The following table contains all the species of Thereva known to me as occurring in this country north of Mexico. Thereva tergissa, Say. (corusca, Weid.), and T. crassicornis, Will (non Bellardi), belong to Psilocephala.

Elevations in Vicinity of Laggan.—Altitudes near Laggan have in some cases been very incorrectly stated. In “Appleton's Canadia Guide-Book; Western Canada,” published 1892, the altitude of Louise Lake (Emerald Lake of the Geological Survey) is given as one thousand feet above Laggan, and the elevation of Agnes Lake is stated at three thousand five hundred feet above Laggan. Such statistics are worse than useless.

During the winter the coleopterist in Britain finds a great deal to do in the way of collecting, as many species are to be met with at this season, which will probably not be found at any other period of the year. One of the principal methods of collecting during the winter is “tuft-cutting”, and it is astonishing the number of beetles which pass through the winter in tufts of grass. Those growing in damp places in woods and on the borders of ponds and streams are generally the most productive. They should be cut off close to the roots, then shaken and pulled to pieces over a sheet fo paper, which shold be very carefully examined, otherwise many ot the more minute species will be passed over.

Smynthurus spinatus, n. sp.

Olive. Head tinted with purple, lighter on the sides, olive around the mouth and eyes; coarsely and sparsely punctuate, punctures light olive, each bearing a white hair. Antennæ purplish, basal joint lighter, as long as the body; apical segment with from seventeen to twenty subsegments. Abdomen fuscous with lighter spots; the apical part with an olivaceus cloud, the remainder fuscous with whitish or olivaceous blotches; on the middle of the back a number of groups or circular white spots, and on the posterior part of each side a row of white spots, varying from four to ten.

In the Nov., 1892 number fo the Canadian Entomologist, pp. 269–70, there is printed a paper which was read by Professor H. Osborn before the Entomological Club of the A.A.A.S. at its Rochester meeting in August, 1892. It is entitledL “Honey-bee or House-fly”. In this article Professor Osborn questions the view, first advanced by Hyatt and Arms, that the Diptera are to be considered the highest insects.

As has been shown by Mr. R. H. Stretch, the North American species of Clisiocampa are best separated by larval characters, and this paper will deal chiefly with them. I refer to Mr. Stretch's paper in volume 1. of Papilio, which contains about all that has been known reagrding the species.

1. Amalopota Fitchi, n. sp.

Closely allied to A. Uhleri. Smaller; elytra smoky, about twice banded with white; nervures carmine, ocelli apparently wanting. Length, 6 mm.

Male: Vertex shorter and broader posteriorly than in Uhleri, hind margin very feebly emarginate, apex of the pronotum not advanced beyond the base of the lateral keels; frontal keel, viewed from the side, broader and more strongly rounded, with a more conspicuous notch at the base of the clypeus than in Uhleri.

Dioctria parvulus, n. sp. ♂.

Wholly black, shining. Pile of head light yellow, that on sides of face very sparse, extending to base of antennæ. First two joints of antennæ subequal in length, the third joint as long as the first two taken together; style one-sixth as long as the third joint, thick and blunt. Pile of thorax rather abundant, that on abdomen very sparse and short, bright yellow. Base of wings to beginning of fifth posterior cell yellowish-white, beyond this blackish; all posterior and the anal cell open. Length, 4 mm. Los Angeles County, Cal. Two specimens.

Grand Rapids, Michigan, is situated in the western part of the State, thirty miles from Lake Michigan, in N. lat. 42° 58′, in W. long. 85° 40′, with an altitude of between 600 and 700 feet. The underlying formation, outcropping in the bed of the river, is the subcarboniferous limestone, and the soil is for the most part a sandy or gravelly loam. The surface of the surronding country is rolling and diversified by numerous small lakes, with tamarack swamps and peat bods scattered here and there. The timber is mainly hard wood, but now and then an aged, solitary, pine or a group of younger pines in an out-of-the-way nook reminds us of the fact that we are within the limits of the pine region, while much of the land formerly covered by pine is now occupied by a growth of low oak scrub.

