1890.] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 161 



was not observed whether they were attached to the anterior or posterior 

 edge of a segment (they are situated over each segmental suture between 

 joints 3-13 inclusive the last pair very small). As the new processes are 

 withdrawn from inside the old ones and not formed under the body skin 

 like the hairs of the Arctiinae, it will be seen that a process once lost can- 

 not 'be replaced, and, in the present instance, four of the normal twenty 

 were lacking both before and after the molt. As this larva is well known, 

 I will not enter upon a detailed description of it here, but will remark 

 that the ends of the three pairs of long processes (the third, fifth and 

 seventh pairs) appear to be slightly moveable at the will of the larva. 



Harrison G. Dvar. 



There is a form of Ergates spiculatus Lee. ($), which occurs in Wet 

 Mountain \'alley, Colorado, differing from the tjpe as represented in the 

 British Museum collection from the Pacific region, and figured by LeConte 

 in having the elytra marked with whitish between the veins, and pale 

 about the apices, where the dark color gradually becomes subobsolete. 

 The thorax on the other hand, is quite dark. This form perhaps indicates 

 a tendency to that sexual dichroism which is, as pointed out to me by 

 Mr. Gahan, so well marked in certain other Longicorns; or, it may be a 

 climatic race, a product of the drier central region of North America. 

 In structure this species already presents secondary sexual characters 

 which have led to the sexes being described as different species, but nor- 

 mally the sexes do not differ in color. This pale-marked $ form of E. 

 spiciilatus has been mentioned by Leng, but apparently it has received n,o 

 name; it may be conveniently known as var. rnarmoratiis. From one of my 

 specimens of this variety (now in the British Museum) I extracted an egg, 

 which, in its dried state, is pale amber color, elongate, subcylindrical, atten- 

 uate at the ends; length, 2|^ mm.; breadth, i mm. — T. D. A. Cockerell. 



The fact mentioned above is by no means rare in its occurrence in the 

 specimens received from Oregon and Washington, nor is it by any means 

 peculiar to the female. The discoloration is not due to climatic influences, 

 as it is equally observed in specimens from the dry regions of the centre 

 of the continent and the notoriously damp climate of the Northwest. 

 They seem to me merely imperfectly chitinized specimens, hardly de- 

 serving a varietal name. Such discolorations seem quite common in 

 those Coleoptera with a coriaceous elytral texture. They are probably 

 tlie result of a reduction of temperature during the evolution of the imago. 



Geo. H. Horn. 



Stinging Powers of Vespa Vulgaris and Ichneumon Suturalis. 

 —.A. few days ago Mrs. Gillette called my attention to a dead (?) wasp 

 upon the window that she had killed, so that it would not sting our little 

 daughter, who would be sure to try to catch the " bug" if she saw it. The 

 wasp was a specimen of Vespa vulgaris, and the blow that was supposed 

 to have killed it had entirely severed the abdomen from the rest of the 

 body. Nothing more was thought of the wasp until the next day, twenty- 



