11 



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

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

 led to suspect its identity from the supposition that the name 

 was giA^en it because of some similarity which it might bear to 

 T. eremita of Europe. 1 afterwards found 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 mao;nificent work, which we have in the Colleo-e Li- 

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

 do both species exhale an equally powerful 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 Papilionidoi 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 Polyxenus. 



I/ytta (or more properly, Cantliaris^ 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 Lytta on the 

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

 iharis is sanctioned by commercial usao;e and the authorities of 

 Geoffroy^ DeGeer, Olivier, Lamarck, Latreille, Dumeril and 

 Leach. The same vicious nomenclature occurs in his use of 

 the name Cantliaris (with Linnaeus and Fabricius) instead 

 of Telepliorus, which latter is adopted by Schaffer, DeGeer, 

 Lamarck, Latreille, Olivier, Dumeril and Leach. 



