In the Canadian Entomologist, during the year 1898, I gave a series of papers on the classification of the horntails and sawflies, representing the superfamilies Siricoidea (Xylophaga) and Tenthredinoidea (Phyllophaga); while the past year, 1899, I gave a classification of the entomophilous wasps, or the superfamily Sphecoidea (incorrectly spelt Sphegoidea).

Among the reeds and rushes that border quiet streams and ponds lives Hydrometra lineata, one of the least known of our North American Hemiptera. This insect is comparatively rare in collections, but common enough in nature, though owing to its small size and inconspicuous appearance it escapes all but the sharpest-eyed collectors. Its elongate body is borne on hairlike legs and resembles a bit of twig or grass more than a living insect. After the eye becomes accustomed to the odd shape, they are most easily distinguished, especially when they move about over the surface of the water. During the past summer I took over five hundred specimens of this insect without any special effort, finding them common through New York State, Massachusetts, and Connecticut.

Platymetopius ornatus, n. sp.

Length, ♂, 5.25 mm., of which the head occupies 1 mm.; width across base of elytra a little more than 1 mm. Vertex rather strongly obtusely angulate; width between eyes three-fourths the length at middle, which is more than twice length at eyes; the disc is evenly slightly convex. Face, viewed from the side, straight. Pronotal width two and a half times the length; the length little more than three-eights that of vertex. Pronotum about as broad as head, the anterior margin an even curve.

Hydrœcia rutila, Gn.

This was the next discovery of the season, and as work in former years had never unearthed more than one new larval condition per seasou, it became evident 1899 was being especially fortunate. We may well say unearthed, as it was actually necessary to do considerable digging to get at these fellows, so far down were they in roots below the surface. The preferred food-plant is Solidago sempervirens, a plant particularly local to the Atlantic seaboard, and it was naturally supposed we had to deal with an insect thus restricted in its range. Other things conspired to get ideas rather elevated, for it was not known, of course, before the moth appeared what species the larva might prove. There seemed an unusual feature in that among the numerous stems arising from one root cluster, when one was found infested, there would surely be two examples—no more, no less—found in the bunch. This happened in every case, and occurs so often as to lose the aspect of being any coincidence. Many times but one larva would be found at first; further searching, however, always disclosed a mate. Burrowing well down in the roots, they still have quite an extended gallery high up in the stem.

Monoptilota, n. gen.—Palpi ascending, second article heavy, third short; maxillary palpi small; front broad, flattened, ocelli not discernible in undenuded specimens; antennæ of ♂, first joint much lengthened, swollen, followed by a decided, rather lengthened bend, hollowed on the inside into a deep furrow or pocket its entire length, the edges scaled, becoming tufted on posterior edges outwardly; beyond sinus filiform; from beyond basal joint the antennæ are unipectinate, the pectinations one on each segment, filiform, being longest just beyond sinus, and these five or six times the diameter of the stem, each armed with straight parallel hairs on each side; end segments ciliate. Antennæ of ♀ filiform ciliate.

Euptoieta claudia, Cram.—This species had never even been observed in previous years, but this season appeared plentifully at Bird's Hill in June, and again in August (16th) and September (4th); it was also met with at St. James, just outside the city limits. The species is usually common in prairie districts farther west.

Melitœa Harrisii, Scud.—Taken at Bird's Hill on July 1st, 1899. This season I came across a larva in the act of pupating, but missed the butterflies.

Thamnotettix chiragrica, n. sp.—Form and size of T. parallela nearly, superficially resembling Cicadula punctifrons, var. Americana. Length, 6 mm.; width, very nearly 2 mm.

Vertex twice wider than lone, half longer on middle than against eye, disc convex slightly sloping, rounded to the face, front very broad and short, width at base and length about equal, the disc convex. Pronotum a third longer than the vertex, over twice wider than long; elytra long, almost parallel margined to the apex, venation distinct, apical cells short, their bases truncate, the anteapicals long.

The larvæ are universally borers, but in the choice of food-plants there is the widest diversity; some bore through and devour solid wood, as do the larvæ of the Cossids; some prefer the pith of woody stems; others are found in the superficial woody layers; still others affect the roots of plants both woody and herbaceous, or are sometimes to be found in the borings made by other insects, as is the case with Memythrus tricinctus, Sesia pictipes, S. scitula, and others. The larvæ are yellowish or dirty white, beset with only a few short hairs. The head and cervical shield are chestnut brown. They hibernate in various stages of growth, but do not overwinter in the pupal stage, as far as the species of the northern States are concerned. The larvæ of Melittia satyriniformis hibernate fully grown in the cocoons. When fully developed they spin elongate oval cocoons composed of chips cemented together by a gummy secretion or silk. The cocoons are formed in the burrows or in contiguous places.

