82 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 
and scabra. The varying form of the abdomen of scabra—each sex often 
assuming the form pertaining to the other—may have easily led him into 
this error,as it had done with me in those which I had placed in my cabinet. 
A strong testimony to the value of the investigations in which the _ 
eminent German Lepidopterist, Dr. Speyer, is at present engaged, in his 
examination and comparison of the identical or closely allied forms of 
European and American Heterocera, is given in the fact, that from the 
study of a small number of scabra and erectalis submitted to him (perhaps 
three of each form), he was led to believe that the two would prove to_be 
but one species. This opinion was recently communicated by him in a 
letter to Mr. Meske. Before its reception, the conclusion, confirming his 
belief, to which I had arrived, through an examination of abundant 
material, had been forwarded to him. : 
There seems to be no sufficient reason at present for changing the 
scabra of Fabr. into the scabralis of Guenee—the true relations of the 
Deltoidæ, whether to the Noctuas or to the Pyralites, being still a matter 
of opinion and discussion. 
I embrace the present opportunity to communicate the fact, that an 
example of Depressaria Ontariella Bethune, sent by me last fall to Dr. 
Speyer, and by him submitted to Zeller, was by the latter determined to 
be D. heracliana Deg. The opinion of Mr. Angus, recorded in vol. 3, p. 
19 of this Journal, that it was probably identical with the above named 
European species, is hereby confirmed. 
DESCRIPTIONS OF NORTH AMERICAN HYMENOPTERA, No. 7 
BY E. T. CRESSON, PHILADELPHIA, PENN. 
Continued from Page 54. 
Genus HELCON, Nees. 
Posterior femora toothed beneath near apex. 
Body entirely black, legs ferruginous........:..........:... 1. OCCIDENTALIS. 
Body black and ferruginous. 
Abdomen black, with broad median ferruginous band...2. BOREALIS. 
Abdomen entirely ferruginous. 
Metathorax and pleura more or less ferruginous ; 
posterior tarsi white. ..% osc.54.5 Ssaceee- 3. ALBITARSIS. 
Metathorax and pleura black ; posterior tarsi black.4. FRIGIDUS 
