60 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



flight of butterflies. 

 Dear Sir, — 



In the course of the last two or three years several accounts have 

 appeared in Nature of flight of Lepicloptera in large numbers. I observed 

 a similar phenomenon in 1870, which may present sufficient interest to be 

 put on record. In the summer of that year, in the month of August as 

 well as I remember, I was crossing the harbor of this city in the 3 p. m. 

 trip of the stem-packet boat between the city and Moultrieville, on Sulli- 

 van's Island, at the entrance of the harbor, a summer resort of the inhabi- 

 tants cf our city. The distance is between four and five miles, and when 

 about half way or perhaps two-thirds, the steamer passed through an 

 immense stream of butterflies crossing the harbor towards the S. W. They 

 were all of the genus Callidryas, whether C. eubule or C. marcellina (if 

 indeed they be different species) I could not determine. The wind was 

 light, and from the rapid motion of the vessel, it was difficult to say 

 whether the insects were aided or opposed by it in their transit. As the 

 vessel passed obliquely through the stream, their rate of motion could not 

 be determined, and the dimensions of the stream only roughly estimated ; 

 it seemed to be six or eight yards wide, about as many high, and extended 

 an hundred yards or more on each side of the vessel. Whence they came 

 or whither they went could not be ascertained ; they seemed to be crossing 

 the harbor in a direction nearly parallel to the general travel of the coast. 



Lewis R. Gibbes, Charleston, S. C. 



notes and queries. 

 Dear Sir,— 



I notice in the February number of the Entomologist some notes by 

 Mr. Mundt, of Fairbury, 111, in which he mentions breeding wood-boring 

 insects. If Mr. Mundt and some other entomologists would give some 

 information on the mode of keeping such insects, I am sure it would be 

 most acceptable to the " Beginners in Entomology." Breeding specimens 

 is of course one of the most important branches of the science which 

 treats of their study, and heretofore very little has been done I believe 

 with the wood-borers. I frequently find larvae of Buprestidae and Ceram- 

 bycidae in splitting cordwood, but so far I have signally failed to rear any 

 of them. They either dry up or are attacked by mould. I think the 

 chief points requiring attention are the temperature and the amount of 

 moisture and air. J. Fletcher, Ottawa, Ont. 



