A small round box of bamboo (8 by 6 inches) was bought nine years ago in Hong Kong, China, and brought home to Boston. It was placed on a little shelf on the wall, and used for Turkish tobacco. The box was lined inside with a perfectly closing box made of East Indian block-tin, about a millimetre thick. I examined the box January, 1885, and found it hollowed throughout like a sieve, and containing between the tin box and the bamboo cover a large number of dead and living beetles and two living larvæ. The tin box had four small round holes apparently cut through by the insects. The beetles represented two species, one, a little larger, only two specimens, all the others belonging to the second specres.

Having examined a good number of dead trunks of the basswood or American linden, Tilia Americana L., here this fall, I have found quite a list of Coleoptera in them either under the bark or in the decayed wood. The following is the list, which embraces thirty-four species taken from 13th October to 3rd November, 1885. Some of the species are only of accidental occurrence in the trunks, but will be readily known, and are given to record them from this locality. The determinations are mostly by Dr. Horn:—

Tachys flavicauda Gyll. Colonies or scattered individuals mixed with colonies of Silvanus planatus Germ., or by themselves, under the bark of the less decayed trunks.

The Acarina, especially the more minute forms, have been but little studied in America, a fact which seems the more strange when we consider what interesting objects they form for microscopic work. As in most groups of Arthropoda, the pioneer work in this country was done by Thomas Say, whose descriptions of a number of the larger species appeared as early as 1821. Later on Dana and Whelpley (1836), and Haldeman (1842), contributed descriptions of a few species. More recently Dr's. Fitch, Leidy, Packard, Riley, LeBaron and Shimer, and Mr. Ashmead, have published descriptions of species and notes on habits, while quite lately Mr. Harry Garman has published a valuable paper on the Phytoptidæ, which it is hoped he will follow up by still more extensive study of this family.

The following species were taken by Capt. Gilpin Brown (late H. M. 92nd Regiment) in the Island of Newfoundland, during the months of July and August last:

1. Grapta Faunus, Edw.

2. Chrysophanus Florus, Edw. (or C. Helloides, Boisd.—uncertain.)

3. C. Epixanthe, Bd.–Lec.

4. Argynnis Atlantis, Edw.

5. Melitea Harrisii, Scud.

6. Phyciodes Tharos, Drury.

7. Colias Interior, Scud.

8. ib. var. Laurentina, Scud.

9. Cœnonympha Inornata, Edw.

In the Oct. number of this journal I noticed with interest the article by Mr. Clarkson on Elaphidion villosum, Fabr. I have reason to believe that the same is partly the case also with E. parallelum, Newm., which I find to be the common oak-pruner here. But I do not agree that it is always, or even in the majority of instances, the case with either species.

On pages 121–122 the generic term Lepisesia is twice written wrongly, “Lipisesia.” To my statement with regard to the food plants of the Smerinthinœ, must be added that several unocellated genera feed on forest trees, such as poplar, linden, oak, etc. I have taken our geminatus on willow; my statement as to fruit trees (Rosaceœ, Caryœ) gives the general food of Cressonia, Calasymbolus, Smerinthus and Paonias. I would likewise add to my remarks as to the sequence of the groups that they seem to me to form two series; the first embracing the Macroglossinœ, Chœrocampinœ and Smerinthinœ; the second the Acherontinœ and Sphinginœ; the members of each series resembling each other more than the members of the opposed series. With regard to my List, p. 126 et seq., I would say that the manuscript was in the main long completed, perhaps nearly a year before I received Prof. Fernald's excellent paper. After receiving it I merely so far corrected and added to my MSS.

The sub-family Anthracina differs from any other of the Bombylidæ, as well as from any other group of Diptera known to me, in that the second vein issues from the third at a point opposite or nearly opposite the small cross-vein, the distance being never greater than the length of that cross-vein; the course of the third vein at the place where the second vein issues from it, is perfectly straight, while in the other Diptera the third vein bends obliquely downward at the same angle that the second vein extends upward at its base.

