100 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



farmers were plowing, bluebirds, robins, meadow-larks, red-headed wood- 

 peckers and cedar birds were numerous. 



P. R. Hoy, Racine, Wisconsin. 



remarks on the description of capis curvata, grote. 

 Dear Sir, — 



In Vol. xiv of the Canadian Entomologist, at p. 20, Mr. A. R. 

 Grote described Capis cumata, n. g. et sp. As a generic description 

 this is certainly an extraordinary specimen of incomplete work. The 

 species might be recognized, but the genus certainly can not be from the 

 description. Genera are supposed to be based only on structural char- 

 acters, and I presume that the remarks on structure contained in the 

 description referred to, apply to the genus. Let us see of what these 

 consist : " Antennae simple " — an unimportant generic character, for many 

 of the genera^ have the antennae of its species both simple, ciliate and 

 pectinate. "Ocelli," — Considering that there are 250 or more genera to 

 which this can be applied, this does not help us much. " Labial palpi 

 moderately projected, 3rd article short, a little depending." — This will 

 apply to the majority of the Deltoidae, and to many of the other genera ; 

 how they are projected, whether curved upwards or straight, Mr. Grote 

 does not say ; neither does he state how the palpi are clothed — a very- 

 important character in the Deltoidse. " The form and outline of Lisyr- 

 hypena* (? Sisyrhypena), but the wings shorter and broader." What form 

 and outline has Sisryhypena ? Is the student expected to hunt up the 

 description of that genus, only to find that the wings of that genus are 

 compared with that of some other ? 



No one knows better than Mr. Grote the essentials of a good generic 

 description, but he entirely omits any reference to the eyes, whether hairy, 

 lashed or naked ; there is no mention of the tibiae, whether spinulated or 

 not ; no mention of the character of the vestiture, whether hairy or scaly, 

 and nothing said of the tuftings, if any, or whether they are entirely absent. 



There is doubt and trouble enough to assail the student in the older 

 works, without adding to his burdens such descriptions as that of Capis, 

 and expecting him to recognize it. 



John B. Smith, New York. 



* Lisyrhypena was a typographical error. It should have been Sisyrhypena. — Ed. 

 C. E. 



