1 893.] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 303 



AMONG the food-plants of moths, new to science that I have been for- 

 tunate in discovering are, of Alypia niariposa, the Clarkia elegans and 

 Code tin iL'i/liauisoiiii, on the I5th of April, 1893, and on 2oth of May I 

 found Alypia ridingsii ovipositing on the Clarkia rhomboidea. Mr. H. G. 

 Dyar informed me that they were unknown to science. This cost me a 

 two-day's trip to the old collecting ground I had left to obtain the food- 

 plants of Alypia niariposa on June 2oth. On my return, June 2ist, I dis- 

 covered a Lepisesia clarkia ovipositing on the Clarkia rhomboidea and 

 then light on a Gayophytum diffussuin and tack on the underside of the 

 leaf several eggs in succession, I waited till she flew off and secured 

 about fourteen eggs in a radius of three feet, and afterwards found a 

 Heniaris cynoglossum deposit several eggs on Gayophytum diffussum, 

 and am raising some of the larvae. 



On the ist of April last I saw Nisionades propertius oviposit on the 

 dark barked prickly leaved live oak buds, and when sprouted they tacked 

 their eggs on the tender leaves. JOHN B. LEMBERT, Yosemite, Cal. 



THE LABOULBENIACE/E OF N. A. Prof. Roland Thaxter, who is en- 

 gaged upon an illustrated monograph of the fungus parasites of insects, 

 the first part of which* was published a few years since, has just issued a 

 fourth preliminary partf on the family Laboulbeniae, to which the second 

 part of his monograph will be devoted. The group comprises some of 

 the most singular and interesting members of the vegetable kingdom, 

 which, though commonly simple in structure, and minute in size, occupy 

 a very high position among the fungi from the close relationship which 

 their sexual processes bear to those of the highest Thallophytes (the red 

 sea weeds). The plants in question vary from about 75 micromillimetres 

 to a millimetre or more in length, and are all external parasites attached 

 to the integument of certain insects which they do not injure by their 

 presence. The families of Carabiclte and Staphylinidae are the groups 

 most frequently parasitized in this way, although a number of forms occur 

 on aquatic Coleoptera and a few on Diptera. 



Prof. Thaxter's studies of the family have brought to light more than a 

 hundred new forms in addition to the dozen species formerly known, 

 which include numerous new genera, and will form the basis of his mono- 

 graph. The family promises to be a large and varied one, and in order 

 to make the work as complete as possible, Prof. Thaxter is desirous of 

 communicating with collectors of Coleoptera in various parts of the 

 country with a view to procuring by purchase or otherwise as many speci- 

 mens for examination as possible of riparian Staphylinidae. Special de- 

 siderata are species of Blcdiits, f.a//in>l>iitin, Acy/opfiorus, Philontlnis 

 and their immediate allies. Specimens should be collected directly into 

 alcohol and may be sent to Prof. R. Thaxter (3 Scott Street, Cambridge, 

 Mass.), who would be glad to correspond with any one wishing to assist 

 him in this way, especially if resident in the Southern or Western States. 



* The Entomophthorese of the I", s. in Mem. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist. vol. iv, No. vi. 

 t Proc. Am. Acad. Arts and Sciences, vol. xxviii, pp. 156-188. 



