11 



You ask me where I found the description of Trichius eremi- 

 cola. That name occurs in Melsheimer's catalogue, and I was 

 led to suspect its identity from the supposition that the name 

 was given it because of some similarity which it might bear to 

 T. eremita of Europe. I afterwards fomid it described by Mr. 

 Say in Vol. Ill, p. 240 of the Journal of the Academy of Nat- 

 ural Sciences. T. scaler is described by M. Palisot de Beauvois 

 in his magnificent work, which we have in the College Li- 

 brary. Do you recollect the potent smell of this insect, and 

 do both species exhale an equally powerfiil odor ? 



This winter has been to me a most propitious time for the 

 study of entomology, about which I have employed myself in 

 good earnest. The Papilionidce have occupied me some time ; 

 and I have discovered excellent generic characters in the ner- 

 vures of the wings. 



Have you ever seen a Rhagium? In January I obtained 

 from beneath the bark of a tree nearly twenty males and 

 females of R. lineatum Olivier. It was the first time I had 

 ever found a specimen of the genus, and you can conceive the 

 pleasure it afforded me. In the same month I also found 

 numerous specimens of a species of PolyxeniLS. 



Lytta (or more properly, Catitharis') cenea I have never 

 seen. Mr. Say observes that it is rare. I cannot but regret 

 that Mr. Say should have adopted the name of Ijytta on the 

 authority of Fabricius and Dejean alone, when the name Can- 

 tharis is sanctioned by commercial usage and the authorities of 

 Geoffrey, DeGeer, Olivier, Lamarck, Latreille, Dumeril and 

 Leach. The same vicious nomenclature occurs in . his use of 

 the name Cantharis (with Linnaeus and Fabricius) instead 

 of Telephorus^ which latter is adopted by SchafFer, DeGeer, 

 Lamarck, Latreille, Olivier, Dumeril and Leach. 



