2. On the scarcity of certain Species in 1885.

The most notable instance was that of C. Philodice, which is usually a very common species here. Throughout the year I saw but three or four examples.

In 1884, V. Cardui was remarkably abundant, as it seems to have been all over the Northern States. But in 1885 I scarcely saw one.

The members of the genus Oryssus are appareutly rare in Canada, and I was therefore much pleased to capture on the 2nd June a fine ♀ O. sayi. It was running up and down a telegraph pole (one of the new ones put up for the electric light wires), and had at first glance all the appearance of some small wasp (Crabrolidæ), searching for a suitable hole for its nest. Its movements were very quick, and its antennæ vibrated rapidly. It was so alert and restless that my prospects of capturing it without a net seemed far from bright. However, the capture was made, and its struggles in my cyanide bottle were brief. A few days later I took a ♂ upon one of the same poles, although in a different part of the city, and saw what appeared to be another of these insects fly away from higher up the pole. On the 24th I secured another female, which was even more active than the first, and which flew away and returned to the same place twice before I effected its capture. This habit of flying away when disturbed and of returning, even from some distance, to the very spot left, is one which I have noticed in other species of Uroceridæ.

Length 1.20 inches; cylindrical, rather slender, two warty elevations on the dorsum of joints 5 and 12, elsewhere the piliferous spots scarcely perceptible, except for the single hair that arises from each. Color green; a dorsal pale yellow line, bordered on each side on joints 3 and 4 by a purple line; outside this a pale yellow stripe that diverges on joint 2, gradually diverging again on joints 4, 5 and 6, where it reaches below the usual region of the subdorsal line, extending from this back to joint 11, from which it gradually converges to the elevations on joint 12, touching these on the outside, the diverging and converging referring to the stripes on both sides of the body. These stripes send more or less prominent deflections down the sides of joints 7 and 10. In some examples the space between these stripes and the dorsal line contains a pale whitish stripe each side of the dorsal; the deflections, and a little on joint 5 and the elevations, are reddish purple.

The two galls of the Tulip tree described by Osten Sacken. Monogr., Vol. I., p. 202, No. 26, C. liriodendri n. sp., and No. 27, C. tulipifera n sp., were wanting in the collection of his types presented by the Baron to the collection of the Museum in Cambridge. I am glad to state that I collected one of them in considerable numbers on leaves from a young Tulip tree on Quincy Street, Cambridge, in October, 1885. But all those galls were burst open along a part of the margin, and were empty. Prof. G. W. Farlow presented some collected in Newton, Mass., Oct. 12, 1886, and I found the living, full grown larva in one gall. r remembered then the tree in Cambridge, and found the same galls numerous, but again all empty. Apparently the larva has to be collected in the beginning of October, or somewhat earlier.

I am indebted to Sc. E. Bergroth, Helsingforz, for knowledge of this species. Prof. A. Costa has published, Atti della R. Accad. Sc. fisiche, etc., vol. vii., 1878, Napoli No. 2, the account of his journey through Egypt and Palestine. He was (p. 11) very interested to find, Feb. 17, after Assouan, at Kom-Ombos, on irrigated and humid grounds, a very small (long. corp. 5 millim.) species of Embia, for which he proposes the name E. minuta. As far as I know, nothing more has been given about this insect, and we will have to wait till Prof. A. costa will publish its description.

It is one of the pleasures which we older Entomologists alone feel to its full extent, when a well written paper, full of matter, falls under our notice on a favorite subject. Such a pleasure I experienced on receiving the June No. of the “old reliable” Canadian Entomologist, and the Rev. W. J. Holland's paper on our Sphingidæ opened before me. Supplementing, as it does in various points, Professor Fernald's valuable pamphlet, it will be welcome to all interested in the beautiful study of our Hawk Moths. Upon these I need not further dwell. I wish here to point out, in reference to the interesting remarks on our Westem Sphingidæ, that on page 8 of my “New Check List” I say that I am indebted to Mr. Henry Edwards for various assistance, and that “I have received from the same Entomologist information as to the synonymy of certain Western Sphingidæ.” Now the only two which have any synonymy beyond the original name are Occidentalis and Vancouverensis, and these are the ones meant. In fact the only Western form I ever possessed in my own collection was a specimen of S. perelegans, which seemed to me undoubtedly a distinct species, nor have I ever made any study of our Western forms. In my “New Check List” I omitted the use of the dash (—), which I have generally used (following Leconte) in my shorter lists after species unknown to me in nature.

