228 



edly to the same species. Of these, 16 males and 24 females have three 

 submarginals, and 8 males and- 29 females have four. A connecting 

 link between the two equal groups is formed by the remaining three 

 specimens, which are females, and in each of which the left wing has 

 four and the right wing three submarginals. Rudiments of the absent — 

 or additional — cross-nervure may also be detected in a few of the other 

 specimens. 



As might be expected in a series of this length, there is a certain de- 

 gree of variation in size, coloring, shape of antennae, etc., but none 

 apparently to warrant a separation into two species, or even varieties. 

 I have, however, two males and one female, collected May 27, which have 

 the abdomen perfectly immaculate, the legs paler and the antennae 

 shorter, and which appear to be distinct, and to belong to Monostegia. 

 The antennae in these specimens more resemble those of Monophadntis, 

 having the second joint as long as the third and fourth united, and the 

 apex blunt ; whereas the antennae in H. maculatus (especially in the male) 

 are longer and more tapering, and have the third, fourth, and fifth 

 joints more or less subequal. 



Mr. Malley in his excellent plate figures the antennae of his straw- 

 berry pest as of the Monostegia form, and also indicates differences in 

 the larvae, and possibly the species bred by him may really be a Mon- 

 ostegia and distinct from the specimens with four submarginals which 

 I have taken and consider to be E. maculatus. The ornamentation of 

 the abdomen, however, seems so characteristic that one would hardly 

 expect to find insects thus marked feeding upon the same plant and 

 yet belonging to different genera. 



ADULTS OF THE AMERICAN CIMBEX INJURING THE WILLOW 

 AND COTTONWOOD IN NEBRASKA 



By F. M. Webster, Lafayette, Ind. 



Under date of June 11, 1889, Hon. R. M. Pritchard, an old-time friend 

 of the writer in Illinois, but now residing near Pender, Thurston 

 County, Nebr., sent me specimens of both sexes of this species, accom- 

 panied by two letters, reading substantially as follows : 



A few days since I was out in my grove of ash, willow, cotton wood, and box-elder, 

 and was not a little startled by finding myself surrounded by what I first thought by 

 their buzzing noise to be great numbers of the large, black hornets; but as the in- 

 sects were not inclined to attack me, like the hornets of my boyhood days, I began 

 to examine them and watch their movements. There were thousands of them, appar- 

 ently in the act of mating, but for the most part flying high in the tops of the largest 

 trees, being divided into groups which in their movements seemed to alternately ap- 

 proach and retreat from a central point among the tree-tops, making a noise like a 

 lot of hornets, but moving much slower and more clumsily than hornets. I found a 

 small number settled on the leaves and limbs of the ash and willows, where they 

 seemed to be feeding on the sap. To-day I have been watching them more carefully, 



