igoo] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 403 



music, drawing, or reading? Either one or all three are considered neces- 

 sary if one is out in society. One does not converse about bugs, as a 

 rule, but more about music, or something more interesting than bugs. 

 Can not something be done for the pupils of the high schools who dislike 

 bugs and everything connected with them ? 



A High School Pupil. 

 Cleveland, O. , Leader, December ig, fSgy. 



Prof. F. M. Webster sent in the above clipping and asked 

 whether Lepidopterists are bug hunters. Of course Lepidop- 

 terists are not bug hunters. Bug hunters are Coleopterists, 

 Dipterists, Hemipterists, etc., including economic entomolo- 

 gists. Of course, "High School Pupul " is correct. Polite 

 society cannot tolerate bugs. Ju.st imagine a social gathering 

 of the elite of the town discussing bugs. Then, there remains 

 the horrible idea of the conveyance of disease. Again, some 

 of the pupils might become interested in bugs and neglect 

 French and music and then be ostracized by polite society ; 

 what a cruel fate ! It does seem an unmitigated outrage to 

 compel " High School Pupil" to pull off the legs of beetles, 

 and something should really be done. ' ' High School Pupil ' ' 

 will doubtless beconie a politican (although for this profession 

 French and music are not essential), and give the non elite of 

 society nice liquid mud to drink and filthy streets to walk 

 through (the elite of society ride behind cobs).* The whole 

 subject is painful, and our eyes grow so misty with tears that 



we must cease. 



— — ■ «»> ■ — 



Prof. John B. Smith's Check-List of the Lepidoptera of Boreal 

 America is out of print and cannot be supplied. 



In the i.ssue for December (p. 293) reference was made to the occur- 

 rence of '' Actias luna" in Mexico Since writing the note I have re- 

 ceived the bulletin of the " Laboratoire d'Etudes des Soies " of Lyon, 

 in which M. Sonthonnax describes as a new species the Mexican moth 

 which much resembles A. luna. The differences are slight, but in the 

 six or eight specimens which I have examined of Tropcea iruncatipennis, 

 as the moth is now called, there is no variation whatever toward the typical 

 A. luna. The c^rf^ have the primaries distinctly produced at the apex 

 and truncated ; the tails are longer and broader in proportion than in 

 A. luna ; the maroon border is much more distinct, and the moth itself 

 considerably larger.— O. W. Barrktt, Museo, Tacubaya, Mex. 



* Cobs are horses with the tails sawn off pretty close. This is not nearly as painful 

 as pulling the legs ofT of beetles and other bugs. 



