Article beginning on page 460.
Psyche 6:460, 1891.

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us in looking for important revelations
in other descendants of annelid-like
forms. Taking the embryo as our main
guide in determining questions of
primitive number and arrangement, we
find the possible hypotheses on the
Malpighian vessels to be quite limited ; since in no insect embryo have more
than three fairs of these vessels been
found.
Gegenbaur* observed the frequent
recurrence of the number two (some
times expressed only in the common
openings of numerous vessels) through-
out all the divisions of the Arthropoda. Hence this number, he concludes, may
be regarded as primitive. It is obvious
that this statement may be correct for
the Arthropoda in general and still in
no wise conflict with the view that the
ancestor of a particular subgroup may
have had more than two Malpighian ves-
sels. Thus Protentomon may have had
several pairs and these, if ascertainable, might be regarded as constituting the
typical number for the Hexapoda. The
remote ancestor of Protentomon may
have had but a single pair.
Two views have been advanced as to
the number of Malpighian vessels in
BRIEF No~~s.-Thorell has just published
a second octavo volume of about PO pp. on the spiders of Indo-Malesia. It is devoted to the lower groups, and closes with a
table of the geographical distribution of the 462 spiders so far known from that region. Our students of Neuroptera will be grate- ful to Nathan Banks for his Synopsis, cata- logue and bibliography of the neuropteroid insects of temperate North America just
primitive insects.
Paul Mayer,* in his
well known treatise, expressed himself
very clearly on this subject. After
doing full justice to all the facts at his disposal he concludes : "Dass die
anzahl der paare bei Protentomon 2
betrug, ist so gut wie sicher." The
embryological evidence accumulated in
1876 was perhaps too meagre to lead to
any other conclusion.
In two recent papers Cholodkowskyt
advances the opinion that the primitive
number of Malpighian vessels in insects
is two. He bases his conclusions on
some very interesting observations, to
which I shall have occasion to revert,
when I come to consider the Lepidop-
tera.
My own observations on the embryos
and larvse of several insects, together
with the facts recorded by other ob-
servers, lead me to the conclusion that
the ancestral number of Malpighian
vessels in insects was six. In other
words, Protentomon was not only
hexapodous but also hexanephric.
* Ueber ontogenie und phylogenie der insekten. Jen. zeitschr. nat~rwiss. lo bd. 1876, p. 142. + Surles vaisseaux de Malpighi chez les lepidopteres. Compt. rendus. tome 98, p. 631-633, 1884. Sur la mor phologie de l'appareil urinaire des lepidopteres. Arch. bid. tome 6, iasc. iii, 1887.
-
issued in the transactions of the American entomological society. The tables are very simple and brief, perhaps erring in this latter feature.
Interesting recent papers on relationships among butterflies will be found in Spuler's Zur stammgeschichte der Papilioniden (2001. jahrb., vi, 34 pp., 2 pi.), and Haase's Ent- wurf eines naturlichen systems der Papilioni- den (Bibl. zool., heft. viii, 120 pp., 8 pi.).



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NOTE ON ATROPHARISTA JURIN-
OIDES TOWNS.
The following notes refer to an article by Dr. Williston in Psyche, Vol. 6, p. 409, March, 1893.
In the first place Dr. Williston has not ex- amined the types of this species. The types are in my own collection, with the exception of one $ which was sent to the American
Entomological Society.-\ have never identi- fied or seen the specimens in Mr. Aldrich's collection,~though I doubt not they are the same.
Upon exatnining~the~~, I find that the
hairs on the eyes are extremely faint, but can be seen on close scrutiny. Upon examining the eyes of the $ , I also find that, though still more faint, some microscopic hairs can be distinguished on inferior portions. There- fore hairiness of the eyes is not a sexual character here, but only the degree of haii-i- ness is. This is a very frequent sexual char- acter in the Tachinidae, and the 8 usually, if not always, possesses it in the greater degree. The eyes, however, of neither sex of this species are hairy enough to be called so, and therefore in my generic description I stated the eyes to be bare (Trans. Am. ent. soc. xix, 92-3). Before describing the new genus
Atrojharista, I read in Dr. Williston's de- scription of Melanof/hrys that his genus had the eyes thinly pilose (at least in the a), and the third antennal joint 4 or j times as long as the second ; moreover, the fourth vein was said to have a stump of a vein at bend. Atro- pJiaristajurinoides has the eyes unnoticeably hairy, the third antennal joint in both $ and 9 hardly longer than the second, while the fourth vein has either no stump whatever at bend, or an extremely short one. I therefore think that I was warranted in not referring the present species to MelanofJirys.
I should state that I have recently received two 9 specimens of this species from Mrs. A. T. Slosson, collected at Franconia, New Hampshire. These show, in addition to the silvery stripe from eye to antennae, a detached silvery marking at lower front corner of eye. Upon examining the South Dakota 9, I find this silvery marking more faintly represented in it. This is the lowermost portion of the broad silvery marking to be seen in the $ of this species. Probably the $ of MelanopJirys flavi'pennis does not possess this, since its $ does not possess the broad silvery marking of the $ of the present species.
C. H. Tyler Townsend.
Get some small, cheap Turkey sponges, as free from large holes as possible, and cut them into cubes of from one half to one inch each. Take some long stout pins, and putting two through one of the cubes of sponge, sus- pend thus the latter in the drawer so that it touches nothing but the pins. Then get
some of Calvert's No. 5 carbolic acid . . . and a glass pipette; lift the carbolic by the pipette, and put as much on the sponge as this will hold without dripping. This will completely prevent the increase of the fungus ; and if the carbolic be renewed in two or three months, and if the drawers are pretty tightly closed, will kill what may be therein. The carbolic should not be allowed to get on the insects, but the vapor will be found to help to keep them clean and bright by preventing all forms of decomposition. . . . The tissues of the insects in the drawers become after a time, I believe, slightly carbolized, and then. mites and mould will not attack them. I use it in all my boxes and drawers, and consider it essential to the preservation of collections containing very large insects by keeping the atmosphere inside the drawers quite disin- fected. (Ent. Mo. Mag. April, 1893, p. 93- 94-1 D. Sha rf.
PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES.
CAMBRIDGE ENTOMOLOGICAL CLUB.
10 February, 1893. -The 176th meeting-
was held at 156 Brattle St.
Mr. S. Henshaw
was chosen chairman.




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