220 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [June, '04 



this as follows : I take an old handkerchief and cut two strips, in width 

 the length of a tube. Between these strips I sew a thin layer of cotton 

 and then cover each tube with the strips so as to form a cylinder, in and 

 out of which the tube can be easily drawn. I close the bottom of the cyl- 

 inder by turning in a little of the strips and securing with a few stitches. 

 I sew four (a convenient number) of the cylinders together side by side 

 in a row. I then cover the whole, except the top where the tubes are 

 removed, by a piece of brown denim. The top of the tube-case comes 

 to within about three-eighths of an inch of the tops of the tubes, thus with 

 the addition of the part of the corks above the tubes, there is given ample 

 room to grasp the tubes in removing or replacing the same. The advant- 

 ages of this arrangement are that four tubes instead of one can be kept 

 in the same side coat or hip pocket as desired ; the waste space of a long 

 test-tube is avoided, and any one of the four tubes is at hand when needed. 

 One can have as many tube-cases as he desires and they may be of dif- 

 ferent sizes for different sized tubes ; I use at least three. In Detroit the 

 physicians' supply houses do not keep them, but they can be obtained of 

 Bausch and Lomb for about fifty cents a dozen, depending on the size. 

 These tubes are charged with cyanide, and I have found them very con- 

 venient for taking Lycoenidae, many of the Hesperidae and Geometridae, 

 Pyralidae, etc. The same principle can be employed with larger tubes 

 for Lepidoptera the size of Colias, Satyrus and a large number of Noc- 

 tuid;e. W. W. NEWCOMB, M. D. 



A PAL/EARCTIC NOTONECTA. Notonecta hdea Miiller has been here- 

 tofore known in the Old World only. It was described by this author in 

 "Zoologia Dan. Prodromus," in 1776. This work is not known to me, 

 so cannot give the type locality. F. X. Fieber, in his " Rhyncotograph- 

 ieen " (1851), states that it occurs in Sweden, Austria, and Bohemia, in 

 Europe ; and in Asia, gives Barnaul and Irtish in Siberia as localities. 

 According to Kirkaldy, it occurs in Tanimati, Finland, as well as in 

 Bohemia and Siberia. In his "Synopsis Amphibicorisarum et Hydro- 

 corisarum Fennise," 1875, p. 275, Prof. John Sahlberg comments on this 

 waterbug as follows : 



" Rather rare, but scattered all over Finland. I have found it farther 

 north, near Sonostroff, in the southern part of Russian Finland (66). 

 Near Helsingfors it is rather common in clayey soils. It is distributed 

 through Northern and Central Europe and Siberia." 



However, what is most interesting in regard to Nototiecta lutea is its 

 distribution, and I now record it for the first time from America. It came 

 to me with a number of other Notonectas from the Upper Columbia Val- 

 ley, British Columbia. It is evident that we have here a true Palaearctic 

 Hemipteron of wide distribution. The only other aquatic bug known to 

 me to have a similar range is our common Gerris {Limnoporus} rufoscu- 

 tellatus, which extends across Northern Europe and Siberia, and through 

 British Columbia, down to Pennsylvania on the Atlantic coast. 



