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.

The earth covered by its first mantle of snow reminds one that the collecting season is virtually ended, and the lengthening evenings allure one to the study fireside to go carefully over note books and collections and to read the recorded labors of fellow Entomologists.

A few memoranda from my own note book may perhaps not be barren of interest to some of the less experienced readers of the Entomologist. I find that almost the first insect of spring was the Mud-wasp, Polestes annulatus, which appeared with a few flies and spiders about the 15th of March. This wasp is very abundant here, and from the pulverized macadam of the streets thousands of its mud cells are constructed every summer under the window-sills and numerous cornices of the Parliament Buildings, about which the wasps linger until the end of October. Toward the end of March a few bees and a number of small beetles, as Amarainterstitialis, appeared.

Isosoma Allynii, n. s.

Female.—Average length .10 of an inch. Color of body and antennæ uniform black, the first with a slight greenish lustre. Head about .025 of an inch wide, about two thirds as long; the antennæ a little enlarged at the ends, hairy, microscopic hairs moderately scattered over the head and thorax. Thorax, as well as head, punctured; wings hyaline, dotted over with microscopic hairs, the thorax in its widest part about the width of the head. Abdomen gradually tapering from near the base, the ovipositor slightly exserted. The color of the legs vary slightly; in five specimens the anterior and posterior legs have the femurs fuscous except at the ends; the tibiæ with basal half fuscous, the rest yellow; the terminal joint of tarsi fuscous, the rest yellow; the middle pair of legs are yellow throughout except the terminal tarsi. Two specimens have all the femurs fuscous, yellow at the ends. One specimen has all the femurs pale red, and the tibiæ fuscous, but this is probably a change from yellow by the poison bottle used in killing. One is marked like the first five, with the yellow replaced by pale red; another is like the first five, except that the middle tibiæ are a little clouded at base.

The Gazophylacium of Jacob Petiver, Apothecary in London (died 1715) is a very rare book, as the plates and the catalogues were printed and published at different times between 1695 and 1715. They were collected later and published by Mr. Empson, an officer of the British Museum and a natural son of Sir Hans Sloane, in 1764, in London, with the title, “Jacobi Petiveri Opera, etc., or Gazophylacium, 2 vol. fol.” A small volume in 8vo contains the original sheets published by Petiver between 1695 and 1706. The library of the Museum of Comp. Zool. at Cambridge possesses a copy presented, June 1765 by Emanuel Mendez da Costa, Librarian of the Royal Society, to Thomas Knowlton. The collection of J. Petiver, at least the Lepidoptera, is still preserved in the British Museum, and was seen by me in 1857. Every butterfly is placed between two thin plates of mica, fastened with a small band of paper around the margin, and glued with one flying slip to the pages of a book in quarto, so that every species can be examined above and beneath.

Aphis loniceræ Monell. Riley & Monell, Notes on the Aphididæ, U. S. Geol. and Geogr. Survey, Vol. v., Jan., 1879, p. 6.

This species is the one mentioned by Prof. Thomas in the eighth Ill. Ent. Rept. p. 104, under the name of Chaitophorus lonicerœ Mon'l Mss.

Phorodon mahalek Fonsc. This European species has been very abundant at the Missouri Botanical Gardens, St. Louis. I believe that it has not before been definitely reported as occurring in the United States.

I came only last year on the premises where I am now residing, and though I had a small crop of cherries, they were so badly infested with the weevii (Conotrachelus nenuphar) that only a few quarts could be found free from the grub and fit for canning. This year a fair crop was promised, the spring was late and the danger of frost little. I proposed therefore to make war upon the enemy, and as soon as the blossom was over prepared a larse sheet of cheese-cloth, and for about three weeks jarred the trees before breakfast almost every morning. As the result, I have now nearly 2,000 weevils peacefully reposing in a bottle, after a composing draught of benzine. Only about 10 per cent. of my cherries this year were unfit for use. I carried the war into the orchard, and simply by way of experiment, jarred some of the early apple trees and captured a great many of my enemies. I am more than repaid for my labors both on the cherry and apple trees by the quality of the apples, when last year, with a larger crop, I only obtained knotty, gnarly fruit. I have this year round, smooth, well-shaped apples. I have never heard that anything has been done, at least in this neighborhood, to trap the weevils on the apple trees. Those who live in the north have no idea of the mischief wrought here by the weevil in the orchards.

Hadena idonea, n. s.

♂ ♀. This species is similar in size to verbascoides and cariosa; it is very like the latter only instead of reddish brown the color is of an ochrey brown, rather pale, the stigmata concolorous, rather wide, illdefined, separated by the dark median shade. The claviform spot is open, and stretches across the median field nearly touching the even t. p. line. Lines geminate, marked on costa. A slight, irregular basal streak and one below it on internal margin. Terminal field dark shaded, obtaining twice, opposite cell and at internal angle. Fringes dark cut with pale. Hind wings very dark, with paler fringes, concolorous, an indication of discal mark; beneath with faint double extra-mesial lines; the narrow terminal space paler on both wings. The costa of fore wings is more or less pale. Abdomen tufted. This species is more ochrey than vulgaris. Texas, Kansas, Wisconsin.