12 PROCEEDINGS ENTOMOLOGICAL, SOCIETY 



-Mr. H. M. Russell, under the title "A Hymenopterous 

 Parasite of Thrips," gave an abstract of his observations in 

 California.* 



-Under the heading Notes and Exhibition of Specimens Dr. 

 Dyar called attention to a published charge by Prof. John B. 

 Smith that type labels in the National Museum had been 

 tampered with (Journ. N. Y. Eut. Soc., xix, 151, 1911). He 

 said that the basis of this serious charge was that Professor 

 Smith had, a number of years ago, confused together two 

 similar species of Noctuidse. Smith had described a species 

 from four specimens, and, as it now appears, of these he left 

 two in the National Museum and took two for his own collec- 

 tion. It so happened that the two in the National Museum 

 were of one species, the two in Smith's hands, another. Re- 

 cently Smith, in revising the genus, based the species in his 

 redescriptiou upon the specimens in his hands and described 

 the other form under a new name, unconscious of the fact 

 that this form already constituted part of the types of his 

 earlier species. Dr. Dyar had pointed out, from the types in 

 the National Museum, that Smith had redescribed his own 

 species, and he proposed another name for the species which 

 Smith held under the old name, being unaware of the exist- 

 ence of other types in Smith's hands. Hereupon Smith 

 claimed that the types in the National Museum were really 

 conspecific with those in his hands and that if they were not 

 so, then the type labels had been changed! He states that the 

 two species are "so utterly different in size, in color, in mac- 

 ulation, and even in wing form, that mere error of association 

 is excluded." 



Dr. Dyar expressed himself as deeply incensed at this ridic- 

 ulous charge, which, he said, was prompted by malice and 

 supported by misstatement. He exhibited specimens of the 

 forms in question, showing that they were in fact near allies 

 and not widely separated species, as Smith's statements would 

 imply. Such might very easily have been originally confused 

 by Smith. In fact, Smith in his original description refers 



*Already published, Proc. Ent. Soc. Wash., xni, 235, litll. 



