488. Hydriomena quinquefasciata, Pack.— Veru common. Middle July to middle Aug. Exceedingly variable. The specimens that I have from the mountains (Banff) are duller in colour than those taken nearer Calagary, with less green. Mr. Taylor says: “It is best for the present to use the name quinquefasciata, Pack., for the moth we have been calling sordidata. It is probabaly the same as the sordidata, Fabr., of Europe (but a good variety), but it is not the sordidata of Packard's Monograph, which I think must bear Packard's name, nubilifasciata”.

Among a collection of beetles made by the late Dr. F. Stein, of Indianpolis, I found some years ago a specimen marked“platynus, sp? Indiana.— Finding no description fitting it in Dr. Horn's revision of the genus,* I sent it among other specimens for naming to Dr. E. A. Schwarz, of the U.S. Divison of Entomolgy. Under date of January 17, 1899, he wrote me that it was oPlatynus quadrimaculatus, horn; that it “was not represented in the U.S. National Museum collection, and that only a few specimens had ever been captured.”

Working over some neglected material, I found, to my surprise, that the specimens of Ochodœus colleted by me last year in Arizona are separable into three distinct species, none of which agree with the descriptions of the North American species. A few years ago my brother sent me from California, with some other material, two specimens of what I take to be an Ochadœus. Unfortunately, I misplaced one of the specimens, and not wishing to dissect the single remaining one, I leave this species in this genus for the present, till more material is available.

Stenaspilates flavisaria, new species.—♂. Expans, 33–38 mm. Head, thorax and abdomen yellowish-white. Ground colour of wings yellowish-white, in some specimens washed with a fawn-brown tint. Primaries with a dark-ochreous intradiscal line crossing one-third from the base, curved broadly outward from costa, then bisinuous to inner margin. Extradiscal line brown, bounded outwardly by a narrow white line, crossing at the outer third, with a gentle outward and inward curve to cubitus 2, then with a sharp outward semicircle, and another short curve to inner margin.

From allusions that are met with in papers and letters, the Snow Fly seems to be to most collectors a mythical insect, seldom described and more infrequently found. The late Dr. Lugger claimed to have taken it in Minnesota, but, a short time before his death, when he undertook to show me an example of the insect, it could not be found either in his own or the State collection.

The State of Washington is remarkable for the possession of two very different fauneæ: that of the damp coast region, and that of the inland plains and valleys.* The bees of the coast region have become fairly well known through the collections of Professor T. Kincaid and others, but the inland bee-fauna has as yet yielded to science only a fraction of its riches.

Perdita Cockerelli, n. sp.—♂. Head and thorax green, finely roughened, metathorax sometimes more bluish; face up to antennæ, including labrum and mandibles, except tips, lateral face-marks running to a point about half way between point of insertion on antennæ and summit of eyes, narrow inferior orbits half way up, scape in front, large spot on turbecles, connected with a spot on prothorax and also with coxal cavity, spot on tegulæ, all of legs except black stripe on rear of anterior and intermediate femora and tibiæ and basal half of all coxæ, yellow; black stripes on front and rear of hind femora connected below, hind tibiæ black, with a yellow stripe in front, flagellum reddish testaceous below; wings milky hyaline, nervures pallid, costa, radius more or less and margin of stigma brownish; tegulæ pallid; pubesecence of head and thorax long, white, abundant on pleura and cheeks, tarsi yellowish testaceous, hind tarsi dark; abdomen brownish black, segments 1–5 with yellow bands narrowly interrupted medially; that on 5 sometimes reduced to two spots; venter yellow, tip dark.

It will be noticed that in the preceding paper on Geometridæ, I have used the Comstockian terms of designating wing-veins. Heretofore these have not been used by any writers on this family of moths; in act, they have been very little used by writers in any family. The reason for this is, not that the system is not a good one, but because it is comparatively new. Most of the older writers have become used to the number system, having employed it in all their previous work, and therefore retain it to preserve uniformity, and perhaps make no effort to familarize themselves with the new dispensation.