146 



entomologists (and I myself have sometimes been led astray), I 

 must confess that botanists are rarely observed to err when re- 

 ferring to insects ; but this no doubt is because they rarely refer 

 to them. Unfortunately, the July issue of Torreya, pp. 1 19-123, 

 contains an article the entomology in which is no better than the 

 botany in the paper cited above. The plant-louse called Ap/iis 

 cratacgi may have been Macrosiphuni cratacgi {Sipho7iophora 

 cratacgi, Monell, 1879), hitherto known from the Central States, 

 or it may have been Aphis cratacgifoliac Fitch, or A. fitcliii 

 Sanderson, or something else. That the ants were the Mexican 

 Mynnecocystus (not " Myi^micocysiis" ) mcUiger Llave, one may 

 venture to doubt. Podabnts prninosiis LeConte (not '' pruiii- 

 asiis " ) has long been known to be a synonym of P. toiuentosus 

 Say. It is Coccinclla, not " Coxinclla'' ; and Diabrotica sovor is 

 not a ladybird, but is a plant-feeder of the family Chrysomelidae. 



T. D. A. COCKERELL. 

 Boulder, Colorado. 



A Note regarding the Discharge of Spores of Pleuro- 

 TUS OSTREATUS. — A few evenings since a friend brought me a 

 fine plant of the above species, consisting of about twenty-five 

 pileoli, growing from a common base and arranged in the form 

 of a large rosette, about twelve inches in diameter and of about 

 the same height. Knowing the plant to be very fresh, not yet 

 forty-eight hours old, I decided to keep it and cook it upon the fol- 

 lowing day. For the night it was left upon my study table, in the 

 same position in which it grew (gills downward). Farly the next 

 morning my attention was called to the plant by my wife who 

 asked me to come and observe it. It happened to be exposed to 

 a very strong morning sunlight, which entered the window three 

 or four feet away. The spores were arising from the plant like 

 tiny spirals of smoke or steam, to the height of two or three 

 feet, making to us a very strange sight. At first I doubted if the 

 "smoke" was really the spores, but after a careful microscoj^ic 

 examination of some which were caught upon a slide this point 

 was definitely .settled. Perhaps other agarics spore in a similar 

 manner, but never having had conditions favorable before I can- 

 not say. Certainly the fact was interesting to mc and for this 



