287 



corn. But I lost the cai^tor and its victim, the former slipping- out of my finger by its 

 thin, flat, long body. I think Casuonias are better fitted to bunt the Chinches than 

 the Coccinelke, unless the latter are more efficient in the larval state. * * * — 

 [Emile Longuemare, St. Louis, Mo., October 20, 1888. 



Army Worm in 1888. 



* * * The Army Worm appeared in this section in greater numbers than I ever 

 saw before. They hurt the Barley crop along the lake in Monroe County, 20 per cent. 

 They seemed to be more numerous near the lake. Nearly all I examined "were Ichneu- 

 monized. — [Harry S. Burnett, Kendall, Orleans Co., N. Y., September 27, 1888. 



STEPS TOWARDS A REVISION OF CHAMBERS'S INDEX,* WITH NOTES 

 AND DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW SPECIES. 



By Lord Walsingham. 

 [ Continued from page 268.] 



CEROSTOMA Latr. 

 Cerostoma radiatella Don. 



= Pluteloptera ochrella Chamb. 



In describing the genus Plateloptera, of which his species ochrella is the type, Cham- 

 bers wrote : "Fore-wings: These differ from those of Plutella cruciferarum only by 

 having two branches of the discal vein continued through the cell in which they 

 unite, forming an iudex3endent, elongate, triangular cell, beside the secondary cell 

 seen in Plutella.'^ 



In this and in all other respects the neuration as described and figured agrees with 

 that of the genus Cerostoma, and a comparison of a Texan specimen obviously such 

 as Chambers had before him when describing P. ochrella from Texas, with a full series 

 of Californian and European examples of Cerostoma radiatella Don., confirms the 

 identity of the species. 



The figure of the hind- wing in Chambers's plate is not well shaped, but I have no 

 doubt that oc/<re7/a is merely a synonym of the common and widely distributed C 

 radiatella known to be extremely variable in color and markings ; many European 

 specimens being exactly similar to the Texan form. The second joint of the palpi is 

 somewhat more thickly clothed in Eurojpean than in American specimens, a pecul- 

 iarity which occurs also in Cleodora. 



Cerostoma subsylvella sp. n. 



Palpi, on the inner side whitish, the outer side of the long dependent tuft of hairs 

 fawn color; apical joint whitish. 



Antennw, white, aunulated with fawn brown. 



Head and thorax, pale fawn color. 



Foi'e-ioings, pale fawn color, sprinkled and mottled with fawn brown, a patch of dark, 

 purplish fuscous scales on the dorsal margin near the internal angle, and another 

 preceding the anal angle, a faint indication of two similar spots on the costal mar- 

 gin in some sj)ecimens, one of which is opposite the second dorsal si^ot ; a few dark 

 scales at the apex. [The dorsal spots are not continued across the wing as in 

 the European species sijlvella, and partially in alpella, nor is there any indication 

 of a longitudinal streak as in the allied American species cervella Wlsm.] 



*Index to the described Tineina of the United States and Canada. V. T. Cham- 

 bers. Bull. U. S. Geol. and Geog. Surv., IV (1), 1878. 



