For the last two seasons I have turned my attention more particularly to collecting the Hemiptera; and very naturally became deeply interested in the family of the Phytocoridæ, or Capsidæ, as they are generally called. They are the most distinctively northern family of the Heteroptera, as the Jassidæ are of the Homoptera; but they seem to have been neglected by European as well as American Entomologists, probably because of the variability of the species, and their frail structure which makes them difficult of preservation.

In the Bremen Museum are specimens collected by Norwich in the Souther States in the beginning of the country, which bear evidence of having been determined by Abbot, as there are one or two MS. names credited to him. I note here merely a ♀ specimen of Parorgyia leucopheœa; this is paler, the outer line followed by brown shadings, as compared with our Northern Clintonii, and agrees with a specimen collected by myself in Alabama, and previously described in Can, Ent.

1. Palpares inclemens Walk., p. 303, No. 4.

This is one of the largest species. Length of body, male 75 mm.; fem., 60; exp. al., 145–160 mm. I have before me a couple collected by Dr. Krauss, Stuttgart, on Cap. b. sp., from the collection of the late Dr. Schneider, Breslau; and two females from Zanzibar, collected by Mr. C. Cooke, Salem, and a female from Zanzibar Island, from Mr. Thorey, Hamburg. It belongs to this species, P. latipennis, Gerstaecker, Insects from Zanzibar, 1873, p. 55; a female from the Galla land, 2° latit., which is compared with the male described by myself in Peters' Voyage, P.99.

In reference to two notes on collecting in the June number of your Entomologist, will you allow me to make a few remarks? Entomology is with me a secondary subject, my time being for the most part occupied with another science. Perhaps this has led me to devise means for economizing time and labor more than I should otherwise have done; but the study of insects has great attraction for me, and I spend no little time upon it.

In the early spring of 1887, while arranging the National Museum collection of Arctiidœ, I tried to make out the varieties of Callomorphalecontei listed in our catalogues, and soon came to the conclusion that we had to do with more species than were generally accepted. I investigated the literature of the subject and prepared a paper, the results of which were first communicated to the Entomological Society of Washington at their March meeting (see Entom. Americ., iii., p.20).

3. Acanthaclisis Texana Hagen.

I have a male and females from Carrizo Spring, Dimmit Co., Western Texas, just near the frontier at Mexico.

Length of body, male, with app., 50 mm.; female,45. Length with wings 65 mm. Exp. al., 118 to 120.

Very similar in shape and color to A. Americana. After long consideration I beliver them to be different species, until by a larger material it shall be shown that the differences given are such that A.Texana shoudl be considered to be only a well marked variety.

In the course of my studies I have been able to point out of number of cases in which the species illustrated by earlier authors have been identified with allied forms inhabiting the Middle and Eastern States and parts of Canada, I must think wrongly. Dr. Harris has furnished a number of instances in point, chiefly, perhaps, in interpreting the figures of Abbot. It must not be forgetten that the locality has much to do with the forms of Lepidoptera. The different climate and physical conditions of the Southern States could not fail to impress the Lepidopterous fauna of that region.

The genus Gonia is one easily recoginzed by reason of its peculiar structure of the head and antennæ unfortunately the separation of species is a much less simple matter. As is so frequently the case, isolated specimens frequently furnish grounds for much more decided opinions that a richer mateiral will sustain. I describe in the present paper five species that present characters sufficiently decisive to render their recognition not doubtful; other species I forbear to namy till my material is richer.

Notwithstanding much that has been learnedly written upon the family Bombycidæ, or Spinner Moths, no strong exclusive structural characters have been brought to light which hold the groups together as a natural family. Following Linné and Latreille, the American authors, Dr. Harris and Dr. Packard, have, however, considered such a family to exist. In Germany the different groups, or sub-families, have been raised to the rank of families, while under the loose term Bombyces the Spinner Moths as a whole have been designated.

During the past season I endeavored, as opportunity offered, to confirm and supplement the observations upon this recorded in the May issue of the Canadian Entomologist, pages 81–86. The insects appeared at least ten days earlier than in 1886, and on 29th May I captured, upon the old sugar-maple near Hull therein mentioned, four males, which were entirely black—var. affinis.

I have (Can. Ent., vol, xv.) shown the different structure of the tibiæ in the genera o N. Am. Noctuidœ allied to Homoptera Boisd. But sometime previously I pointed out that this name was used for a section of Hemiptera, and that for this and other reasons we should probably be thrown back upon Pheocyma of Hübner.

On May 23rd of the past year (1886) I again found Physonota helianthi, Rand., on its food plant (Helianthus decapetalus) in the same locality as in the previous year. The insects were now in the spring, or what I would call their nuptial dress, and were entirely of a bright golden green, with the exception of the margin, which is transparent with pearly reflections. In the fall dress the elytra are black, irregularly spotted with white, the thorax white with five black spots. In the spirng dress the thorax is concolorous with the elytra, and bears only three black spots, the anterior double spot being entirely absent.

1. Dryopteris rosea Walk.

The full grown larvæ, in the beginning of July, feeding on Vibrunum acerifolium, the “Maple-leafed Arrow-wood,”* are, in their last stage, olivaceous brown, pale dorsally; dorsal line single, dark; a triangular dark patch on each side of the body commencing on segment 4 (I do not count the head) and bordered above the abdominal feet with pinkish; anal segment prolonged.

In my last paper I showed that C. Hagenii was a yellow form of C. Eurytheme Bois., and I am now prepared to say that Hagenii is identical with Eriphyle, and the name gives way to this. I described Eriphyle, Tr. Am. Ent. Soc., v., 202, 1876, from about thirty individuals of both sexes, taken in British Columbia, at Lake Lahache, by the late G. R. Crotch; and related that they were submitted to Mr. Henry Edwards, who pronounced them distinct from any of the Pacific coast species, an opinion with which I agreed.