,l\t €m'Aim\ ^ntomolonbt. 



Vol. XXXIL 



LONDON, OCTOBER, 1900. 



No. 10 



CONTENTS. 



Grote— The principle which underlies the 



changes in the Neuration 289 



Grote — Types of Noctuid genera 292 



Robert>:on— Nomada Sayi and two new 

 species 293 



Ashmead — Classification of the Fossorial, 



Predaceous and Parasitic Wasps 295 



Cockerell — New Mexico Bees 297 



Beutenmuller —Food-habits of Sesiida; 301 



Titus —Notes on Colorado Bees 303 



Dyar — North American species of Tineidae. . 305 

 Ehrhorn — New Coccida; from California. ... 311 



Aldrich — A question of Nomenclature 318 



Webster — The Purslane .Sawfly 318 



Book Notice — Argynnids of North America. . 319 



THE PRINCIPLE WHICH UNDERLIES THE CHANGES IN 



THE NEURATION. 



BY A. RADCLIFFE GROTE, A. M., HILDESHEIM, GERMANY. 



In developing a general view of the changes in the neuration of the 

 lepidopterous wing, the mass of detail in any one paper may obscure, for 

 the reader, the statement of the assumed plan of progression. This 

 seems to be, briefly, a simplification of the longitudinal systems of vein- 

 ing, and attained through a process of reduction. Where this progress 

 would interfere with the serviceableness of the organ, the dormant 

 tracheae in the tegument may, in special cases, develop accessory veins, 

 such as the humeral spurs of the Lachneids, the cross branches and extra 

 veins in Tineides, and, as I have suggested, the so-called precostal spur 

 (at one time vem I. of Comstock) on the hind wings of the diurnals. The 

 cubital and discal cross-veins may be, however, survivals of a former 

 system of cross-veins, since we apprehend them in various stages of 

 retrogression. But they may be also what I call sub-secondary : pro- 

 duced at one time to be abandoned at another. Still, this latter is a 

 rather violent theory. It is better to adopt the view that there is a 

 general simplification going on controlled by mechanical causes and 

 subsidiary to the habit and changes in habit of the organism, and which 

 includes these two cross-veins. 



In this general movement the participating logitudinal veins are as 

 follows : 



T/ie branches of the radius. 

 These, on primaries, are still oftencst of the [)rimitive number, five ; on 

 secondaries Comstock shows that the first radial branch survives son^ej- 



