42 



enormous genus Elater. It is probable that 133 ? is the one 

 described by Fabricius. " Elater j^ennatus is very common here 

 — at least I have thus marked one which is black, with the 

 head and thorax of a golden orange color, and the disk of the 

 thorax black. It is congeneric with 133, having no groove 

 for the reception of the tarsi. But the suture for the recep- 

 tion of the antennse is very distinct. 



[In Hentz's mss. Catalogue, in the possession of the Society, 

 No. 133 is named Tapheicerus excissatus ; No. 133 ? Elater 

 pennatus Herbst and No. 163 Tapheicerus fehruarius.'\ 



HARRIS TO HENTZ. 



Milton, Mass., Dec. 19, 1828. 



Your extract in a former letter from the article on Morio^ 

 with Palisot de Beauvois's figure and description of the 31. 

 G-eorgice, will suffice for the present. But you will please 

 inform me whether you consider your No. 740 as appertaining 

 to the genus in question. It is a much smaller insect than that 

 figured by Beauvois, and is found in the Middle as well as the 

 Southern States. [It is marked in Hentz's MSS. Catalogue as 

 Cratacanthus pennsylv aniens Dcj.] 



Your plan in regard to dividing our labors in Entomology is 

 certainly a judicious one. Prof. Say appears tacitly to have 

 resigned the Araneidoi to you, while he has left little to be 

 done with the Diptera. There are several reasons, however, 

 which will not permit me to enter fully into a farther division 

 at present, though, in declining your proposal, I have to en- 

 counter many compunctious visitings on the scores of friend- 

 ship. And now, my dear sir, I will tell you my reasons, which 

 I hope will exculpate me from any inclination to disoblige. It 

 has long been a favorite project with me to publish at some 

 future time a little work like Dr. Bigelow's Florula Bostonien- 



