A gall from a Golden-rod, out of which a moth of this species has escaped, is figured in Second Report Insects of Missouri, page 134. In the accompanying description the author says: “There are some doubts in my mind as to whether it is a real gall-maker, or an inquiline, or an intruder on my true Solidago gall-maker (Gelechia gallœsolidaginis).” “My reasons for thinking this insect an intruder are, first, because if it were a true gall-maker, we should naturally expect to find its gall more common; second, because on several occasions I have found within the Gelechia galls,a pale worm very different from the true gray gall-making larva.” In the Can. Ent., x., 202, I asserted, perhaps too abruptly, that this moth is not an intruder, but the cause of the gall in which it resides during the larval and pupal states. In the paper cited I gave my reasons for this conclusion, reasons which I considered sufficient, namely: that it was very abundant about Buffalo, that I had followed the larvæ in the galls from soon after hatching and soon after they had pierced the stem until final transformation, and that their gall habits were somewhat characteristic.

Chermes alni Kalm. Travels into North America, English translation, vol. 1, p. 154; p. 121, 2nd ed.

Eriosoma tesselata Fitch. 4th Report State Cab. Nat. Hist., N. Y.

Eriosoma tesselata Glover. Ag. Rept., 1876, p. 39.

Eriosoma tesselata (or imbricata) Glover, unpublished plates Homoptera iii., fig. 19.

Schizoneura tesselata Thomas, 8th Report Insects of Illinois, p. 139.

Apparently the first record of this insect is given by Kalm., as cited above, where he says under date of Oct. 3rd, 1748: “I saw to-day the Chermes of the Alder (Chermes alni) in great abundance on the branches of that tree, which for that reason looks quite white, and at a distance appears as it were covered with mold.” This reference, in all probability, is to P. tesselata, and the reference to the European species, Chermes alni L., a mistake, since there are no later records of the European species being found here, and this one is specifically distinct from the one described by Linnæus.

In August, 1879, I met with a small Dipterous fly, Drosophila ampelophila Loew, in considerable numbers, and as the subject is of interest to entomologists, I give the result of my observations. I have to thank Professor Hagen, of Cambridge, for the determination of the species and other information, and also Professor Lintner, of Albany, for a copy of his article in the “Country Gentleman” of 1st Jan'y, 1880, on this insect, and from which I have largely drawn.

Among the conspicuous insects which attract the attention of even non-entomologists, there are few more interesting in their structure and habits, as well as in their relations to other groups, than the large “longsting” ichneumons with their long triple “tails.” Our two largest species belong to the genus Rhyssa (of the Hymenoptera), and as, so far as I am aware, no accounts of them have yet been published in the Entomologist, a brief description of their appearance and habits may not be undesirable.

They may be easily distinguished from their relatives (often their victims), the “horn-tails”—Uroceridæ—as they are much more slender in body and appendages. The female, readily determined by the extraordinary development of the ovipositor, has the abdomen stouter than that of the male, with the posterior segments dilated and curved under, and bearing the ovipositor, which is constructed essentially of the same parts as is that of a “horn-tail,” only that they are greatly lengthened.

Egg.—Conoidal, the base flattened and rounded; marked by 8 or 9 vertical ribs, which near the base are low, but on upper third are considerably elevated, increase gradually in prominence and terminate abruptly around a small flat space at summit; these ribs are thin and their sides are grooved perpendicular to the surface of the egg; color pale green. Duration of this stage from 3 to 4 days in summer, in April and early May 10 days.

Fota armata Grote.

This has somewhat the form of Stilbia; the fringes are long on secondaries. A second female like type in size has the black submedian dash wanting, and the filling on cell, but hind wings are like type in being pale fuscous. Base of forewings above pale ochrey shaded. Another has the primary all gray; Armata may be known by its larger size, fuscous secondary and different sculpture of clypeal armature.

Whether the following are really different I do not know I they appear to be so most certainly.