In the middle of September, 1886, Prof W. G. Farlow sent to me several specimens of the heads of Achillea (probably A. millefolium L.) collected on Mt. Washington. They correspond well with the deformity described by Dr. Fr. Thomas in Giebel's Zeitschr., 1872, vol. 39, p. 464, on A. moschata Wulf. The flowers are to a large part changed in white hairy sacs or galls, containing a number of living Phytoptas. As far as known to me, this gall is not yet described from the U. S., and is very similar to those of A. millefolium described by Mr. Fr. Loew, Verhdl. Wien. Z. B. Ges., 1878, vol. 28, p. 130, which is to be found in Baron Thuemen Herbar. mycolog. oeconom. Suppl., I., No. 60. Our collection possesses a specimen by Prof. Thomas with the indication of Tylenchus (Anguillula) millefolii Loew.

Ceophyllus monilis Lec. Several of these curious little coleopters were taken May 11th, from a colony of ants inhabiting under a flat stone. This ant is honey yellow, .18 inch in length, very sluggish in its movements, and not disposed to be vicious; it seems to be the same as that with which Batrisus bistriatus is found (also in May), and is perhaps Lasius integerrimus, Mayr., which Mr. E. A. Schwarz thinks is the name of the ant with which on several occasions he found the same beetle in Michigan in early spring.

The beetles were on the under side of the stone distributed among the ants, and taking alarm immediately on its being overturned, scampered off so quickly into the underground galleries that only a few could be captured.

Professor Sereno Watson communicated to me some twigs cut on the grounds of Mr. Henry Watson, in Northampton, Mass. Several Larix Europea about thirty years old stand on an avenue, and have never suffered before. In April they showed to a large extent pale needles and many little larvæ of the well known sac-bearing form. In May numerous slate-colored moths appeared, the true Coleophora laricella Hub. This insect in all its stages is well described in Stainton's Nat. Hist. Tineina, vol. iv., p. 1, and figured on pl. i., f. 2. It would be useless to give a description here. our biological collection possesses types of all stages by Rosenhauer, Zeller and Hofmann. As far as I know, it has not yet been observed in the united States. Some twigs given by the rate J. Boll were perhaps collected in 1872 in cambridge, Mass.; but as he did not mark any locality on the label, I am not sure that he did not brins them over from Europe. I am not able to find any published notice in North American papers. I may notice that the caterpillar keeps its abode very clean by expelling the fæces out of a hole in the needles.

It is only comparatively recently that I have seen the article of Mr. B. Neumoegen upon the genus Arctia and its variations, contained in Papilio, vol. 3, p. 148. So far as my own experience and conclusions go, I am, except in two instances which I notice here, generally agreed with the views of this writer. Especially am I of opinion that recently there has been an unscientific and unsound attempt to class as one species forms of Lepidoptera quite different in appearance, upon insufficient evidence. I have formerly pointed out that Entomologists are naturally divided into two camps: the “lumpers” and the “splitters.” For my part I do not at all object to present species being thrown together as varieties, provided the evidence is complete that they are inter-dependent forms. What I object to is the hasty manner in which the most of the lumping is accomplished in some recent articles, such as Dr. Hagen's on Papilio and Mr. Hulst's on Arctia.

In the summer of 1884, while collecting the green tiger-beetles in the woods, it struck me very forcibly how the Cicindelæ that inhabit such places—sexguttata Fab. here, campestris Linn. in England, others elsewhere—are for the most part of a beautiful green, so as to assimilate in color with the surrounding vegetation and herbage among which they may alight; while those that frequent the bare ground, banks, sand hills, sandy stretches, beaches, bars—vulgaris Say, repanda Dej., maritima Dej., and many others—are of the colors easily assimilative with those that surround them on the flats and stretches where they are found.

