146 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [May 



After preparing the trap, let it stand three or four days or longer 

 if the weather is bad, and the result will be better than to uncover 

 too soon. D. B. Young. 



Fitch's Cotton Scale Insect.— In his 3d report (Nov. 16, 1856), 

 Dr. Asa Fitch described as Aspidiotus gonsypii n. sp., a scale insect 

 occurring on a leaf of a cotton piant, Gossipium religiosiim, sent to 

 him fi-oni NiEgpo, China, by the Rev. M. S. Culbertson of the 

 Presbyterian Board of Missions. Dr. Fitch desci-ibed this insect 

 in a gei.eral way, comparing it to the apple bark louse. Signoret 

 (Essai, etc., Ann. Ent. Soc, France, 1870, p. 109), quotes Fitch's re- 

 marks entire, but refers the insect to the genus Diaspis. 



In 1895 Mr. Wm. H. Ashmead, in an article entitled ' Notes on 

 cotton insects found in Mississippi" (Insect Li»e, vol. vii), refers 

 (p. 323) a species of J-Zewrodfe* discovered by him on cotton to the 

 insect named by Dr. Fitch, and suggests that Dr. Fitch had vais- 

 taken a dried pupa of an A?e^^/"oc?es for a coccid belonging to the 

 genus Aspidiotus. 



In Entomological News for 1895, p. 157. Mr. T. D. A. Cockerell 

 protests against this reference of Mr. Ashmead of the insect to 

 Aleurodes, and prefers to consider Fitch's species as belonging to 

 the genius (JMonaspis, or pei-haps Diaspis, as suggested by Sig- 

 noret. 



Fortunately it is now possible to remove the obscurity and un- 

 certainty hitherto attaching to Fitch's insect. Fitch's original type 

 specimen, labelled in his own handwriting as " Aspidiotus gossy- 

 pii," and answering tohis discription, was found in the old Fitch 

 collection in Philadelphia by Mr. Theo. Pergande, and proves to 

 be a single example of the larval stage of an Aleurodes. The speci- 

 men is now in the collection of the Department of Agriculture. It 

 is interesting to discover that Mr. Ashmeads inference as to the 

 relationship of the insect is correct, although it is very improbable 

 that the J-Zewrorfes found in Mississippi is identical with the spe- 

 cies occurring on cotton in China. As China becomes more acces- 

 sible to exploration it may be expected that an Aleurodes will be 

 found to infest cotton in the province of Ningpo and probably else- 

 where to which Fitch's name will apply. 



C. L. Marlatt. "Washington, D. C- 



Adalia bipunctata Linn , and its varieties —Although the use- 

 less multiplication of scientific names is an im])ediment to the 

 student, it seems desirable that well marked varieties should be 

 designated by a name. The names of such varieties are of course 

 subject to the rules of priority and I was therefore surprised to find 

 in reading the interesting article " An Abnormal Coccinellid." by 

 A. F. Burgess (Proc. of the Tenth Ann. Meeting of the Association 

 of Economic Entomologists), that the name A. humcralis of Say 

 seems to be still in common use among American Entomologists. 

 This should give way to A. 4-maculata of Scopoli, or perhaps 