1. Papilio Philenor.

On 21st May, 1881, I saw a female Philenor fluttering about a low plant in the edge of the woods near my house. Apparently it was a vine just out of the ground—some four or five inches high—and three eggs were laid on the stem. I sent the plant to Mr. Scudder for determination at the Botanical Gardens, but he reported that there was not enough of it for that purpose.

On 1st Aug., I saw a female coursing over the hill side, alighting on various species of plants for an instant; sometimes on clover heads or other flowers, then flying again in short circuits, touching a leaf here and there. Perhaps it was ten minutes before she lingered on one plant longer than usual, though then but for three or four seconds, and I found on examination three eggs laid on the stem just below the terminal leaf. The plant was of the same species I had noticed in May, and I dug it up and planted it in the garden. When at Cincinnati, at the meeting of the A. A. A. S., I learned from Dr. H. S. Jewett that this must be Aristolochia serpentaria, a common plant about Dayton, O., and later I received from him several dried examples of it.

In the May number of the Canadian Entomologist there is a very interesting paper under this caption, contributed by Mr. Harrington, giving an account of the habits of the Rhyssa atrata and lunator. These Long Stings the past summer were very abundant at Oak Hill, the residence of Mr. Herman T. Livingston, in the township of Livingston, Columbia Co., New York, and furnished me with a good opportunity of studying their habits. While I agree with all that has been so well observed and so cleverly presented by your correspondent, I am somewhat disposed to differ from the commonly accepted opinion that these insects deposit their ova on the larvae of wood-borers. My experience has demonstrated that while it may be a fact that these insects deposit their ova on the larvae of the Uroceridae or other borers, they do not commonly do so. In every case that came under my observation, the long ovipositor, instead of penetrating through the burrow of a Tremex or other wood-borer, entered through wood that had not been previously attacked, and though I failed to discover the egg deposited, I am very much of the opinion that the deposition is oftentimes, if not generally made regardless of the contact with a larva.

For more than twenty years I have been endeavoring to complete the synonymy of our moths, and to find out what species were covered by Walker's and Gueneé's descriptions. During this time I have made three trips to Europe, with this object more or less directly in view. Comparatively few of M. Gueneé's species remain unknown to me; and as many of these were collected by Doubleday, the types will probably be found in the British Museum. Mr. Gueneé's descriptions of species are good, and among the best extant, but he does not give structural characters. The microscope lvas not used by him. His genera contained incongruous material. When he had a species that he did not know what to do with, instead of making a new genus for it, which would have assisted the identification of the species, he often made a group of it, under a genus to which it was opposed in every structural feature—and the species in this way was readily over-looked. As, for instance, Leucania Littera.

Egg—Nearly globular; the surface smooth under a low power, but under a high one, thickly covered with shallow depressions, which are irregular in size and also in form, being pentagonal, rounded or oval; color pale green. Duration of this stage about 6 days.

Young Larva.—Length .12 inch; cylindrical, nearly even, tapering a little posteriorly, the last segment bluntly forked; color delicate green; over the surface many white hairs, and among these are black clubbed hairs disposed in longitudinal rows, four on the dorsum of each segment, two in front, two in rear; feet and legs green; head large, about twice as broad as any body segment, sub-globose, a little depressed at top; on each vertex a short semi-ovoid appendage, at the top giving out two divergent black hairs; just below vertex, on the front, is a similar smaller appendage with single hair, and on the side half way down is a second; color black. Towards the end of this stage the color of body changes to decided green, and several longitudinal stripes appear; on either side of a dark green medio-dorsal stripe is a whitish one, a similar one on middle of side and another along base. Duration of this stage about 8 days, but depending on the weather.

Although my collections hitherto have been chiefly of Coleoptera, I have, as opportunity offered, captured specimens in other orders, and among those thus taken during the past season are representatives of a few species of the Uroceridæ. I wish now to record a few brief notes on these—the more readily, because so little regarding this group has been published in the Entomologist.

1. On the 25th of June last I captured upon a recently dead maple tree, near my house, two rather small insects, of which the larger had its ovipositor inserted in the bark. They proved to be two female specimens of Xiphydria albicornis Harris. One was half an inch long, the other five-eighths.

