1897.] 29 



not do, for reading Mr. Tutt's diagnosis as it must be read, very exactly, 

 to be of any meaning, the aberration has a trace of a spot in the hind- 

 wings. His extreme, therefore, is not the real extreme, for the spot 

 may quite disappear. 



The application of names in such cases appears to me perfectly 

 futile. And it would be endless, because there are other points which 

 would equally demand I'ecognition {e.g., the dwindling and disappear- 

 ance of the pale transverse bar on the under-side of the fore-wings). 



Mr. Tutt makes a mistake in connection with the distribution of 

 O. TipJion, through his rendering Staudinger's geographical reference 

 " septentrionalis " as " southern." The Continental range is Northern 

 and Central Europe, not Southern and Central Europe as stated. 



Turning for a moment to Erehia (Btliiops, the aberration ohsoleta 

 is found again to the front. The form is no doubt so named because 

 it is supposed to represent the extreme of reduced ocellation, but, if 

 so, it again falls short of the mark. The figure shows ohsoleta to have 

 at least two very well marked eye-spots with pupils, but an example 

 has occurred in which eyes-pots are obsolete and only traces of the 

 pupils remain. I think the superlative of ohsoleta would furnish a 

 very good name for this remarkable individual, but I should not care 

 to apply it lest something more extreme should turn up. 



Uddingston, N.B. : October, 1896. 



ON THE TERMINOLOGY OF THE SCALE-LIKE ORGANS WHICH LIE 

 BETWEEN THE ROOTS OF THE WINGS AND THE SCUTELLUM 

 OF DIPT ERA. 



BY R. H. MEADE. 



Baron C. R. Osten Saeken has lately published an interesting 

 little paper* upon these small lobes or scales which are very conspicu- 

 ous in the higher Muscidoe. They have received very different names 

 from different entomologists. The term alulce or winglets has been 

 most frequently used by those in Britain, as Westwood, Walker, &c., 

 but it is incorrect, for they have no real alliance with the wings ; the 

 halteres or poisers being considered as the representatives of the second 

 pair of wings of the Hymenoptera, &c. The name alula has also been 

 applied by Low and others to the axillary lobe of the wing, sometimes 

 called lohulus (Afterlappen or Fliigellappen, Schiner), which is a more 

 correct application of the term. 



-These scale-like flat processes are usually named Schuppchen by 



• Berliner Entom. Zeitschrift, Bd. xli, Jahrg., 1896, Heft 1, -285. 



