NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Gnoph^la Arizona.— Some time last year I received several specimens ol 

 a Gnopho'la, from H. K. Morrison, collected in Arizona, that seemed to be dif- 

 feient from anything catalogued in "Grote's New Check List." After some 

 hesitation I described it under the above name, and sent the description to 

 Papilio, but fearing there might be something I had overlooked, I sent Mr. 

 Henry Edwards a specimen with the request that if he recognized it as already 

 described to suppress my description. After some hesitation he wrote me he 

 thought it G. Hopfferiw^r. Discreta, Stretch. I had the description of this form 

 but it not being in the Check List I had overlooked it. Accordingly my speci- 

 mens were marked Discreta. Upon receipt of the January number of Papilio 

 I found it contained my description of G. Arizona. Feeling that this was a 

 mistake arising from the transfer of papers to the present editor at the begin- 

 ning of the year, I wrote Mr. Stretch the circumstances and sent him a specimen. 

 He writes me that the specimen sent is his var. Discreta. Gnophcsla Arizona, 

 French, will be known then as a synonym of G. Hopjferi var. Discreta, Stretch. 



As to the varietal or specific position of this form I am inclined to think that 

 under the present acceptation of the term it will rank as a species. 1 have had 

 eight specimens and Mr. Stretch writes he has "now seen four specimens and 

 they are all alike". If on the border lands, where this fomi and Hopfferi and 

 Vermiattata occur, they breed as constant to type as they do in the part of 

 Arizona from which these were taken, then, according to usage, they would take 

 rank as a species unless proved to be otherwise by breeding. 



G. H. French 



Editor Papilio. — Dear Sir : — In your notice of my Satyrus paper there is 

 one sentence which calls for an explanation on my part; that is, in reference to 

 my supposed uncertainty of the terms to be applied to various form.s — incana in 

 particular. By transposing the reference to Mr. Edwards' dc-^cription of the 

 larva to the end of the next paragraph, and thus making it form the concluding 

 sentence of my remarks on Atope, it will not conflict with what I had previously 

 stated, and will mean what I had intended it should mean — i.e., that Mr. Ed- 

 wards had described the larva of Alope and some of its varieties. I never was 

 guilty of considering incana a good species. In reference to the unfortunate 

 typographical errors, 1 will say that I was in Washington while the paper was 

 being printed; saw only part of the proof myself, and depended upon others to 

 see that the corrections were made. John B. Smith. 



Editor Papilio : — While recently examining a large number of old cocoons 

 of Samia Columbia I was surprised to find that nearly all of them contained 

 cocoons of Ophion macrururn. I believe this insect has never before been ob- 

 served as a parasite of Columbia, although known to infest many other of the 

 larger Bombycidcc. Out of about fifty Columbia cocoons thirty contained 

 Ophion pupae. Nearly all of the latter had died while pupae, probably because 

 of the presence of a parasite upon them. Clarence M. Weed. 



Unusual Occurrence. — Mr. Charles A. Blake tells me that on the 25th of 

 January last, a specimen of Hypena baltimoralis, Gueii., was found on the wing, 

 and settling from time to time on the ice, in the neighborhood of Gray's Ferry 

 Philadelphia. This is the more remarkable, as the thermometer that day regis- 

 tered 4° below zero. Are any of this genus known to hibernate ? Editor. 