For two or three years past Mr. David Bruce, in S. W. Colorado, has been taking Papilio Bairdii in company with a very different form, P. oregonia, as we have called it, and also with the form I described recently as P. Hollandii, which last is in general like Bairdii, but has the abdomen either with a broad stripe of yellow or almost completely yellow, instead of spotted yellow in rows, as in the Asterias group, and as in typical Bairdii.

During the years 1891 and 1892 I have received the following names name to the Canadian list. Some of the specimens have been in my possession for several years, as I hoped to secure others of the same kind, whereby I might obtain their names without inconveniencing anyone by a request for their return. But they remain uniques with me to the present time; solitary witnesses to the fact that they are to be got, if looked for in the right place at the right time.

In a box of Canadian Coccidæ lately sent to me by Mr. J. Fletcher, there are several species of Lecanuum, including one which appears to be new, and is described herewith.

Lecanuium Fletcheri, n. sp.

“Godman and Salvin, Rhopal. I., p. 177, 1882, under teh specific name Lacinia, place Saundersii and Tellias, Bates: Quehtela and Ardema, Reakirt; Paupera, Felder; Mediatrix and Misera, R. Felder; Pretoria, Boisduval; Crocale, Edwards; Adjutrix, Scudder, and Adelina, Staudinger; all of which they consider but inconstant forms of one species.

In reply to Mr. Charles A. Hart, who has shown, in the last number of this journal, that in his opinion I am in error regarding the identification of Astatus bicolor, Say, I would say that the stigma of the ♂ only is “yellowish-rufous”, while that of the ♀ varies from reddish-black to deep black. If he will again consult my synopsis of the genus Astatus he will find that I used the words “stigma of wings black” in separating those of the female sex. In regard to my new species, A. pygidialis, which Mr. Hart suggests may be an exteme variety of bicolor, it differs not only in the slight characters mentioned by him, but also in the shorter and triangular pygidium, and the more feeble armature of the legs; the scutellum is not furrowed down the middle, and the insect itself is much smaller.

The genus Japyx has been of particular interest because of the apparent absence of rudimentary abdominal appendages. One American* writer says very decidedly. “Japyx has none”; a well-known English † writer considers these appendages as “represented by mere groups of stiff hairs.” The presence of these appendages was indicated as early as 1869, by Brauer, ‡ in his description of Japyx gigas. In 1889 there appeared a very important paper by Haase§, in which the rudimentary appendages are distinctly shown. These appendages can easily be seen in either of the species described below.

May 1, 1889, the Entomological Department of the Cornell Agricultural Experiment Station set sixx trap lanterns, at considerable distances apart, on the University farm for the purpose of determining their value as an insecticide. Each trap consisted simply of a common lantern set in a pan of water whose surface had a thin film of kerosene upon it to facilitate the destruciton of the insects caught/ The lanterns were kept burning every night until Oct. 15, 1889, or until no more insects were attracted.

Coleoptera may be described as Mandibulate Insects, with the forewings horny and the two basal abdominal joints invisible on the venter.

A reduction in the number of abdominal joints at the tip and in the number of joints in the tarsi indicates advancement in rank among Coleoptera. Likewise, a specialization of the antennae to clavicorn or lamellicorn indicates advancement, as well as does the degradation of the larva.

This is one of the most common insects that flies throughout the summer months. It is also widely distributed; adults have been taken in widely separated parts of Europe, in Algeria, Caffaria, Bengal, Pondicherry, Brazil, and in the eastern and western parts of the United States. Packard writes of the species thus:-“Such cosmopolitan forms give rise to the suspicion that they are relics of a past geologic age, which is borne out by the fact that quite a gap separates it from its nearest allies.”

I have just received a specimen of an Erebus odora, which was captured last Wednesday evening (Sept. 27th) in the lecture-room of the first united presbyterian Church, in the city of Allegheny, where its appearance caused no little consternation among the devout “mothers in Israel” who were at prayer meeting, and who thought it was a bat, of which evil things are said by the unsophisticated.

The following notes were presented to the Entomological Society of Washington, May 1, 1980, under the title of “Some insects affecting certain forest trees.” They are herewith somewhat revised and sifted for publication, since the matter which follows is of some value.