Family XIV. Tenthredinidae.

This family is probably the most extensive of any of the families of the sawflies, and is of world-wide distribution, representatives of it being found in all parts of the world, although, as a whole, it is more numerously represented in the Palearctic and Neotropical regions than elsewhere.

Many American entomologists have, doubtless, been much interested in the accounts published during the past year by Charles Janet on the relations of certain Myrmecophilus Acarians and their hosts. His very interesting papers have been noticed in various English and American journals. Particular attention was paid to two species of Eamasidæ, Discopoma comata and Antennophorus Uhlmanni.

Brachynemurus Hubbardii, new species.

Male–Length, 46 mm.; expanse of wings, 49.5 mm.; greatest width of anterior wing, 6 mm.; length of antenna, 9 mm. Very slender; yellow, marked with dark fuscous; sparsely hairy, more thickly on abdomen.

Face scarcely convex, yellowish; above, a broad pitchy-black band, notched in middle below, extending around the antennae on outer side; a faint fuscous line extends from centre of notch almost to clypeus; furrow between face and inner orbit of the eye, fuscous. Circumocular area yellowish, except along depressed portion of the vertex, where it is dark fuscous, and below, near maxillary palpiger, where there is a black spot. Clypeus yellowish, with a few coarse black hairs. Labrum transverse rounded laterally and narrowed anteriorly somewhat emarginate in front, yellowish, slightly tinged with rufous, several coarse dark hairs on anterior border. Mandibles piceous, black at tips; on inner edge, near apex, a tooth.

No species seems to be known in this family outside of the European and North American faunas, and very few species are described. The group was first treated as a subfamily by Newman as early as 1834.

The imagoes appear very early in the year, or in February, March and April, deposit their eggs and then disappear, the consequence being that very few are taken and only a few of the commoner forms are known. With more careful collecting early in the season, however, the probabilities are that many more species will be discovered in our fauna.

The imagoes of three distinct species of these insect, representing as many genera, have been bred recently from the larvæ by Dr. H. G. Dyar, and we are not only indebted to him for the first authentic life-history of a species in this group, but also for the first scientific description of the larva. His recent discovery of a large undescribed species in the rare genus Pleuroneura was most unexpected.

Leptomeris nigrodiscalis, n. sp.

Expands 24 mm. Palpi and front black; vertex ochre-white; antennæ whitish below, blackish or smoky above; thorax and abdomen white, slightly ochre stained. Fore wings white, with four somewhat indistinct, broad, even, wavy, ochre lines, the first well out from base, the second just outside of discal spot, the third in outer space, the fourth marginal; hind wings with corresponding broad lines; discal points prominent, rather large, jet black; four fine marginal black points below apex on fore wings; beneath more diffuse, more fuscous, less ochreous, the lines less determinate; discal spots not so marked, black points as above on margins of fore wings, and some appearing below apex along margin on hind wings.

On the 8th of June, 1897, I received from Mr. David Bruce, at Glenwood Springs, Colorado, about 30 eggs, laid by a typical female of P. Bairdii, confined over the food plant, Artemisia dracunculoides. These soon began to hatch, and I gave them fennel, on which they thrived.

Tinobregmus vittatus, VanD.—This species occurs from Virginia to Brownsville, Texas, where it is frequent. The male differs most remarkably from the female. It is smaller and the elytra equal the abdomen in length. In the male the head and all below, with bases of femora, hind tibiæ entirely and tips of elytra are black; the pronotum and elytra except tips are milky white. The hind tibiæ equal the whole body in length.

Descriptions of several Hydroecia larvae have appeared in this magazine at various times, but as they were instance when the insects were infesting cultivated plants, the following notes are submitted to show their life history when found in more natural environments, and to assist the student in obtainin sufficient material in some of the species for comparative work. From the paucity of examples in collections and from the close relationship existing between most of the species, it is necessary to resort to breeding, or at least to have such a knowledge of their early habits as to secure extended series, before a very correct idea may be had of the representatives of this genus.

Having some correspondence with Mr. Johnston, he anticipating the interest I naturally felt in the entomology of my former residence, informed me of some things he head taken at Hamilton which were not to be got when I was a collector there; and the seemed to me to be of so much general interest that I desired him to make a note of them for publication. So, complying with my request, he has prepared the accompanying more extended statement on the subject. What a rapid change is taking place in the condition of the country! All my familiar and delightful hunting-grounds in that locality have been “improved out of existence.” With cultivation comes a change in the flora, which produces a change in the fauna, and in the insect fauna especially. So that future collectors will be able to form no correct idea of what was to be got by what is to be had. A thought that greatly impressed me was the persistent effort that insects are continually making to spread abroad and establish themselves in fresh territory. Most of these southern butterfies seem to have great difficulty in accommodating themselves to our shorter seasons. In the case of Colias caesonia there shoule be no trouble about food plants, as one of these is Trifolium; but in the south-west it is double-brooded, and it may perish in the attempt ot produce a second brood in this latitude, and it may take many years to bring it into harmony with its environment here.