Now that we have been supplied by Mr. Uhler with a list of the Hemiptera Heteroptera of North America, which has been much needed, it will be interesting to know more about the geographical distribution of the species. The following list is short, but will nevertheless add to our knowledge of these insects. The species were collected at the same time and in the same localities with the Coleoptera given in my list (Can. Entom., xvii., p. 66–73), and the preliminary notes there given apply also here. The species were kindly determined for me by Mr' Uhler.

Coloration and shading as in frustulum, with the following exceptions, which are very marked and leave no room for doubt that it is entirely distinct from that species.

The peculiar black spots on the inner third of the fore wings of frustulum, are entirely wanting in this species. There is a small dark brown triangular spot acutely pointed and situated very near the costa, in line with the extra-discal row of dots, and ending on costa and outer margin of the wings. In some specimens these spots are rounded internally. A light buff-colored band crosses the wings, limiting the inner third, which is shaded heavily with chocolate-brown exteriorly. This band is nearly identical in coloration with the extra-discal one, though perhaps a trifle lighter.

Among a very interesting collection of Mexican and other Hemiptera sent to me by Mr. Samuel Henshaw, Curator of Boston Society of Natural History, for identification, I find two species new to science and peculiar to genera never before detected in North America, although both are well represented in the European fauna.

In the first genus, Stenocephalus A. & S., in Europe, four species are known, principally peculiar to the southern portions of that continent.

Mr. H. W. Turner, U. S. Geol. Survey, San Francisco, Cal., has sent to me Phryganid cases from Mt. Conness, Mono Co., living in water at an altitude of over 10,500 feet. They are 15 m. m. long, the front half made by irregular small bits of stones, the apical half of short bits of pine leaves, and the case being narrower; around the case are placed longer parts of pine leaves or grasses in a herring-bone fashion. A few dry larvæ and the shape and arrangement of the cases show them to belong to the family of Limnophilidæ, and to the group of Hallisus.

Other cases were collected from a small lake on the north side of Mt. Dana, at an altitude of over 11,500 ft. These cases are smaller, 10 m. m. long, of little bits of mica and other stones, more cylindrical, sloping a little to the end. They seem to belong to the family of Sericostomidæ, which is at least not contradicted by some remnants of dry larvæ.

But little attention seems to have been given to Micro-Lepidoptera by Canadian collectors hitherto, so far as can be gathered from the printed lists, 83 names being all that could be reached when the latest one was published. It is certainly not for want of an abundance of material to work upon. I turned my attention to them specially last summer, and was quite surprised to find that so many different species could be obtained when sought for, considering that the season was a most unfavorable one for collecting generally, and no doubt affected them similarly.

The present List of the North American Sphingidæ or Hawk Moths embraces the principal features of my former Lists, in particular the division into groups, retained by Butler and lately by Fernald. I have originally in our Synonymical Catalogue (1865) proposed the genera Macroglossa, Chœrocampa, Smerinthus and Sphinx as typical of the four principal groups recognized by me. A fifth group, represented by the Old World genus Acherontia, seems to me to fall in between the Smerinthinæ and Sphinginæ. It seems to me unimportant whether we consider these groups as Tribes, with the ending ini to the terms, or as Subfamilies, with the ending inœ. I am myself of the opinion that these divisions are only of tribal value, and should prefer to so designate them. But, under this view, the Family Sphingidæ, as here considered, would remain only of Subfamily value, somewhat as intended by Dr. Harris, whose “tribes” have a wider significance, whereas I intend by “tribes” assemblages of genera subordinate in rank to Subfamilies, and as intended by LeConte in Coleoptera. These matters must be left, however, to final revisions of our classification. At this moment I am interested, in view of Prof. Fernald's recent valuable paper, in defending my sequence of the genera and groups as laid down in my former papers.

Lygus monachus, n. sp.

Long oval, pale green or testaceous, coarsely punctate above, sericeous pubescent. Face convex, highly polished, bald; base of vertex with a longitudinal impressed line, towards which a similar line runs obliquely forward each side from the inner corner of the eye; antennæ sparsely and minutely pubescent; basal joint thickest, a little longer than the head, tapering at base; second joint thrice as long as the basal, infuscated, and a little enlarged towards the tip; third and fourth setaceous, both together not as long as the second. Pronotum highly polished, convex, coarsely punctate in transverse wavy lines, each side with a dark brown vitta, or long spot; lateral margins smooth, callous at base, the humeral angles subacute; callosities prominent, convex, almost confluent on the middle; lateral flap of pronotum irregularly punctate. Pectoral pieces pale, impunctate. Legs pale green, feebly pubescent; apex of posterior femur usually with one or two fuscous bands, tip of tarsi and the nails black. Scutellum moderately convex, excavated at base, transversely obselete, punctate, more or less infuscated. Corium coarsely transversely vastrate-punctate, the clavus more or less infuscated, sometimes with all but the margins covered with dark brown; corium usually with a transverse dark brown arc next the posterior border; cuneus long and wide, the incised base fuscous and the inner margin brown; membrane pale testaceous, with two or more dark clouded spots, the inner submargin of the principal areole, a spot at its tip and the base next the cuneus all more or less fuscous. Ventor pale greenish.

