I am surprised to see in the May number of the Canadian Entomologist a criticism of my paper on “Argynnis” in a style which is not easy to reply to, and which is certainly not justified by the paper itself. Mr.Edwards seems to think that no one has a right to question his opinions on butterflies unitl they have seen the so-called types from which his original descriptions were made, and that the practical monopoly which he has lately held in the description of new species in the United States gices him the positon of an oracle.

There is a tradition extant in Denver that the sun shines in Colorado nearly every day. This last summer was a woeful exception, however, for, from the middle of April until the end of June, the weather would have been thought respectable only in Labrador, but the unusal wet and cold springs, although it retarded the insects, gave such an impetus to the growth of flowers and herbage on the mountain sides and tops, that, when the hot weather set in, all species of diurnals appeared to be unusally abundant, and every kind seemed to be flying at one time.

The past season was not a favorable one for the collection of Hymenoptera. The early spring was very fine and warm, but was followed by prolonged spells of cool and rainy weather, which not only made collecting diffcult, but appeared to destroy many of the insects. This will be seen by the following list, in which a large proportion of the species are represented by single specimens. It contains about eighty species, or nearly two-thirds of those have so far been taken in this locality.

Definite Marks of the ♀.—Observation of 62 caught specimens enables me to supplement, in some degree, Mr. Strecker's description. The smallest measures 46 mm., equal to 1.8 inch. The largest is 58.5 mm., or 2.3 inches. The average expanse of the 62 is 52.5 mm., or 2.07 inches. The cell spot above primary is larger than in the males, and has never that semi-obsolete appeaarnce which it presents in some of the males; it varies from a small but definite spot of .5 mm. in diameter to a spot of 1.5mm., is usually sub-rotund, sometimes sub-linearm and is frequently centered with yellow in moderate degree.

Corymbites nigricornis Panz. (metallicus Payl. nitidulus Lec.)

This species is widely distributed in North America, from Hudson Bay to Massachusetts, and westwardly to the Rocky Mountains through which it extends to New Mexico. It also inhabits Siberia, Central and Northern Europe. The typical form (European) is described as meatallic black, with the two basal joints of the antennæ and the feet rufous.

Epipsodea was first known to me examples taken by Mr. T. L. Mead, in Colorado, 1871. He says, in Report of the Wheeler Expediation: “This species inhabits the mountains of Colorado below timber line. Speciments were brought from Fairplay by the Expedition. It begins to appear about the first week in june, is common by the middle of that month, and remains until the last of July.”

Upon looking over the specimens of this family, which I had collected during the past few years near Ithaca, I discovered a new species of Chernes, which may be characterized as follows:-

Chernes pallidus, nov. spec. Length about 2 mm.; body ovate oblong; cephalothorax a little broader behind than in front; finely serrulate on the margin; body finely granulate and furnished with short, yellowish, clavte hairs.

Cinerous varied with fuscous; apex of the front and basal angles of the scutellum black; pronotal rugæ distinct. Length 4½-5 mm.

Male.— Face with coarse rugose punctures, arranged in oblique lines on the base of the front; front black, cinereous at base and next the eyes, with a broad, curved, transverse white band, including th ocelli; clypeus, loræ and cheeks whitish, the former sometimes tinged with pale green. Form of teh pronotum about as in insignis; cinereous clouded with fuscous on the apex and along the posterior margin, with an elongated black spot behind the inner angle of the eye; rugæ composed of profound elongated puncutres.

Head small, not retracted, with rough vestiture. Eyes small, yet somewhat bulging or prominent. Tongue moderate in length, but weak. Palpi short, straight, scarcely projecting beyond the clypeus, clothed with short, thin vestiture. Ocelli present. Antennæ moderate in length, the ♂ rather lengthily bi-pectinated. Legs unarmed, subequal, the posterior longest, rather closely scaled, the spurs distinct.

