44 
abounds. It seems that only tubers of a certain size are attacked, 
and early digging sometimes avoids the attack. Sandy soil and deep 
planting are said to be preventives to some extent. 
THE u TOM RAFFLES" ANT OF JAMAICA. 
No. 45 of the " Notes from the Museum " of the Institute of Jamaica 
contains an account by Prof. 0. H. T. Townsend concerning the ant 
known popularly by the name of u Tom Raffles " in the British West 
Indies. It is Formica omnivora, and was brought to Jamaica from 
Cuba in 1762 by Mr. Thomas Raffles, who thought that it would devour 
the Jamaican ants and other noxious insects. It failed to do the 
intended work and became a pest itself. Prof. Townsend's note is one 
asking for information simply, as he is not aware of the present condi- 
tion of the species on the Island of Jamaica. 
AN INTERESTING OBSERVATION ON THE LARVA OF EPHEST1A KUEHN- 
IELLA. 
In the last number of Insect Life we reviewed the elaborate investi- 
gation of M. J. Danysz, of Paris, on JEJphestia Jcuehniella as a flour pest 
in France. The same author contributes to No. 7 of the Bulletin des 
Seances de la Soc. Fntomologlque de France, April 12, 1893, an interest- 
ing note upon the pigment spot (the embryonic testicle) of the larva of 
this insect. While searching for the natural enemies of Ephestia, M. 
Danysz's attention was drawn to a note published in 1887 by Mr. Archi- 
bald Geikie who reported the complete destruction of Ephestia in 
a flour warehouse in London by an Ichneumon {Br aeon brevicornis) 7 
of which he figured the male and female. Mr. Geikie said in substance 
that he had noticed on the backs of the Ephestia larvae a black spot, 
which he had not observed before, but paid no attention to it, thinking 
it a normal phenomenon in the development of the insect; but that 
some weeks later he was astonished to find on the sacks of flour which 
had been covered with the larvae of Ephestia a great quantity of little 
black flies, and he then recognized the fact that the black spot was 
nothing else than the egg of Braeon brevicomis, the larvae of which 
had devoured those of Ephestia. 
M. Danysz then segregated a number of the Ephestia larvae with the 
black spot upon their backs, in the hope of securing some of the Ich- 
neumons, but his expectations were disappointed, for they all trans- 
formed successively to chrysalides and adults without presenting any 
abnormal feature s, while of the Ichneumons he did not secure a single 
specimen. His close observation of the black spot, however, furnished 
him with a very interesting observation. 
The pigment spot in question is situated on the dorsal face of the fifth 
anal segment and lies under the cuticle, without attachment to it. By 
dissection he found it to consist of two reniform corpuscles placed in 
