January 1S91.] 



PSYCHE. 



15 



gin of the fore wings in the males of all 

 these species to accommodate the sexual scale- 

 pocket in the medio-submedian interspace is 

 a striking feature. The text, which keeps 

 excellent pace with the plates, has many 

 points of interest and calls attention to some 

 interesting cases of mimicry. 



Mr. W. F. Kirby has just published with 

 Van Voorst's successors a synonymic cata- 

 logue of dragon-flies living and fossil. It ex- 

 tends to 202 pp. 8vo. They are arranged 

 systematically under families, subfamilies and 

 divisions, the further subdivisions by Selys 

 and others, legions and groups, being ignored- 

 So too all subgenera are regarded as genera. 

 This has at least simplified the author's work, 

 but can hardly be regarded as satisfactory. 

 A number of new generic terms are employed 

 for preoccupied names and in a few cases 

 radical changes occur, as when Agrion is 

 made to replace Calopteryx (because Latreille 

 had fixed the type as the Libellula virgo of 

 Linn^) and a new term Coenagrion employed 

 for Agrion, carrying with it the subfamily 

 name Coenagrioninae. Selys strenuously 

 objects to this in the comptes-rendus of the 

 Belgian entomological society. About 1S00 

 nominal species are entered in 267 genera, 

 besides a few in the appendix. 102 fossil 

 species are catalogued separately. The work 

 appears to be conscientiously done and will 

 certainly be of as great an assistance to the stu- 

 dents of Odonata as that of Lepidoptera, pre- 

 pared by the same author, is to its votaries. 



The March of Hyperchiria 10. — I have 

 carefully watched a brood of to larvae in their 

 marching, and have found the secret of their 

 regularity. The leader spins a fine thread 

 as he moves, and the larva next in order 

 follows the thread, and spins one himself. 

 If he follows the thread by feeling it at 

 one side, instead of following on it, the 

 thread which is spun by No. 2 lies parallel 

 with that spun by No. i,and usually each 

 thread will be followed by a larva, when the 

 wedge-shaped "order of march" will result — 



No. 1 ahead, No. 2 following just a trifle at 

 one side, No. 3 and No. 4 side by side. No. 3 

 following the thread of No. i,and No 4 that 

 of No. 2 ; No. 5 will follow No. 3 ; No. 6 will 

 often feel the two threads and march be- 

 tween them, when No. 7 will follow No. 4, 

 and so the ranks will widen. The thread 

 can be seen plainly with a lens, and the pro- 

 cess watched. If a larva loses his way he 

 feels for the thread, and seems able to tell, 

 by its surface, in which direction the proces- 

 sion has gone, always following the right 

 direction after a moment's careful feeling of 

 the thread. Caroline G. Sotile. 



More damage by white ants in New 

 England. — At a recent meeting of the 

 Cambridge Entomological Club Mr. S. H. 

 Scudder showed the work of white ants, 

 Termes JJavipes, on the wooden tubs con- 

 taining plants at the Botanic Garden. This 

 and some of the culprits were brought 

 to him by Frederick A. Quinn, one of the 

 employes of the Garden, who stated that 

 they had destroyed some of the tree-ferns 

 growing in such tubs. This shows that 

 the white ants are there increasing in num- 

 bers and have become a real element of 

 danger, for in 1885 Dr. Hagen reported in 

 the Canadian entomologist (v. 17, 134-135) 

 that "the earth in the hot-houses here in 

 Cambridge is largely infested by white ants, 

 but as far as I know no destruction of plants 

 has been observed." Two jears later the 

 speaker pointed out (ibid., v. 19, 21S) that 

 geranium cuttings were attacked by white ants 

 in the forcing houses attached to the Mt. Au- 

 burn cemetery ; but here we find a more seri- 

 ous damage. On visiting the Garden Mr. 

 Scudder was shown by the head gardener, 

 Mr. Cameron, a plant almost completely de- 

 stroyed in which the traces of their work 

 were very apparent. The plant was Cyathea 

 insignis, four or five feet high. One of the 

 same kind had been destroyed before and 

 throvvii away. According to Mr. Cameron, 

 the ants seemed to show a preference for the 



