This question is one that it is extremely difficult to answer satisfactiorilly.

The great naturalist, Agassiz, in his Essay on Classification, wrote:

“Genera are mos closely allied groups of animals differing **** simply in the ultimate structural peculiarities of some of their parts.”

The Century Dictionary defines genus as “a classificatory group ranking next above the species, containing a group a species (sometimes a single species) possessing certain structural characters different from those of any others.” It goes on, however, to say: “The value assigned to a genus is wholly arbitrary–that is, it is considered generic and thus constitute a genus; and genera are constantly modified and shifted by specialists, the tendency being mostly to restriction of genera, with the constant multiplication of their numbers, and the coinage of new generic names.

Since the last of my “Notes on Some Ontalio Acridiidæ” were printed, five species have been added to the list, and the number of localities for those already recorded has been considerably increased. I think,therefore, that it will make the notes more complete to conclude them with a full list of the species of this family known to occur in the Province, with their distribution as hitherto recorded.

Only a small portion of the territory included in the Province of Ontario has been at all thoroughly explored by entomologists, but I do not believe there are very many native species of Acridiidæ not included in the present list. Doubtless, horvever, some of the Manitoba and Minnesota forms extend into the north-western part of Ontario, while it is extremely probable that there are unrecorded species in the south-west, and possibly a few in the east and extreme north.

This family is restricted to the paper-making wasps, all social species living in large communities and having three distinct sexes, female, worker and male, thus agreeing with the social bees, the Apidæ and Bombidæ, and with many ants, Dorylidæ, Myrmicidæ, Formicidæ, etc.

In some species, too, like the ants, there appear to be two forms of the worker.

Deceived by their habits, for structurally they are widely separated, Westwood and Packard thought the social wasps were allied to the Apidæ, and in their scheme of classification have placed them next to the bees, with which they having nothing in common.

In searching out the boring larvæ of the Noctuid genus Hydræcia,that large and showy species, speciosissima, has continued to prove a decided engima. This great tawny fellow, with its distinctive white spots, must in the early stage leave some flagrant evidence of its whereabouts behind, yet try as we may all efforts seemin vain, and the conclusion was finally reached that Rye could not number this species in its local list. So the few records that Rye could not number this species in its local list. So the few records of its capture are looked up, and the determintion is made to have a trial elsewhere. Tin 1868, Grote and Robinson described this species, together with inquæsita, under the generic term Gortyna (Trans. Am. Soc. I., 342), and relate receiving their types from seekonk, Rhode Island. Knowing the tenacity with which a colony clings to a favourite resort, a couple of days in July, 1900, were taken for a flying trip to that place; the writer believing that should conditions yet remain favourable, the desiderata might still be found.

Prof. Westwood and others confused these wasps with the Vespidæ and the Eumenidæ, although Latreille had years previously established his family Masarides. Henry de Saussure, in his “Etudes,” treats them as a tribe. They, however, represent a distinct family close to the Eumenidæ but easily separted from them and the Vespidæ by the wings not being folded longitudinally, by peculiarities of the antennæ, which are usually strongly clavate at tip; by the wholly different abdomen, the venter being flatter; and by the much larger scutellum.

Of the habits of the Masarides nothng seems to be positively known. Some years ago Dr. Dyar gave me specimens of Masaris vespides, Cr., bred from what I take to be the nest of an Odynerine, taken in Arizona.

This subfamily comes nearest to the Aporinæ, and a few of the males are easily confused with and mistaken for some males in the latter group.

The head is, however, lenticular, very thin antero-posteriorly, the temples being very flat, while the antennæ are always placed much closer to the mouth, on or below an imaginary line drawn from the base of the eyes. These characters ought to enable the student to recognize readily a wasp falling in this group.

Some males in the subfamlry Aporinæ have a lenticurar head, but in these the antennæ are inserted above this inraginary line, never on orbelow it.

To the courtesy of some of my correspondents from British North America I owe a series of specimens, some of which proved undescribed. The species sent by Dr. Fletcher is of some economic importance, and its prompt description seems desirable. The other species have been in MSS. for sonle time, and were intended to form part of a lengthy deescriptive paper. Their publication together at this time gives this contribution a somewhat faunal character.

In the Report of the Dominion Entomologist for 1901 a notice was given of this insect, the moth of which has for some years at Ottawa been one of the commonest species of the genus found flying during the summer. Any species as abundant as this is must be injurious, should the caterpillars at any time attack a cultivated crop. The larvæ have occasionally been found in vegetable gardens, around peas and beet root, but no injury as yet has been noticed. The finding of a cluster of eggs last year by Mr. Gibson gave on opportunity of studying the life-histroy, which is herewith submitted.

Pompilus, Fabr., is preoccupied, and the family name Pompilidæ must be changed to Ceropalidæ, as has been shown recently by Fox (vide Ent. News, Vol. XII., 1901, p. 268). In consequence, my subfamily Pompilinæ must be changed to Aporinæ.