Length .80 of an inch. Head oblique, narrow, slightly bilobed, about one-fourth of the head above the height of joint 2; body nearly cylindrical; on joint 5 a nearly conical projection about two-thirds as high as the depth of the body, bifid at the top, each part tipped with a hair; on joint 9 is a slight elevation, and a more prominent one on joint 12. When at rest the posterior part of the body is raised, making these elevations appear more prominent. In color, the head, joint 2, and the dorsum of joints 3 and 4 to the top of the tubercle on joint 5, is dark brownish purple mottled with gray, the sides being lighter than the front of the head and the dorsum, the latter narrow posteriorly; the sides of joints 3 and 4 are bright green with a few fine purple dots and a pale dorsal edging; the sides of the body back of joint 4 are a series of fine, close, crenate purplish red lines or mottlings on a grayish yellow ground color, more yellow above, giving the sides something of an orange appearance; the dorsum of joints 5 to 8 is more of a grayish color from the ground color being paler and the mottlings finer and more of a purple shade; a darker patch on the dorsum of joint 8, this color extending back obliquely on joints 9 and 10, making a dark purple lateral line; the pale part of the dorsum is wider on the posterior than on the anterior of each joint, the space being boldered by an oblique purpte line that fades out before quite reaching the lateral line; the rest of the dorsum is like the sides, except a little darker I between the two posterior tubercles or elevations is a clear white V, the point beginning on the anterior part of joint 10 and extending back to the posterior part of joint 11 on the sides.

Within the first year of work in this branch of entomology in the Ottawa district, I was able to make acquaintance with all the 26 orders into which Hymenoptera are divided in Mr. Brodie's Canadian list; and now at the end of our second year, out of 247 genera, only about 70 remain unrepresented, while 13 genera are added not yet before met with in Canada, two of which have never been described.

I shall leave out the Uroceridœ and Tenthredinidae, and not include them in the following figures, as Mr. W. H. Harrington has given especial attention to those two orders, and has already published an article on them.

Brotis vulneraria Hüb.

This moth appears to be the only one of its genus so far known in the United States.

Head small, yellowish red, almost hidden between the large and prominent eyes, which are naked; palpi medium, slender, lighter colored; thorax long, covered with long fine hair; abdomen much shorter than the anal margin and Hesperi-shaped. Posterior wings elongated, costa straight, somewhat curved at apex, outer margin straight, inner margin somewhat rounded. on anterior wings the anal margin is longer than upper and outer margin, the latter being strongly rounded.

Harpalus viduus Lec. The type of this species was taken at Rock Island, Illinois. It must be somewhat rare, as it does not appear in any local catalogue nor exchange list under my notice. Here it is found in one place only, and that in some abundance—on the side of a high hill in its primitive state, possessed of a warm, friable, vegetable soil, with a scanty vegetation, and flat stones on the surface. The females have the elytra opaque, but not pubescent, as one of my correspondents claims they should be to meet the description of Dr. Leconte—“sericeo-opaca,” which here evidently means opaque with a silky lustre. The males are moderately shining. The beetle makes its appearance during September and October, though few of them mature till the following spring, remaining under the shelter of the stones, where from one to half a dozen are often associated. At first the beetles are of a pale color, the elytra gradually changing to black; but the head and thorax mostly remain red till winter. In the spring they are shining bIack, and are only then fit to be placed in a collection. In the great struggle for “survival of the fittest” the chances seem to be against this insect.

Lebia divisa Lec.—Twenty-nine specimens of this beautiful Carabid were taken during July (1884) with the sweeping net, on various weeds along the edge of a slough. One specimen was found under a board. Towards sunset seemed to be the only time they could be captured, differing in that respect from some of the others of the genus, which are about at all hours of the day. My first specimen was taken in 1876 in same locality.

Lebia tricolor, pleuritica and analis seem to be rare. Have taken them with the sieve late in October.

For three years past I have reared this species from eggs and young worms, and in no instance have they agreed with descriptions I have met with. Two years ago I had a brood of eight. Three of them had six spots—three on each side—two four spots, one two spots, and two without spots.

Last year I had nine, not one of which had the least semblance of a spot, and were lighter green than those of the year before. This year the brood consisted of seven, two of which were unspotted, one with four, three with two, and one with a single spot.