On July 19th, 1881, a caterpillar of this moth was found on a cauliflower which had been brought from market, and was placed in a tumbler with some of the leaves. By the 21st it had shrunk considerably in size, and was greatly changed in appearance, the black and yellow markings that make this larva so conspicuous an object having faded to a dull whitish color. On the 22nd it was lying on the bottom of the glass and was revolving continuously. Under natural conditions it would, I believe, have entered the earth to go through its transformations, and the curious revolving motion might perhaps have been for the purpose of forming and smoothing its cell. On looking at it on the morning of the 23rd, a soft white flattened ichneumon larva had issued from it, and had commenced the construction of its coeoon by spinning a few white threads. By evening it had surrounded itself with a thin egg-shaped cocoon of a yellowish white color, through which the movements of the enclosed grub could be seen.

This remarkable specimen, which has puzzled every entomologist who has seen it, was bred by M. Alfred Wailly from a cocoon received from some part of North America. It may be a hybrid between S. cecropia and some other species, but if so, it is so different from all the other known species, that it is difficult to guess with what it could have been crossed. It is equally difficult to imagine that it is a new species. The specimen is a female, and equals the largest specimens of S. cecropia in size, measuring fully 6¾ inches in expanse; and the wings are more rounded and less oblique than in cecropia. The body resembles that of cecropia, except that the abdomen is banded with yellowish gray and black. The base of the fore wings is brown, thickly scaled with white towards the costa; below this is a brick-red blotch, longer and narrower than in cecropia. Beyond this is a white space, extending nearly from the base to one third of the length of the wing on the inner margin, but curving up to the costa in a rather narrow stripe.

Valgus canaliculatus Fab. and V. squamiger Beauv., have, so far as I am aware, escaped the notice of American writers on Coleeptera, except that it is mentioned in the U. S. Agricultural Report for 1868, p. 90, that V. squamiger was found in great numbers in January, in Maryland, under the bark and in the rotten wood of a pine stump; and that Fitch gave some account of it, under the name seticollis, in his report for 1857, p. 695, which I have not seen.

The fact that this species is a parasite in its larval state does not seem to be questioned, but that it is a parasite on one or more species of Isosoma is, I understand, doubted by some entomologists. For the past two years the writer has had no doubt that such was the case; but it is possible the evidence upon which such a conclusion is based may not be generally known. For this reason a brief summary of observations may not be out of place.

That it is a parasite on Isosoma hordei seems evident from the following: A single joint of rye containing several galls formed by Isosoma hordei was put into a bottle and corked up so that no insects could get out or in. In due course of time a specimen of E. Allynii was found in the bottle, and the hole from which it had gnawed its way out of one of the galls was plainly to be seen. Afterward the other galls gave forth I. hordei. In this case there could be no question but that the specimen of E. Allynii came from the gall made by I. hordei. If no hordei had hatched from the other galls, this would have been evident, for the galls made by this species are too characteristic to be mistaken by any one at all familiar with their work.

About the middle of May, 1883, Mr. A. W. Hanham took a ♀ T. Niphon a few miles from the City of Ottawa. This was the only specimen at that time seen.

On the 4th May last, when walking along the Chelsea Road, near the village of Chelsea, P. Q., with Mr. Harrington, he called my attention to a small butterfly which had just alighted on the bare road in front of us. This I was delighted to recognise as Niphon. Having no nets with us, a too near approach was only rewarded with the mortification of seeing the coveted prize flit lightly up to the top of some high pine trees. Subsequent to this date the weather was cold aud wet for some time, and I had no opportunity to visit the locality until the 22nd of the month.

During the early part of last spring I obtained from a small maple tree three cocoons of Anth. polyphemus. In due time two fine females made their appearance, and a few days later, on examining the box again, I found suspended from the lid (wire gauze) a black looking specimen, which at first sight appeared to be a ♂ promethea. On closer inspection, however, I found it to be a beautiful aberration of Anth. polyphemus ♂. As it is the first one I ever found or heard of during nearly twenty years collecting, I send you herewith a meagre description, which may be the means of bringing another specimen like it to the notice of the entomological world.

The Melsheimers have been considered by Th. Say to be the fathers of Entomology in the U. States. Nevertheless very little is known about them, and that little is not perfectly accurate. In fact, concerning the older Melsheimer there exists only a note in A. W. Knoch's “Neue Beitraege zur Insectenkunde,” 1801, p. 18, and concerning his second son only the necrology by the late Dr. John L. LeConte in the Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phil., 1873, p. 257, reprinted in the Can. Ent., vol. vi., 1874, p. 39.

Pupal Term of Arctia nais.

