Notes on Insectivorous Coleoptera. 
169 
forceps and a mounted needle) forwards and backwards 
and cut entirely away. It will next be necessary to un- 
roof the meso- and meta-tlioracic segments, which usually 
contain at least a part of the crop. It will not be difficult 
to cut through the crusts of these segments at each side 
with the scissors-points. The terga may then be removed 
as before, with forceps and needle. The specimen (if not 
tod large) should now be transferred to a watch crystal, 
covered with glycerine and placed on the stage of the 
microscope; (a dissecting microscope is a convenience, 
but not indispensable). With mounted needles- the repro- 
ductive organs, urinary tubes, etc., can be pushed out of 
the way, when the crop, stomach and intestine will be 
seen, variously arranged according to the family and 
genus. It is an easy matter to cut the alimentary canal 
loose at either end and to remove it from the body, plac- 
ing it upon a slide in a shallow cell, with glycerine enough 
to mount the contents. Here the superfluous structures 
should be picked away, as far as possible, and then the 
stomach and intestines may be torn open with needles, 
and their contents spread out and picked in pieces upon 
the slide. After the removal of the remnants, the cell 
may be covered and the contents studied with any power 
necessary. The cover should, of course, be finally ce- 
mented down and the slide preserved for verification and 
repeated examination. 
Galerita janus . — A specimen of this insect, taken at 
Bloomington, in September, contained but little food. 
All that was recognized consisted of insect fragments, 
one of which was a spinose tibia. It was impossible even 
to tell the order of the insect eaten. 
Loxopeza atriventris . — Four specimens of this species 
were examined, three of which were taken in June and 
the other in September. The alimentary canal of the first 
was entirely empty. The second, sent me by Mr. A. S. 
McBride, from DeKalb county, had eaten immense num- 
bers of minute, oval bi-nueleate cells, which, believing 
them to be spores of fungi, I referred to Prof. T. J. Bur- 
rill, of the Illinois Industrial University. He reported 
them to be “ spores of Sphseronemei, probably Phoma” — 