Chionobas Varuna.

Male.—Expands 1.6 to 1.75 inch.

Upper side brown, individuals varying from yellow to red and blackbrown, but in the examples under view red predominates; costal edge of primaries dark brown, next base dusted with white; apex and hind margin edged with dark brown, which fades insensibly into the ground color; beyond the disk, one to four small black ocelli; where one only is present, it is on the upper discoidal interspace; where two, the second is on lower median interspace; where all are present, the two extreme are large and about equal in size, the interior pair minute.

Secondaries have a narrow brown border, clearly defined on inner side; all the nervures and branches edged with dark scales; the ocelli are from nil to five, small, black; when all are present they stand one on each interspace from subcostal to lower median; fringes of primaries mixed light and dark brown, of secondaries mostly light.

“I can get along very well with the Butterflies, and I know something about Beetles, but the Noctuidœ were always a great puzzle to me.” So writes one of my correspondents, and to the same effect are expressions, both oral and written, from nearly all the collectors I have had any acquaintance with. And yet there is no good reason why the Noctuidœ more than the other families or groups should be considered so very difficult. True that the species are often very closely allied, and true also that there is often more difference between variations of one species than there is between valid (so considered at present) species. Yet there are many excellent characters in the Noctuidœ, easily recognized and readily discerned, which make the placing an unknown species into its proper genus a task of little difficulty.

Experience in exchanging Coleoptera shows that the first two and the last of these forms are greatly confused in collections. Their appearances are so similar as easily to deceive, and they are only to be separated by a close observance of two or three characters. Comma and atrimedius are abundant here, and pallipes is not rare. Comma and pallipes are usually confounded, the former being labelled pallipes; and atrimedius is often marked pallipes also. The typical comma has a black vitta on each elytron extending from the first to the fifth stria, which does not reach the apex, and may be more or less abbreviated anteriorly. The vitta on each elytron is therefore separated by a yellow suture. The scutellar stria is long. The typical pallipes has a broad black vitta on the disk of the elytra extending from the fourth stria on one side to the same on the other, and not separated by a yellow suture. It does not reach the apex and may be abbreviated in front, in which case it is narrowed towards the scutellum. The scutellar stria is short. The thoracic characters are omitted here, being so inconstant as to be of no diagnostic value. Had all the specimens of each species the typical coloration as given, recognition by this character would be easy; but the extent of variation is so great as to render it absolutely useless. While I have not yet seen a specimen of comma without the yellow suture, many specimens of pallipes occur with it where the broad elytral vitta is abbreviated and disintegrated so as to form a short, narrow vitta on each side. The vitta of comma is similarly reduced, and the separation by color becomes impossible. In other specimens of each the colors are so suffused and blended as to present no typical characters.

The describer of species has accomplished his task when he has given the proper Latin names, but it depends largely on the one who catalogues the species, whether these names pass into use or not. In the work of preparing a “New Check List of North American Moths,” I have gone over much of the literature bearing on the subject, and the following reflections have presented themselves to me.

In the first place, I have been actuated by a sincere desire to meet the views of the anti-Hübnerists, and avoid the use of old or objectionable names. Professor Riley has brought forward objections to the resuscitation of forgotten or neglected names, and others have written with the same object in view. I found, however, to my surprise, I must confess, that the best Catalogue, that of Staudinger, did not hesitate to introduce names out of use for almost a century; and this merely because they were a very little older than the name in common use. So prominent an insect as Papilio Podalirius, is made to appear as P. Sinon.

Egg.—Conoidal, the base flattened and rounded; marked by 10 vertical ribs which near the base are low, but on upper third are considerably elevated, inclease gradually in prominence and terminate abruptly around a small flat space at summit; these ribs are thin and their sides are cut by grooves perpendicular to the surface of the egg; the spaces between them crossed by many fine striæ; color green. Duration of this stage 5 days in April, 4 in July.