330 General Notes. [April, 



revision of this family, and its appearance has been anxiously 

 awaited. It will, so far as it embraces our species, replace the 

 list given by Baron Osten Sacken, in the Proceed. Entomolog. Soc. 

 Phita., iv. pp. 379-80, published in 1865, since which time, many 

 new species have been discovered, and generic rearrangements 

 necessitated. The list given above numbers fifty-two species, and 

 from the statement made by Mr. Bassett, that "it contains less 

 than half of our species," it appears that a full list of our Cynipidae 

 will consist of at least a hundred species. Such a list, Mr. Bassett 

 hopes to publish ere long, when he shall have determined the 

 generic position of such species as are not included above. — Ed. J 

 Mode of Feeding of the Larva of Dytiscus. — Mr. Edward 

 Burgess, in a paper on the mouth in the larva of Dytiscus 1 gives 

 an interesting illustrated account of the mode of taking food 

 through the sickle-like jaws, and shows conclusively that instead 

 of being mouthless, as ordinarily assumed, this larva has a very 

 wide mouth, though the lips are locked together by a dove-tailed 

 groove joint. The food is sucked into an oval opening at tip of 

 the jaws, and drawn along a canal on the inside to a basal outlet 

 which, when the jaws are closed on a victim, is brought into the 

 corner of the mouth, so that the larva sucks up its victim's 

 fluids " as a man inhales the smoke of a pipe stuck in the side of 

 hfe mouth." 



Entomological Notes. — Mr. Wm. H. Edwards argues in the 

 December number of the Canadia that Ltmenitis 



arthemis is single-brooded, and not double-brooded, as Mr. Scud- 



der has maintained. Dr. J. A. Osborne has recently recorded 



further experiments proving the occurrence of parthenogenesis in 

 Gastrophysa raphani,but believes that it has no place in the economy 

 of the insect analogous to that of bees and wasps, but that it is con- 

 comitant of a prevalent species supplied with abundant food of a 



stimulating character. Professor Fernald, in the December 



number of Papilio, gives reason to believe that the Tortricid 

 genus Exartema is equivalent to Eccopsis Zeller, which has 



priority. We regret very much to learn that Mr. A. R. Grote 



has returned from Europe in quite poor health, and hope he may 

 soon recover. While abroad he sold his collection of Noctuidai 

 to the British Museum at a price variously stated from $3000 to 

 £5000. It is greatly to be regretted that the collection should 



ever have left this country. The news of the death of Mr. 



Jules Putzeys, on January 2d, will be received with regret by col- 

 eopterists. Putzeys is well known as the author of several care- 

 ful monographs of some of the most difficult groups and genera 

 of Carabid beetles. In accordance with the wishes of the de- 

 ceased, his valuable collection has been donated to the Entomo- 

 logical Society of Belgium. 



1 Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist, xxi, pp. 223-8. 