♀ found June 16, 1875, laying eggs in a depression in ground recently dug. Total number of eggs obtained about 500, 16th to 19th of June.

Larvæ began to appear June 24th. They were fed chiefly on Polygonum acre, and one or two species nearest allied to acre, partly on Polygonum aviculare, var. erectum, and partly on red clover.

Pupation began July 23rd, and continued daily to August 8th, inclusive; a few more pupæ formed to the 16th inclusive, when pupation practically ceased, Only 5 pupations occurred later; two about 20th of August, one about 1st of October, and two in the last ten days of October.

For several seasons past, along in the latter part of summer (August and September) I have noticed certain peculiar actions on the part of the large flying locust, Œdipoda carolina Linn. I have always suspected that these actions have something to do with the union of the sexes. In the warm parts of the days at this time of the year individuals of this species may frequently be seen rising from the ground, and, hovering several feet in the air, rapidly vibrating their wings and making a peculiar flapping or beating sound, the while keeping nearly the same relative position in space. Although my notes on this subject are rather imperfect, I think they may be of use. I can not find that the subject has ever been touched upon before; such may be the case, but I have not been able to discover record of it in any reports, periodicals or works on insects. Still these actions must have been noticed by observers, as they are of common occurrence.

A curculio new to Canada has appearecl in this locality. Prevailing east winds about Aug. 10th wafted this nerv clover pest to our shores. This beetle, as far as I know, has not been mentioned in the Entomologist. It was introduced from Europe little more than three years ago. Appearing on the eastern seaboard, and taking the continent in the inverse order to the movement of the Colorado Potato Beetle, it is working rapidly westward. Last year no specimens were reported west of Rochester, while in Eastern New York the clover crop was destroyed by this insect. On the date above mentioned it appeared in Buffalo in such numbers that thousands were crushed on the pavements by the feet of passers-by. Simultaneous with this was its appearance in Ridgeway. I picked them from the fences and sidewalks, and found them in the grass on my lawn. Mr. Reinecke could have gathered them by the quart along the lake shore at Buffalo, where they had stranded after being carried by the wind far out upon the water. They have the extraordinary faculty of closing their tracheæ and suspending respiration while in the water, and an hour's sunshine on the sandy beach leaves them none the worse for a good soaking.

I visited Flushing, L. I., July 8th, to examine the insect reported to be infesting the noble old English elms which adorn the principal streets of that village. Three weeks ago these trees were in luxuriant foliage; they have now the appearance as if they had been scorched by fire. I discovered them to be attacked with a countless host of the larvae of this beetle. The American elm and other indigenous trees have thus far escaped, but it is not improbable, as this beetle is double brooded, that the numerous larvae will from force of circumstance attack them. The eggs are laid in clusters along the veins of the leaves, on their under sides. The larvae, as soon as hatched out, begin to devour the leaves, which they render lace-like, and when full fed they do not undergo transformation by fastening themselves to the surface of the leaves, as is the habit with other species, and as I have seen recorded of this, but transform within the crevices of the bark. At this time, July 8th, the trunks of the trees are covered with the larvae seeking places to transform, and there is scarcely a crevice of the bark but what is filled with the yellow pupal forms which will in a few days disclose the imagines.

I may give an addition to my note (June, No. 6, p. 120, 1884). During the last seventeen years this beetle has never been rare in Cambridge, Mass., but never so overwhelmingly common as this year. As this elegant beetle was the first I had collected here in October, 1867, it had become my pet, and I paid some attention to it every year. This year it was very common on a long board fence in Ware St., which I have to pass four times every day. The fence surrounds a large garden with many elm trees near. when I heard that the beetle had been very destructive to elm trees in some places on the north side of the College grounds, and that it had nearly denuded some trees in Sommerville, I gave closer attention to it. Till June the leaves of the elms in Ware St. were comparatively uninjured. Then appeared the second brood of larvæ, and very soon the leaves were honeycombed with more or less round holes, and turned yellow prematurely. The larvæ were first described by Harris, Injur. Ins., 1841, and the same repeated in all following editions; the edition of 1862 gives a figure of the larva and beetles.

Milton, when he wrote of Nature's bounty, and referred to the . . . . “Millions of spinning worms That in their green shops weave the smooth-haid'd silk,” had thoughts no doubt of the obedience due from Nature's subjects to Nature's King. A work ordered and a work performed. Were men as loyal to their King, what a garment of righteousness would each man weave wherein to appear, amid the flood-light at the Court on high! The caterpillar, at the sighing of the antumnal wind, enfolds itself in its silken shroud, preparatory to a winged flight, leaving to the world the record of a life well spent—an unbroken thlead of duty done: a treasury of silk to deck the sons of men “In courts, in feasts, and high solemnities.”