Aphis populifoliae Fitch, Rept. Reg. N. Y. St. Cab. Nat. Hist., p. 66; 1851.

Color:—Head and thorax reddish-brown, abdomen light green with light shadings, powdery on intersegmental lines. Legs, antennae and cornicles yellow to light brown.

Structural details:—Hairs numerous and erect with lengths from .69mm. to .79 on antenna, approximately the same length on vertex. Secondary sensoria from 16-19 in number on III on alatae and arranged in an irregular row, absent in apterae.

This species, which in all the later lists has been placed in the genus Euxoa, will have to be transferred to Agrotis on the strength of the male genitalia which are typical of this latter genus; the front, furthermore, is only slightly bulging and roughened and does not show the tubercle with raised edges characteristic of most of the Euxoa species.

Papilio cresphontes Cram., tr. f. forsythae new tr f.

In typical Florida and southern United States examples of cresphontes, the ground color is pale yellow. In this tr. f. the ground color is a deep canary yellow, practically an orange or burnt umber, similar to Papilio rutulus ammoni Behrens which is well illustrated on pl. I of Comstock's “Butterflies of California.”

Through the courtesy of Dr. J. McDunnough of the Division of Systematic Entomology, Canada Department of Agriculture, I have had the privilege of examining a series of Polistes from several of the Southern Canadian Provinces. It is the purpose of this paper to discuss the distribution of this genus as shown by the collection and to present some comments on the characteristics of the species studied, especially as they relate to the United States forms.

Form elongate oval, moderately convex. Colour bright blue-green with slight iridescence, purplish reflections predominant, shining. Antennae and legs rufotestaceous. Thorax and elytra finely but distinctly punctured, distinctly alutaceous.

According to Ashmead (1896) and others, the wasps belonging to the genus Polistes usually feed their young chewed-up fragments of lepidopterous larvae. However, Riley (1873) mentions P. rubiginosus Lept. as one of the natural enemies of the Colorado potato beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata Say, whose larvae it carries to its nest. A varied diet is therefore to be expected in these wasps. Nevertheless, I was very much surprised when I came across a rubiginosus engaged in a violent struggle with a large cicada (identified as Tibicen auletes Germ. by Mr. William T. Davis), at Ranken, Missouri, on July 19, 1932.

♀ (Type). Length about 4 mm.; head broad and short, with very wide face; clypeus and labrium entirely black, as also supraclypeal area; lateral face-marks present, pale yellow, long and very narrow, a little broadened below. The upper end, on orbit, a little above level of antennae; mandibles yellowish-white with the apical part broadly ferruginous; scape slender, yellow in front; flagellum thick black, the under side pale yellowish; front and vertex shining, dark olive green; thorax shining dark green, the mesothorax and scutellum very brilliant, mesothorax with thin erect white hair; tubercles, a slender line along sides of mesothorax above base of wings, and a short stripe at each side on upper border of prothorax, all pale yellow; wings clear hyaline, nervures practically colorless ; stigma large, hyaline, with a dusky border ; hind legs black, except that the femora are yellow beneath; middle legs with the femora broadly yellow at apex and the tibiae yellow in front; front legs similarly colored, the tihiae very broadly pale yellow; anterior and middle basitarsi pale yellow and the small joints reddish, but hind tarsi black; abdomen shining, dorsally dark, slightly brownish, the first tergite with only a very small yellow mark at each side; tergites 2 to 4 with successively broader pale yellow bands, having a linear interruption in middle; fifth tergite broadly yellowish on each side; apical plate pale reddish; venter light yellow.

Through the courtesy of Professor R. A. Cooley, Dr. William C. Cook, and Professor G. Allen Mail of the Montana Agricultural Experiment Station, from 1927 to 1931 I examined various portions of the station's collection of Coleoptera. In view of the paucity of Montana records of this order it seemed desirable to publish a list of the species obtained in this way.

The genus Hypophloeus contains a number of undescribed species but until the relation of certain forms as sexes has been established or disproved it is probably as well to refrain from describing species closely allied to parallelus.

The three following seem, however, to be so clearly distinct that they should be made known.

