On May 20th, 1896, I received the following letter from a correspondent in Mount Vernon, N. H.: “I enclose you worms that are making sad havoc with the blueberry crop in this section. They seem to be great feeders, completely stripping the bushes of leaves and blossoms, but do not touch the green berries after they begin to form. The berry fields look as though a fire had passed over them, and the worms have nearly ruined the blueberry crop in this vicinity.

An interesting part of this paper will be found to deal with some material from Alaska. During the summer of 1896 Prof. L. L. Dyche, of the University of Kansas, the well-known taxidermist, made an expedition to Cook's Inlet, Alaska, and from there inland. A number of species of Syrphidæ were taken simply as a side issue, the expedition not being an entomological one at all. Unfortunately, during the long journey back many of these specimens were damaged beyond all hope of recognition. The material that came through, however, without damage, although consisting of only thirteen species, makes quite a contribution to the knowledge of the Dipterous fauna of that interesting region. Although some of the orders of insects, notably the Coleoptera, have been quite assiduously collected in Alaska, and extensive reports written upon them, in the Syrphidæ, as is the case in all of the families of Diptera, no collections of importance have been made.

Having had the opportunity of working out the distribution of broods V., VIII. and XXII. in Indiana, brood XV. in Ohio possessed a peculiar interest for me, as in studying it I was able to profit considerably by my acquaintance with the others. I perhaps ought to say a word in regard to the three other broods mentioned, as one of them (XXII.) is treated of at considerable length in the Report of the Entomologist of the United States Department of Agriculture for the year 1885, and it was while connected with the Department as one of its special agents that these three broods were studied. Brood XXII. covered the entire State of Indiana, except a narrow strip of land around the lower end of Lake Michigan, from ten or fifteen to twenty miles wide, which area was exactly covered by brood V. in 1888.

When in New York, towards the end of May, 1894, I paid a visit to Mr. B. Neumegen, who, though suffering considerably from the fatal disease to which, after a brave fight, he finally succumbed, received me kindly, and after a short conversation sent me upstairs to Mr. Doll to get the names of certain species which I had brought for determination.

Face and frons above entirely yellow; a broad black band between the eyes, including the ocelli; antennæ black, the extreme rim of their cuplike insertions yellow. Occiput yellow, its border convex, ciliated with black. Rear of eyes brown, paler externally.

Prothorax fuscous, with a median twin spot greenish.

Thorax bright green, very thinly clad with brownish hairs, and faintly striped with brown. Dorsal and both lateral stripes subobsolete. Ilumeral stripe complete, irregular; antehumeral, isolated above, and separated from the humeral by a narrow green line. Subalar and antealar carinæ brown.

The difficulty of defining species in this genus is increased by the constancy of the local form or races. I have elsewhere referred (Ent. News, VII., 218) to the race of fulvicosta which Mr. O. D. Foulks has discovered at Stockton, Md. Mr. Foulks was so kind as to send me over 100 hibernated larvæ, from which I bred a long series of moths. The type form is large, the size of reversa and colona, both wings immaculate yellowish-white, head, collar and the tips of the abdominal rings ochre-yellow.

In var. A the fore wings are nearly pure white, the hind wings much yellower, suggesting conscita, though never so dark as that form.

With this paper we begin the consideration of the Lamiinæ, the third great subfamily of Longhorns. They have recently been worked up by Mr. Leng and Dr. Hamilton in a joint publication which has been largely used and followed in the preparation of the succeeding pages. The essential characters are to be found in the oblique sulcation of the outer side of the front tibiæ, the lack of prothoracic margin and the cylindrical pointed terminal joint of the palpi. None of the Canadian forms offer exceptions to the above rule. It will also be noticed that the front of the head is usually vertical instead of being oblique or nearly horizontal. Compare a Prionus, Romaleum and Saperda and this point will be made clear.

In 1894, Mrs. J. J. Glessner, Littleton, N. H., called my attention to a “worm” which was feeding in the roots and stems of her columbines. It was not until July, 1895, however, that she succeeded in getting specimens of the “worm” for me. The “worm” proved to be a caterpillar which was unfamiliar to me, and in accordance with my usual practice in such cases, it was described and photographed. The photographs, giving dorsal and lateral views of the caterpillar, twice natural size, are reproduced on the plate.

In a review of N. A. Decticinæ (Can. Ent., XXVI.), I referred (p. 180) an undescribed Pacific Coast species provisionally to Drymadusa, an Old World genus of which I had not then seen specimens. Direct comparison shows that it differs from that genus in the lack of a humeral sinus on the posterior border of the lateral lobes of the pronotum and in the great posterior extension of the pronotum. I propose for it the generic name Apote (μ-, ποτίι). The species, which may be called A. notabilis, is testaceous, tinged on the pronotum with olive-green, the abdomen fusco-testaceous, much and minutely marked with black and light testaceous, the tegmina abbreviate but attingent, testaceous with black veins. The length of the body is 37 mm.; of the ovipositor, 28 mm. Oregon.

This species was unusually abundant in this, as in many other localities, during the season of 1896, and afforded an excellent opportunity for studying it, which we took advantage of by rearing it from the egg. The preparatory stages are well known, and a full account of the life history was given by Mr. W. H. Edwards in Can. Ent. XIV., pp. 201–207. As noted by Mr. Edwards, the larvæ vary greatly, and this is true even in those raised from the same batch of eggs, and these variations seem to be in no way connected with the two forms of the imago.

