February 1895. j 



PsrcHE. 



203 



one-eighth tlie diameter of the larger 

 ones. Cutting into one sitle of this 

 gall revealed a small live white hymen- 

 opterous larva, about 2 mm. in length 

 and apparently full grown, resting in 

 a small cell. Old galls show irregular 

 small hollowed cavities and cells inside. 



ENTOMOLOGICAr, NoTES. 



In August, 1894, a perfect, .tiid evidently 

 freshly emerged, specimen of Limeinth 

 arthemis was caught at Nonquitt. .Mass., 

 in an exposed phice close by tlie sea. 



C. (t . Soule. 



Dr. McCook is to be warmly congratulated 

 on the successful issue of the tliird and final 

 volume of his "American spiders and their 

 spinning work," which has appeared four 

 years after the second volume. The author 

 is more at home in his delineation of the 

 out door world than in systematic work, 

 with which this volume is tnainly concerned, 

 vet he has applied himself to this task witli 

 commendable zeal and success and describes 

 .123 species and 30 genera. Apparently (as 

 the table of contents curiously shows) he had 

 intended to carry his work beyond the " orb 

 weaver^,"' but his courage or his time gave 

 out as he saw his work grow to portentovis 

 dimensions. We have to thank him for 

 thirty large and careful plates of spiders 

 colored besides a mass of structural details; 

 they will greatly facilitate future study. 

 The price of the complete work is now justly 

 advanced to $50. Unhappily the title page 

 is marked 1S93, though the preface is dated 

 July 1894, and the volume was not issued 

 until December, 1S94. 



Mr. and Mrs. Peckham have given us 

 (Trans. Wise, acad., x) a new series of their 

 aiimirable experiments with spiders in a 

 paper on their visual powers and color sense ; 

 they " prove conclusively that Attidae see 

 their piey (wliich consists of small insects) 



From a specimen which was bred 

 from the galls, Mr. Wm. H. Ashmead 

 determined the genus as above. It is 

 possible, however, that the Eurytoma 

 is not the gall-maker, but a parasite 

 of tlie latter. 



when it is motionless, up to a distance of five 

 inches; that the)' see insects in motion at 

 much greater distances; and that they see 

 each other distinctly up to at least twelve 

 inches " ; they are guided by sight rather than 

 by smell. The experimenters are further " of 

 the ojjinion that all the experiments taken 

 together strongly indicate that spiders have 

 the power of distinguishing colors." 



Certainly the " U. C." [Upper California.'] 

 entomological society has done a unique 

 thing in issuing from Berkeley, Cal., as 

 a Californian journal of entomology "The 

 Entomologists' Daily Post Card" at $2.00 

 a year. A card of regulation size and color 

 is printed on both sides in clear type, leav- 

 ing a meague space for an address. The 

 number before us contains an editorial on 

 Note taking, part of a list of species in 

 Edwards's last catalogue of butterflies, and 

 a portion of a tabular key to the genera 

 of Nymphalidae. It is a curious venture. 



In a recent paper on the Siphonaptera 

 (Proc. Bost. soc. nat. hist., xxvi, 312-355) 

 Dr. A. S. Packard gives an excellent resum^ 

 of published observations on the embry- 

 ology, postembryonic history and anatomy 

 and the adult structure of the fleas, adding 

 new data from his own preparations and 

 numerous figures. He is led to I'Cgard 

 them as forming a distinct order standing 

 nearer the Diptera than any other, but 

 with many points of relationship to the 

 Coleoptera. 



Hansen gives in English (Ent. tidskr., 

 XV, 65-S9. pi. 2-3) an important paper on 

 the structure and habits of Hemimerus, a 



