Mr. Neumoegen and myself are at work upon this genus, with a view to present a revision of it; there are, however, some points upon which I should like to make a few independent remarks. The genus Halisidota is exclusively American, its stronghold being in the South. Indeed, the whole sub-family, the Phægopterinæ, are strongly, American, there being no European species and but few African, While still fewer reach through the East Indies to Australia.

In the Can. Ent., p. 136, Prof. Smith says that our reference of Edema? transuersata, Walk., in 1868, to lignicolor is an error. In other cases e. g. Apantesis radians, etc., our testimony is borne out, and now comes up the question of a changing in specimeus since 1868. Mr. Walker's specimens are not marked type, but placed merely above the label. They can have been changed, and the question is, whether a name of Walker's can be employed which in any way contradicts in its description the supposed species. In my Revised Check List 4, I say: “Clearly there is room for misapprehension of what specimens are really types had we not a check for the reference. This is the criterion for types, that they do not contradict the original description,”

Melia, n. gen.

Head small, sunk in prothorax, hairy. Front narrow and hairy. Antennæ plumose. Palpi minimal. Thorax stout and very pilose. Abdomen stout, tapering off.

Primaries oblong, half as broad as long, well rounded at angle. Costa straight, apex rounded. Four submedian nervules, vein 5 apparently issing out of cross vein. Three subcostal nervules, vein 5 apparently issuing out of cross vein. Three subcostal nervules, two of them forking off near apex. Secondaries nearly as broad as long, well rounded at apex. Anal angle well pronounced, like in the Notodontidæ. Median cell weakly connected by cross vein, looking like an open cell on a superficial glance. Three median veins, the fourth being replaced by a small groove or fold, which runs through entire wing from base to anterior margin, thus equally dividing it. Subcostal vein bifid near apex. Two submedian veins.

The Tachinidæ herein described and mentioned are from the more northern parts of the U.S.; from Colo., Kan., Dakota, Iowa, and Minn. to Ills., Mich., Pa., N.Y., N.H. and D.C.

There was brought to me by Mr. T. H, Hill, of this city, one of our young collectors, a dragon fly captured at Delaware, a village a few miles west of here. It was one I had not seen before. On referring to Glover's Plates I found it there, figured and named. It is Hetœrina Americana, Fab., the Lestes basalis of Say, in the family Agrionidæ; a beautiful creature. Its most noticeable characteristics are the bright sangineous colour on the base of the wings, the clear copper colour of the thorax, and the brilliant gem-like ornamentation of the head.

A new contribution to our knowledge of the early stages of butteflies has come from Bombay, where Messers. Davidson and Aitken have published (Journ. Bomb. Nat. His. Soc., Vol 5,)half a dozen coloured plates, excellently drawn by Mrs. Blathwayt, representing the transformations of sixteen species. Their published notes, however, cover no less than 994 species and run through all the families, and among them will be found many interesting things,—a chrysalis of Elymnias “suspended by the tail only, but in a rigidly horizontal position,” a species of Abisara, one of the Lemoniinæ, whose larva has the head free, a gregarious Delias where the eggs are laid “in parallel rows with equal intervals,” a Papilio laying, like our species of Polygonia, ten eggs in a column, Hesperidæ with fluffy secretions and some where the transformations are open, and which in some cases have and in some have not a median girth.

The author has frequently been asked why he did not make a key for the families of spiders. He has answered that a correct key was impossible.But as such questions are getting more numerous, and connected with a desire to know something about spiders, the author has decided to put together what he could as a contribution to the classification of our spiders, principally for the use of those who are unable to obtain the costly works necessary for study.

By request of Mr. Fletcher I add a few remarks to his article in the January number on “Killing, Preserving and Relaxing Insects,” though the subject is so well treated there as to leave little room for additional comment.

The action of the cyanide bottle cannot be depended on as effectual in such a short time as Mr. Fletcher mentions, except in the case of the most tender insects, many Rhynchophora will live there for several hours unless the bottle is quite freshly prepared, and I know of one case in which a Coelocnemis remained alive all night confined in a bottle strong enough to quickly overcome the large southwestern species of Cleonus.

Under this heading, I propose to give from time to time descriptions of new species in my collection, and such notes on other species as may seem of value to students of our fauna.

Notopygus americana, n. sp.— Female, length 10 mm.,; head, antennæ, thorax, coxæ and first segment of abdomen, black; remainder of abdomen and legs red; antennæ as long as head and thorax, filifrom, joints short and subequal; thorax elongate, shining; metathorax, rounded and obliquely truncate; wings; slightly infumated, with black nervures; abdomen shining, as long as thorax, triangularly clavate, truncate at apex, with the ovipositor curved upward; sheaths black.

Gall at the base of the stem of Nabalus altissimus, usually in masses surronding stem, often extending down on main root, rarely on main fibres of root, usually about an inch under the ground, sometimes partly above the ground. Galls roughly spherical, 5 mm.—10 mm in diameter each containing 1–10 cells, usually aggregated in irregular cylindrical masses of 2–14, resembling small knobby artichokes or irregular small white potatoes.

