It was my privilege last summer to accompany the expedition sent out by the National Academy and the U.S. Navy Department to Japan for the purpose of observing the total eclipse of the sun which took place upon the 19th of August, 1887. The route selected by our party was the one just opened to the far East over the Canadian Pacific R.R., and I was the first passenger booked in Chicago for Yokohama, and my coleague, Prof. Todd, was the first passenger booked in Boston for the same port, over the new line.

Below I give an analytical table for recoginzing the genera in the tribe Chriopachides Thomspn. It will be seen that I have placed in this group the genus Schizonotus Ratzburg, which Dr. Arnold Foerster, in his Hymenopterologische Studien (1856), says is identical with Seladeram Walker, an opinion in which I cannot concur, my type of Schzonotus Siebaldi Ratz not agreeing at all with Walker's definition; also the genera Mesopolobus and Platymesopus Westwood, which were subpressed by Walker and other authorities, and placed in the genus Pteromalus; they agree in all essential characters with this group, the anterior femora being very similar to Chiropachys, the type of the tribe.

Eggs laid June 17th, scattered, hatched July 1st.

Egg.—Creamy white: one-twenty-fourth of an inch in diameter; shaped like a nutmeg-melon; marked longitudinally with zig-zag ridges; attached by short foot-stalk.

Newly Hatched Larva.—One-eighth of an inch long. Head large in proportion to body, honey-yellow, granulated. Body attenuated and ending in two pointed prolongations; pale amber, set with brown tubercles bearing light spines. Dorsal an side lines darker amber. Spiracles dark brwon. Head and fore legs bearing a few bristles. The insect feeds with its head downwards on the edge of the leaf. Its food plant is the sedge, Carex oligosperma.

Among a small collection of parasitic Hymenoptera sent me by Mr. James Fletcher, the Dominion Entomologist, for names, I found an intereting Chalcid belonging to that remarkable Pteromalid genus Caratomus Dalman, no species of which has as yet been described as occurring in our fauna; and as the present species seems to be distinct from the European species, Caratomus megacephalus Dalm., I believe it to be underscribed, and submit herewith the following description:

Caratomus leucophthalmus, n. sp.

Elsewhere I have ventured to call attention to the interesting chapter in Mr. Scudder's book on Butterflies, in which the theory as to the primitive pattern of ornamentation is given. By this we are told that the complex patterns, the seemingly chiselled lines and the eye-like spots, arose from simple transverse shade bands running parallel to the outer margins of the wings themselves. Such bands we yet find on the wings of many Owlet Moths.

On November 1st, 1887, I took in this locality (Swift Creek, near West Cliff,) an example of Nathalis iole, and was thereby led to examine its characters. The general colour of the upperside of this insect is pale yellow. The primaries are marked with pale black (if one may use such a term,) after teh manner described in the text books, and the upper margins of the secondaries also present a black patch, covering the area which is normally overlapped by the primaries.

6. Brachynemurus nigrilabris Hagen. N. sp.

Very similar to B. peregrinus. Face yellow, above with a large black band, which is rounded below and reaches nearly the clypeus; this band is going between and around the antennæ and connected above with the black part covering the whole anterior half of the vertex; posterior half yellow with a broad black longitudinal band, dilated angularly in middle; the angle sometimes protracted on each side in fine line, which does not reach the eyes; labrum shining black; palpi yellow, last joint of the maillary cylindrical black; labials a little longer, last joint shining black, fusiform, sharply pointed, less inflated than in B. peregrinus.

The Lepidoptera of Ceylon, by F. Moore, F.Z.S., Vol. I., (published under the special patronage of the Government of Ceylon) London, L., Reeve ' Co., 1880–81. 4°.

The butterflies of the East India region apper to be now in a fair way of receiving their due share of attention. We have already called attention to Distant's invaluable work on the Malayan butteflies, and to the handbook to the butteflies of India and Burmah, by Marshall and De Nicéville. On many accounts neither ofthese is so important as the earlier work on the Lepidoptera of Ceylon by Frederick Moore, Which we desire to introduce to the readers of the Canadian Entomologist, principally on account of the very considerable accession to our knowledge of the eariler stages of eastern butterflies which is here given in the plates, and also to draw attention to the notes on the natural history of the insects given by Dr. Thwantes, which are emboided in the text.

