BULLETIN OF THE BROOKLYN ENT. 800. 95 



ing a continuous and uniform current of air, which can be still 

 further controlled by opening- or closing the cock V. 



If it is desired to introduce warm air into the larval skin, the 

 bottle K may be placed upon a sand-bath. 



The size and fineness of the point of the glass pipe E upon 

 which the larval skin is secured depends upon the size of the larvae, 

 therefore several sizes of them should be ready. 



To fasten the skin upon the glass point wind a common insect pin 

 around the glass, bend it along the pipe and make a small hook 

 of the pin point see fig. 2. or bind with thread two springs to the 



pipe fig. 3., have them bent rectangularly at the end and the tip 

 fitted to the pipe fig. 4. 



Large larvae can be prepared in from four to six minutes, mid- 

 dle sized from two to four minutes, and very small ones from one 

 to two minutes. 



H. SALTZWEDEL. 



On Synonymical and Varietal Names. 



Mr. Austin in his Presidential address "Psyche, March 1879 

 p. 223," protests against the tendency "sprung up recently," of 

 ignoring variations and regarding as synonyms the names under 

 which they have been described. 



The majority of collectors will find with me the "tendency," 

 against which Mr. Austin protests very praiseworthy and mer- 

 itorious ; it did not however, spring up so very recently ; our 

 greatest contemporaneous American Entomologist, Dr. Leconte 

 himself did the same thing a long time ago. 



Take for inst. his' Monograph on Pasimachus, Ann. Lye. Nat. 

 Hist. N. Y. 1848, where you find twelve species, which Leconte 

 himself reduced in his notes on Pasimachus, Bull. Buff. Soc,. Jan. 

 1874, p. 266, to seven, regarding the remaining five as variations, 



He says page 268 : 



"This species (P. sublaevis) varies in size and sculpture and there 

 is every intermediate grade between the type to the smooth and 

 more shining substriatus. These intermediate forms were describ- 



