2 — 



fei ling oi satisfaction at the results of my efforts during the past years, 

 and I take this opportunity of most sincerely thanking those who have bv 

 their aiel, their contributions and their advice, aided me in making the 

 fournal a success. 



As to my successor and whilom assistant, he is not unknown to the 

 readers of "K\r. A.m." and he will, no doubt, succeed even better than 1 

 did in raising the character and value of the fournal. I bespeak for him 

 the same aid bom the friends of the Journal that was so liberally ac- 

 < orded me. [ohn B. Smith. 



By the Incoming Editor. 



In assuming the duties and responsibilities of my office, I have no 

 policy to unfold or promises to make. It is a serious undertaking to try 

 to fill the place of my predecessor, one of our ablest Entomologists and 

 as well one of our best Systematists, but circumstances have induced 

 him to retire, and the Brooklyn Ent. Society has chosen me to take his 

 place. I shall try to do my duty to it, and to the Science, in which its 

 members are interested ; I shall be abundantly satisfied if the Journal 

 during the year just begun maintains the character and standing which it 

 has always had under the leadership which has just ended. I beg the 

 assistance of those who are interested in Entomology and ask them to 

 make it to a proper extent their medium of communicating facts and dis- 

 coveries in the Science to the Entomological World at large. 



-«-^> 



Antennal Structure of the genus Cressonia. 



By John B. Smith. 



In several communications to the Brooklyn Ent. Society and to the 

 Ent. Society of Washington I called attention to the distinctive character 

 of the antenna.' of the Saturniidae and Ceratocampidae, and in a Revision of 

 the former family in the Proc. U. S. N. Mus. for 1886, I pointed out 

 more fully of what this peculiarity consists and its systematic value. 

 Herrich-Schaffer was the first so far as I can find, who noticed the 

 character of the pectinations in this group in his "Europaische Schmetter- 

 linge", but he there considers it valueless for systematic purposes. Recently, 

 in examining a specimen of Cressonia Juglandis, I found to my surprise, 

 that the antenna- here are in the rf exactly as in the Saturniidae. I had 

 carefully examined the great majority of Bombycid genera and found the 

 pectinations single, and the re-currence of the doubly bi-pectinate antennae 



