In the Reports of Dr. Harris and Prof. Riley and some other State Entomologists, the structural characters of the genus Agrotis are not given, and the term is evidently loosely applied to cover certain Noctuidæ known as “cut-worms.” In Dr. Harris's Report, as I have shown, the moth Hadena devastatrix (the Agrotis devastator of Brace) is considered to be an Agrotis, while Agrotis Clandestina, which has the structural characters of Agrotis, is referred to the old Linnean gents Noctua, now without standing in our lists. The three genera to which the “cut-worms” are referable, Agrotis, Hadena and Mamestra, are separated in the Preface to my list of the Noctuidæ, p. 3. April, 1874, by their characters.

In my synopsis of the genera of the Noctudiœ I placed Polenta, Morr., in a section with the anterior tibia unarmed at tip, and Eucalyptera, Morr., I retained as distinct from Scolecocampa, Gn., the genera coming into different sections by the form of the palpi, and no particular comparisons being made, because I considered the genera so widely distinct that there was no possible chance of confounding them. On this account I have been criticised by Mr. Grote, and attention has been called in the case of Polenta to the fact that a specimen in Mr. Neumoegen's collection had a claw terminating the anterior tibia, and that, therefore, I had inexcusably overlooked an important and obvious structural character. With all due deference to Mr. Grote, I think the mistake is not on my side; of Polenta I saw Mr. Morrison's type and three other specimens; these I carefully re-examined, after reading Mr. Grote's strictures, and not a single one of the specimens has any trace of armature at the tip of the anterior tibia. That Mr. Grote has seen a claw terminating the anterior tibia of an insect labelled Polenta Tepperi, Morr., it would be folly for me to dispute. That the insect is correctly determined I may be permitted to doubt, for it is scarcely possible that on all of the specimens I have examined the claw was so broken off as to leave no trace. I believe, therefore, that I was right, and that Mr. Morrison's generic diagnosis in this particular was correct.

Through the kindness of the author, we have been favored with a copy of the above paper, which embodies the results of a very laborious series of microscopic examinations of the contents of the alimentary canal of insects belonging to the Carabidæ and Coccinellidæ. In the Carabidæ the results of the dissection and study of 175 specimens are given, representing 38 species and 20 genera. Of the Coccinellidæ, the results of the dissection of 39 specimens are given, accompanied by carefully compiled tables presenting the evidence in the most convenient and accessible forms. Prof. Forbes' experiments show clearly that the opinions hitherto held by Entomologists as to the food of these insects are in many respects incorrect.

The family of Nemistrinidæ comprises throughout the world one hundred and ten described species, six or seven of which are from Southern Europe and three from North America; the remainder nearly equally distributed in Asia, Africa, Australia and South America. In their habits, so far as known, the species approach the Bombylidæ most closely, as also do many in their general appearance. Structurally they are of interest to the Dipterologist, on account of their intricate and diverse neuration, which in some species is almost Neuropter-like in the reticulation.

Doubtless the number of our species will be augmented by future discoveries, but yet we can never expect a very material increase.

Larva.—Body polished, yellowish white, nearly cylindrical, anterior part tapers to the head; eleven visible segments; footless; posterior end of last segment deeply notched horizontally and less deeply so vertically; on each side a small notch above sinus of horizontal notch; on under side of each of the two lobes, formed by the horizontal and vertical notches, is an elliptical, reddish-brown raised spot; on under side of last segment, near the anterior end is a somewhat conical impressed spot, the base of the cone being at the anterior end of the segment; in the middle of this cone is a longitudinal impressed line; length from 20 to 25 mm.

Vanessodes fuscipes, n. s.

♂. Allied to Clarus, but the body entirely griseous, concolorous with the fuscous gray wings, which are sub-diaphanous and differ only from those of Clarus by being a little wider, more irrorate and dusted by dark scales. Same size as Clarus, but easily separated by the abdomen not being yellow. One specimen. Coll. B. Neumoegen, Esq. Arizona. The antennæ are not so heavily pectinated. There are no perceptible marks on the wings, which are not exactly of the same shade as those of Clarus, being more grayish.