Head rather well developed; palpi exceeding front; tongue moderate, but somewhat varaible in the species. Antennæ of ♂ long, lengthily bipectinated to the tip, a single branch to each side of each joint. Legs short and stout, posterior longest and weakest; spurs normal, but short; claws of tarsi simple.

This tribe is, so far as I know, exclusively American. The thorax is elevated, the patagia usually deflected. The eyes are naked; the front embossed; the legs thinly scaled, with a claw on front tibiæ; the abdomend somewhat short and weak, untufted on dorsum; the wings pointed at tips. The genera seem to fall in between Calpe and Plusia* They are: Basilodes, Stiria, Stibadium, Fala, Plagiomimicus, Acopa. The genus Cirrhophanus probably belongs to the Heliothini; we do not know the larva, but the moth is allied to Chariclea delphinii, by the Hübnerian charcter of the pattern of ornamentation.

The vestiture is woolly, and in this lies a distinguishing character from the Argotini and Hadenini, which some genera much resemble, while the body is hardly tufted; the rather broad throax has sometimes a median ridge. The colours of the moths are often shades of brown, red and yellow, like the autumn foliage, in which many of the hibernating species hide. The eyes of the first genera are hairy; in several the tibiæ are spinose, the reverse being usually the case.

Belongs to the Chariclea group.

Male.—Expands 1.9 inch. Upper side pale yellow-fulvous; the markings as in Helena, but pale black, reduced; the mesial stripes on both wings interrupted, macular; the extra discal rounded spots on primaries minute, the sub-marginal crescents wanting, and represented by small clusters of scales at the summits only, leaving a clear space to the margin, which margin is edged by an even stripe; on secondaries the rounded spots are large, and the crescents are represented by larger clusters of scales; the marginal border is extended on each nervule so as to encroach on and make narrow the clear space.

As is well known to readers of the Canadian Entomologist, Mr. Scudder, in his sumptuous work on the Butterflies of New England recently published, stated that Mr. Edwards had confused the two northern species, Argynnis Freya and Chariclea. This was denied by Mr. Edwards in the April number of this journal and Mr. Butler's authority was invoked to prove that Mr. Scudder had himself transposed these names.

In my “Hawk Moths of North America,” I have assumed that the caudal horn is a prolongation of the skin itself, stiffened by chitine (p. 41). It supports a bristle, or pair of bristles, and Dr. W. Müller, whose valuable work on the Nymphalidœ of South America in their larval stages (Zoologischen jahrbuchern, 1886.) I have noticed in these pages, figures the horn of Dilophonota, p. 249, and regards it as a prolongation of the base supporting the two normal bristles of the eleventh segment.

Crocota Rosa, nov. spec.

Expanse .80 of an inch.

Upper surface of fore wings, thorax, collar, upper and front of head and terminal joint of palpi pale yellow-brown or fawn color, the only trace of a discal dot is a little duskiness at the end of the cell. Hind wings red, pale, a little dusky, somewhat rosy tinted. Abdoment concolorous with the hind wings; fringes concolorus with the wings.

A. stretchii Grt.

1875—Grt., Can. Ent., VII. 197. Arctia

1883—Neum., Papilio, III., 150. =intermedia.

1886—Grt., Can. Ent., XVIII., 110, an var intermedia?

Habitat—Texas.

During nearly fity years the Geological Survey of Canada has been engaged in exploration, and since Confederation it has had practically an unlimited field for its operations. The investagations of the fauna and flora of the Dominion, and the formation of a museum of natural history, are included in the plan of its present organization, but its equipment has hitherto permitted but a partial accomplishment of these departments of its work.

I reared from Conotrachelus nenuphar last summer a number of parasites, which were determined for me by Dr. Riley as Sigalphus curculionis Fitch, and S. curculionis, var. rufus. Full descriptions of both of these may be found on page 27 of Riley's Third Missouri Report, and upon page 67 of the Supplement to the Missouri Reports.