April tqoo 1 



rsYCHE. 



fuscateii apically, not banded. Pionotmn 

 marked with brownish fuscous on tlie prozona 

 beliind the eyes and sometimes across tlie 

 posterior margin of the prozonal disk, the 

 fi'ont margin of wliicii is a little elevated 

 especially above and in the male, the disk of 

 wiiole prozona tolerably smooth and nearly 

 plane, the median carina very slight, the 

 hiuil margin strongly ol)tusangulate or 

 broadly rounded, the lateral lobes inferiorlv 

 truncate not extending below the Ie\'el of 

 the free pleural lobe. Tegmina rather slen- 

 der, subequal, pale testaceous, feebly em- 

 browned me'.ially in proximal lialf, flecked 

 conspicuously with well distributed browTi- 

 ish fuscous spots ; wings glistening hyaline, 

 a few of the veins at extreme apex narrowly 

 and inconspicuously infuscated, at least in 

 tlie female. Mind femora long and slender. 



pale testaceous, occasionally and especiallx 

 at base hoary, bifasciate above wilh brown- 

 ish fuscous. 



Length of body, J, 10.25 mm-. ?. iS 

 mm.; antennae, $, 3.5 mm.. 9. .S nim.; 

 tegmina, <?, 9.5 mm., $, 1^1.5 mm.; hind 

 femora, J", 7 mm., ?, 11 mm. One male is 

 of unusual size, the tegmina measuring 14 

 mm. in length, but otherwise there is little 

 variation in the specimens from the above 

 figures. 



13 $ 13 9 . Palm SpriiiEjs, C;il., 

 July 9, 12. A. P. Morse. 



The species is peculiar for its small 

 size, short antennae, slender bind fem- 

 ora, brief lateral lobes and broadly an- 

 giilate metazonal process. 



INSECT-NEURATION. 



The work of Conistock and Needlvam* 

 upon the wings of insects is decidedly an 

 important contribution to the subject, for a 

 firm step has been taken towards a satisfac- 

 tory theory of venation. This advance has 

 been attained by an extended study of the 

 tracheae which precede and, in a broad way, 

 iletermine the positions of the veins. Select- 

 ing ifnmalure stages of generalized repre- 

 sentatives of each oider, the authors arrive 

 at a type of trachealion which may fairly be 

 taken to represent a primitive condition, — 

 an origin for more complicated types of 

 tracheation and venation. The lines along 

 which specialization appears to have occurred 

 in the larger oiders are carefully traced and 

 the processes fully and clearly figured. 

 Specialization occurs either by the leduction 

 (atrophy or coalescence) or else by the addi- 



*Comstock, J. H. and Needhaiii, J. G. The Wings of 

 Insects. \ series of articles on the structure and devel- 

 opment of the wings of insects, with special reference to 

 the taxononiic value of the characters presentetl by the 

 wings. 124 pp., qo figs. Reprinted from The American 

 N.iliiralisl. hhaca, \. Y. The Conistock Publishing ('o. 



tion of veins from a multiplication of the 

 branches of the principal veins. Fortu- 

 nately the familiar terms adopted bv Redten- 

 bacher are retained. 



Comtiiitling ourselves to the authors' con- 

 chisions, perhaps too unreservedly, we were 

 mildly shocked to find that Ihe method fails 

 of application among Trichoptera, most Dip- 

 tera and the Ilymenoptera, at least, because 

 the correlation between tracheae and veins is 

 almost lost. As the method seems to have 

 justified itself, however, a critic can scarcely 

 do more at present than to emphasize the 

 necessity of caution in the employment of 

 the method. 



Especially instructive are the discussions 

 upon the wings of Odonata, Epheinerida and 

 Orthoptera. The elytra of Coleoptera are 

 definitely homologized with wings. 



The palaeonlological evidence is rather 

 summarily dismissed with the negative con- 

 clusion that it does not contradict tlie 

 authors' results. Precisely on account of 

 the "imperfection of the record" does the 

 close resemblance of the Devonian Xeno- 

 neura to the hypothetical type of the authors 

 acquire a value that makes the above conclu- 

 sion utinecessarilv cautious. 