Argynnis Lais.

Male.—Expands 2 inches.

Upper side uniform bright red fulvous, slightly brown about bases of wings; the black markings all delicate; both wings bordered by a double line.

Under side of primaries pale cinnamon-red, buff in upper outer part of cell and from costa to first median nervule; a brown patch at apex and another before apex, on which are two silver spots; the upper submarginal spots silvered. Secondaries have the area from base to outside second row of spots yellow, mottled with dark brown; the belt beyond same spots clear yellow, the margin dark brown; all the spots well silvered, rather small, those of the discal and second rows slightly edged on upper side by black.

We do not intend in this article to allude to the troubles that the members of the insect world endure in their ordiuary every day life,—to their difficulties in getting out of their old clothes when nature bids them change their dress; nor to the risks they run from countless enemies, many-legged, four-legged, two-legged and no-legged,—nor yet to the labors some have to sustain in laying up their bread for a rainy season. Nor is our title intended as the text on which to found a disquisition on the sufferings thet the genus homo has to eudure (not at the hands, but at the mouths and tails of the insect hosts) ever since that sad day when old Noah, at the advice of Archangel Gabriel (who ought to have known better) broke his word to the serpent. All of course know the legend, yet as Lord Macaulay often did for his erudite school-boy, so will we do, and repeat and give the story of the origin of all venomous anthropophagus insects. We have it from the veracious Turk, so none but a Russophile or an anti-Jingoist will doubt it, and entomologists know neither country nor politics (whatever else they may know).

The foliage of the trees in this city is undergoing spoliation by the larvæ of this moth. Many of the trees are entirely denuded of their leaves, particularly the Silver-leaf Poplar, the Ailanthus alone escaping attack. The writer suggested to the authorities last spring that handpicking of such cocoons as contained the deposit of ova was the only sure way of exterminating these insects. Had such service been rendered the trees at that time, this damaging visitation would have been prevented. There is good reason to believe, however, that what the authorities have failed to do, a young army of parasites, “Pimpla,” which have put in an appearance during the last fortnight, are now actively attempting, and we shall probably be rid of this moth another year. The ova commenced to hatch out about the 25th of May, and the larvæ began to assume the pupa form about the 21st of June; ten days thereafter the imago was discovered depositing ova. Out of twelve cocoons gathered on the 15th of July, four yielded the parasite already referred to. I would note here in connection with this parasite a circumstance very commonly observed among the Lepidoptera. I discovered two ♂ parasites upon a cocoon containing the pupa of this moth. I drove them away several times, but they as frequently returned.

There seems to be a great lack of historical knowledge about the above insects in this State, at least as far as my observations are concerned. In several collections, even in that of the State Normal, have I found Papilio telamonides labeled Walshii; this, however, was in the year 1878 and '79.

Subsequent observations will show that it is no wonder that this insect has escaped the notice of many of our best collectors.

The habits of these larvæ in Europe may not improbably differ in some respects from the habits in America. Our hot summers, as compared with England, at least, may compel more or less change. With us, speaking of my own district, and of the False Nettle, Boehmeria, as the food plant, the eggs I believe to be always laid on the young terminal leaves, as Dr. Harris states is the case with the Nettle, Urtica. I come to this conclusion, not because I have found eggs on the terminal leaves, for I do not remember that I have ever found an egg of Atalanta laid by a free female; but because the larvæ, in first stage, have always been observed on these leaves. I have repeatedly obtained eggs from females tied in bags over the food plant.