Previous to the summer of 1884, Papilio turnus and Pyrameis cardui had been quite rare in Orono, Me., and vicinity, not more than half a dozen of the former and two or three of the latter having been seen each year; but in June of that year P. turnus was so abundant that it was not uncommon to see a dozen or more flying together. In August of the same year fresh specimens of P. cardui were so abundant that in a small piece of red clover, not more than two rods from the house, I captured twenty-five in half an hour, and the numbers were not perceptibly diminished. The next day they were equally abundant, but the following day we had a cold rain storm, after which only a very few poor, faded examples were seen. The next summer (1885) P. turnus was again rare, and not one example of P. cardui was seen by myself, nor by any one in this vicinity. Parasites might have made the difference in the number of P. turnus, but could they have done so with that immense number of P. cardui, or did that storm so effectually destroy them before laying their eggs that there were none the next year, or is it possible that some epidemic attacked them, leaving none to perpetuate the race?

In his interesting article “On the History and the Preparatory Stages of Fenesica tarquinius” (Canadian Entomologist, xviii., pp. 141–153) Mr. Wm. H. Edwards makes some comments upon my article in Science of last April (30th), in which I announced the carnivorous habit of the larva of this species. He has been led to do so in part by the incorrect report in Entomologica Americana of the Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington for January 6th last. In that report “Mr. C. L. Johnson” is said to have observed “a lepidopterous larva feeding on a species of Aphid,” but the report is incorrect both as to the fact and as to the name. Judge Lawrence C. Johnson, an old-time correspondent and for a while one of my assistants in Mississippi, was the correspondent intended, and his communication, which I was familiar with, particularly states that “he thought he saw the larva eating the plant-lice, but failed to convince himself of the fact.” Mr. Lugger, in the very report quoted by Mr. Edwards (Can. Ent., xviii., 142, lines 2 and 3) expressly states that “he had never actually seen them (Fenesica larvæ) feeding upon the Aphids,” and as he previously remarked that he had “made the same observations” as Mr. Johnson, the report in Entomologica Americana is inaccurate and contradictory on its face.

Prof. F. W. Putnam communicated to me a larva of Scenopinus found in his house under a carpet. It belongs very probably to Sc. pallipes Say, which was reared by Mr. Sanborn out of larva found under a carpet. The larva is figured by Prof. A. S. packard, Guide, p. 1 and 401, and Proc. Essex Just., October, 1867, p. 94, where three other larvae found under the carpet are mentioned. There are three European species reared. Sc. senilis (Bouché Naturg. Ins., p. 46) is said to live in rotten fungus on willows and other trees. Sc. fenestralis (Assman Stett. Ent. Z. 1863, p. 400) in over-ripe strawberries; but it has been later suggested that it may belong to another species. Frauenfeld (Verh. zool. Bot. Ges. Wien. 1864, vol. xiv) has reared Sc. fenestralis from larvae found in a horse hair mattress. Prof. Loew records the larvae living in a swallow's nest. Mr. Perris (Ann. Soc. Ent. Fr. 1870, vol. x., p. 230) tells that Dr. Cartereau found in a swallow's nest a pupa of Lucilia dispar containing an imago of Sc. fenestralis which had not been able to leave the pupa of Lucilia, so the larva must have fed on it.

My earliest collecting field was the south side of Staten Island, where I found many rare insects, especially among the Coleoptera. This south beach of the Island is visited by the warm spring coming from the south very early in the year, and is a good collecting field. Staten Island is a continuation of the Jersey coast, and one finds on it southern species of butterflies such as Argynnis Idalia, which are less frequent on Long Island, the next extension of the coast to the north. So far as the fauna is concerned, I am inclined to class Staten Island with New Jersey, rather than with New York. It forms the beautiful southern boundary of New York Harbor. At the same time Mr. Davis informs us that the Red Squirrel, not uncommon on the mainland of New Jersey, is not found on Staten Island, and thus has not crossed the narrow Kills. But I have abundant faith it will yet turn up on the Island, where all good things naturally live. I have collected on Staten Island a good many of those kinds of moths which come up our coast with the warmer weather and the Gulf Stream. I have in various papers called attention to the seasonal migration, from south to north, of many species of moths, which adds so much to the fauna of the United States.