THK CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 37 



might endeavour to fill some of them. Once he wrote me : "Would it not 

 be well if older students would oftener publish notices of what observa- 

 tions are needed to clear up mysteries in the life-history of this or that 

 species ? There are those, like myself, who are interested in natural 

 history and who have collected for many years, who have many good 

 chances to observe important biological facts, but who have no means of 

 knowing which of their observations are new. I have seen many things 

 the knowledge of which would have saved professional entomologists 

 much time ; but, not knowing this at the time, and not wishing to print 

 to be laughed at, I have let the observations slip. Had I not seen your 

 note on unknown dragonfly nymphs in the Canadian Entomologist 

 some time ago, the nymph of Na?inothemis had probably not yet been 

 found." And again : " I shall be glad to contribute my mite toward 

 widening the scope of our knowledge of natural history." And again, 

 when I had written him about some of Say's species of Perlidfe, unheard 

 of since Say's day, he wrote : " I am anxious to find some of the 

 missing ones." 



His diligence and application were remarkable, and his care to keep 

 his statements within the limits of his observations was most exemplary. 

 He was the best type of unprofessional entomologist. He so loved 

 nature, and trusted in the value of accurate knowledge of her ways, that 

 he was willing — nay, happy — to work and to wait, to observe and to verify 

 again and again, in order that he might be able to tell in the end the 

 simple truth. American entomology was honored by his methods, and has 

 lost one of her ablest field naturalists by his untimely death. 



James G. Needham, Lake Forest, 111. 



MALE WASP WITH FEMALE ANTENNA. 



BY W. HAGUE HARRINGTON, F.K.S.C, OTTAWA. 



Among some hymenoptera recently received from Mr. A. Gordon 

 Leavitt, of St. John, N. B., is a very interesting male of Thyreopus latipes. 

 Smith. The sexes of this genus are readily separated, as the males have 

 the anterior legs remarkably modified; the tibiie especially being developed 

 in broad shields, or leaf-like expansions. The antennae are simple in the 

 female, but those of the male have the flagellum fusiform and compressed. 

 In T. latipes the basal joints are broad, and the flagellum narrows from the 

 second joint tp the apex. Mr. Leavitt's specimen, taken at St. John, N. 



