26 entomological news. [January, 



for the benefit of one or two individuals; but it seems to me that 

 if you will publish something each month that may be of interest 

 to the merest tyro, you might enlarge your sphere of usefulness 

 and add to the income of the News " — W.. R. H. 



We are perfectly willing to adopt the suggestions of our cor- 

 respondent; in fact such has long been our desire and we have 

 made every effort to get just such communications. We even 

 went so far as to send out printed circulars soliciting articles of 

 the kind mentioned — but they came not. It can't be expected 

 that the editors should write such articles each month as they 

 also have matters to attend to that wont "down" and the time 

 they devote to the journal is stolen from their own work. Now, 

 W. R. H. we believe belongs to a large class of our subscribers 

 and we turn the matter over to them to remedy, and await the 

 result with much interest. 



On November 4th, after a day's collecting, I had occasion to walk along 

 the Erie Railroad track at Woodside, N. J., on my way home. I saw 

 several larvae of Spilosotna Isabella crawling along on the inside of the 

 iron rail, evidently looking for a place to cross over the track. I thought 

 nothing of it until I saw some larva of Arctia arge which I took, and 

 from that time on I kept my eyes on the rails. At a rough guess I must 

 have passed at least 200 larvaa during the walk of about a half of a mile 

 .S". isabella were the most numerous. I took the following: fifteen Arctia 

 arge? four Arctia nais, three Spilosotna rubricosa and three different 

 specimens of Agrotis. I had occasion to pass along the same place 

 again a week later but did not see a sign of a larva. — A. J. Weidt, 

 Newark, N. J. 



Philanthus punctatus var. cockerelli Dunning, Ent. News, 1896, p. 69. 

 — Mr. Dunning gives no locality for this variety; the type specimens cited 

 were from Las Cruces, New Mex., August 24 and September 3, the latter 

 on flowers of Solidago canadensis. I have been comparing our Mesilla 

 Valley punctatus (which frequents the flowers of Chilopsis and Sisym- 

 brium as well as Solidago, and appears as early as April 16) with speci- 

 mens of typical punctatus taken by Mr. Robert Knetsch at Terra Cotta, 

 111., and I find that our insect (var. cockerelli) constantly differs by the 

 pale markings (light yellow to white), almost clear wings (with, however, 

 a dusky apex), narrower head in the cj 1 , and eyes closer together at the 

 top in both sexes. It seems to be a good subspecies at least, but Mr. 

 Dunning's diagnosis should .be modified to include all our specimens — 



T. D. A. COCKERELL. 



