﻿20 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



opened a nest of Formica zealandica, which contained large numbers of 

 winged males and females, so that I conclude this species takes its conjugal 

 flight in the spring, whilst that of Atta antarctica occurs in the autumn. 

 On August 29th and 31st I was engaged in collecting Coleoptera, and, 

 besides taking several of the Pselaphidm, succeeded in obtaining four or five 

 specimens of Otiorhynchus sulcatus, a somewhat uncommon species in 

 New Zealand. September has been a warm wet month. The commonest 

 species of Lepidoptera was Pasiphila bilineolata ?, of which I managed to 

 obtain a good series, and hope, with the assistance of Mr. Meyrick, to be 

 able at last to rescue that unfortunate insect from the chaotic condition in 

 which it has so long been involved. Sept. 22nd was a lovely spring day, and 

 on visiting an old locality, where I have collected at least weekly for upwards 

 of seven years, I was astonished to meet with Vanessa otea, a species hitherto 

 only recorded from localities as far north as Napier and New Plymouth. I 

 also saw many hybernated specimens of Vanessa cardui, so it appears likely 

 that we are again to be favoured with this interesting species in unusual 

 numbers. I should also mention that during the last week in September, 

 a young friend of mine captured two male specimens of Charagia vlrescens 

 at a shop window in Palmerston North, attracted by the light. It will 

 therefore, perhaps, be necessary to somewhat modify the statement in my 

 former paper as to the rarity of that species in the imago state (Entom. 

 Feb. 1885). In one of these specimens the white spots on the forewings 

 are slightly larger than usual, almost forming a continuous band from the 

 costa to the inner margin of the wing. The other is typical. — G. V. 

 Hudson ; Wellington, New Zealand, October 3, 1889. 



Hydradephaga near London. — My search for aquatic beetles in a 

 pond near Tottenham during the present month, resulted in the capture of 

 nineteen specimens of Hydrophilus piceus, sixteen of which were perfect. 

 The elytra of one were somewhat deformed, so I returned it to its haunts. 

 Dytiscus marginalis was also very plentiful there. The pond was large 

 and deep, but the beetles were amongst the weeds near the surface and 

 about three or four feet from the edge of the pond. Near Stamford Hill, 

 about the same time, I also got Dytiscus circumflexus (2), D. punctulatus, 

 and Hydrous caraboides. With II. piceus were also four nice specimens 

 of Ranatra linearis. — F. Milton; 164, Stamford Hill, N., Nov. 20. 



New Views on the suborder Homoptera. — Burmeister says 

 truly, " a system can only separate and connect where Nature itself has 

 marked separation and connection." I will not involve myself in a 

 discussion as to the sharp and natural distinctions between suborders and 

 families. As Mr. Distant (Entom. xxii. 360) seems to be clear in his mind 

 on this point, I, in company with others, should value his definitions, or 

 those, indeed, of any one competent to give them. Species, for practical 

 purposes, are natural facts. Families are inferences from facts, which is a 

 very different thing. I now gather that " les Cigalles Muettes," of 

 Latreille, including the Fulgorinae, Cercopinse, Jassinae, &c, are neither 

 Cicada? nor Cicadidse, but that they range as equally distinct groups with 

 Aphis, Coccus, and Psylla. But I suggest that the authorities of great 

 names (the pioneers of Zoology) are not to be dismissed simply because 

 they seem to be not "modern." My critic " knows no silent Cicadidse." How- 

 ever, under one or more of the following terms, — Cicada?, Cicadariae, Cica- 

 didse, Cicadinse, Cicadellidse, Cicadinen, and Cicadelles, — Les Muettes are 