This species should be credited to Mr. Duning alone; I neither described nor named it. I did send Mr. Dunning a few Philanthidae, with MS. names and descriptive notes, and these, in the event of publication, should be credited jointly; but P. henricus is not my species in any sense. The type specimen, I should add, was collected by Professor Townsend.

Poecilochroa minuta, n. sp.

Length ♂, 4 mm.; ceph., 1.7 mm. long, 1.1 broad, patella plus tibia IV., 1.6 mm. Cephalothorax uniform reddish yellow, legs and palpi a trifle paler, except metatarse IV. which are reddish brown; sternum yellowish; abdomen black, with short white hairs and some longer black ones at base; venter with a pale streak each side; spinnerets red-brown. Head narrow; posterior eyre row slightly recurved, longer than anterior row, the P. M. E. round, their diameter apart and a near the P. S. E. as to each other, equal in size; eyes of anterior row subequal, all close rogether. No plate under fang of mandibles. Legs quite hairy, but the scopulas not dense; femora with three of four very large spines above, each spine longer than the posterior eye row; no spine above on tibia IV., one below at tip of tibia I. Sternum narrow, nearly twice as long as wide. Abdomen slender no wider than cephalothorax, sipnnerets large, an interrupted ventral fold near their base. The tibia of the male palpus has on the outer tip a large, stout, slightly curved projection one-half the length of the tarsus and blunt pointed at tip; the palpal organ is swollen near middle, the style is short.

Orthezia cheilanthi, n. sp.—Adult ♀ Length, 3.5 mm. Width, 3-3.5 mm. Length + ovisac, 6-8 mm. Width of Ovisac 3-4 mm. Body above covered with whtie secretion, which forms lateral and sub. dorsal longitudinal keels. A well-defined subdorsal furrow between the keels and the lateral margin formed by 3 or more rows of paltes; these are smaller than the projecting marginal plates, which are flattened; caudal plate and the 3 or 4 plates on each side of it very little longer than the lateral plates. The structure of the secretion is compact; in most of the other species of Orthezia it is fluffy.

During a visit to Great Britain a few years ago I looked over a numbered of the Entomological collections in the public Museums there. The specimens in them were labeled so as to show the order, sub-order, and family that they belonged to and their individual scientific names. with few exceptions there were no records of their geographical distribution, and when information of habitation was given it was of a wide nature, as North America, Asia, or Europe. Data of seasonal appearance or date of capture were entirely absent. Since then I have foudn that many collections on this side of the Atlantic are in the same condition, and private collections in particular. That such information should be wanting, especially in a public collection, is to be regretted; for however beautifully mounted, classified and correctly named the specimens may be, they are of little paractical value. The biological student gets no more information than he would form any entomological publication containing plates, unless it be the identification of some rare insect. The reasont that public collections are lacking in such data is because they have been built up from donations or by purchase – and until recent years the study of insects rarely consisted of more than collecting, mounting, naming, and placing in classified order. This can be remedied by the present-day collector, professional or amateur.

Aspidiotus Dearnessi, n. sp.—♀. Scale suboval, about 2 mm. long, moderately convex, pale gray, more or less concentrically ridged; with the orange-yellow, partly exposed exuviæ quite to one side. Ventral scale thick and distinct. The scales resemble minute oyster-shells.

Selidosema nigrescens, n. sp.

Expands 31-33 mm. Palpi and front dark fuscuous; antennæ black above, fuscous below; thorax dark fuscous, patagiæ lighter; abdomen dark even fuscous. All wings dark fuscous, made by heavy coalescing striations of fuscous and blackish on a light fuscous ground; basal line black, quite distinct, rounded, wavy; a median shade passing through distinct black discal spot; an outer black distinct cross line, continued across hind wing, on fore wing sinuous, subparallel with outer margin, on hind wing nearly or quite straight; on fore wing beyond this line is a broad reddish-brown band, not always clear, however, sometimes showing faintly at middle of hind wing; a submarginal row of light, not distinct, lunules, edged within with darker; marginal lines black, distinct. Beneath fuscous, with faint line shadows, and a dark shadow spot near apex of fore wings.