THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST, 



NOTE ON THE OCCURRENCE OF LEPISESIA FLAVO- 

 FASCIATA, BARNSTON. 



BY H. H. LYMAN, MONTREAL. 



Having been asked by Sir William Dawson to look over two collec- 

 tions of insects which had been sent in in competition for a prize, I was 

 delighted to find in one of them a specimen of this very rare moth. 



Knowing that everything in connection with the capture of such a 

 rarity would be of interest, I asked Sir WiUiam to ascertain from Mr. R. 

 McDougall, the collector, all the facts that he could furnish in connection 

 with such an interesting event, and I duly received, through Sir William, 

 a letter about it, from which I extract the following account : — 



" The moth was caught at Ormstown, Chateauguay County, and was 

 the only one observed during the summer. If I remember aright, it was 

 captured on the wing, about three o'clock one bright sunny afternoon. It 

 was hovering over a garden, where many kinds of flowers were growing 

 side by side. The capture was • made, I believe, about the middle of 

 June." 



This species has been taken sparingly at widely separated localities. 

 It was described by Barnston from a specimen taken at St. Martin's 

 Falls, on the Albany River, Hudson's Bay Territory. Grote and Robin- 

 son gave its habitat as the Atlantic district. Strecker figured it on Plate 

 XIII., fig. 4, of his " Lepidoptera," but in nature the yellow of the hind 

 wings is brighter, and with a good deal more orange in it than would be 

 supposed from Strecker's figure. Strecker gave the localities as Canada ; 

 Holyoke, Mass. 



Prof Fernald says of this species :— " The early stages and food 

 plant of this exceedingly rare moth are unknown. It has been taken in 

 Canada, Massachusetts, Belfast and Orono, Maine. Mr. Thaxter in- 

 forms me that he saw one at Kittery, Maine, flying around the flowers of 

 Larkspur in June. It flies in the middle of the day in the hot sunshine 

 around the flowers of apple, lilac, shad-bush, etc. It appears to be one 

 of our earliest day-flying sphinx moths." 



