OF WASHINGTON. 9 



Var. lymani n. var. In this form the bands on the basal half of 

 the wing are obsolete, leaving a band from apex, angled below 

 end of cell to tornus and joined to the costal stripe by two short 

 bands, more or less broken. It closely resembles the variety 

 triangularis oflecontei, but the angle is more obtuse, practically 

 a right angle. It has the size of triangularis and confusa. 

 Two specimens from Pittsburgh and Pougkeepsie, N. Y. 



5. H. contigua Walk. 



a. lumbonigera Fitch MS 



This rather constant species may possibly produce a white 

 form indistinguishable fxQTb fulvicosta and vestalis, but I have 

 no direct evidence of it. In some specimens the band from the 

 apex to the transverse band is broken through or obsolete, and 

 for this the manuscript name lumbonigera, proposed by Dr. Asa 

 Fitch in his collection, may be kept. I have another specimen 

 in which the transverse band also is broken through, the specimen 

 markedly approaching the variety harrisii o f lecontei. A full 

 series of contigua will prpbably produce some puzzling forms. 

 The National Museum has but 16 specimens. 



The large series of specimens in the National Museum collec 

 tion, showing these variations and the intergrades between the 

 formerly-considered species, was exhibited. Dr. Dyar said it 

 was not improbable that more extensive collections might render 

 a still further reduction of species necessary. In reply to a ques 

 tion as to their food-plant, he said that larvae seemed hard to get ; 

 they are somewhat general feeders. They hibernate as half- 

 grown larvae and are very local. Mr. Ash mead hazarded the 

 opinion that some varieties might be hybrids between different 

 species, but Dr. Dyar thought it not likely. He thought that 

 there were at least four good and distinct species. Isolated colo 

 nies often keep to some peculiar type, though this is not always 

 the case. He thought that there was a tendency toward the 

 formation of species. The three drawers-full exhibited were, he 

 believed, as good a series of Haploa as was ever brought together. 



The hour for adjournment not having arrived, the remain 

 ing time was taken up by short notes. Mr. Caudell stated that he 

 had received specimens of Melanoplus yarrowii Thomas, from 

 Dr. R. E. Kunze in Arizona ; one male and two females were 

 in the lot. Thomas's original type of the species has been de 

 stroyed, and Scudder has redescribed it from specimens taken in 

 Colorado. 



