Hœmatopinus columbianus, N. sp.

Head longer than broad, semicircular in front, wider and more depressed behind the antennæ, rostrum projecting; antennæ located in front of the middle of the head, the first joint large, deeply set in the border of the head, second joint the longest, third, fourth and fifth nearly equal, fifth slightly smaller; a strong bristle is borne on the postero-lateral angle. The pronotum is short, rather narrow, and the sternal plate is very broadly ovate, almost circular, but the sides posteriorly tapering slightly and the posterior border obtusely rounded or subtruncate. The second and third pairs of legs are nearly equal and considerably larger than the anterior pair, and their tarsal claws are broad and blunt or obtuse at tip.

Perhaps never in the history of economic entomology has an undescribed species of insect appeared so suddenly and over such a wide area, and in such destructive numbers, as the “destructive green-pea louse,” the popular name I have given the insect herein described. It has occurred, during the past season, in Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, North Cerolina, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York (Long Island), Connecticut, Vermont, Maine, Ohio, and Canada (Ottawa).

To make my way clear I beg to state the objects I had in view in writing the article that appeared under my name in the number of the Canadian Entomologist for last May. They were these:

I.—To establish the identity of the Spilosoma Antigone of Strecker with the Spilosoma congrua of Walker.

II.—To show that Dr. Riley's series of wings in Fig. 87, Packard's Forest Insects, does not afford a proof conclusive that cunea, textor, punctata and punctatissima are one and the same species of insect.

III.—To bring into notice a Spilosoma which answers to the figure given by Drury of his Bombyx cunea.

Myiocnema, new genus.

This new genus falls in a table of the genera of the Aphelininæ next to Encarsia, Forster, the antennæ being 8-jointed and the club in the female being 2-jointed.

The head is transverse thin antero-posteriorly, the occiput concave, the vertex impressed; the thorax has several long bristly hairs, and the parapsidal furrows are distinct but very delicate, almost invisible; the front wings have a large discoidal cloud beneath the marginal vein as in Coccophagus orientalis, Howard, the stigmal vein is distinct, not very short, but still shorter than the marginal vein and a tittle shorter than the post-marginal, the marginal vein being a little longer than half the length of the submarginal vein.

The status of Professor French's Gastrophilus epilepsalis, described in the September number of this journal, has interested me especially, as I am preparing a new catalogue of North American Diptera.

I am convinced that it was decidedly premature to assign a specific name to this larva. In the first place, it was very small and immature, and the earlier larval forms of Oestridæ are much less known than the later, so that we do not possess the data that would enable us to separate this species, for instance, from G. nasalis.

On the 18th June, 1900, Mr. C. T. Hills, of Chicago, was kind enough to send me a batch of about 79 eggs of Arctia phalerata, Harr. The parent moth was captured on the 12th June, and enclosed in a box over night; on the next day, the 13th, the eggs were laid.

Egg.—.75 mm. in width, semi-ovoid, about as high as wide, shiny, smooth, creamy-white, concave at base.

The eggs hatched on the 20th and 21st of June. Duration of egg stage 7 or 8 days.

An interesting addition to Orthopteran distribution in the West Indies is the finding by Mr. R. J. Crew of the species Neotettix quadriundulatus, Redtenbacher, on the Island on Haiti.

Eight specimens, kindly presented to me, were taken around Port au Prince, and, as Mr. Crew informs me, were “swept from plants along the banks of a small stream.” I have identified this species, which was first described by Brunner and Redtenbacher, 1892, from the Island of St. Vincent, West Indies, in “Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London,” and an excellent figure is to be found on Plate xvi., fig. 10.

In 1782, Cramer described and figured a Cyaniris (Pl. CCLXX., figs. D, E), and incorrectly gave the Cape of Good Hope as its locality.

In his “Rhopalocera Africæ Australis,” Mr. Trimen described the species form a single example labelled “S. Africa” in the British Museum collection, and stated that this was the only example he had seen. In his later work this species is ignored, Mr. Trimen having evidently satisfied himself that it never came from any part of Africa. On looking up the authority for the locality of the specimen mentioned by Trimen in our oldest “Register of Accessions,” I find it entered as “P. Landon, Cram., n., S. Africa?” the locality having evidently been entered on Cramer's authority.

Dryophanta Porterœ, n. sp.— ♀. Length, 2⅓ mm.; very dark brown; cheeks, tibiæ more or less, tarsi, and antennæ except tips, clear ferruginous; smooth and shining, parapsidal grooves distinct; head transversely quadrate, broader than long; antennæ 13-jointed, 13 a little longer than 11 and 12, 3 about a third longer than 4 (3 about 200 μ, 4 about 150 μ, 13 about 180 μ); scutellum prominent; ovipositor rather long, ferruginous, its apical portion with six rings, conuting the apex as one; wings delicately hairy, marked with blackish, nervures suffused with black, marginal nervure almost but not quite attaining the costa at its distal end; a suffused black cloud beneath the end of the marginal cell, a double one in the apical field, a small and indistinct one beyond the apex of the marginal cell, and a faint cloud on the lower part of the wing.

On page 54 of the current volume of the Canadian Entomologist, I called attention to the sudden and almost total disappearance of this species at Wooster, Ohio, where it had for several years been excessively abundant, even up to the latter part of August and early September of last year, 1899. This abrupt termination of the period of activity was at the time attributed to the effect of a parasitic species, Ichneutes, sp. ?, which had in the meantime become also excessively abundant.

For many years this insect has been popularly known as “the forest tent-caterpillar.” During the past two or three years it has attracted much attention in New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York, from its ravages in maple forests, city or village maple shade trees, and in many orchards. In orchards it has often worked with its near relative, the apple tent-caterpillar (Clisiocampa americana). Every one who critically observes the habits of these two species of caterpillars soon discovers that “the forest tent-caterpillar” is a very misleading name for Clisiocampa disstria, because its caterpillars never make a tent, while the apple tent-caterpillars always do. Several who have seriously discussed these insects recently have felt the necessity of a new popular name for Clisiocampa disstria.