130 THE CANADIAN" ENTOMOLOGIST. 



reddish orange, deeper, almost brown towards the apex; sides of the 

 thorax and costal margin to the cilice white. AL ex. nearly ^^ inch,- 

 Kentucky. Captured in June. 



[Basal half of the antennae thickened with scales ; palpi simple.] 



C. auropui'puriella. N. sj>. 



Entire insect, according to the light, golden brown or golden purple 

 with a greenish bronzy hue, especially towards the apex of the primaries, 

 where the greenish tinge is very decided ; apical half of the antennae 

 annulate with silvery white. AL ex. h inch. Coll. Mr. Wm. Saunders, 

 London, Ont. (Belongs to Metallosetia, Steph.) 



[Basal joint of the antennae thickened with scales ; palpi tufted.] 



C. Ibieapuhella. N. sp. 



White, faindy tinged with ochreous yellow ; dorsal margin and apex 

 of the primaries more distinctly yellowish ; two rather indistinct ochreous 

 yellow lines begin before the middle of the wing and pass back, one to 

 the apex and one to the dorsal margin before the apex, the apical line 

 giving off a faint branch to the costal margin. Ciliae pale ochreous ; the 

 entire wing, except near the base, dusted with dark brown specks, which 

 are arranged in lines more or less parallel to each other ; antennae 

 annulate with ochreous yellow. Al. ex. 5 lines. Kentucky. Taken at 

 the lamp. 



I have taken on the wing many other S])ecies, but I refrain from 

 describing them until their food plants are known, a plan w^hich I had 

 perhaps also better have adopted with some of the above, for many of the 

 species of this genus resemble each other so closely that it is well nigh 

 impossible to give written descriptions by which they can be identified. 



Signs Used to Denote Sex. — I have often been puzzled to account 

 for the origin of the signs in use among naturalists to denote the male ( ^ ) 

 and the female ( $ ) sexes; but the other day, while reading an astronomical 

 paper, I came across a fact which seems to offer a solution of the difficulty. 

 It appears that the first sign ( $ ) has been used from remote antiquity to 

 signify the planet Mars, and is a rude representation of a spear behind a 

 shield, fit emblems of the God of War. Ceres, the goddess of corn, was 

 similarly symbolized by the sign used in zoology to denote the female sex, 

 with this slight difference, that in the original astronomical sign, the con- 

 tinuity of the circle is broken on the left side, so that the figure appropriately 

 represents a sickle. — £. C. Lefroy in Hardwicke's Science Gossip. 



