120 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



I presume it obtained its name. Mr. Kilman had three specimens, two 

 males and a female. He gave me a male, and on comparing it with the 

 N. Y. specimens, I find it two sizes larger, and with less yellow in the 

 general coloring. The locality where Mr. Kilman resides is particularly 

 favorable for entomological pursuits — sandy hills and gravelly ridges, with 

 their appropriate vegetation — marshy flats full of flowering shrubs and 

 weeds — virgin forests with an abundance of decayed and decaying tim- 

 ber — belts of young second growth trees — swampy and dry ground, and 

 long cultivated fields with their diversity of vegetable productions, all in 

 close proximity to Lake Erie shore, whilst any and all of them are within 

 easy reach of a few minutes' walk, making an exceedingly attractive and 

 productive hunting ground for the collector. Mr. Kilman is working it 

 up with considerable industry, and has secured many rare and desirable 

 things, and when he gets them correctly identified, will be able to present 

 a most creditable list. J. Alston Moffat, Hamilton, Ont. 



Dear- Sir : — Some two or three years ago I reared from the egg several 

 hundred caterpillars of the Promethea moth. They were feeding finely 

 upon the common lilac (Syringa vulgaris), the leaves of which they ate 

 readily. The third moult had been reached and they had attained to an 

 inch or more in length, and there seemed every prospect of their reaching 

 maturity, when in an evil hour an oriole discovered their whereabouts. 

 The bird was soon joined by a companion, and the pair proceeded to kill 

 and eat with the greatest possible avidity. Discovered in their work by 

 persons in the house, they were several times driven off, but quickly 

 returned with increased zest to the work of destruction. On my arrival 

 an hour later there remained but a few of the smallest specimens, which 

 had either been overlooked or left to grow fatter. 



W. W. Hill, Albany, N. Y. 



Dear Sir : Chrysomela scalaris — I am not able to ascertain why in 

 Crotch's list C tmiltiguttis Hal. is accepted — is never rare in Caml^ridge. 

 But this year, during May, it has been so unusually common that in 

 certain localities a pint could be collected in a very short time on 

 elm trees. I was told that some trees here have suffered, but 1 was not 

 able to see them. At least the beetle was so exceedingly numerous that 

 it was everywhere exciting attention of non-entomologists by the armies 

 mounting the trunks of elm trees. 

 Cambridge, Mass., June 15, 1884. 



