275 



Wales, Second Series, voluDie yii. In this part the author lists the 

 Scoliiclre, Sphegidie, Poirii:>ilidie (wrongly spelled with a double i), Lar- 

 ridae, Nyssonidre, Philauthida?, Crabronidai, Bembicidae, Masaridae, 

 Eumenidae, Yespidae, Andrenidae, and Apida^ 



The Catalogue is wisely published in small octavo, with blank leaves 

 freely interspersed. The latter feature is one which will be appreciated 

 by collectors. 



THE GENUS MIRAX. 



Mr. Wilham H. Ashmead, in Psyche for January, 1893, describes five 

 species of the genus Mirax, which is the first time this genus has been 

 recorded in this country with the exception of the indication of three 

 species by manuscript names in Insect Life, vol. in, p. 15. The 

 genus belongs to the Microgasterinae, and all of the si)ecies so far known 

 are parasitic upon micro-lepidoptera. But one species is known in 

 Europe. 



AN IMPORTANT PAPER ON BUTTERFLIES. 



Under the title ''The Tropical Faunal Element of our Southern 

 nS'ymphalinae systematically Treated," Mr. S. H. Scudder has published 

 in the current volume of the Proceedings of the American Academy of 

 Arts and Sciences (pp. 236-251) a i^aper of great interest to the student 

 of faunal limits. He shows that nearly all the genera of the subfamily 

 I^ymphalinae, which are essentially tropical or sub-tropical and are 

 represented on the extreme southern border of the United States by a 

 very few species each (and some of these must be considered more or 

 less accidental visitors), belong to a few tribes which directly follow one 

 another between the Nymphalini and the Vanessini. In previous sys- 

 tematic arrangements they have not been as closely connected as they 

 should be, on account of the great diversity of forms, and Mr. Scudder 

 therefore gives a succinct treatment, with accounts of the early stages, 

 largely drawn from Wilhelm Mueller's " Siidamerikanische Nymphaliden 

 ^Raupen," but supplemented from various sources. 



THE TOBACCO SPHINX IN LOUISIANA. 



Bulletin ^o. 20 of the Second Series, North Louisiana Experiment 

 Station, just received, is devoted to the subject of tobacco-growing in 

 Louisiana, with results of experiments at Calhoun. In a paragraph 

 towards the end of the bulletin brief mention is made of the damage 

 done by the larva of the Tobacco Sphinx, and the statement is made 

 that the old remedy of injecting a few drops of sweetened cobalt into 

 the tubular- shaped flower of the common ''jimpson weed" has proved 

 quite effectual in Louisiana. The jimpson weeds were transplanted to 

 the margins of the tobacco fields for use in this way, and it is interest- 

 ing to note that the farmers of Louisiana are so imbued with the desir- 

 ability of clean culture that visitors to the station have been in the 



