Xenoglossa patricia, n. sp.—♂. Length about 22 mm., very stoutly built; head and thorax black, densely covered with short fulvous pubescence; abdomen and legs bright chestnut red. Head broad, eyes black, orbits somewhat converging above, ocelli very large, a linear groove descending from middle ocellus, vertex obscurely tessellate; clypeus broad, yellow, its upper margin suffused with orange, and its anterior margin narrowly rufous; surface of clypeus rough so as to look like the skin of a lemon; labrum yellow, with appressed, very short, pale fulvous pubescence; mandibles long, simple, with a large yellow patch near the base, suffused outwardly into a reddish tongue, which gradually loses itself in the black of the tips. Antennæ hardly reaching beyond tegulæ, piceous, with the scape, funicle, and first and last joints of flagellum, rufescent. First joint of flagellum longer than the two following, but not so long as the three following. Sculpture of thorax cannot be seen for the pubescence.

The recent discovery that the grain-feeding tenebrionid, Palorus melinus or depressus of American collections and literature, was in reality composed of two distinct species, as announced by the writer in the May number of Entomological News (Vol. VII., p. 138), finds a parallel in the recognition of Silvanus mercator, Fauvel, in local collections with S. surinamensis, Linn.

This species is described by me in Bull. Buff Soc., N. S., III., 85, not in the Geological Survey, as quoted in the Washington Catalogue. A comparison of the description proves that the insect before me could not have been M. olivacea. Its terms, both as to colour and markings, completely cover the description of M. circumcincta. There can, of course, be no reasonable doubt that the existing so-called “type” of comis is a specimen of olivacea, in which case the type label has been certainly transferred to another specimen after the type of comis was returned to Mr. Hy. Edwards. I do not remember that my type of comis was peculiarly set. The species was so much more vividly coloured that it did not even suggest to me olivacea, a species of which I possessed a long series.

Most of the members of this tribe are of at least moderate size, and are often quite ornately coloured. In form they are usually robust and convex, while lacking the rotundity of the Cryptocephalini. The genera of Eastern Canada may be arranged thus, the characters used being in the main drawn from the Leconte and Horn “Classification”:—

A. Anterior coxal cavities closed, metasternum long; reddish-yellow above, with black stripes. Entomoscelis.

♂. Length, 8.5–10 mm.; of anterior wings, about 6–7 mm. Black with bright yellow markings. Head nearly quadrate, a little wider than high, closely and finely punctate. Eyes entire, elongate oval, inner margins parallel, inclined to light olive green. Ocelli in a triangle, the first a little larger than the last two, and located at the base of a slight cavity. A small cavity back and on the outer side of each of hind ocelli. Head covered with a sparse growth of long whitish pubescence, becoming thicker on face and back of eyes. Clypeus yellow and rounded, with two distinct lobes, each just inside of an imaginary line drawn straight down from base of antennæ, also a small but less distinct lobe between these two, very slightly blackened between, and including lobes. Mandibles yellow outwardly, rufous tipped.

In 1889, Westwood, in the Synopsis of the then known Mantidæ, prefixed to his Revisio insectorum familiæ Mantidorum, credits to North America, north of Mexico, nine species belonging to five genera,— Gonatista, Oligonyx, Thesprotia, Mantis, and Stagmomantis. several species were overlooked by him, and in reality up to the present time twenty-three nominal species have been at different times credited to this region and referred to ten genera,—Ameles, Empusa, Phasmomantis, Stagmatoptera, and Theoclytes, besides the foregoing. Several of the species, however, have been erroneously credited to this country, such as Empusa gongylodes and Mantis gemmata, both of which are East Indian. Several of the names, moreover, are synonyms of others, so that the number of species these references represent is speedily reduced more than one-half. All of these but Mantis Wheeleri Thom., Phasmomantis sumichrasti Sauss., and Oligonyx Uhleri Stal, I have seen, and to them can add several more not before recognized in the region in question, six of them being apparently hitherto undescribed, together with one genus. The total number of species is fifteen or sixteen, and of genera, eleven, only three of the genera—Litaneutria, Stagmomantis, and Oligonyx—having more than one species; undoubtedly more forms will be found in the West and South.

When Mr. Fletcher was looking over my cases of moths during the short visit he paid me last summer, he particularly noticed a series of Hepialus argenteo-maculatus, and suggested that a short description of a variety that I have taken here would be interesting.

Prof. Roland Thaxter has sent me a specimen of what may be E. electilis, Morrison, and says: “The Eutolype is, as I suppose, electilis, and is subject to very great variation as to the depth and disposition of the darker shades and the clearness of the maculation, some being more or less obliterate and others on the plan of Coelodasys biguttatus, var. cinereofrons.” This is the first specimen I have had, and I can only say it represents a species distinct from Rolandi or depilis. Unfortunately, the abdomen is missing, and I cannot say if it is tufted. The black dash described by Morrison is incomplete. I saw the type in the Tepper collection, but had no opportunity of comparing it with the others. It reminded me, on a very cursory examination, of muralis, but as all the species have the peculiar facies of the group, this comparison goes for nothing.