THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 235 



Sui)erticially this looks exactly like a Xenogiossodes, and especially 

 resembles X. imitairix, Ckll. and Porter, from which it differs by the less 

 convex outer edge of mandibles, the flagellum red beneath, the black hair 

 on thorax above, and other small details. The two species are, I think, 

 closely related, and it is doubtful whether they should be generically 

 separated. 



Among the species of Melissodes, it is most like M. Stearnsi, Ckll., 

 but larger and without black or fuscous hair on the legs. It cannot be the 

 undescribed female of Af. ver;ione/isis, Vier., as the latter has a very much 

 broader second submarginal cell. 



/fad. — Soap Lake, Grand Coulee, Washington State, June 29, 1902. 

 {A. L. Melander, No. 9.) 



Robertso7ieIla Gleasoni, Titus. — The range of this little-known genus 

 and species is greatly extended by two males taken by Mr. N. Banks in 

 Virginia ; Glencarlyn, May 4, and Falls Church, May 30. More ventral 

 segments are visible than in the males of the allied genera. 



HONEYDEW AND THE CORNICLES OF THE APHIDID.^. 



BY C. P. GILLETTE, FORT COLLINS. COLO. 



In Proc. of the Entomological Society of Washington, for Sept. to 

 Dec, 1906, on page 114, is a discussion as to the source of honeydew 

 in the Aphididae. One not knowing the contrary might be misled by that 

 discussion into thinking that the members of the society were inclined to 

 believe that the cornicles are sometimes, if not commonly, the avenues 

 through which this substance is expelled from the aphid body. 



More than a century ago Mr. William Curtis, in his paper on 

 '•Observations on Aphides,'' etc. (1800), announced his discovery that 

 honeydew is exclusively the product of Aphides, that it is their excrement, 

 and that he "found it to proceed from the extremity of the abdomen." 



He was in error, of course, in thinking that the Aphides are the only 

 source of honeydew, but I do not know of any successful contradiction 

 of his other two statements. 



Buckton, in his "Monograph of British Aphididae," figures an ant 

 taking a drop from the end of one of the cornicles of an Aphid, and some 

 later writers have copied the error. 



In my studies of the plant-lice it often becomes necessary to pinch an 

 adult between the thumb and finger to determine whether or not the 

 specimen in hand is a male, an oviparous female, or a viviparous female. 



July, 1908 



