363 



insects, in general their damage is frequently underestimated. In 

 case of small plants death may speedily ensue, and in the ^case of 

 larger ones the vitality and consequent fruit yield are greatly reduced. 

 To the objection that a drain on the fruit production is not necessarily 

 harmful and that we are obliged to clieck exuberant growtli by i)run- 

 ing, he replies that the purpose of pruning is not so mucdi to check the 

 energies of the plant as to divert them to fruit and flowers, while the 

 Coccidai attack not only the fruiting branches but the fiuit itself, injur- 

 ing the very parts it is desired to protect. Of the fourteen species 

 which attack Citrus plants in the United States, he finds that eleven 

 occur in Jamaica. 



NORTH AMERICAN NEUROPTERA. 



A most useful paper has just reached us in the shape of a Synopsis, 

 Catalogue, and Bibliography of the Neuropteroid Insects of temi)erate 

 North America, by Nathan Banks. It is an author's extra from the 

 Transactions of the American Entomological Society, Vol. xix, i)p. 

 327-373. The key to families and genera will be found of considerable 

 value in separating the forms of these insects, which have been little 

 studied in this country except by Dr. Hagen, the forced cessation of 

 whose labors will prevent the publication of a comprehensive work at 

 his hands. The catalogue of species which follows is unexi^ectedly ex- 

 tensive and the bibliography seems full and accurate. In the grouping 

 of the forms into super- orders, orders, sub-orders, and super-families, Mr. 

 Banks gives expression to somewhat radical views, which mayor may not 

 be warranted, but which seem somewhat presumptuous following the 

 careful study and philosophic treatment which the subject has received 

 at the hands of such masters as Brauer and Packard. Thus the Ple- 

 coptera and the Corrodentia are made sub-orders of the Platyptera, the 

 Plectoptera and Odonata sub-orders of the so-called order Subulicor- 

 nia, while the Mecaptera are made a sub-order oi the Neuroptera, on 

 the same plane with the sub-order Planipennia, in which are included 

 the super-families Sialina and Megaloptera. The whole group of Neu- 

 ropteroid forms is made a super-order, Phyloptera. It is to be regretted 

 that in proposing so radical a change in the classification of tlie higher 

 groups, Mr. Banks has not stated more at length the reasons which 

 have led him to adopt this course. 



NEW ENTOMOLOGICAL PUBLICATION. 



The recently- organized New York Entomological Society has pub- 

 lished the first number of its Journal, which reached us early in April 

 of the i^resent year. It covers 48 pages of interesting matter, and is 

 illustrated by a full-page plate. The appearance of the Journal is ex- 

 cellent, and the contributors include such well-known entomological 

 writers as Mrs. Slosson, Dr. Packard, Mr. Angell, Mrs. Treat, Mr. 

 Charles Palm, Messrs. Neumoegen and Dyar, Mr. Beutenmuller, and 



