1892.] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 121 



mology," not of the Electricia tomfooleryensis kind, but such as is printed 

 in the entomological columns of the Prairie farmer and other agricultural 

 'papers, and which have at one time or other included the writings of many 

 of the highest authorities in our beautiful science. 



In conclusion, I would most earnestly beg our editor to refrain from 

 labeling preposterous statements as " newspaper entomology," as thereby 

 doubts are cast upon the veracity of such standard authorities as the 

 Prairie Farmer and other reliable newspapers to which due credit is given 

 even in text-books of entomology (see " Packard's Guide to the study of 

 Insects"). We all know that mistakes are apt to occur in newspapers as 

 well as elsewhere, and will not deny that gross exaggeration is often prac- 

 ticed by unprincipled journalists, but these are the exceptions and not the 

 rule. Long live ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS and " newspaper entomology !" 



ALDA M. SHARP, Gladbrpok, Iowa. 



An article labeled "newspaper entomology" simply shows its source, 

 and is not intended as a reproach. ED. 



Mr. SYDNEY SMITH could not appreciate an entomological paradise 

 when he characterized insects as the curse of the tropics. "The bete 

 rouge lays the foundation of a tremendous ulcer. In a moment you are 

 covered with ticks, chigoes bury themselves in your flesh and hatch a 

 large colony of young chigoes in a few hours. They will not live together, 

 but every chigoe sets up a separate ulcer, and has his own private portion 

 of pus. Flies get entry into your mouth, into your eyes, into your nose. 

 You eat flies, drink flies, and breathe flies. Lizards, cockroaches and 

 snakes get into the bed, ants eat up the books, scorpions sting you on the 

 foot. Everything bites, stings, or bruises; every second of your existence 

 you are wounded by some species of animal life that nobody has seen 

 before, except Swammerdam and Merian. An insect with eleven legs is 

 swarming in your tea-cup, a nondescript with nine wings is struggling in 

 the small beer, or caterpillar with several dozen eyes in his belly is hasten- 

 ing over the bread and butter. All nature is alive, and seems to be gath- 

 ering all her entomological hosts to eat you up as you are standing, out 

 of your coat, waistcoat and breeches. Such are the tropics. All this 

 reconciles us to our dews, fogs, vapors and drizzles, to our apothecaries 

 rushing about with gargles and tinctures, to our old British constitutional 

 coughs, sore throats, and swollen faces'." 



A SUGGESTION TO LEPIDOPTERISTS. In connection with the article by 

 Prof. Smith, in the NEWS for March, on the Lepidoptera, it has occurred 

 to me that some ideas which presented themselves while studying that 

 order might be useful or suggestive to others, particularly to those con- 

 structing keys or tables for popular use. While using such keys (and it 

 is true of many descriptions also) I have often had my patience severely 

 taxed by the propensity of the writer to put the cart before the horse; in 

 other words, to ignore tin- proper sequence of words and phrases. Not 

 only that, but some keys contain many needless repetitions of the same 