In this neighborhood (Custer Co., Colorado,) one very frequently finds a yellow spider of the genus Thomisus or allied thereto, seated in the middle of the umbels Ligusticum montanum Benth and Hook., and on other yellow flowers. This spider, so seated, has nothing to cover it from direct observation, and from its size and colour would be conspicuous enough elsewhere; but on the yellow flowe, sitting in the depression in the centre of the umbel, it is quite invisible unless specially looked for.

Mr. Hy. Edwards, on p. 12 of vol. xx,. of the Can. Ent., records three species of moths as additions to our fauna—two of them Sphingidœ, viz., Pseudosphinx tetrio and Philampelus typhon. Mr. Edwards is undoubtedly correct in the record of localities, and in calling attention to their capture within our faunal limits; but, with all due respect, I do not think that these species should be added to our faunal list. Erebus odora has been found in Canada, yet it would be an absurdity to cite it as a Canadian insect.

Tibiæ calcarate; spurs as long as the two basal joints, or a little shorter; antennæ longer than head and thorax, stout, cylindrical, a little thicker to tip, which is bluntly pointed, but not clavate; palpi about equal, last joint of labials (except in B. longipalpis) with the basal two thirds inflated, fusiform; abdomen long, slender, about half longer than the wings (male); or as long as the wings (female); male appendages very short, less than half the lenght of last segment, stout, cylindrical, very hairy and spinous; a very small ventral triangular plate below and between them.

8. Brachynemurus Carrizonus Hag., n. sp.

Yellow with black lines; face yellow, above with a transversal narrow black band, separated by a yellow crescent from the antennæ, and by a narrow yellow line between the antennæ from the vertex; a faint median black line goes from the black band nearly to the clypeus; labrum yellow; palpi short, pale yellowish, maxillary with apical joint, cylindircal, black except on tip, the two preceding joints with a brownish mark in the middle; labials a little longer, apical joint hirsute, black shining except on base, fusiform, thichened, the apical third thin, pointed; on the inflated part an ocelius like spot.

I am not aware that any parasites have ever been reported as attacking the larvæ of Danais archippus of the maggots of Anthomyia raphani. However that may be, it will be interest to the readers of the Entomologist to know that last fall I obtained from a single chrysalis of D. archippus over fifty speciments of a new species of Pteromalus. The parasites came forth September 13, the chrysalis having been brought into the laboratory a few days before, and inclosed with a bell-jar. Specimens were sent to Mr. L.O. Howard, who has since described the species and given it the name of Pteromalus archippi.

A copy of a German translation of Ross's Second Voyage lately fell into my hands, and I make the following bibligraphical note upon the descriptions of Lepidoptera there given. The translation is by Julius, Graf von der Gröben, Lieutenant in K. Pr. Reg. Garde du corps, and the thrid part or volume in published in Berlin, 1836. This volume (8 Vo.) contains the natural history, the descriptions of the Lepidoptera occupying pages 238 to 255 inclusive.

After all, the geographical range of our fauna, as regards the distribution of insects, is but incompletely marked, and the fact that artifical lines cannot limit the habitat of a species is every day made more apparent. The Florida coast is constantly turning up species properly belonging to the fauna of the West Indies, and Texas and Arizona are as often adding Mexican forms to our list. It is, nevertheless, somewhat strange that three such conspicuous species as those hereafter noted should have only recently appeared within our limits, or at least for so long a time have escaped the watchful eyes of our numerous observers.

I have received from the author a copy of this pamphlet in which a large number of North American species and genera are somewhat briefly described in anticiption of the publication of a general Monograph. That M.Ragonot is in a situation to materially increase our genral knowledge of the group cannot be doubted. He has long collected types and specimens, and has studied the characters of the Old World genera. I have deprecated the description of Phycidæ without giving the full structural characters, and in so far as this has been do I agree with M. Ragonot's introductory remarks.