242 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST, 



the gallery, the head of one close to the tail of that preceding. The 

 remarkable feature was in the disproportion between the sexes in appear- 

 ance and numbers. The male was very small as compared with the 

 female, and much more rounded, almost globose. The males, too, were 

 much less numerous than the females ; usually there was only one in a 

 gallery, and he was usually at the extreme end. Mr. Schwarz has deter- 

 mined the species as Xyleborus dispar. The species has been injurious 

 to pear, but Mr. Smith was not aware that in America it had been re- 

 corded from either birch or willow. 



Mr. Schwarz was not surprised at this record, because in Europe X. 

 dispar eats almost anything, being found in most widely divergent plants. 

 In America it has been reported on pear, apple and liriodendron. 



Mr. Fletcher said the species was very injurious to pear and apple in 

 Nova Scotia, but he finds both sexes almost equally abundant, and some- 

 times entire galleries filled with males only. 



Mr. Schwarz said that in this particular group of Xyleborus (genus 

 Anisaiidrtis, Ferrari), the males are usually much rarer than the females. 

 They are wingless and never leave the burrows, copulation taking place 

 within them. Seven North American species are known to him, but only 

 three in both sexes, and none of the males of our species have ever been 

 described by American authors. He added that X. obesus, Lee, would in 

 all probability prove to be identical with dispar, the latter being variable 

 in size, according to the nature of its food-plant. 



Mr. Smith then gave a note on the 



HABITS OF VOLUCELLA FASCIATA. 



A lot of prickly pear was received from Ocean County some time in 

 May or June, infested by a Lepidopterous larva which proved to be 

 Megaphycis bollii or Melitera prodeniaiis, already referred to by Mr. 

 Riley. The larvae were counted and the leaves cut so as to make sure of 

 their contents ; but at that time nothing was noticed of any other insect. 

 Later the caterpillars pupated, and eventually a moth appeared for every 

 known larva. A few days after a Dipterous pupa was noticed in the jar 

 which had been left undisturbed, and eventually some 8 or lo Syrphid flies 

 made their appearance. They could not have been parasites for all the 

 Lepidopterous larvae were accounted for, and I can only suppose that 

 either eggs or very small larvae were in the partly decaying flesh of the 

 i nfested leaves and these were overlooked because not expected. Com- 



