I was pleased to see Mr. Cockerell's article on this subject in the September number of the Canadian Entomologist, and hope we may hear from others on the question. It seems to me that a genus should, as far as possible, represent a natural division of a group of plants or animals so distinct from other groups that the species forming the genus are easily referred to it.

Onthophagus Hecate Panz. A.O., W., S.M.

Aphodius fossor Linn. St. L.

validus Horn. W.

fimetarius Linn. A.O., St.L., T.L.

ruricola Melsh. W.

Diplochila major Lec. [Rhembus]. A.O.

Calathus gregarisu Say. L'O., St. L.

ingratus Dej. N.C., C.L., O.K., O., N., R. A.

race confusus Lec. B.C

A. doris Bdv.

1869—Bdv., Lep. Cal. (Ann. Soc. Ent., Belg.), 77. Chelonia.

Habitat—So. California.

I am not aware that any reference of this species to the rank of synonyms has been made. It refers almost certainly to one of our western species now known under another name. Mr. Grote has omitted the species from his list.

Mamestra lorea, Güen.

Head black, with dirty, whitish, irregular markings, antennæ pink. Body of a dirty, creamy, brown color, except the first three segments blackish. Along the dorsum is a series of lozenge shaped blackish patches, one on each segment; on the dorsum are also two rows of minute piliferous spots and two rows along each side, where there is also on each segment an ill-defined, oblique, blackish stripe. Underside semitranslucent whitish, with a number of minute piliferous spots which bear a short pale brown hair, as also do the spots above.

Aplacentia A. & S.

1797—A. & S., * Ins. Ga., II., 129 pl., 65, Phalaena.

1816—Hübner, Verzeichniss, 180 Heraclia.

1856—Wlk., C.B. Mus., Lep. Het., III., 610, Arctia.

1860—Clem., Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci., Phil., XII., 529, Arctia.

1862—Clem., App. to Morris, Syn. 337, Arctia.

1863—Saund., Syn. Can. Arct. 5, Arctia.

Cerura cinereoides n. var. or n. sp. Head, collar and tegulæ light cinereous; thorax above largely mixed with orange and metallic blue scales, below somewhat paler cinereous; tarsi ringed with black; abdomen concolorous with the thorax, the segments banded behind with paler cinereous, the last segment in the female sprinkled with black scales, the anal tuft in the male nearly white.

Body elongated, subcylindrical, rounded above and flattened beneath; color above steel blue, with a series of transverse elevated ridges along the dorsum, two on each segment, and along the sides are three rows of tubercles, all steel blue. Body beneath, dirty brownish white; cervical shield also steel blue.

Readers of Mr. Smith's papers will have noticed the frequent critical remarks at my expense, and it may have appeared to them that I have been often most culpable. But, in every case, although I have not the pleasure of knowing all of Mr. Smith's publications, these criticisms can be shown to be perversions of the case.

Some three years or more ago, we noticed a work on the above subject by Marshall and de Nicéville, of which two volumes had been published, the last by de Nicéville alone. A third volume of over 500 compact pages has just come to hand, the most notable thing about which, at least to a dweller in temperate regions, is that it is wholly concerned with the Lycaenidæ, of which eighty-two genera and over four hundred species are described.

1816—Hübner, Verzeichniss, 192.

1864—Pack., Proc. Ent. Soc., Phil., III., 122.

1874—Strech, Zyg. & Bomb., 191.

The head is small and retracted; tongue obsolete, palpi very small and weak; antennæ moderately long, bipectinated in the male, simple in the female; the pectinations are long and extend to the tip; legs short and weak, all the spurs present, but very short: the two paris of the posterior tibiæ close together. The tarsal claws are as in Spilosoma, and, indeed, there is no structural difference between these two genera. Antarctia has shorter, broader wings, somewhat longer vestiture, and is not white!

Mr. H. J. Elwes has recetnly published a paper in Trans. Ent. Soc., London, 1889, p. 535, entitled “A Revision of the Genus Argynnis,” and on page 574 writes as follows:- I have also specimens of Arge Strecker, from Strecker and Mr. Holland, both from Spokane Falls and Californa, which are, undoubtedly, the same as Erinna, which has described in 1883 as a var of Eurynome by Edwards, and in his catalogue of 1884 is put down as a variety of Montivaga.

Head small, retracted; tongue short and weak, membraneous; palpi very short and feeble. Legs moderate, rather short; tibial spurs present but very feebly developed. Fore tibiæ unarmed. Antennæ moderately long, bipectinated in the male, simple or serrate in the female. The tarsal claws are toothed in all the species examined. In virginica the posterior tarsi only, in vestalis all are toothed.

1873—Stretch, Zygænidæ and Bombycidæ, 118.

Head small, hardly retracted; eyds inconspicuous, bulging; ocelli distinct; vestiture thin, loose and divergent; tongue weak and short, spira; palpi weak, short, drooping, with thin divergent vestiture; legs sub-equal, posterior slightly the longest; middle and posterior tibiæ each with minute terminal spurs only.

(2) Near Micawber Mine, Aug. 6 —

Lysiphlebus salicaphidis Ashm.

Lipolexis chenopodiaphis Ashm.

Limneria montana Cr.

Periclistus sp.

Apanteles sp.

Diaeretus atricornis Ashm.

Megachile sp.

Andrena sp.

Halictus sp.

Sapyga aculeata Cr.

Camponotus vicinus Mayr.

Camponotus vicinus sp.

Perilampus platygaster Say.

Habrocytus rosœ Ashm.

Passalœcus mandibularis Cr.

Lysitermus coloradensis Ashm.

Aspilota obscuripes Ashm.

Havin been asked by Mr. Jas. Fletcher, of Ottawa, to look for the larva of M. Taylori, with the purpose of discovering its food plant, &c., it was with much pleasure that I accepted the commission, and now have the gratification to inform you of my sucess.