Measurements: Length of body, ♂ 26.5 mm., ♀ 29 mm.; of pronotum, ♂ 7.5 mm.; ♀ 6.7 mm.; of hind femora, ♂ 20.5 mm., ♀ 21.5 mm.; of tegmina, ♂ 41 mm., ♀ 46 mm.; of ovipositor, 32 mm.

This is a very common insect in Ontario, ranging northward about far as Muskoka and the Bruce Peninsula. It frequents fields, vacant lots and roadsides, which resound at night with the incessant monotonous song, during late summer and autumn.

Scudder describes this song as composed of a succession of sounds like “chwi,” emitted at the rate of about five per second. He states that it stridulates only at night or during cloudy weather, but I have occasionally heard it in bright sunshine, in the afternoon. It is the most easily approached of all our locustarians while thus engaged, and is in fact difficult to find in any other way; hence the females are but seldom seen.

In my former paper a preliminary discussion of certain genera in Geometridæ made plain the need for a general rearrangement of this group. But this cannot be done as regards all of the species without much close study and comparison of types. Therefore, I venture at this time only to outline what seems to me the most rational method of arrangement into sub-families and genera—to include new material and to correct many errors in definition, and in some cases identification of generic types, as given by Dr. Hulst (Trans. Am. Ent. Soc., xxiii., 245, 1896). I claim nothing original in my work, for I consider the general scheme, as devised by Dr. Hulst, the best that can be produced, nor do I need to add to his introduction of it, as given in the article referred to, except to say that I am strongly in accord with him when he states that this family are most nearly related to the Noctuidæ. In my arrangement of genera I place, therefore, Paleacrita at the head of the series.

It is now over three years since I published a list of Albertan butterflies under the above title. The list gave promise “to be continued,” and it was fully intended at the time to publish the continuation the same year, but for a variety of reasons it had to be postponed. The delay, however, has not been without advantages. Not only have a number of species come to hand that had not been recorded here up to that time, but many that were then standing under names by which I had known them for years, have been found to be wrongly named, and several of them have been described as new species. Closer study, too, of long series, has resulted in a better understanding of nearly allied forms; and it is hoped that some of the notes here appended, though they have no claim to perfection, will enable some obscure species to be more easily separated than they have been hitherto. At the same time, I much regret that I have not been able to make more comparison of local material with that from other districts. Not only has it been hard to spare the time which much exchanging calls for, but it has often proved a very difficult, if not impossible matter, to get by exchange some of the commonest species, their very commonness seeming to render them, so to speak, scarce, at least in collections. I hope, however, to pay more attention to exchange in the future, and when more forms from other localities have come to hand the result of their study, and comparison with their Alberta representatives will probably be published from time to time.

The larvæ of this Noctuid moth were again found at Ottawa the past season, in beds of Irises, on the grounds of the Central Experimental Farm. They were not, however, at all numerous, and did not do any appreciable harm this years. Two larvæ were collected on July 28, one of which was inflated; the other pupated on Aug. 1, the moth emerging on Sept. 7. Another larva was found on Aug. 4, the moth appearing on Sept. 15. The pupa of the former specimen was much larger than any of those obtained in 1903, an account of which appeared in the last Annual Report of the Entomological Society of Ontario. This pupa measured 30 mm. in length and 7.5 in width.

The family Ægialitidæ, then known by but one species, was placed by Dr. LeConte (Classification of the Coleoptera of North America, p. xxxvi.) in association with those Heteromera having the anterior coxal cavities closed behind. This structure is also assigned to Ægialites in the detailed account of the insect on page 388 of the same work. Dr. Sharp, in his recent treatise on insects (Cambridge Natural History, Vol. VI., p. 265), speaks of the anterior coxæ as being “completely closed in,” while Dr. Geo. Horn, though dissecting a specimen for a study of the mouthparts, seems to have overlooked the coxal structure, or he would certainly have alluded to it in his notes on the genus (Trans. American Ento. Soc., XV., p. 27). In view of the statements in the books, I was surprised, a few months ago, by the receipt of a letter from the Rev. J. H. Keen, in which he asserted that the cavities of the anterior coxæ are open behind, as in indeed the case. Mr. Keen's observation is of great importance, in that it opens the way to a proper appreciation of the systematic position of the insect.

When writing (p. 330) on the genus Apista, F. Smith, 1861, I unfortunately overlooked the fact that the generic name is long preoccupied (Apista, Hübn, 1816, and the similar Apistus, Cuvier, 1829). The bee genus from Brazil may therefore be known as Egapista, n. n., type Egapista opalina (Apista opalina, Smith).

I find that the name of the African bee-genus Serapis, F. Smith, 1854, is also preoccupied (Serapis, Link, 1830); it may be changed to Serapista; type Serapista denticulata (Serapis denticulatus, Smith).

The name Eumorpha proposed by Friese for a group of bees, is also preoccupied. The group Rhodocentris, Friese, includes the type of the prior Heterocentries, Ckll.; so the latter name must be used for the group, unless (as seems probable) it can be divided.

On the 18th of June, 1904, while collecting dragon-fly nymphs in Grenadier Pond, Toronto, I found two Gomphus exuviæ resting on the surface of a thick growth of algæ a few feet from the edge of the pond. I examined the debris and black swamp mud from the bottom, just below, the spot where the skins were taken, and found one nymph about two-thirds grown, apparently of the same species. On June 20th I found another exuvia on a similar part of the shore, and on examining the bottom I found several half-grown nymphs and one full-grown one, which was crawling along the surface of the algæ, evidently ready to transform. In the evening a male Gomphus furcifer emerged.

When I was working on the Haploas, previous to the publication of my paper on “The North American Callimorphas” (Can. Ent., XIX, 181–191), I appealed to Mr. A. G. Butler for information in regard to Walker's types, and he very kindly sent me sketches of the types of Contigua and Confinis as then standing in the British Museum collection, but as what was shown as the former was practically the same as the latter, I wrote that I thought there must be some mistake, and sent a drawing of what we, in this country, understood to be Contigua. Mr. Butler, in replying, said I was quite right, and that Mr. Walker, with his usual carelessness, had got the Contigua label on the wrong specimen, and thanked me for calling his attention to the error, which he had corrected.

On page 351 of this magazine Professor Cockerell notes his observation of the Pogonomyrmex occidentalis at Ruleton, within twelve miles of the western limit of Kansas, and considers this as the indication of the eastern limit or beginning of the arid region. Our investigations of the range of this large ant in Kansas have shown us that its eastern limit is found far to the east of the point mentioned. The species occurs as far east in this State as the Sixth Principal Meridian, or in the counties of Republic, Ottawa, McPherson and Sedgwick, on a line about two-fifths of the length of the State from the eastern border. One would scarcely be acquainted with climatic conditions in Kansas who should consider this ant as a mark of the “arid region,” as west of the line indicated are found some of the best farming lands of the State. Especially is this true of the wheat lands, as the counties named are among those famous for the production of this cereal. Notwithstanding its occasional occurrence along the extreme eastern limit above indicated, the favoured home of the species is really within the western hundred miles of the State, and thence west to the mountains, where in specially suitable localities it sometimes occurs in astonishing abundance.