In the American classification of the Lepidoptera, the Bombycidæ occupy a place between the Zygænidæ and the Noctuidæ. They include a large number of genera and species, and are well represented on this continent. The principal characteristic of the family is that from which it derives its name of Bombycidæ,—or spinners,—the power the caterpillars have of producing a silken fibre, which they use in spinning a cocoon in which to pass the pupa stage of their existence. The Silk-worm moth, Bombyx mori, is the typical species of the family. Some genera, however, do not produce silk in any quantity. They are also remarkable as a family for the imperfectly developed mouth parts in the perfect insect. In nearly all of them the tongue is short, and in some species wanting, and the other parts of the mouth so imperfect that it is not probable the insects feed at all in the perfect state.

On the 29th July last, while beating along the margin of a small stream, I found on my net a larva which had apparently fallen from an alderbush and which was unknown to me. I took it home, but it refused to feed upon alder, and I was unable to identify it and find out upon what to feed it. The only descriptions I had at hand were those of Mr. Reed in Annual Report for 1881, and no one of these seemed to answer. Finding that it refused every plant which I offered to it, and yet did not seem prepared to pupate, I put it in spirits, which, however, so discolored and shrivelled it that I threw it away. While it was alive I made the following brief note of its appearance: Light green, whitish on back, covered all over with white dots edged with black, but these most conspicuous on thoracic segments and substigmatal surfaces. Head granulated, margined by yellow and black line. Legs pink, stigmata orange fawn-color.

I have to record the capture of some Coleoptera in rather an unusual manner. Last week while out in the woods on one of my collecting tramps, I was attracted to an old stump by the glittering of something in the sun. Closer acquaintance did not at first solve the mystery; the bright object seemed to be buried among some debris. Further examination revealed the dried and withered remains of a small toad, the glitter being that of some Buprestidæ partly exposed in what was once the stomach of the defunct batrachian.

Acrobasis vaccinii, n. s.—General color and appearance of A. indiginella Zell. (nebulo Walsh) but a somewhat smaller species, with primaries usually narrower. It may be distinguished by the following differences as compared with indiginella:

Average expanse, 15 mm. Colors of a colder gray with less reddishbrown or tawny on the inner portions of primaries, and with the pale costal parts nearly pure white, so as to contrast more fully with the dark shades, and to more fully relieve the basal branch of the forked shade on inner part of first or basal line, this basal branch being also usually darker than the outer or posterior branch. The triangular costal patch from the basal line is obsolete. The transverse pale lines are less clearly defined and the terminal is nearer the posterior border of the wing, i. e., the median field is wider. The geminate discal dots are always well separated and the inner one well relieved by the white which extends around it on the darker ground and often forms an annulus. The oblique shade from apex is less clearly defined.

A friend of mine—Mr. R. J. Mendenhall, of Minneapolis, Minn.—while travelling in Mexico last winter, collected from a tree, supposed to be the wild olive, a number of the cocoons of some large Bombycid. On his return home he kindly gave these cocoons into my keeping, with the information that he could easily have collected hundreds had he had con veniences for carrying them, as the trees on which they were found had been ruinously defoliated by the insect in its larval state. The cocoons were about the size and somewhat resembled those of Telea polyphemus, but were rather more elongate and were not intermixed with the chalky substance seen on the surface of the latter. They depended from the twigs by bands or cords of silk from five to seven inches long.

In exchanging Coleoptera it is common to find many erroneous determinations of species. While these errors are for the most part individual, several are wide spread and seem to be perpetuated by tradition from the older collectious. The object of this paper principally is to direct attention to a few of the latter.

1. Triplax thoracica Say, and T. flavicollis Lac. These species are often found in colonies feeding together on the same fungus, and have the same appearance. The separation of mature specimens is easy, the under side of thoracica being entirely rufous, while the metathorax and abdomen of flavicollis are black or piceous.

A11 the insects mentioned in the following notes were captured by myself during the season of 1882, which was my first year in this island, and were taken for the most part on flowers in the course of my rambles. Some of the Ichneumons, however, were bred from the pupæ of Lepidoptera, and a few species were taken at rest, at light, or in other more or less usual ways.

The eighty species here enumerated have been examined and determined for me by Mr. W. Brodie, of Toronto (to whom I am much indebted for this and other kindnesses), and they are therefore nearly all of them included in the check list issued last year by the Natural History Society of Toronto. In fact, the only names that I do not find in that list are Halictus lœvipennis and Eurra albitarsis, but they may perhaps be there under other names which in my ignorance of synonymy I fail to recognise.

On 19th October, 1884, I took from a decaying hickory stump a specimen of Alaus oculatus (Linn.), which had its left elytron .75 mm. shorter than its right. This seemed to me a curious and very noticeable deformity, and one I had never before observed. But on 13th December ensuing I discovered that a fine, robust specimen which I had taken from decaying hickory the day previous had its left elytron .25 mm. shorter than its right, this time the difference being much less, but still noticeable. I then examined fifteen other specimens of this species in my collection, with the following result: One with left elytron .25 mm. shorter than right; one with left .20 mm. shorter than right; one with left shorter than right, but the difference hardly appreciable; one (small specimen) with right .20 mm. shorter than left; and one in which the right was so slightly less than the left that the difference could scarcely be seen. The remaining ten showed no appreciable differences in this respect.

Cumatilis, G. & R.

Color of front wings greenish white, with heavy black markings; in one light the whole front wing is suffused with a rich smoky brown, whilst in another it has a beautiful green gloss deepest in the centre. Hind wings brownish gray. Two specimens.

Magnoliata, Guen.

Color of front wings white with black and light gray markings. Five specimens, varying considerably from one another. Hind wings white, more or less pure.

In a late number of this journal, Mr. Hamilton makes some criticisms upon an article contributed by me to the January number, having reference to the transformations of this moth. That article was prepared having regard, as a matter of course, to the climate of this locality, and as the specimens referred to were developed in the one season, the question of variation of temperature was not under consideration. That the transformation of the pupa can be furthered or delayed by atmospheric conditions, is well established; a warm room developing the imago at an earlier period than natural, and an ice-house holding it in check over one season, to be developed when restored to the climatic influence of another. My point was, from facts ascertained by rearing in confinement, with surroundings as near natural as possible, that the period of pupation, whether early or 1ate, did not create an earlier or later development of the imago, which commonly occurred at the end of May. The history of the transformation of this moth under natural conditions, would be more satisfactory than that which results from rearing in confinement, and I regret that my town residence in winter denies me this study. That extraordinary seasons further or hinder the advent of insects, is undoubtedly true, but as a general rule their time-table is quite as exact as the migratory birds.

Trogoderma ornata. Since the publication of the remarks in vol. 15, p. 91, more has been learned concerning this pest. That it disclosed without entering the earth was eventually made evident by several of the beetles being found in a large, close box, just emerging. Why they should disclose in a large box and not in a small one was not very obvious. At last the thought occurred that hygrometric differences in food and atmosphere might account for it. Having some of the larvæ reared in a small wooden pill box, at the usual time for pupation some of these were placed in another box of the same size, and their food moistened. In a few days they were found to have pupated, the beetles emerging about ten days thereafter. Their companions left unmoistened in the other box never developed. This is sufficient demonstration. Their entering the ground to pupate is exceptional, and the inference that they do so normally is erroneous.