1889.] Entomology. 453 
and three hundred) which he has examined there is at the 
base of the inner surface of the palps a naked spot which can 
be always easily seen. He consequently regards it as typical 
of the order. 
It is generally well defined and ordinarily occupies the basal 
half of the first joint of the palp. The rings or furrows dis- 
covered by Landois are always present, though often indis- 
tinct or incomplete. When present, they ordinarily occupy 
the greater part of the basal spot, and are more or less par- 
allel. They are best developed on the part of the surface 
which, in the natural position of the palps, is directed upwards 
and inwards ; it is this part which is most commonly pressed 
against the basal part of the proboscis, which is provided 
with a raised ridge. 
In addition to these rings there are peculiar forms of hairs 
which do not seem to have ever yet been described. They 
are conical in form, chitinous, are surrounded at their base by 
a circular membrane ; they are all connected with nerve- 
fibers, on which, just before they enter the cone, a ganglionic 
swelling can be seen. There are several hundreds of these 
cones, and, in addition to them, there are immense numbers 
of similar, but much smaller, conical bodies. In the Micro- 
lepidoptera there are sometimes also pits or pores, and some- 
times these are alone present. 
There can be no doubt that we have here to do with spe- 
cific sensory organs, but what is the special sense we do not 
know. The author is inclined to think that it is of an olfac- 
tory nature. The cones exhibit the greatest variability and 
highest grade of development in the Rhopalocera, and their 
variations may be of use in the definition of families and gen- 
era. In the Butterflies proper, the organ in question is al- 
ways much larger and better developed in the male than in 
the female.— y^^/^'. Royal Micr. Soc, 1888, p. 943- 
Parasite of Cosmopolitan Insects.— Under the title 
of " A Commencement of the Study of the Parasites of Cos- 
mopolitan Insects,"' Mr. L. O. Howard gives a list of nearly 
100 insects, common to the Old World and the New, to- 
gether with a list of the European parasites of each, and a 
second list of the American parasites of each. This paper 
presents us with a large amount of information in a very com- 
pact space, and we hope it is only a forerunner of a more ex- 
tended paper by the same careful author. 
As illustrating the practical use that can be made of infor- 
* Proc. of the Ent. Soc. of Washington, Vol. i., pp. 118-36. 