September 3rd, 1895, I received several nearly full-growns specimens of the curious, sluglike caterpillars of this beautiful moth, so aptly named by Professor Comstock, “the crinkled flannel moth.” The cunning brown caterpillars were placed in a cage here at the insectary, where they fed freely on apple leaves, although they were feeding on quince when found at Worcester, Mass. Since Dr. Packard described the insect in its different stages in 1864, its life-history has been worked out in detail by Dr. Lintner (Ent. Contrib., II., p. 138, 1870), and recently by Dr. Packard (Proc. Am. Phil. Soc. for : 894, p. 275). In this last paper Dr. Packard has described and figured in detail the extra two pairs of abdominal legs (seven pairs in all) possessed by the caterpillars, and some curious lateral glandular processes.

The following new genera and species of Proctotrypidæ were all collected in Canada by Mr. W. Hague Harrington, of Ottawa.

Scorrioteleia, gen. nov.

Abdomen with five visible segments; the last three segments long, slender, cylindrical, together as long as the second, and resembling the tenninal segments of a scorpion; the third segment is about as long as the fourth and fifth segments united, the fifth pointed. Front wings with the marginal vein shorter than the marginal cell, and scarcely twice as long as the first abscissa of radius, which is slightly oblique. Antennfæ 15-jointed, filiform, the first joint of flagellum the longest, about half the length of the scape, the following joints to the last very gradually shortening, the penultimate joint being about twice as long as thick, the last joint oblong-oval, one-half longer than the preceding.

The following description is offered of an insect to which I shall have occasion to allude in a forthcoming Bulletin, wherein such descriptive matter would be inappropriate.

Hadronotus mesillæ, n. sp.—♂. Length slightly over 1 mm.; black; coxæ black, legs otherwise rufous. Antennæ dark rufous, arising just above mouth, delicately pubescent; pedicel oval, shining, punctured, conspicuously shorter than the long first flagellar joint; second flagellar joint shorter than the tirst, but fully twice as long as broad; third to fifth joints oval, shorter than the second, the third slightly longer than the following, all longer than broad.

With this genus begins a series of beetles in which the neck is longer than in Encyclops, owing to the constriction of the head being near the eyes. B. scalaris, Say, is a very fine insect, varying in length from .75 to 1.20 inch. The form is slender, the elytra tapering greatly to and rounded at tip, deeply sinuate at sides, the tip of the abdomen uncovered. The prothorax is bell-shaped, with prominent, rather flattened hind angles. Colour brownish; most of the head, the greater portion of the fore and middle legs, the bases of the hind femora and the bases and tips of the ventral segments inclining to reddish or even yellowish. Antennæ rufous. Elytra brownish, with a large common, lighter (golden-sericeous), wedge-shaped mark (wavy on the edges and sometimes interruped at about one-third its length by a transverse brownish band) which extends about two-thirds to tip. The body is finely and densely, in most places rugosely, punctured, clothed with fine golden pubescence, which is much denser on certain parts, notably the abdomen. Recorded as breeding in birch, and has been seen ovipositing in maple stumps.

During the summer of 1896 I received specimens of ants collected by Mr. R. J. Crew, of Toronto, in exchange for such Coleoptera as I could find for him in my locality. He writes me that he noticed no insects with the ants other than the Coleopteta and some aphids in a nest of ants, but did not capture any.

I have found, however, upon looking them over, they contain several very interesting species of various orders: some truly myrmecophilous, some occasional, while others were brought into the nests by the ants, to be used by them for food; this will apply to a number of Hemiptera collected by Formica subsericea, Say.

Epirranthis obfirmaria is a swamp insect. I take it in “The Gomin” near Quebec, where, in ordinary seasons, it is on the wing from early in June till the close of that month. The following is a brief description of this beautiful insect:

♂. Expanse of wings one inch; length of body half an inch; length of antennæ three-tenths of an inch. Colour a rich, warm brown. The primaries have a broad ochreous band, widest at the costa, outlined with dark brown. In this band, not far from the costa, is a dark brown spot. The secondaries have the outer third of the same warm brown as the primaries, with an ochreous patch at the outer angle of it. The rest of the wing is ochreous, clouded towards the base. The marginal dark brown line of this ochreous portion is somewhat angulated. In the part of lighest colour in the wing is a conspicuous dark brown spot. The antennæ are pectinsted.

In December, 1896, Mr. Adolph Hempel sent me from Orange Co., Fla., some full-grown dragonfly nymphs which were apparently not to be referred to any of our known genera. At my request he undertook to breed some of them, and soon had imagoes of the species named above. In the letter which accompanied his bred specimens he recorded some careful observations, which are so interesting and valuable I deem them worthy of permanent record. The following account of the habits of this species is from Mr. Hempel's letter:

This species frequents small ponds and the borders of adjacent woods. Imagoes fly, when undisturbed, quite leisurely. They will hover over one spot, then dart a few feet aside and hover again and again. The males are often found in low places about ponds, resting on the ground with wings aslant downward and forward. Sometimes they rest on reeds or snags in the water; sometimes out in the pine woods several hundred yards from water; they may be found resting on the sand warmed by the sun, on logs or on trees.