l82 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS $>ril, '12 



vote for the annulment' of a law that may be essential and desirable in 

 nearly all other cases. Such a motion was voted down at the- meeting 

 of the Entomological Society of America at the recent Washington 

 meeting because of the discussion the matter evoked. When a motion 

 meets with opposition and arguments on both sides of the question 

 are presented, the voters are enabled to deal more intelligently with the 

 matter and a fairer and more meaning vote is the result. Thus the 

 Entomological Society of America voted to retain intact the law of 

 priority. When questions of nomenclature are no longer solved accord- 

 ing to codified laws and rules, but are submitted to the varying judg- 

 ment of different workers, we may abandon all hope of an ultimately 

 stable nomenclature. That the law of priority should always be re- 

 tained intact is my earnest belief and you may record my vote to this 

 effect.. A. N. CAUDELL. 



I hasten to ask that my name be put down on the side of the sec- 

 ond proposal in your editorial column, in favor of the preservation 

 of the most used names against unused names claiming priority. 



This looks like the glimmering of the dawn of a brighter day in 

 nomenclature. After we get past the period of priority-worship, 

 scientists will look back in astonishment at the actions of the last de- 

 cade or two. J\ M. ALDRICH, Moscow, Idaho. 



WEEVILS OF MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA. [The Coleoptera part 

 of the Biologia Cenir all- Americana has been completed with the 

 appearance of Volume IV, Part 3, on certain groups of the Curculioni- 

 dae. Much interest therefore attaches to the "Introduction" of this 

 Part, which we quote as follows:] 



This volume, one of five required for the enumeration of the Rhyn- 

 chophora, was commenced by Dr. Sharp in 1889 and is now concluded 

 by myself. The study of the "Otiorhynchinse Alatae" has unfortunate- 

 ly been delayed for many years, during the publication of Vol. IV, 

 parts 4, 5 and 7, all of which are devoted to the Family Curculionidse. 

 The present Volume, IV. part 3, includes the Sub-families Attelabinae, 

 Pterocolinas, Allocoryninae, Apioninse, Thecesterninse, and Otiorhyn- 

 chinse. The Attelabinse are represented by 104 (88 new), the Ptero- 

 colinae by three (all new), the Allocoryninre (a new sub-family) and 

 Thecesterninae each by one, the Apioninae by 88 (84 new), and the 

 Otiorhynchinse by 419 (340 new) species respectively; the total num- 

 ber for the six sub-families being 616 species, with 516 new, and forty 

 new genera. Amongst the 419 Otiorhynchinae, the apterous and wing- 

 ed forms are almost equal in number, there being a preponderance of 

 apterous terrestrial species (Eupagoderes, Epicoerus, Epagriopsis, etc.) 

 in the arid portions of Mexico and the winged forms (Exophthalmus, 



