174 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [June, 'o2 



with us. Careful work bears a stamp that is unmistakable ; 

 carelessness sees the fruits of its labors relegated to the last 

 page of a memoir, reserved for doubtful data and unrecognized 

 species. 



Earlier observers lacked the facilities and modes of research 

 that now smooth and render comparatively easy, the work 

 that was once achieved by overcoming apparently insurmount- 

 able obstacles, that met the pioneers in our favorite field of 

 research. 



Who will say that the pleasure they enjoyed in opening up 

 new faunas did not repay them ten-fold for their privations ? 



In those days it was sufficient to label a specimen Calif. 

 Times are changed. California was as large a State then as 

 now, stretching north and south for the distance of 700 miles, 

 and as Dr. Edw. C. Van Dyke has said : "It is a land of many 

 climates and faunas." 



It is cold and damp in the north ; hot and dry in the south, 

 with an intermediate or middle portion partaking of both of its 

 extremes. Thus it is customary to speak of Northern, South- 

 ern and Central California. The question has recently been 

 raised, where does the one begin and where does the other 

 leave off? 



The locality labelling of most any collection that contains 

 Californian specimens will be mute evidence that this question 

 has never been answered. There being no definite boundaries 

 to the three divi.sions of California just mentioned, we do not 

 know positively what part of the State is really meant when a 

 specimen is labelled Central Calif. 



How is this to be remedied? How are past errors to be 

 corrected ? Prof, Fall partially gave an answer when he said : 

 "Briefly described, the term Southern California includes that 

 part of the State lying to the south and east of a line drawn 

 from Point Conception eastward along the Santa Inez Mount- 

 ain.H, then curving to the north and east around the .southern 

 end of the San Joaquin Valley, and along the desert .slopes of 

 the Sierra Nevada Mountains through Kern and Inyo Counties 

 to the Nevada State line." 



The author realized that it was impossible to draw a true 



