242 [September 



VII. As might be naturally expected from the fact that Entomology 

 is not Prof. Dana's speciality, there are a few slightly erroneous state- 

 ments scattered here and there throughout his Paper, some of which I 

 shall now proceed to notice. 



1. The wings of Apipens are said to be " free from scales and other 

 defunctionating appendages or impediments," and to be '• rapid in mo- 

 tion," (p. 15.) But the wings of the Dipterous Cecidomt/ia^ for ex- 

 ample, are covered with short, appressed hairs and ciliated with long 

 hairs, and the Xemocerous genera Erioptcra (woolly-wings) and La- 

 siopfera (shaggy-wings) take their names from similar peculiarities ; 

 and Loew well remarks that " most nemocerous diptera are poor fliers." 

 (^Amher-dipfera, p. 308.) 



2. " Hymenoptera," we are told, " are the most uniform in shape or 

 size of Apipens. * * Among them there are no imitations of the forms 

 in other tribes, while they are extensively copied after — a characteristic 

 peculiar to a type of the very highest grade," (p. 15.) Surely Apha- 

 niptera (the fleas) are far more uniform in shape and size than Hyme- 

 noptera, which run from two inches long to an almost microscopic 

 minuteness. Again, if names prove anything in this rather indefinite 

 and imaginative matter of imitative forms, there is among the bees a 

 Xylocopa tahaniformis Smith, among the ants a Cri/ptocerus araneolus 

 Sm., among the fo.ssorial wasps a Matllla arachnoides Sm. and M. ara- 

 neoides Sm., and among the Ichneumons an Amitus aleurodinus Hald. 



3. A. passage from a Paper by A. S. Packard, Jr., is quoted with 

 approbation, (p. 16, note,) in which that writer, referring to Laphria* 



*Say remarks of the genus Laphria that "the larvse live probably in the 

 earth," and Westwood says generally of Asilidoe that " the larvae reside under 

 ground and feed on the roots of plants." (Say I. p. 11, and Westw. Int7: II. p. 

 549.) I have bred many specimens of Laphria fulvicauda Say, from pupae 

 which occurred sparingly under the bark of black oaks which had been felled 

 a year or more. This species therefore cannot feed in the larva state on living 

 vegetable matter, and probably feeds on subcortical larvae. As a general rule, 

 I believe that species that are insectivorous in the imago state, which it is well 

 known that the AsllidcE Are., are insectivorous in the larva state also; though 

 there are whole groups, e. g. Ichneumonidoe, that are insectivorous in the larva 

 state but feed in the imago state on honey and pollen. Some day or other, 

 when tne practical importance of Economic Entomology shall be more gene- 

 rally recognized, this matter of insectivorous larvte will be more carefully 

 looked into. 



