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Eriosoma tesselata (or imbricata) Glover, unpublished plates Homoptera iii., fig. 19.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

“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.

A few notes as to the habits and whereabouts of this inhabitant of the rapids of Niagara may perhaps be of interest to such collectors as may visit this locality the coming season. This interesting beetle being but rarely represented in collections, I felt induced to make extra exertions during a few hours sojourn there last August, to find it, and was finally rewarded by finding it in numbers. Although my time did not allow me to reap the benefit of my discovery, still if others are enabled to Profit by these notes, the result will be the same.

By turning over the small rocks which lie in the small rapids close by the Goat and Sister Islands, the flat, crustacean-like larvæ will be found in great numbers adhering tightly to the under surface in all stages of development, and it is here one would naturally look for the perfect insect, but only to be disappointed.

Mature larva, 1.50 to 1.75 long. The body increases in size from the head to the anal segment, deeply incised between the segments. Head small and nearly round; first four segments can be retracted nearly onehalf. Head and entire upper parts of body pale slate color, slightly shaded with brown on the dorsal portion. Yellow beneath between the legs, also a slight stigmatal line of the same color. Caudal horn short and black; the black extends from the base of horn to below the stigmatae. Anal shield rusty and rough; stigmatae black, encircled with yellow; abdominal feet black, the rest pale yellowish. Another specimen differs in color, being pale lavender, a slightly darker dorsal line. Under parts between the legs, a faint substigmatal line greenish yellow. Another, slightly smaller, was of a bright pea green color, with a bright yellow stigmatal stripe, in other respects like the former. The larvae are very much like those of the Sphingidae in appearance, and are exceedingly smooth and shiny. Found on willows and poplars, the last of Sept. The transformation takes place in a slight cocoon of dead leaves fastened together with a few silken threads, on the surface of the ground, much in the manner of Darapsa myron.

The following genera seem to fall in between Heliothis and Plusia. They appear to be distinctively American, and there is nothing like them in the European or Asiatic faunæ, so far as appears in literature. The white species inhabit the West and South-west; and the fore wings are remarkable for their lustre, the markings consisting often of black dots, in this recalling Emydia and certain Lithosians.

Bessula Grote.

Vestiture hairy. Eyes naked. Front full, without excavation or tubercle, the infra-clypeal plate plominent. Tibiæ spinose, the fore tibiæ with a claw. Thorax untufted. Antennæ simple. Fore wings dull. Aspect of the Arctiid genus Pareuchaetes. One species from New Mexico, Luxa, Grote. Primaries very light and fady yellow. The t. p. line indicated by a curved series of faint ochrey dots. Two cellular dots and one or two more in place of t. a. line. Beneath costa and apices dusky yellowish. The coloring is very pale and the dotted markings tend to become lost. Consult: Papilio, I., 176.

In the preparation of a synopsis of the North American genera of Syrphidæ, I have found several new species that could not be placed in any of our known genera. A careful study of the figures and descriptions of exotic forms has not thrown much light upon them, and I am therefore constrained to regard them as new.

With the genera included in the present paper, and resuscitating Macquart's Toxomerus, the number now recorded from North America will reach sixty, all but five or six of which are in the writer's collection. Of these, but nine or ten have not yet been found east of the Central Plains, and the following, only, that are not now known west of that region, viz., Triglyphus, Senogaster, Pyrophaena, Doros, Ocyptamus, Rhingia, Brachyalpus, Somula, Temnostoma, Merapioidus, Pterallastis, Teuchocnemis and Lepidomyia, leaving nearly forty genera that occur entirely across the continent; indeed a large proportion of the species are identical from the Atlantic and Pacific regions.