THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



185 



ON OUR TABLE. 



From T. L. Ilarison, Secretary — Traiisac- 

 tious of tlie New York State Agricultural Soci- 

 ety, Volume XXVIII, 1807. In two parts, and 

 containing the Twelftli Annual Keport of the 

 State Entomologist, Dr. Fitch. 



From the author — Revision of the Large Sty- 

 lated Fossorial Crickets, by Saml. II. Scuilder. 

 Published by the Peabody Academy of Science. 



From the same — the Entomological Corres- 

 pondence of Thaddeus William Harris, M. D., 

 edited by Samuel H. Scudder. Published by 

 the Boston Society of Natural History. We 

 shall notice this work at greater length in our 

 next number. 



CRACK-JAW NAMES. 



We repeat once more, that such S('ientific 

 names as we are compelled to use, in order to 

 make our meaning clear to the scientific stu- 

 dent as well as to the popular reader, arc en- 

 closed in a parenthesis and printed in itnlics, 

 the common English names being inserted before 

 them. Those that do not care about the scientific 

 or Latin names, have nothing to do but to skip 

 every parenthesis (printed in italics), and they 

 will find the sense just as complete without, as 

 with, the parenthesis that is skipped. By this 

 contrivance we aim to accommodate all parties; 

 and while we attain the necessary degree of sci- 

 entific accuracy, to avoid jarring harshly upon 

 the ear of the plain practical man. 

 • ♦ » 



A NKW WoKlv ON THE BuTTEKFLIES OF NeW 



England. — We are glad to learn that Mr. 

 Samuel II. Scudder has in preparation a work 

 on the Butterflies of New England. We have 

 not room for a proper notice of it in our edito- 

 rial columns, but make room in our advertising 

 pages for a circular which we have received 

 from Mr. Scudder, and to which we call the 

 attention of our readers. Wo wish Mr. S. 

 success, and hope he will get all the assistance 

 he desires. 



To OUR SuBScuiBEKS IN CANADA. — Parties in 

 Canada, who wish to subscribe for the Amer- 

 ican Entomologist, should bear in mind that 

 they can obtain it, postage free, by remitting 

 one dollar to the Rev. C. J. S. Bethune, Secre- 

 tary to the Entomological Society of Canada, 

 Credit, C. W. 



CyCommunications from S. S. R., and from 

 D. A. A. Nichols, are unavoidably crowded out 

 of the present number, but will appear in Num- 

 ber 10. 



SEND PLENTY OF SPECIMENS. 



Correspondents often wonder why we so often 

 ask them to send us plenty of specimens of the 

 same kind or species of insect. Let us explain 

 why we do so. 



1st. In certain groups of insects, the classifi- 

 cation depends upon characters peculiar to one 

 sex, generally to the male sex. Hence, in order 

 to give us a fair chance of seeing both sexes, it 

 is necessary to send a number of specimens. In 

 many species of insects the males greatly out- 

 number the females or the reverse; and even 

 where this is not so, it might and often does 

 accidentally happen that, out of half a dozen 

 specimens taken at random, there will not be a 

 single male, or perhaps not a single female. 



-'d. It often happens, when only one or two 

 specimens are sent, that one or both happen to 

 have lost the very organs — say the antennas, or 

 the front legs— upon which their classification 

 depends. Or, if they are moths, that all the 

 scales are rubbed oft' their wings in the particu- 

 lar part of the wing which governs the classifi- 

 cation. 



3d. Suppose it is living larvje that are sent us, 

 and they happen to be unknown to us and we 

 have to breed the perfect insect to ascertain the 

 species. It often happens that out of twenty 

 larva; all but one or two are infested by para- 

 sites which eventually destroy them, and it 

 very generally happens that about one-half of a 

 lot of larvc-e are so destroyed. This reduces the 

 original stock of twenty larva" to ten. Prob- 

 ably, even with the most careful treatment, one- 

 half of this remaining number will die of dis- 

 ease before they attain the winged state, owing 

 to the unnatural conditions to which we are of 

 necessity compelled to subject them. This re- 

 duces the stock to five ; and five is the very 

 smallest number which is sufficient to give us a 

 reasonable chance of breeding both sexes, for 

 the reasons explained above. 



We repeat therefore to all our correspond- 

 ents, that the more specimens they send the 

 better it will be both for them and for us. 

 Where an insect is abundant, it is no more 

 trouble to collect a score of them than to collect 

 one ; and even where it is not so very abundant, 

 the trouble does not by any means increase in 

 proportion to the number gathered. In such 

 matters as these, we cannot calculate by the 

 Rule of Three. 



Erratum in No. 8 — Page 151, column 1, line 

 7 from bottom, for " from 0.004 to 0.006," read 

 " from 0.04 to 0.06."' 



