146 Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington. 
THE BREEDING PLACE OF DERAIESTES ELONGATES LECONTE. 
On a recent visit to the breeding colony of the Black Crowned Night 
Heron near the Receiving Reservoir, I). C., in searcli of insects associated 
with these birds, R. C. Shannon found the still occupied nests 
swarming with Dennestid larvae. Three adnlts were taken, which prove 
to be Derynestes elongalus Lee. nec Llope ( —? hicotor Fabr. ), a species 
whicli appears to have been so seldom taken that the records, as far as 
the writer has found are best mentioned here; — 
1854 LeConte described it from “Georgia, rare.” 
1875 Schwarz listed a specimen from Hanlover, Fla. 
1882 Jayne recorded it from Southern and Western States. 
1894 Hamilton mentioned the distribution of tliis species as extensive: — 
New \ork, Canada, Kansas, Texas, Georgia, Florida. (St. 
Augustine in lift .) 
1900 Casey gave Indiana as the locality of his material. 
1902 Hike recorded a specimen found under bark at Washington, D. C. 
1910 Blatchley mentioned a record from near Cincinnati, but omitted 
Casey’s Indiana record. 
The unpublished records on the material in the National Collection are 
as follows:— 
Texas;—A series of specimens collected by G. AT. Belfrage in the early 
seventies. 
Florida:—One specimen taken at Palm BeaMi by Dr. H. G. Dyar. 
California :—One specimen beaten from a beaver skin in San Francisco, 
by A. Koebele about 1885. 
The specific synonymy in this genus is in almost hopeless confusion 
and for this reason no new name is ofiered to supplant LeConte’s homo¬ 
nym. Hope’s name, i)roix)sed twenty years before LeConte’s use of the 
same name, is now listed as a snyonym of peruvianus Cast., but Jayne 
was of the opinion that LeConte’s species might be identical with hicotor 
Fabr., of whose habits Roseidiauer says that it often lives in the nests of 
pigeons where the larvae sometimes eat into the young pigeons and kill 
them. The larvae of some other species of the genus are known to breed 
in the nests of tree inhabiting caterpillars, for instance, Dermestes tessel- 
latns Fabr., in the nests of the Brown tail moth, and D. aurichalceus 
Kst., in those of two other common Fluropean nest making caterpillars. 
AA e are too apt to take the habits ol the well-known, economic (and 
therefore conspicuous) species as applicable to the less known species of a 
group, more particularly so in an unattractive genus like Dermestes, and 
it is well to point out that there are probably quite diverse breeiling habits 
even among these closely allied species. The writer believes that the 
normal breeding place of this species will prove to be in the nests of birds, 
particularly fish-eating species. 
—Herbert S. Barber. 
