62 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [March, 



THE following has been extracted from a circular which has been sent 

 to entomologists and others. We hope the collection may be obtained 

 and provision made for its preservation: " Dear Sir, An effort upon the 

 part of a few professional and personal friends of the late Harry Edwards, 

 to purchase and present to the American Museum of Natural History (of 

 the city of New York) his magnificent Entomological Collection, has met 

 with so much encouragement that the Committee in charge ventures to 

 call your attention to the matter. A number of gentlemen have already 

 subscribed one hundred (|ioo) dollars each towards the sum required, 

 fifteen thousand ($15,000) dollars, and it is hoped that you will be willing 

 to contribute a similar amount. The object of the movement is not only 

 to secure for the city of New York a treasure of inestimable value, but to 

 make smooth the declining years of the widow of our friend, and to raise 

 to the memory of an excellent actor, a distinguished scientist and a good 

 man, a worthy and lasting monument. 



" (Signed) Edwin Booth, Jos. Jefferson, Theo. Moss, S. P. A very, YY. 

 C. Prime, Lawrence Hutton, A. M. Palmer, Treas., 29 \V. 3oth St., New 

 York City." 



IN a letter from Mr. W. F. Kirby, of the British Museum, the following 

 may interest the readers of the NEWS, premising that everybody knows 

 that Mr. Kirby is at work on a catalogue of the Heterocera of the world. 

 " My first volume (Sphinges and Bombyces) will run to about 00 pages, 

 and include, I think, 28 families, some of them numbering over 200 genera. 

 All but four are now in the printer's hands, so that I hope the publication 

 of the book will not be much longer delayed." * * * "I have relegated 

 the Sesiidae to the neighborhood of the micro-lepidoptera. I doubt if 

 you have any Heterogymdae in America. Heterogynis is a small Euro- 

 pean genus with males like Procris, but with apterous females." Mr. 

 Kirby's book, when published, will form one of the most useful assistants 

 the working entomologist can have. JOHN B. SMITH. 



A BIT OF HISTORY. Miss Morton's very interesting notes in the Jan- 

 uary number of ENT. NEWS show that there is some confusion among the 

 names of the smaller Limacodidae, and it may be interesting to briefly go 

 over the literature of these forms. In 1854, Herrich-Schaffer published 

 three figures as Limacodes texula, L. pallida, and L. flavula. In 1864, 

 Packard erroneously identified a specimen in the Harris collection as L. 

 t ex tula, and, believing it separable from the genus Limacodes, created 

 the genus Isa for it. In the same year he also described Heterogenea 

 shurtleffii, and made the genus Tortricidia for Herrich-Schaffer's species 

 pallida and flavula. In 1866, Grote & Robinson described Limacodes 

 iiioniata, and in 1876, Grote created the genus Sisyrosea for it. Finally, 

 in 1880, Grote described the species Limacodes cczsonia and L.fle.vuosa. 

 Now, as far as I know, there are but four species for all these names. The 

 larva of the first one was figured in Harris' "Entomological Correspon- 

 dence," and has been described by Mr. Hulst and by myself. The moth 



