2o8 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [September, 



In conclusion, I am forced to believe that the author has given 

 too much weight to the relative lengths of the basal joints of the 

 antennal funicle, which seem to be peculiarly unstable in Smi- 

 cronyx. They vary sensibly in relative proportion, not only 

 sexually, but among individuals of the same sex, and I cannot 

 perceive that the sex has been mentioned at all in a systematic 

 way in separating species by these variations. 



The present time is as convenient as any for alluding to the 

 recent effort of Dr. Brendel (NT. NEWS, v, p. 195) to prove the 

 identity of Reichenbachia fundata with albionica Mots., on the 

 strength of a specimen said by his friend Raffray to be one of 

 Motschulsky's types. It would give me pleasure to acknowledge 

 this synonym, if it were not for the fact that Motschulsky was 

 careful in this instance to give a detailed drawing of the male 

 antenna of albionica, and this corresponds thoroughly with the 

 species so abundant in the more northern regions of the Pacific 

 coast identified as albionica by LeConte. Fundata must there- 

 fore remain fundata still. 



Euplectus raffrayi Bndl. (1. c.), is either the male of Oropodes 

 orbiceps Csy., or else is an extremely closely allied species of the 

 same genus. It is not a Eiiplectus. 



Ctenisis dispar was described by Dr. Sharp from the tropical 

 regions of southern Mexico, near Vera Cruz, and C. raffrayi 

 Csy., from the arid parts of Arizona, is beyond doubt a distinct 

 species not particularly closely allied. 



-o- 



The Absence of Relationship Between Pyralidina and 



Pterophorina. 



ByJ. W. TUTT, F. E. S., Westcombe Hill, London, S. E. 



In ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS, p. 104, Professor Fernald writes: 

 "Other authors consider the last-named group (Pterophorina) 

 as a family under the Pyralidina, but it seems more natural to 

 consider them a distinct family and place them immediately after 

 the Pyralidae, to which they seem most nearly allied." 



Based on the superficial characters of the imago alone, the two 

 alternatives suggested above were those which authors, who dealt 

 with the imagines and knew but little or nothing of the early 



