76 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 



the hidden seventh and eighth ventral segments of the males of 

 the different species. These two segments are called by Franklin 

 the inner and outer spathae, a term to discover the meaning of 

 which a new reader anxious to determine specimens may spend a 

 minute or two. 



Painstaking monographs of a small group such as this — 

 Swenk's Bee Genus Colletes may be cited as another though much 

 smaller example — in which structure is used as the basis of specific 

 distinction and careful descriptions are freely supplemented by 

 good drawings, published without either undue haste or delay, 

 constitute construction work of the best kind, and entomologists 

 must accord Dr. Franklin a hearty vote of thanks for the results 

 of several years of patient labour. Who will treat in a similar 

 manner other groups of bees and wasps now calling for revision, 

 and thus help to reduce the heaps of half-worked ore that have 

 accumulated in hymenopterology to ingots of bright metal? Care- 

 ful investigators who undertake such work should receive the 

 liberal support of collectors and curators. But to follow the sug- 

 gestion of a speaker at the recent Convention of the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science at Cleveland, who 

 proposed that a committee should' be formed to apportion to each 

 scientific investigator his task, would be to rob such work of its 

 main attraction. 



Dr. Franklin hopes at a later date to present a further paper 

 on the Bombidse, dealing chiefly with habits and phylogeny. This 

 will be eagerly looked for. 



F. W. L. S. 



We regret to learn that Professor John Henry Comstock, 

 who has been for thirty-nine years instructor and professor of 

 Fntomology at Cornell University, and (he author of various text- 

 books and works on the subject, will retire from duty at the end 

 of the presentacademical year. His many friends throughout 

 America join in wishing him many years of rest from educational 

 duties, while no doubt he will continue his scientific work. 



Mailed February 9th, 1914. 



