Ixxvi 



An extended Monograph of the Andienideous Genus Hylseus, 

 with descriptions of 107 species, by Prof. Forster, of Aix-la- 

 Chapelle, is published in the ' Zool. & Bot. Ver.,' Vienna, 1871. 



Dr. Morawitz has published a memoir on the Apidse of Southern 

 Eussia, in the June part of the 'Home Societatis Entomol. 

 Eossicpe.' 



Dr. Dours, of Amiens, has also published the descriptions of 

 various new Hymenoptera, chiefly Apidae, in the ' Eevue d. 

 Zoologie' for 1872. 



Under the title of " A Systematic Eevision of some of the 

 American Butterflies, with brief Notes of those known to occur in 

 Essex County, Mass.," published in the ' Eeport of the Peabody 

 Academy of Science,' and separately, " Salem, Mass., 1872," Mr. 

 Samuel H. Scudder has given us the result of a critical examina- 

 tion of the structural features of many American butterflies, 

 principall}^ of those of New England, and which is greatly at 

 variance with the views of his predecessors in the classification, 

 description and nomenclature of the genera of Diurnal Lepi- 

 doptera, of whom he speaks rather disparagingly. This result 

 appears in the proposal of not fewer than ninety-six genera for 

 those North American species which he has examined, of which 

 nearly half belonged to the Hesperidae, and which are simply 

 named and " uncharacterized." He has, however, given us the 

 characters of two of his genera in detail, "as a means of telling, to 

 a certain extent, the value of the subdivisions of the whole paper. 

 In my forthcoming work on New England butterflies, all the 

 genera will be thus treated, and additional characters will be 

 drawn from the genitalia and from the egg." The two genera 

 thus selected are "Papilio, Linn. (1758). Type Papilio Antiopa, 

 Linn." ! ! and " Aglais, Dalm. (18 10). Type Papilio Urticse, Linn." 

 The characters of each of these two genera extend over five closely 

 printed 8vo pages. Mr. Scudder in thus using the generic name 

 Papilio, " conflicting with, so far as I know, the unanimous usage 

 of subsequent authorities," admits that his chief reason is that it 

 may hasten the disintegration of the genus Papilio of modern 

 authors. As a writer on the " Genera of Diurnal Lepidoptera," 

 I do not hesitate to say that this excessive elaboration of generic 

 characters must necessarily involve, on the one hand, a large 

 amount of family or even sectional structure (and consequently 

 must be repeated over and over again), and on the other a still 



