3*0 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [Juty, '08 



seemed to have come with the purchase by the Bureau of Ento- 

 mology, of the Department of Agriculture, of the entire Fitch 

 collection, together with his original notes. The writer's in- 

 terest was very much aroused to find, included among the old 

 moldy material, the identical specimen which Fitch had before 

 him when he described Aspidiotus circularis, labeled in his own 

 handwriting, and carrying his number and the date. It con- 

 sisted of a single scale, removed from the wood and mounted 

 on a bit of cardboard. The external appearance of this scale 

 was exactly like that of ancylus. The pale yellow color as de- 

 scribed by Fitch of the central spot or exuvium gives a rather 

 wrong impression, for, in spite of the bleaching of more than 

 fifty years, the exuvium still indicated a distinct orange colora- 

 tion, and was really no more faded than specimens of ancylus 

 in the Department collection dating from the time of Comstock, 

 collected twenty-eight years ago. On softening the glue and 

 lifting the scale, it was found that the insect itself was want- 

 ing. An attempt was made to clear the exuvium, hoping by this 

 means to get the second stage of ancylus, which is sufficiently 

 characteristic. Unfortunately the insect had not reached the 

 second stage, and the exuvium proved to be of the larval form 

 and much mutilated, and while very possibly ancylus, there 

 are not enough structural features left to definitely decide this 

 point. Furthermore, it has not been possible to distinguish 

 by larval structures the scale insects closely allied to ancylus. 



The evidence so far, however, seemed to point sufficiently 

 distinctly to ancylus to justify the reduction of Putnam's name 

 to synonymy and giving Fitch the credit for the species. In 

 the Fitch collection, however, were two other scale insects 

 which had been given manuscript names only, and the descrip- 

 tions never published. These were designated by Fitch as 

 Aspidiotus mall, collected on apple, Albany, N. Y., May, 1855; 

 and Aspidiotus patellae formis, collected on Ulmus raccmosa, 

 May 14 of the same year, both lots preserved in situ on bits 

 of bark. The first proved to be Aspidiotus forbesi Johnson, 

 represented by four adult females, and the second, Aspidiotus 

 ancylus Putn., represented by a single parasitized female of 



