iao8.] 26L 



all Tomostethus spp. is petiolate. It is about 6 mill, long, and very 

 broad-bodied in proportion to Its length. 



The late P. Smith made many attempts, recorded in the Ento- 

 mologists' Annual, to discover the g by breeding. He never could 

 succeed, however; and as other Entomologists have had similar 

 experiences, it has not unnaturally been inferred that the insect was 

 purely parthenogenetie, and that no <$ £ of it existed at all. But at 

 last, in W. E. Z., 1885, Konow described the missing <$ . It was said 

 to be entirely black, like the g of the nearly allied species umbratica, 

 King (of which, strange to say, neither the $ $ nor ? $ are rare in 

 Germany), but to differ from it in sculpture and puncturation. So 

 far as I know, no such insect has even yet been met with in this 

 country ; but since it seems that after all it exists, collectors should 

 still be on the look out for it, and lucky will he be that finds it ! 



Eriocampa differs from all species of Poecilosoma, Emphytus, and 

 Taxonus in lacking developed gense — the eyes practically touch the 

 mandibles ; and also from all of them, except Taxonus agrorum, in 

 having two closed cells, cubital and medial, in the hind-wing. In 

 this character it agrees with Athalia, Selan<iria, Strongylogaster, &c. 

 Perhaps its nearest relation in the Tribe is Selandria ; but from that 

 the cross-uervure in the lanceolate cell at once distinguishes it. 



Pcecilosoma, Dhlb. -Thomson. 

 The proper name of this genus is a matter as to which opinions 

 may differ. It was first distinguished by Dahlbom under the name 

 Pcecilostoma (sic), which was either a misprint or a slip of the author's, 

 for it can hardly be doubted that he meant his name to express the 

 characteristic spotted body (aS)fxa), not mouth (crro/xa), of the insect. 

 Accordingly Thomson altered the name to Poecilosoma, and the change 

 has been generally accepted. But in November, 1846 — after the 

 appearance of Dahlbom's work, but before that of Thomson — Brulle 

 published the fourth volume of Lepelletier's " Hist. Nat. Insect., &c ," 

 introducing Lepelletier's MS. name Empria* for a genus to include 

 that author's T. pallimacula, which was evidently a Poecilosoma (see 

 its figure in plate 47 of Brulle's work). It would appear therefore 

 that, strictly, the name Empria has priority over the name Poecilosoma, 

 though not over Pcecilostoma, and should stand if Dahlbom's original 

 name requires to be altered. For this reason, no doubt, shortly before 

 his death Herr Konow wrote to me on a postcard " Poecilosoma must 



* Not Empyria as it appears in Cam. Mon., i, p. 206. 



