474 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS [Dec., 'l2 



to study) and see at a glance the kind of territory which the species 

 has evolved in. If collections and published references were labeled 

 thus, a student of geographical distribution, for instance, could use 

 such already accumulated data in his studies, instead of having to 

 make special collections for such a purpose. It is evident that we 

 possess taxonomic collections which are hardly useful for anything 

 else; there is no reason why they should not be made doubly useful 

 A very little thought on this subject ought to convince anyone of the 

 desirability of such a course of labeling, as it will make specimens 

 useful for many generations in the study of the "why and wherefore" 

 of things, the specimen otherwise being useless, except for its tax- 

 onomy. 



By addressing The Director, U. S. Geological Survey, Washington, 

 D. C, information and lists of published maps for particular States 

 may be obtained free. These maps are very cheap, 5 cents each, or 2 

 cents when ordered in lots of 100. FORDYCE GRINNELL, JR. 



Oviposition of Lixus concavus Say (Coleop.). 



A brief note on this species published by Mr. A. A. Girault, p. 401, 

 November number of NEWS, would almost lead one to infer that 

 there had been no previous studies of the oviposition of this species. 



In Entomologica Americana, Vol. V, pp.. 11-16, January, 1889, the 

 writer gave a somewhat extended account of the oviposition of both 

 Lixus concavus and Lixus macer. A few months later, in September, 1889, 

 Doctor C. M. Weed published in Bulletin VI, Vol. II, of the Ohio 

 Agricultural Experiment Station, some studies of the habits of Lixus 

 inucidus under the name of L. concavus. There had been an earlier 

 paper published by the late Mr. D. W. Coquillett in Canadian Ento- 

 mologist, Vol. XV, p. 113, 1883, on similar habits of Lixus macer. 

 Mr. Coquillett's observations were made at Woodstock, McHenry 

 County, Illinois, while mine were made in DeKalb County, Il- 

 linois, and at Lafayette, Indiana. A second article by the writ- 

 er, under the title of "Food Plants of Lixus," was published in 

 the Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington, Vol. 

 11, 1892, pp. 339-341. Still later, a more exhaustive article was pub- 

 lished by Doctor F. H. Chittenden, Bulletin XXIII, n. s., U. S. De- 

 partment of Agriculture, Division of Entomology, in 1900. This last 

 article related entirely to Lixus concavus. While no special studies 

 were made by Doctor Chittenden of the oviposition, nevertheless the 

 paper contains references to previous publications, giving the dis- 

 tribution and a description of the earlier stages together with bio- 

 logical notes. 



It will, therefore, be seen that Mr. Girault's paper is antedated 

 by quite exhaustive studies of the oviposition of Lixus concavus and 

 of other species of the genus. F. M. WEBSTER. 



