—34 — 



Neuroptera, and Baron De Selys now in his Odonates de I'Asie mineure, 

 .1887, has replaced Diplax hv Sympetrum ; "quelques Richeux que soient 

 actuellement les changements de nomenclature — per une application ex- 

 ageree du droit de priorite, il me semble juste d'adopter le nom de Sym- 

 petnim au Hex de Diplax." 



I have shown before that three of the genera were relinquished bv 

 the author directly, and that the names were never used by himselfor any- 

 body else, and that they could not be consideretl therefore to have the right 

 of priority to supersede other names 37 years later. Concerning ^v;/- 

 peiriun the analysis of its characieis uiven shows that the character is en- 

 tirely insufficient, and that Mr. Ne\\man has never taken an exception 

 against the non-acceptance of this t;enus by his own countrymen, 

 Stephens, West wood, Evans, and de Fonscolombe (1837) Baron De 

 Selys, Hagen, and every writer upon Odonata since 1833. Further, that 

 Hagen after conversing with Mr. Newman about this genus had the de- 

 cided conviction, that it has been rehnquished by the author also. It was 

 at least in former years always considered that monographs in prepara- 

 tion, because the plates needed so much tune, had a right to supersede 

 names published during the time. The first plate of Charpentier is dated 

 1828, and in 1837 Westwood saw in Bonn the big volume of plates, and 

 therefore the name Diplax was everywhere accepted. Probably Mr. New- 

 man was of the same opinion as he did not object to Baron Dj Selys' 

 papers in 1846 and 1850. 



I think therefore the names of the genera given by Mr. Newman 

 should not be accepted. 



•^~*-^ 



A More W^icked Worm ! 



Editor EntoiM. Amer. 



, Dear Sir : — Reading No. 10 of Vol. Ill, Ento. Am., I was much 

 amused by the article "A wicked Worm." 1 can assure you no one in 

 Germany knows of this terrible insect, nor have I read anything about it 

 in any of the German newspapers. It seems to me this worm must have 

 developed quite independently in the brain of some North American 

 Journalist. Of course there can be no doubt of the truth of the story. 



Mr. Smith is, in my opinion, right in his idea, that this worm and 

 those that destroyed the Russian cannons during the Crimean War, are 

 nearly allied. A third worm, belonging to the same family and perhaps 

 genus, is the famous "Ice Worm " which fed on the ice in the cellar of a 

 great brewery at Dresden once upon a time. Of course the March beer 

 went to ruin, as did also the brewery and all the stockholders ! Neither 

 ice, beer, nor money was to be found ! 



Yours truly, 



H. B. MoSCHLER. 



