THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 51 



at of all its genus and quite rare, — this being only the third specimen ever taken 

 b\- me. 



Just south of where I made these captures ran a good gravel road east and 

 west; I struck west and after two miles entered a wayside smithy for directions; 

 here they told me that the next cross-road would take me south to Hiawatha 

 and north to the flag station of Drummond's. Both here at the blacksmith's 

 and further on at a farm where I called for a drink of water, I was conscious 

 of being eyed with suspicious looks, but since August, 1914, I had been taken 

 for so many aliens that I gave the matter hardly a moment's thought. 



To my delight I recognized at the next corner a piece of country near the 

 Otonabee through which I had once motored, and I knew there was a fine stretch 

 of woodland just S. W. of the cross-roads. It is always a great relief to swing 

 out of the dusty highway with its cramped fence margins into the spaciousness 

 of pasture and woodland. 



The wood was too dense at this point for floral treasures, and proved after 

 all a very narrow belt with the river in full view just beyond some stumplands. 

 Just north-west the axe had been recently at work levelling part of a farmer's 

 woodlot; there were stacks of cordwood visible, and a recent storm had taken 

 heavy toll of timber on the newly exposed western edge. In the mid distance 

 I spied a fallen spruce and a large limb of beech torn from its trunk. The day 

 was at its height and no tiniest breath of wind invaded the throbbing heat. 

 If ever there were insects abroad here in the day-time, it would be now. 



My first venture was the fallen spruce, but nothing was to be seen about 

 its rough, scaly bark, or among the branches and foliage. In falling, however, 

 it had struck and heavily "blazed" a nearby balsam fir; this tree was languish- 

 ing, for the foliage had gone brown. On examining the tree closely, I found 

 just beside the grazed patch of bark (which was oozing resin freely) a fine speci- 

 men — a large female — of Xylotrechus undulatus ovipositing, and then, somewhat 

 lower, a male of the same species; these beetles I had seldom taken before, and 

 had indeed been uncertain as to which of our conifers it attacked. But I was 

 able to make good use of my discovery, and secured later in the season over a 

 score of the insects in the Algonquin Park. The other tree infested by it is the 

 hemlock, and very rarely I have captured a specimen on spruce. Both these 

 beetles were on the sunny side of the tree, and when I worked round to the 

 shady side no more of their kind were to be seen ; but I soon detected — courting 

 the shadow as usual — a pair of Acanthocinus obsoletus; this was of some interest, 

 for I had never before taken the species on any tree but white pine, where it is 

 fairly frequent. Examination of several other balsams brought no fresh captures 

 and I determi,ned to move on towards the S. W., where fire had run between 

 the belt of woodland and the river. 



A p>ath took me right past the broken limb of beech, part of which lay along 

 the ground. Beech had never before brought me any captures of longicorns, 

 and I was passing on with only a casual glance when I was stopped short by 

 a discovery that proved the forerunner of many interesting captures during 

 the dog-days of 1916. It was a small specimen of Neoclytus erythrocephalus 

 that I spied running along one of the branches of the fallen limb. I suppose 

 this insect is fairly common, a few specimens were once sent me from near the 

 Rideau by an old friend who had noticed them racing over some fresh-cut 



