of certain species of ]Villow. — Pari 2nd. 233 



T say nothing here of the manifestly erroneous assertion, made by 

 Dr. Packard, on p. 282, of the Paper above referred to, in regard to 

 Baron Oaten Sacken's belief on the subject of this so-called 1st abdo- 

 minal segment, (where, by the way, the excellent Articles of that au- 

 thor on Cynipidst are quoted as occurring in Vols. II and III of these 

 Proceedings, instead of Vols. I, II and IV,) because the Baron is 

 abundantly able to fight his own battles. The whole Paper indeed, 

 like most of Dr. Packard's other writings, is full of sweeping generali- 

 zations, which are utterly unsupported by facts, and which greatly de- 

 tract from the value of his investigations. For example, it is asserted 

 that in the Honey-bee "we find the head larger and the abdomen 

 smaller in proportion than iu other insects." (p. 291.) As if Brachy- 

 gaster, and Grabro, and Lyrops, and Chalet's, and Perilampus, 

 and many other Hymenopterous genera,* to say nothing of the 

 other Orders, had not much smaller abdomens in proportion to the size 

 of their beads than Apis! Again, on p. 292, he asserts, that "Neu- 

 roptera" [including in his sense of the t°rm Pseudoneuroptera,] "are, 

 as a whole, water insects ;" when the fact is, that 1 of the 11 fami- 

 lies into which Westwood divides the Order, (Sialidse,) is aquatic in 

 the larva state only; 3 are aquatic in the larva and pupa states only. 

 (viz: Perlidse, Ephemeridae and Libellulidse, ;) and the remaining 7 

 are not aquatic at all. And if we accept Dr. Hagen's arrangement, 

 we find 1 family ( Siulidse) aquatic in the larva state only; 4 aquatic 

 in the larva and pupa states only, (viz. : Perlidse, Ejdiemeridee, Libel- 

 lulidse and Phryganeidx,) and the remaining 5 not aquatic at all. And 

 if with Dr. Packard we add Thysanura to the Order, there will be no 

 less than six out of 11 families that are not aquatic in any of their 

 states. Again, on p. 292 he says, that the Bees, and Hymenoptera in 

 general, are not carnivorous in their habits; whereas, whether we con- 

 eider the number of genera or of species, much more than one half of 

 the whole Order belongs to the parasitic families, Ichneumonidse, Chair 

 cididse, <.Y.c. And on the very same page he asserts that Neuroptera. 

 including Pseudoneuroptera, are all of them carnivorous; whereas 

 Termitidse arc certainly not so. and, with a few exceptions, perhaps, 

 /' rlidx and Ephemeridte and Pkryganeidse are all of them vegetable 

 feeders. In the same manner in the Maine Scientific Report, (1863, 

 p. 147,) he asserts it to be generally true of all insects, that the % has 

 one abdominal joint more than the 9 , because, forsooth, this is gener- 

 ally though not universally true of Hymenoptera Aculeata. Moreover, 

 in the Practical Entomologist, (I, p. 75,) he asserts that in the Crab 



PROCEEDINGS ENT. SOC. PHILAD. DECEMBER, 1866. 



