120 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 



tint of the hair on thorax above, with a distinct band behind scutellum and a 

 fainter one in front. The hind tibiae of palmarum are larger and more robust, 

 and much less densely white^ — hairy. In the female, the pure white ventral 

 scope, black on last segment, is distinctive. A palmarum received from Dr. 

 Perkins has the scopa pale reddish, black on last segment; one from Mr. Timber- 

 lake has it creamy-white, black on last segment and sides of penultimate. In 

 his description, Perkins states that the hair of the female is cinereous, with little 

 or no fulvous tinge, and is sparse on clypeus. This agrees with palmarum as 

 here recognized, but his account of the ventral scopa is more suggestive of 

 timherlakei. Possibly he had the two females mixed, but his type must be con- 

 sidered to be the male, which is described at length. The clypeus in timherlakei 

 has a large and dense brush of inwardly-directed hairs on each side, but there is 

 little of this in palmarum. 



A PLEA FOR DEFINITIVENESS. 



I should like to bring to the attention of contributors to the Canadian 

 Entomologist a matter which is worthy of consideration, especially to the 

 systematist. In looking over many numbers of the "Entomologist" I have 

 noted numerous headings such as "A Canadian Trigonalys." The point which 

 I would like to bring out is that, to the student who is not familiar with the 

 family to which the genus Trigonalys belongs, nothing is conveyed: that is, 

 he is utterly "at sea" as to the family discussed. Would not the interest in 

 these various genera and families be greatly increased if authors were to give 

 not only the genus and family, but also the name of the superfamily and order 

 under discussion. A great service would be rendered students taking up a 

 family for study if they could quickly locate all the literature on a family, and 

 a great many synonymous names might be avoided. After all, it must be 

 remembered that the aim of every author is to place his findings in such a position 

 that they will be readily available to others, and his work is judged largely by 

 his ability to do this. The above example was selected at random, and it 

 happens that it is but a mild example of hundreds of cases. A specialist should 

 bearin mind that everyone is not up-to-date in his particular field, but a great 

 deal more interest would be taken if greater definition were given. 



C. Howard Curran. 



Mailed May 25th, 1920. 



