhat arcuate 
