1896.] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. II3 



Triple Alliance. When diplomatic relations were near a breaking point 

 the flies would have the juice of certain poisonous plants added to their 

 ■daily food, and when war should be declared the French army would 

 merely have to send them as an advance guard in the path of the enemy. 

 — Newspaper. 



The Transactions of the American Entomological Society for Jan- 

 uary-March, 1896 (vol. xxxiii, No. i), soon to issue, will contain the fol- 

 lowing papers: The Taxonomic Value of the Antennae of Lepidoptera, 

 by Donaldson Bodine; New North American Spiders and Mites, by Nathan 

 Banks; Supplement to the Crabroninae of Boreal America, by Wm. J. 

 Fox ; The Dipterous genera Tachytrechus and Macellocerus by J. M. 

 Aldrich; A monograph of the genus Synergus Hartig, by C. P. Gillette. 



LiMENiTis ARTHEMis. — This species was seen here this season for the 

 first time. On June 30th a $ arthemis and (^ Ursula were taken sitting 

 together on leaf of shrub by the wayside — no hill of any size within four 

 miles. On July 23d another specimen, much worn, was seen near the 

 same spot. On July 26 and 27th a number of specimens were seen, much 

 worn and evidently the last of the brood, in the hill country about Cum- 

 mmgton, twenty-five miles northwest of here. 



Strangalia bicolor was also taken this season for the first time; it easily 

 escapes the notice of the coleopterist on account of its extreme shyness 

 and resemblance to a Hymenopter in flight. 



Saperda obliqua is generally found near the tip of an alder branch, but 

 ■easily escapes notice on account of its great resemblance to a withered 

 leaflet. It also differs from the other members of its genus, which are 

 shy insects, in that it sits perfectly motionless with antennae extended 

 forward and clinging tightly to the branch when seized. I have also found 

 it on birch. 



Purpuricenus huineralis I had heretofore only taken on willow, but 

 this season I took a number of specimens at different times from a wounded 

 branch of scrub oak; one specimen was taken on flowers and one on a 

 cluster of black raspberries; the writer could not help being struck by 

 the similarity of the colors of the beetle with those of the ripe and ripen- 

 ing berries. 



Myodites stylopides. This curious beetle had only been found by the 

 writer on two occasions on wild flowers until two years ago. It was then 

 found in some numbers on the flowers of thoroughwort in a ravine at 

 Montgomery, Mass. This season the locality was visited again on July 

 2oth, and although the plant was not yet in blossom, several specimens 

 •were taken on the flower buds. 



Is not Chlcenius prasinus a Southern species ? I took it this season at 

 electric light. — Fred. Knab, Chicopee, Mass. 