The limits of the subgenus Atylotus as restricted by Osten–Sacken are not easy to determine. The presence or absence of the ocelligerous tubercle is the character which gives most trouble, for in some species it seems to be absent in the female and present in the male, and one could convince himself without a great amount of imagination that in some species it is present in one specimen and absent in another of the same sex. the type of the subgenus is bicolor, and associated with it are other equally peculiar species whose characters place them at once in Atylotus. They are small forms in which the usual banding of the eyes is lacking, as are also the frontal callosity and subcallous. The wings are glassy, transparent, resembling those of some other Tabanids when teneral.

To this subfamily belong the giants of the family, although many species in it are of moderate or insignificant size. Here belong the “Tarantula Killers,” or Pompilids, belonging to the genus Pepsis, large, brilliantly coloured species, often with fiery red wings, or blue or black wings marked with white or red, etc., that prey upon the genuine Tarantulas and other large species of spiders.

In re-examining the old slide from which the figure of venation (Can. Ent., XXV., 214) accompanying the original description of this genus was made, I see distinctly three internal veins in the hind wings. It would appear as if one of them must have been obliterated by the balsam in the fresh mount, or else an error of observation was made. The correction refers the genus to the Pyralidæ and, according to Hampson's classification, to the Epipaschiinæ, where it appears allied to the Indian genus, Cœnodomus, Wals. (Hamps. Trans. Ent. Soc., Lond., 1896, 467.) I would not lay any stress on the apparent presence of the accessory cell in Dyaria. Vein 10 runs so closely approximated to the stalk of 6–9 that it is impossible to be sure whether there is a true anastomosis toward the tip or not in the single specimen mounted.

The swarms of small Diptera that are to be found in the fields of fall wheat in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, during late autumn and in early spring, seldom fail to attract the attention of the entomologist who has occasion to visit these fields at the above mentioned seasons. That some species are attracted to these fields as mere visitants is indicated by the accompanying list, but that many others breed there, either upon the living or the dead portions of the wheat plants, is as clearly apparent.

Just when this species first became abundant in Ohio we are unable to say, but it was not until June, 1898, that we began a study of its habits. The insect is quite generally distributed in Ohio, as we have observed it at Alliance, Wooster, Tiffin, Fremont, and Clyde, and perhaps over the eastern and western parts of the United States, as it is found at Washington, D. C., where Dr. Chittenden is making a careful study of it, and Mr. Mally observed it in abundance in the summer of 1899, at Des Moines, Iowa.

One of the most popular families among the Coleoptera to the student and collector is that of the Cicindelidœ. Generally bright coloured and handsomely marked, quick to take flight and rapid runners, it requires some skill and considerable patience to become a successful hunter of the “tiger” beetle. Their capture is generally attended with considerable personal discomfort, as their favourite haunt is the muddy bank of a stream, the hot sand bar or dune, or the burning flat of a salt marsh, from which the noon-tide breezes on a July or August day seem to remind one of the temperature of the home of the evil-doer in the hereafter. It is in the hottest part of the day from 10 a. m. to 3 p. m., that most species of this family appear in the open.

In the beginning of September, 1898, I discovered, in the heads of burdock (Lappa major, Gætn.), a curious larva, of which the following is a description:

Head bilobed, brown. Mouth organs large. A brown plate, marked longitudinally with a white line, on the second segment. Body rounded, much crinkled, of a fatty appearance, having a few white hairs along the sides. Anal segment small and protruding. The legs small and weak. The pro-legs seemingly atrophied into mere pseudopodia. Length of larva, two and a half lines.

It is 16 years since the Rev. G. D. Hulst undertook a revision of this genus along the lines of “Structural Characters.” As a new Check List of the moths is to be published soon, it seems proper that another arrangement of the genus be made. The structure of the genitalia as a basis of the separation of the species has been regarded by many eminent lepidopterists as of doubtful value. It is certain that in this genus its use was not warranted by larval characters or field observation. For these reasons the last revision has not been satisfactory to those who were familiar with many species in their native haunts, or who had bred them. The writer does not say, however, that the present revision will be faultless, for as yet too few of the species are known in their adolescent stages to make this much of an aid in classification.

(1) Parasa prasina, Dyar, Psyche VIII., p. 273, 1898 (Central America), is preoccupied by Parasa prasina, Alph., Deut. ent. Zeit., 1895, p. 186 (Western China). The Central American species may be called Parasa wellesca.