311 



Elwes, of Preston House, Cirencester, England. One of these is a bro- 

 chure on a very anomalous and interesting group of moths having pecu- 

 liarly elongated and narrowed hind wings, the title being " On some 

 Moths allied to Himantopterus." There has been great difficulty in 

 placing these moths in the proper systematic position, but from Mr. 

 Elwes' paper there can be little doubt that they are closely allied to the 

 Procrid?e, having many characteristics in common with our American 

 species of Procris. Xo less than two subfamilies and five genera have 

 been proposed for this group consisting of nine supposed species, " of 

 which," as Mr. Elwes says, " one or two may not be distinct, and only 

 three are known from sufficiently good specimens of both sexes to enable 

 them to be fully described." We commend the following expression to 

 Lepidopterists, because it fully comports with our own feeling : 



It seems to me that descriptions of new species which are to be certainly identified 

 by future workers must be accompanied either by a correct illustration or by such 

 a comparison with their allies as may enable their distinctive characters to be appre- 

 ciated. I have found that the difficulty of acquiring a correct knowledge of Lepi- 

 doptera is greatly increased by the non-comparative descriptions which are often 

 given, so that it is not surprising that few workers have studied exotic moths, or that 

 still fewer of those who have studied them have done so in a thorough aud careful 



On the Lists of Coleoptera published by the Geological Survey of Canada, 

 i842-'88. — Under this title Mr. \V^. H. Harrington has brought together 

 in accessible form a somewhat revised compilation of these hitherto 

 almost inaccessible lists, which, although short, derive value from the 

 fact that the specimens were collected in many instances in remote dis- 

 tricts and before the influx of settlers, and from the further fact that 

 all but three short recent lists were furnished by Dr. Le Conte. The 

 paper is published in the Canadian Entomologist^ Vol. xxil, 1890, p. 

 135, aud the author has sent out specially bound extras. 



A newWlieat Fly.* — Mr. H. Garman, in Bulletin I^o.30 of the Kentucky 

 Station, describes the different stages of Oscinis variabilis (0 Loew., 

 which he finds quite abundant in Kentucky, feeding, in the larval state, 

 on young wheat. In the fall it especially infests wheat growing upon 

 spots where the shocks had stood during the summer, aud the author has 

 also found the adult in the spring in wheat and grasses, and later in the 

 latter alone. He dwells on the importance of the destruction of volun- 

 teer wheat and oats in the fall aud winter, on account of the great num- 

 ber of grain insects which they harbor. 



* Kentucky Agricultural Experimental Station, Bulletin No. 30, Lexington, August, 

 1890. 



