THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
95 
American continent, with descriptions of 
nearly 100 species. Of course all these 
are not my own, for I have been com- 
pelled to extract many from Mr. W alker’s 
List of the British Museum. It is in- 
tended, however, only as a basis on which 
the information, so much needed respect- 
ing species in our country, can be con- 
veniently worked up. I have added to 
it an “ Essay on the Classification of the 
Heterocera.” You must not smile; you 
must remember that here we are un- 
trammelled by any established reference 
books, which tie down miuds to some 
particular ideas. With us everything has 
yet to be done, and in what I have 
written I have endeavoured to treat the 
subject philosophically, and with refe- 
rence to what I regard as natural. This 
paper will be published during the sum- 
mer in the ‘Journal of the Academy of 
Natural Sciences ’ in Philadelphia. * * * 
I have, however, something else to tell 
you, which will perhaps give you more 
pleasure. I have been working at the 
Micros, or rather the Tineina. I could 
have accomplished much more than I 
have, had I not suffered during last sum- 
mer from several weeks of illness that 
confined me to my room. The majority 
of my summer observations were lost, or 
at least their results. During the Fall, 
however, I managed to collect and de- 
scribe about sixty larvae ; the perfect 
insects have been appearing during the 
last week or two, but many, I fear, have 
died in the pupa state. 
The following are some of the genera 
which I have recognised beyond any 
>t : — 
Plutella. 
Goleophora. 
Gracilaria. 
Ornix. 
Cosmopteryx (a most beautiful spe- 
cies, which, I think, must be 
very like Drurella). 
Tischeria. 
Lithocolletis (about fifteen species). 
Nepticula larvae were collected, but 
have not yet produced perfect 
insects. 
Bbeckenridge Clemens. 
(To be continued.) 
NOTICES OF BOOKS. 
Catalogue of British Fossorial Hymen- 
optera, Formicidce and Vespidce in the 
Collection of the British Museum. By 
Frederick Smith, V.-P.E.S. Lon- 
don : printed by order of the Trustees. 
1858. Price 6s. 
Another volume from the pen of Mr. 
Smith we gladly welcome. The title 
sufficiently explains the contents of the 
‘ Catalogue’ before us, and we proceed to 
give some extracts for the benefit of such 
of our readers as have not yet seen the 
volume. 
We pass over the Formicidse for the 
present, and plunge at once into the 
Fossores, the habits of which insects are 
always interesting. 
Of the genus Sapyga , which comprises 
only two British species, Punctata and 
Clavicornis, we read as follows (p. 50): — 
“ The economy of this genus of insects 
has been a disputed point with entomo- 
logists; by some they are stated to be 
parasitic; by others that they store up 
the larvte of Lepidoptera for their young 
brood ; St. Fargeau states that he ob- 
served the latter circumstance. I have 
also observed the same fact ; the female 
was seen hovering about a sand-bank, 
closely perforated by a species of Colletes , 
and was carrying its prey, with which it 
entered a burrow ; the prey appeared to 
be a caterpillar, and on digging into the 
bank, four cells filled with small green 
caterpillars were found ; the contents of 
each were carefully placed in a separate 
pill-box, and from each mass was reared 
a specimen of Sapyga punctata. It is 