Length 6.2 mm.; width 1.9 mm. Form of vespertinus Fab. Head black; pronotum reddish-yellow with an oval median black spot, the spot attaining the apical and basal margins and occupying about three-eights of the pronotal area: scutellum black; elytra reddish-yellow, each elytron with a median blackish stripe; the stripe not quite attaining the base, including the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth intervals in its basal half, a little narrower apically except at apical fourth where it extends almost to the lateral margin, attaining the suture along its apical third; the sutural interval blackish in basal fourth; prothoracic flanks reddish-yellow; prosternum black, a transverse area just behind the lobe and the intercoxal process reddish-yellow ; metasternum and posterior coxae black, the median line of he former reddish-yellow; abdomen dark reddish-brown, the apical segment and margins paler; antennae, legs and palpi pale yellow; integuments highly polished throughout, clothed with inconspicuous yellow hairs.

Robert E. Birdsong published some notes on Tropaca luna in the November 1932 issue of this magazine, which were of especial interest to us as we have been working along the same lines.

In addition to the variations in ova-coloration which were mentioned the article, we have obtained ova which ranged in color from sky-blue to apple-green. In one of the few cases in which we obtained pure white ova, they turned green after a few days and never hatched. We have not noticed black micropyles.

The literature concerning the large Stag-beetle Pseudolucanus placidus (Say) contains many conflicting and misleading data. Since the species occurs in exceptional abundance in a very restricted sandy area surrounding the author's home, it became a fairly easy task to check up on these statements. Thc present paper contains the information gathered during the past several years.

Antennae light fuscous; distal end of the basal joint of antennae, palpi, head, patagia, thorax, and ground color of fore wings yellowish wood-brown. Terminal joint of palpus with a broad fuscous annulation. Fore wings variously marked with blackish fuscous; near base a fuscous patch which fades distally and becomes fused with ground color; a large fuscous discal spot which in some specimens (females) is almost black which gradually fuses with the ground color on all sides; before this, two small black spots; beyond, one black spot; costa somewhat spotted with fuscous; from costa near apex around termen to the inner margin 11 small black spots. In some specimens these are somewhat obscured. Cilia light grayish fuscous tipped with buff. Hind wing light fuscous, darker toward apex. Cilia light grayish fuscous, buff tipped. Abdomen yellowish wood-brown below with two fuscous longitudinal stripes ; above, brownish fuscous, some scales tipped with the light yellowish wood-brown. Legs yellowish, wood-brown; above more fuscous, tarsi especially so; spurs fuscous.

During the course of recent collecting in Illinois, an interesting species of aphid has been discovered on sedges (Carex sp.). It differs so radically, however from all species hitherto described in that genus that a new subgenus has been proposed for its reception. In view of the recent publication on the “Aphiidae of Illinois” and the very interesting character of the species it seems advisable to describe it at this time.

On the night of June 4, 1933, we “tied out” seven females of Tropaea luna and by 11 p. m. four of them had found mates.

On June 10 at 1.30 p. m., a male and a female Actias selene emerged from cocoons which we had purchased in New York. The following day two males emerged. Copulation occurred with one of these at 11.55 p. m. The mates separated at 2.30 the next morning and the female began ovipositing at once.

Specimens of a chalcidoid parasite reared by Wm. L., Jellison and Cornelius B. Philip, of the Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever Laboratory of the United States Public Health Service at Hamilton, Montana, from pupae of Protociilliphora avium Shannon and Dobroscky infesting bird nests appear to represent a genus and species new to science and are described below.

Breeding at Go Home Bay confirmed what had already been suspected from our collections and breedings in the Ottawa and Knowlton regions, viz , that the nymph and female imago referred to by Clemens under the name flavescens belong to the species, ruber McD. Nymphs were secured at the Flat Rock Falls, the identical locality where they had been collected by Clemens, and two males, three females bred through to the adult stage (June 19, 21, July 2). The abdominal tergites of the nymph are not always as immaculately brown as indicated by Clemens ; there are frequently traces of pale dashes laterally and subdorsally along the anterior margins of the segments, serving to a certain extent to define the usual median and submedian dark bands and submedian dots.

Thrips have frequently been abundant in flowers and less abundant upon other parts of plants in most sections of Utah. Considerable thrips damage to onions occurs practically every year in most onion-growing areas of this state, while beans, beets, and other crop plants are less generally affected. It appears that damage, due to thrips, is more general in Utah than has usually been supposed. A desire to become better acquainted with the forms occurring upon various plant species in this region has led to this study.

So little has been done or published on Mississippi Rhopalocera that it seems desirable to present a short list. In this list I have included only those species and forms which I have actually collected or seen in the collection at State College.

Through the kindness of Dr. Needham I have been enabled to examine specimens of a Leptophlebia species from Modoc Co., California, which we both agree comes closer to Eaton's description of gregalis than does any species before us.