o70 [February 



Lasioptera solidaginis 0. S. — % Q. Nigra, fl ivo-hirta, abdomine fasciis fiavirlo- 

 argenteis, iuterruptis. alarum margine anterioi'e jiuucto albo. 



Black, with golden -yellow hairs, abdomen with yellowish-silvery bands, inter- 

 rupted in the middle: costal margin of the wing with a white spot. Long. corp. 

 0.08-0.1. 



Head black, face clothed with yellowish hairs; antennse apparently 22-joi)ited, 

 black; two basal joints clothed with yellowish hairs; thorax black, clothed with 

 golden-yellow hairs, especially around the humeri; (the hairs on the dorsum are 

 rubbed off in my specimens); near the root of the wing there are longer and more 

 reddish-yellow hairs; those on the lower j^art of the pleurce are whitish (they are 

 rather scales than hairs); abdomen black, with silvery, somewhat yellowish, trans- 

 verse bands formed of minute scales, on the hind part of the segments: these bands, 

 six in numlier, oecujiy at least half the breadth of the segment, and are interrupt- 

 ed in the middle; the venter, in well jireserved specimens, is silvery white; geni- 

 tals yellowish: poisers yellow; legs yellow; the upper edge of the femora, a short 

 distance before the knee, the (Xiter side of the tibiae and the tarsi on their whole 

 extent, are infuscated, almost black. (Viewed in a certain light, the legs appear 

 golden-yellow, from some very minute hairs which cover them). Wings grey, on 

 account of their dense pubescence; a white spot on the anterior margin at the tip 

 of the two first lons-itudinal veins. 



Importance of INSECT AKCHITECTUEE to Entomologists. 



BY WILLIAM COUPER, 



Assistant Secretary of the Literary and Historical Society, Quebec, &c. 



That the study of forms constructed by the Articulata lead to the de- 

 termination of the parent architects, is evident to every intelligent inves- 

 tigator of the insect world. Yet strange to say, I have not met witli an 

 Entomologist on this side of the Atlantic who specially devoted his lei- 

 sure in collecting them. It cannot be said that it is for want of material 

 that this neglect arises, for in Canada, I have collected upwards of six 

 thousand specimens of both animal and vegetable structures formed by 

 larvse, or made use of by perfect insects to fulfill their ends. 



A well arranged Cabinet of Insect Architecture presents a most char- 

 ming picture to the lover of Nature — when these various and curious 

 works of insects are brought together — then it is, that sensation and ap- 

 preciation will be realized. It is at this stage that the Entomologist sees 

 the real connective use of a collection of this nature with the Order of his 

 study. A hasty glance over this accumulation of buildings erected by our 

 little architects presents us the numerous and various shaped galls produced 



