1 8 82. 1 Entomology. 409 



larva, vvliich he picked up during a short visit of the Corrvin to 

 Wraiigell island. As the officers of the Corwin were the first per- 

 sons ever known to have landed upon this island, it is probable 

 that these are the first insects from that locality, and it may there- 

 fore be interesting to note that the spider has been identified by 

 Mr. Geo. Marx, of the Department of Agriculture, as " an un- 

 described species of -^n^cw^," the larva being probably lepidop- 

 terous, but in too poor condition for determination. — J.H. KiddLr, 

 Washington, February 6th, 1882. 



Lichtenstein's Theorv as to Dimorphic, asexual Females. — 

 The translation into French by our friend, M. Jules Lichten- 

 stein, of Dr. Adler's renowned paper on Dimorphism in Cyni- 

 pidae will be very welcome to all those who do not understand 

 the German language, especially as the original and admirable 

 plates are reproduced. We have already noticed Adler's dis- 

 coveries. In the preface to the translation which Lichtenstein 

 gives, is a very amusing illustration of the insufficient and 

 misleading nature of his theory regarding the evolution of the 

 Aphididae, where he insists on calling the winged females larva;, 

 and their eggs piipcB, since he carries the analogy into the Cyni- 

 pidae, and would call the asexual females larvae. He draws what 

 he conceives to be proof of the correctness of his theory from the 

 hypermetamorphoses of the Meloidae, designating the coarctate 

 larva as a pupa and implying that it shows the eyes, legs and 

 jaws of the perfect insect, and yet produces instead of a perfect in- 

 sect a larva like that from which it was formed. The error in 

 this comparison lies in calling the fourth larval stage the pupa, 

 when it has nothing to do with the pupa, but is simply a qui- 

 escent larva indicating none of the members of the perfect insect. 

 It is in fact, as we have called it, a coarctate larva, and the eyes, 

 legs and jaws represent those of the larva and have simply be- 

 come rigid, whereas those of the perfect insect, as subsequently 

 foreshadowed in the true pupa, have a quiet different aspect, and 

 we fail to see how this coarctate larva form can be compared with 

 an asexual female Cynips any more than with a female of the bi- 

 sexual generation. The translator's work is admirably done and 

 he adds an instructive catalogue of the known species of Cynipi- 

 dae at the end. — C. V. Riley. 



Naphthaline Cones for the protection of Insect Collec- 

 tions. — Mr. C. A. Blake, of Philadelphia, has been preparing 

 cones of naphthaline run around a pin so that they may be stuck 

 into a box with insects and that the naphthaline may permeate 

 the box and last for a considerable time. They are made after a 

 formula recommended by Drs. LeConte and Horn, and are very 

 convenient to handle. They gave such promise of usefulness 

 that we obtained quite a lot of ihem and went to the trouble of 

 supplying all our insect boxes with the same. We have speedily 



