36 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [February, 



firm, as the female soon made frantic efforts to kick him off with 

 her feet, and finally began to turn somersaults in (not on) the 

 water in the attempt, presumably, to get rid of her mate, who, 

 however, held on even after the pair was placed in alcohol. 



It was noticed, with the exception given above, that only those 

 specimens wetted by handling would dive at all. Those that 

 were unable to keep afloat by being thus thoroughly wet, soon 

 die and sink quite to the bottom of the vessel in which they may 

 be confined. Some only partially wetted were able to keep very 

 close to the surface, but floated on their backs and were appar- 

 ently unable to right themselves. 



The question of the disposition that these insects make of 

 themselves during storms may be regarded as still unsettled, 

 since it seems that wetting in many cases means death. Mr. 

 Walker* thinks that they dive in rough weather, and only come 

 up when it is absolutely calm, but the observations recorded above 

 make this conclusion seem unlikely for some of the species at 

 least -though his theory is by no means disproven, especially 

 when attention is given to the apparent impossibility of the insect 

 riding out a severe storm on the surface of the water without 

 beine wetted. 



s 



o- 



BUTTERFLIES AT MILES CITY, MONTANA. 



By C. A. WILEY. 



A barren country surrounds Miles City, the centre of the great 

 grazing territory of eastern Montana, a country of prairie and 

 badlands with little verdure other than that on the immediate 

 border of the rivers and in the creek bottoms. 



Here a lover of groves and forests must be content with a va- 

 riety of trees that might easily be enumerated on his ten fingers, 

 and but few of even these. 



Cottonwoods, broken and scrawny, are the only trees of large 

 size near the city, but as one penetrates the country to the heads 

 of the Yellowstone's many tributaries, he meets with ash, elm, 

 box-elder and willows, all native varieties, and differing some- 

 what from the same trees of the eastern States. 



In the badlands and in the hilly sections are pines and cedars 

 also, but the majority of our country is a vast prairie, grass 



* Entom. Mo. Mag., second series, vol. iv, p. 231. 



