26 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



I purposely based my conclusions upon anatomy alone, because, as I 



said, " to introduce the subject of instinct or of usefulness to man, is to 



confuse our ideas, for we cannot translate the data furnished by such a 



criterion into terms of the other standard." Judged from that position, it 

 is very much out of the way to assert that " mere specialization is never 

 a test of rank in itself." All that I tried to show was that, anatomically 

 considered, the Diptera are the most highly specialized order. 



I trust that it is not out of place to add that the author of one of our 

 principal introductions to entomology, a man whose opinions have as 

 great weight as anyone's in this country, informed his class in entomology 

 last summer that he had come to the conclusion that the Diptera are the 

 highest order. I was so informed by one of his students. 



J. M. Aldrich. 

 Brookings, South Dakota, Nov. u, 1892. 



NOTES. 



The genus Melanchroia has been associated in our lists with Gnophaela 

 to form a family Pericopidce. As a matter of fact it is a veritable geometer, 

 with little more relation to Gnophaela than is expressed in the statement 

 that both are Macro-Heterocera ! This has. indeed, been recognized in 

 Europe, and Mr. Butler, when identifying my specimens as M. cephise, 

 added the remark " belongs to the geometrites ". 



M. cephise is very common in Kingston, Jamaica, and on Aug. 5, last 



year, Mr. Bowrey kindly gave me a number of the larvae. These were 

 of the usual form of geometrid larvae, and from them I drew up the 

 following description : — 



M. cephise : Larva about 22 mill, long, body smooth, with a few short 

 hairs, which are hardly visible without a glass. Head yellow-brown, the 

 mouth parts dark. Thoracic legs yellow-brown. Abdominal legs tinged 

 yellow brown. Body pale yellow, with a black ring on each segment, 

 which extends downwards only as far as the infraspiracular line (except 

 that on the 4th body segment, which is continuous below). These rings 

 are broad on the 4th to 8th body segments, but rather narrow on the 

 others. There is a longitudinal, narrow black subdorsal line, and a black 

 infraspiracular line, which broadens into triangles (which are spotted with 

 white) at the junctions with the black rings. The edges of all these black 

 bands are whitish. 



The very young larvae are marked in similar way to those which are 

 mature. The pupa is brown and rather shiny. The moths began to 

 emerge on Aug. 15th. T. D. A. Cockerell, 



Institute of Jamaica, Kingston, Jamaica. 



