212 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



see them continued, as he believed they were doing good service in mak- 

 ing our valuable monthly journal more popular. Several of the members 

 present promised to prepare papers of this character during the coming 

 year. 



Mr. Young, of Hamilton, asked for information on the best manner 

 of preserving caterpillars, and enquired if any of the members had any 

 experience in blowing them. 



Mr. Reed stated that he had tried and failed. Mr. Fletcher had the 

 same experience to relate, and had found that the only satisfactory method 

 was to draw and color them from nature. 



Mr. Fletcher thought that most of our collections were deficient in 

 specimens illustrating nature. ; that while we had spread specimens, we 

 should also have them as at rest, and where possible, the larvae, chrysalids 

 and eggs. 



Mr. Reed asked in reference to Anisota rubicunda, which he had 

 found common on maple about London, but very hard to rear ; he wished 

 to know the experience of other collectors. Several of the members 

 present stated that they also had found it difficult to rear them. 



Mr. Young had reared a brood of them from butternut and beech, and 

 found them to prefer beech to any other food. Mr. Bethune had also 

 found them on beech trees. 



Mr. Fletcher had found a small fly attacking beans this year ; the larva 

 had eaten the stem of the bean and bored into the root, and finally pro- 

 duced a small fly somewhat resembling a house fly. 



Mr. Saunders had found several years ago a very similar fly, probably 

 the same species, attacking the stems and roots of young cabbage plants. 

 On comparing the fly with the description given in Curtis' Farm Insects 

 of the root-eating fly, Anthomyia radicum, often so troublesome in Europe, 

 he thought it probable that it was the same species. Mr. S. also reported 

 the capture of P. cresphontes very early in spring, finding the larva nearly full 

 grown in June, which became a chrysalis, and from which the perfect insect 

 escaped in about a fortnight. He had also taken the full-grown larva late 

 in the fall, which had passed the winter in the chrysalis state, from which 

 facts he drew the inference that this species is double-brooded in Canada, 



Mr. Fletcher reported having found the larva of Ceratomia quadri- 

 cornis about Ottawa, and finds it a difficult insect to rear. 



Mr. Young had fed a brood of the larva? of Telea polyphemus on black 

 birch, on which they seemed to thrive remarkably well. - 



