Among several species of insects which have lately come to the notice of the Division of Entomology of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, through their ravages upon greenhouse violets, is a little species of plant-louse known to florists as the black or brown aphis. The species is now very generally distributed in the United States and occurs in Canada, although it was not known until within five or six years from the time of writing. As it appears to be undescribed, I propose the specific name violœ, and have placed it in the genus Rhopalosiphum, to which it appears to belong. The following description is submitted, pending a more detailed account of the injuries and a consideration of remedies which it is expected will shortly be published by the Department of Agriculture.

In 1871, Thorell published his description of Rhagidia in a paper entitled, “Om Arachnider fran Spetsbergen och Beeren-Eiland.” He placed it in the family Eupodidœ, from the other genera of which it differed principally in the great size of the mandibles. In 1876, Cambridge, in his paper “On a new Order and some new Genera of Arachnida from Kerguelen's Land,” described Pœcilophysis as the type of a new family and a new order. He was unaware of Thorell's mite, yet there is but one prominent difference between them, Pœcilophysis is said to have eyes on the frontal tubercle. Neither of these authors gave any reference to any species of Koch's genus Scyphius, to which their forms bear a great resemblance. Koch described about a dozen species of this genus, many of which are doubtless only forms of one species. In the modern European literature, nothing is done with Koch's species of this genus, save by Oudemans (1897), who identifies four of the Kochian names. Oudemans, however, appears to be ignorant of the fact that there were several other names for this genus besides Scyphius, for he thinks, since Scyphius is preoccupied, that the genus must have a new name.

Psilopa flavida, n. sp. ♂.—Yellow, polished, the third joint of antennæ, except the lower side, dark brown; hairs and macrochætæ black, a vitta reaching from humerus to insertion of wing, and another on middle of pleura, black; abdomen, except first segment and middle of the second, black, with a strong violaceous tinge; knob of halteres greenish yellow; wings grayish hyaline, unmarked; two pairs of dorso-central mocrochætæ; length 2.5 mm. New Bedford, Mass. A single specimen collected by Dr. Garry de N. Hough. Type No. 4292. U. S. Nat. Museum.

Melitœa Chalcedon, ab. fusimacula.— Variations of Chalcedon are very common, but the ones I now describe are so striking that they are certainly worthy of a varietal name, especially as they do not seem to be so very uncommon. In the first of these, to which I have given the name Fusimacula, there is a tendency to obliteration of the spots on discs of both wings, and to a fusion of the three outer rows of spots in a horizontal direction. The ground colour of the upper surface is of the same rich black as Chalcedon. There is a complete absence of the spots in the cells of both fore and hind wings in males, and there are but faint traces of them in the females. On the fore wings the fusion takes place as follows: The two outer rows unite to form a yellow band, which is joined at about its middle by a yellow demi-band from the costa, which is composed of the fusion of the two inner rows.

Platymetopius ornatus, n. sp.

Length, ♂, 5.25 mm., of which the head occupies 1 mm.; width across base of elytra a little more than 1 mm. Vertex rather strongly obtusely angulate; width between eyes three-fourths the length at middle, which is more than twice length at eyes; the disc is evenly slightly convex. Face, viewed from the side, straight. Pronotal width two and a half times the length; the length little more than three-eights that of vertex. Pronotum about as broad as head, the anterior margin an even curve.

Just when this species first became abundant in Ohio we are unable to say, but it was not until June, 1898, that we began a study of its habits. The insect is quite generally distributed in Ohio, as we have observed it at Alliance, Wooster, Tiffin, Fremont, and Clyde, and perhaps over the eastern and western parts of the United States, as it is found at Washington, D. C., where Dr. Chittenden is making a careful study of it, and Mr. Mally observed it in abundance in the summer of 1899, at Des Moines, Iowa.

Sir,—I am much interested in Mr. Slingerland's note on the new popular name for Clisiocampa disstria in the Canadian Entomologist for January. I once wrote an editorial for “Insect Life” on popular names (Vol. VII., pp. 363, 364), in which I gave utterance to a certain distaste for “book names” and to a preference for the popular name which grows up among the people. Such names are rarely specifically distinctive, but they are usually catchy, frequently phonetic, and more or less descriptive.

Perhaps never in the history of economic entomology has an undescribed species of insect appeared so suddenly and over such a wide area, and in such destructive numbers, as the “destructive green-pea louse,” the popular name I have given the insect herein described. It has occurred, during the past season, in Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, North Cerolina, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York (Long Island), Connecticut, Vermont, Maine, Ohio, and Canada (Ottawa).