OF WASHINGTON. 103 
Mr. Smith said that, on the occasion of a recent visit to Phila- 
delphia, he had an opportunity of looking over carefully the 
Sphingidag of the collection of the Am. Ent. Soc. Many of these 
are determined by Mr. Grote, and the types of his papers on Cuban 
Sphingidas are there. In the genus Diludia* Mr. Grote has three 
species, jasminearum, brontes and leucophceata. The species 
are not at all congeneric. Brontes is the type of the genus and 
has a large, prominent head, armed fore tarsi and produced thorax. 
He pointed out the difference between the species referred to here, 
and claims that neither brontes nor leucophceata are properly 
members of our fauna, but must be dropped from our lists. Jas- 
minearum is entirely different genetically from the others.* 
Mr. Howard spoke at some length of a recent trip to Cambridge, 
Ithaca, and Philadelphia. He praised the extensive biological 
collection of insects in the Agassiz Museum, and exhibited a case 
of a Caddis Worm {Aspatherium picicorne} , given him by Dr. 
Hagen. and which had been infested by an Ichneumon id, Agrio- 
typus armatus. The same parasite is known to infest Spathi- 
dopteryx {Phryganeidce}. He mentioned the fact that the col- 
lection of Braconidce, presented by Dr. Foerster to the Peabody 
Academy, is now in the Agassiz Museum, and prior to its removal 
it had become badly damaged, and that now less than half of the 
species are in condition for comparison. He then described the 
systematic collection which Prof. Comstock has brought together 
at the Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. This is already a most 
excellent reference collection. The Lepidoptera have been deter- 
mined by Grote, Morrison, and Mrs. Fernald ; the Hemiptera by 
Uhler ; the Diptera by Williston ; the Orthoptera by Scudder and 
Pierce, and the Hymenoptera by Cresson. He also described 
several ingenious contrivances invented by Prof. Comstock, and 
in use in his laboratory. Among them the block-system for the 
arrangement of a permanent collection, his darkened glass tubes 
for the observation of pith-inhabiting Hymenoptera, his automatic 
apparatus for the inflation of several larvae at once, his cabinet 
with insulated drawers for colonies of ants, and his cartridge belt 
for collecting purposes. He did not dwell upon the collection of 
v 
* Further particulars on the subject were published by Mr. Smith, in 
Enlomol. Amer. iii, p. 154. 