Since the groups are very difficult of scientific definition in the Noctuidœ, the present must not be considered as standing on more than a comparative basis. In my New Check List the genera are arranged between the Calpinœ and Heliothinœ. The arrangement I would only modify by restricting the Calpinœ to the North American genera—Calpe, with one species, perhaps the same as the European, and Phiprosopus, with the species callitrichoides, called a Geometrid by Zeller, and which in outline has a resemblance to the aberrant Noctuid genus Doryodes, which I have placed among the Nonagriinœ, or Nonagriadœ of Dr. Harris. The group which I have called Stiriinœ is in some measure intermediate between the Calpinœ and Plusiinœ. The fact that the tibiae are often armed with a claw (Stiria, Basilodes) may be taken as an approximation to the Heliothinœ, where the tibiae are usually armed and have the tibiae spinose.

In reply to the questions raised by the Rev. Thomas W. Fyles on p. 84 of the May number, permit me to say:

1. That to speak of “the parasite of Phylloxera vastatrix and the gall insect of the nettle tree,” as he does in the heading to his communication, is inaccurate, since there are many of each.

2. Besides a number of Cecidomyid galls on Celtis, I am acquainted with more than a dozen Psyllid galls upon the plant. The insects producing these galls mostly belong to a new genus which, in a paper that I have prepared on the Psyllidæ of the U.S., is called Pachypsylla.

On the 13th of July, 1881, I saw a female L. macer busily engaged in gnawing holes in the stem of a green Helianthus grosse-serratus (Wild Sunflower). There were several holes in the stem of this plant, and in each I found one or two eggs, of an elliptic-ovoid form, polished pale yellow, and measuring about two and one-fourth mm. in length. In the stems of other similar weeds, which grew near to this one, I found several recently hatched larvæ. I examined the stems of this same kind of weed at intervals throughout the summer season, and found the larvæ in different stages of their growth, sometimes two or three in the same plant. Late in October I noticed that many of these weeds had been broken off, and the pieces—from one and a half to three feet in length—were lying about upon the ground. These pieces contained a larva—evidently of the above species—and at one end, and occasionally at each end, the pith and woody part had been gnawed away, leaving nothing but the bark, and this had evidently been broken off by the wind. I examined a few of these pieces on the 25th of the following April, and found nothing but larvæ another examination was made on the 12th of the following month, when nothing but larvæ were found, but all were dead.

In my Check List (1876) I proposed three new generic names, Conservula, Oxylos and Leucobrephos. I have since discarded Oxylos and given the character which separates Conservula from Trigonophora Led. There remains Leucobrephos, which, owing to the kindness of Mr. Butler, who has examined Walker's types for me, I now describe as follows:

Leucobrephos Grote; Type: Anarta Brephoides Walk.

Male antennæ with longer pectinations than Brephos, and broader. Palpi concealed by the beard-like hair, more thickly hirsute than in Brephos. Eyes narrower, smooth, naked. The neuration differs by veins 3 and 4 of primaries arising from a common foot-stalk. On secondaries veins 3 and 4 arise from a long stem, diverging near the margin.

My removal from Yellow Springs, Ohio, to New Bloomfield, Pennsylvania, has had the effect of breaking off the line of my entomological work, or at least throwing it into a rather different channel. Among the first results is a notice of the striking difference between the two places in regard to insect depredations. In my experience last year a great part of the time was occupied with fighting insects. The cherry weevil, the potato worm and beetle and the apple worm were the ringleaders; but after them came the blister beetles, the turnip flea, the corn worm, the squash bug, et multaalea. Here, at least during the present, or rather past season, the ravages of all these have been quite insignificant. Foremost stands the potato beetle. As soon as the young plants came up I followed my usual plan of picking them off and dropping them into a tin having a few spoonfuls of coal oil at the bottom. By this means they cause no trouble in crawling out again. Though the season was rainy, and therefore the opposite of the last, yet I found two applications of the poison dust (1 part of London purple and 60 parts of wood ashes) quite sufficient to keep the plants free from the young grubs. I am inclined, however, to recommend the use of plaster instead of ashes in a wet season. It seems to adhere better to the leaves when rain falls on them.