Dec., '03] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 333 



Osmia iridis Ckll. and Titus. $ 



This has the first ventral segment of abdomen emarginate, 

 and so seems to belong to Robertson's group Xaiit/iosinia : yet 

 it differs in having the sixth dorsal segment entire, and the 

 fourth antennal joint not so long as 2 -- 3. The basal nervure 

 falls a fraction short of the transverso-medial ; the second ven-. 

 tral segment is very large, with much black hair, and its hind 

 margin is emarginate in the middle. The third ventral seg- 

 ment is nearly concealed by the second, and its margin fills 

 the notch in the latter ; so that, viewed from the side, the mar- 

 gin of the second seems quite entire ; though, viewed from 

 beneath, it is conspicuously emarginate. The apex of the 

 abdomen is bidentate, as in most species. The apical tooth of 

 the mandibles is long and sharp ; the fifth joint of the maxil- 

 lary palpi is minute. 



In speaking of his interesting captures at Thomasville, Ga , Mr. Morgan 

 Hehard refers to taking Nisoiiiadcs iKsrius there, and considers this its 

 most northern record. I note also that Dr. Skinner, in his catalogue, 

 gives only Indian River, Florida, as its locality. I thought until now, 

 that it was well known as a member of the coast fauna of South Caro- 

 lina. I have always found it abundant in the vicinity of Charleston, 

 South Carolina, and occasionally as far inland as Clarendon County. On 

 the sea coast islands, particularly the Isle of Palms (formerly known as 

 Long Island) Nisomades nczvius and petronius and the ittle /'ho/isora 

 hayhnrsti are regularly found in the summer months, the two former 

 being especially characteristic and abundant in all the thistle patches that 

 fill the opening in the Palmetto and Live Oak thickets. ELLISON A. 

 SMYTH, JR., Pjlacksburg, Va. 



A COMMON method of gambling among criminal convicts in Siberian 

 etapes is to spread down an overcoat or a dirty linen foot-wrapper on the 

 Moor of the kamera, and guess at the number of fleas that will jump 

 upon it within a certain length of time. Every convict, of course, backs 

 his guess with a wager. Another method, equally common, is to draw 

 two small concentric circles on one of the sleeping-platforms, put a num- 

 ber of lice simultaneously within Ihe inner circle, and then give all the 

 money that has been wagered on the event to the convict whose louse 

 first crawls across the line of the outer circle. Exiles on the road are 

 not supposed to have plaving-canis, but facilities for gambling in the 

 in inner ;\b >vr described are n<-ver Licking. ('i'iihn\ Magazine, .l/itr, 

 /SSg. 



