132 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [June, 



A REPLY. 



To the Editor of ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. Sir: In regard to 

 the article by Dr. Hamilton (NT. NEWS, viii, p. 35) I wish 

 simply to reply that the statements made with so much confidence 

 by him concerning the three species of Hemanlus of the second 

 subgenus may possibly have in them some elements of truth. It 

 is of course possible that I may be wrong in my ideas regarding 

 these closely allied forms. But, a few lines further, when the 

 writer issues a wholesale denunciation of my generic divisions 

 of the Anthicini, he makes some statements which show unfamili- 

 arity with the subject. For instance, the divisions which I have 

 suggested are based upon profound structural differences in im- 

 portant sclerites of the pro- and mesosterna hitherto wholly un- 

 suspected, and these divisions are, with a single exception, not at 

 all similar to any of the feebly characterized sections founded by 

 certain European authors upon general outline of the head and 

 prothorax, as Dr. Hamilton would seem to wish his readers to 

 believe; if he had studied the matter a little more thoroughly he 

 could not have fallen into so grave a misconception. The only 

 case that I have been able to discover with a nearly complete set 

 oi the European species before me, where any division which I 

 have proposed proves identical with a section of the European 

 genus, is the one before us. Hemantus had, I find, previously 

 received two distinct names, one by Mulsant and another by Pic, 

 but this will be touched upon more fully at another time. 



Respectfully yours, 



THOS. L. CASEY. 



WASPS IN THE AIR BRAKES. It would be a remarkable thing if a little 

 Insect should be the means of compelling the Westinghouse Air-brake 

 Company to remodel the exhaust port of their pressure-retaining valve, 

 says the Pittsburg Post, but it appears that the necessity for such a change 

 confronts them at present, or rather confronts the railroad companies who 

 use the brakes. The insect that causes all the trouble is the common 

 mud wasp a transient inhabitant of the West and Northwest which, 

 like the genus tramp, appears to have a penchant for traveling. The 

 wasp builds his mud-home on the exhaust port of the valve named, and 

 closes the vent, causing no end of trouble and expense. Superintendent 

 Rhodes, of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, was the first 

 to describe the new enemy of the air-brake, and after an exhaustive trea- 

 tise on the subject recommends the alteration of the shape of the valve 

 and form of the vent as the only means of getting rid of the difficulty. 

 Philadelphia Record. 