This subfamily is unquestionably the largest in number of genera and species of any of the groups of the family Ceropalidæ (Pompilidæ). Most of the species, in comparison with those found in the Pespinæ, are of medium size or small, few attaining much over an inch in length, while the vast majority are much smaller.

As only three specimens of Trimerotropis, Stal, have been reported from Canada, and as the writer has taken several others, of which three seem to be undescribed, the present paper may be of some value as a preliminary notice of the Canadian species of this genus.

The following table will serve to distinguish the species of Trimerotropis known to occur in Canada. It is artificial, but as the species enumerated are few, the table will perhaps be of greater service than would a more natural one. In the notes following the table the species are arranged according to MC Neill's recent. “Revision of the Orthopteran Genus Trimerotropis,” the new species being placed according to their nearest affinities.

Some time ago Dr. Uhler was kind enough to lend me the types of C.pluto for study in connection rvirh some aliied material from the National Museum. This new material, while generically distinct, is so closely allied to Cochlorhinus in many ways, and at the same time possessing more nearly the typical Acocephaline characters, that it is now possible to assign this unique genus to an approximately correct position in the group,and give its characters from a comparative standpoint.

It is apparentiy a rare form, as the three original females taken more than twenty-five years ago are the only known specimens of the species. To make this nondescript form more accessible to the workers in the group, and as a basis for the comparisons in tlie descriptions that follow,it has been thought best to give a comparative description of the genus and species, and also a figure of the type, together with its more important details.

Mr. E. Dwight Sanderson, Entomologist of the Delaware Agricultural Experiment Station, Newark, Del., has been appointed Professor of Entomology at the Agricultural and Mechanical college of Texas. His address is now College Station, Brazos Co., Texas.

SIR,–Permit me to correct a slight error into which Mr. King has fallen in regard to the locality where I found the scales of Eulecanium Lymani, as the tree was not, as stated, at Quebec, but at St. Hilare, a station on the line of the Grand Trunk Railway, about twenty-two miles east of Montreal. I shall be happy to send specimens of this scale to anyone interested in scale insects.

An interesting contribution by Dr. FJetclrer, entitled “Entomological Record, 1901,” has just appeared in the 32nd Annual Report of the Entomological Society of Ontario. This, besides giving a list of the active workers in Canada, includes careful notes on rarities, etc., taken during the year. It is the intention of the Society to continue this Record from yeart to year, and as this will undoubtedly prove useful to entomologists throughout Canada, it is hoped that collectors in the dominion will try to make it as complete as possible. Records of interesting specimens captured, either from the standpoint of distribution or rarity, will be acceptable, and should be sent to Dr. James Fletcher, Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa. Specimens unknown to collectors will gladly be identified.

Exæretopus caricis, n. sp.

Adult ♀ salmon pink, shiny, about 2 mm. long and 1 mm. broad, elongage oval. Legs and antennæ light brown. ♀ secretes a mass of cotton all over her body, becoming so dense as to completely envelope the entire body, looking more like and elongated Eriococcus. This secretion extends caudad, forming a large egg-sac, which, including the whole insect, measures from 4 to 5 mm. Eggs salmon pink. Yound larvæ orange colour. Adult ♀ after boiling in K.O.H.derm remains light brown. Margin beset with fine, short, straight spines, incisions having two stout curved spines. There are numerous short conical spines scatterd over the derm with irregular rows of long fine hairs. Anal plates large and thick, each with four shor, stout spines. Anal ring with six very long, stout hairs, which extend to caudal end of plates. Antennæ long, slender, tapering, 8-jonted. Joint 3 always longest and joint 7 always shortet, each joint with one or more fine hairs, joint 8 with several long hairs.

I have been greatly interested in reading the suggestive article by Mr. Lutz, in your last (April) number, on labels. It voices a need, whichevery student of ecology will have felt, for more information than accompanies the specimens in the usual collection. No one can collect insects carefully without making observations that are new to science, andit is unfortunate that such observations are generally left unrecorded. Mr.Lutz proposes a plan that would make the observations of tlte amateur collector available for comparison, and that would wonderfully enhance the value of his cabinet. It is, in short, proposed that the collection shall be its own expositor, that pin labels on the specimens shall tell at a glance what usually, if recorded at all, has to be hunted throught the leaves of an accompanying catalogue. Nature's label is, of course, already on every specimen, but we are not yet skillful enough at reading the imprint of environment as written in bodily form and structure, and need to be told in our own language.

Every collection of western Bythoscopidæ that the author has Examined has had a more or less heterogeneous assemblage of forms closely resembling Idiocerus alternatus. These have been somewhat Indiscriminately divided between alternates, ramentosus and several MS names of Uhler‖s in classification, or not determined at all. At the time of publication of the key to this genus, the material at hand was not sufficient to warrant the descriptions of these forms, and they were omitted. Since then the author has paid special attention to the collecting of this, group in Colorado, and has received a long series of specimens from the Pacific Coast, mainly from the collection of Mr. C. Livingstone. With this material it has been possible to accurately define a number of these species and clear up much of the obscurity in this section of the genus. During the progress of this study several other new species and varieties have been described, and are also presented here.