Egg.—Diameter, .04 inch, about .03 of an inch high; roundish conoidal, base broad but rounded, striated from base to micropyle, thirty-two striæ on the broadest part, sixteen of which reach the micropyle but a few are emitted just as they reach the circle; with very shallow cross striæ. Colour of micropyle whitish, a broad zone below this of purplish-red, next a narrow whitish zone about half the width of the red zone, then another red zone below the whitish, the last a little less than half the height of the egg. Duration of this period 157 days.

In the forest-clad portions of the Pacific Coast Range, from the Columbia River northwards inot British Columbia, there are frequently seen on the trunks of pine trees which have been injured and blackened by fire, small white fungi almost globular, or slightly flattened and kidney shaped, varying much in size, but frequently attaining the dimensions of a pigeon's egg. This fungus, kindly determined for Mr. E. A. Schwarz and myself by Prof. Galloway, is Cryptoporus (Ployporus) volvatus, Peck., var. obvolutus, Peck.

The following cases of insect monstrosities have come under my notice, and I have thought it best to make them known in order that those interested in this work might have access to the descriptions. While but little seems to have been written on the subject in this country beyond the describing a number of interesting forms by Jayne (Trans. Am. Ent. Soc., VIII.) and Henshaw, Scudder and Hagen (Psyche), it has attracted considerable attention in Europe, many writers having published accounts, with figures, of more or less interesting cases.

It is generally understood, I believe, that to get eggs the requisite plant must be also enclosed in the gauze bag with the female insect. Such is often, but not always the fact, and it will lighten the labours of the biologist and simplify his methods if a more correct statement be made. That one genus of butterflies should not use or require living plants to receive their eggs, while others will fret and die without ovipositing if their peculiar plant be withheld, indicates a relationship, or gives a hint as to grouping of genera upon natural lines.

Pyrausta nigralis, n. sp.

Expanse of wings, 18 mm. The entire body and wings above and beneath, black; pecuts and base of the palpi, snow white. The outer line is represented by a nearly straight, snow white stripe, which starts from the outer third of the costa and extends nearly halfway across the wing and a spot on the fold near the outer third of the hinder margin below a similar spot on the endo of the cell.

From time to time for the past ten years I have been in the habit of receiving, from various collectors in this country and Europe, speciments of North American Hesperidœ for comparison and identification with my large collection, which has been justly famous for its completeness. As this collection is now no longer in my possession, being now the property of my friend C. B. Aaron, of Philadelphis, and as I have transferred my allegiance from entomology to ethnology it has occurred to me that it will be well fro me to give here to the students of the Hesperidœ the benefit of such tables, nots teh compilations as have, in years past, been of value to me in the identification of the species in this difficult family.

This leaf-hopper is considered a clover pest, but is also known to feed on beets, rutabagas, cabbages and blue grass. It is active even in midwinter on sunshiny days. The eggs are thrust beneath the epidermis of the food-plant, and the first brood of larvæ appears from the middle of May until July 1st. The earliest individuals of the brood are nearly mature by the first of July and are supposed to begin egg-laying a little later. Larvæ can be found in all stages of growth from this time until the advent of winter, but most of the individuals are believed to be included in two broods.

Three days before that last moult, the larva is 1.30 inches; after the last moult and three days before pupating, 2 inches. Nearly cylindrical, tapering from the middle to both ends, the under side a little flattened, a slight fold above the legs but no fringe on the sides. The markings in the two last stages are the same, except that the orange is a little heavier in the last stage. The ground colour of dorsum, sides except below stigmata, and venter sordid white, below stigmata clear white; striped transversely over the back as low as the stigmata, thus leaving a clear white substigmatal stripe, eight of these stripes and these somewhat double, some broken and others partly continuous; a subdorsal and substigmatal row of orange patches, two of each row on each joint, the lower of each side of the stigma on the anterior part of the body, but on the posterior part these patches connect above the stigma, gradually passing from one from to the other; on joint two, instead of two pathces, the anterior half of the joint is orange with a row of black spots; joints three and four with an irregular row of orange across near the middle of the joint.

In March number, Vol. XXIV, of Canadian Entomologist, Mr. W. G. Wright of California, mentions a number of genera of diurnals not requiring plants for oviposting thereon. Those enumerated belong to Parnassisu, Argynnis, Euptoieta, Neonympha, Cœnonympha, Hipparchia, Satyrus, Chionobas, and, in part, Chrysophanus. I can add Melitæ to his list, which oviposited on two different occasions under circustmances extraordinary but exactly the same.

Geographically the State of Mississippi divided into what is known as the hills and the swamps. The hills comprise the middle and eastern portions of the State, while the swamps comprise the western border or the country adjacent to the Mississippi River, the larger portion of which is overflowed every year.

The insect fauna of this region presents many things of interest, there being an absence of many species found in other parts of the State, doubtless owing to the inundation and consequent drowning out in the spirng of the year. Indeed, how it is that some of the species which are quite common in this region survive an overflow lasting from three weeks to two or over three months, I leave for other to explain.