THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOOIST T27 



another variety of the protean and ubiquitous Achorutcs annaiiis Nic. So thest 

 anknown specimens I carried home without any great hopes. 



And it was with no more than a mild curiosity that I prepared a speci- 

 men that evening for microscopical examination. The color that looks grey 

 under the pocket magnifier is shown by the microscope to be a pale violet. 

 Unguiculi are wanting, so the insect does not belong to theAchorutcs, that genus 

 being always provided with these little supplementary claws. A drop of potash 

 solution is drawn under the cover-grass to clear up the pigment. The eyes 

 can now be counted, and there are eight of them on each side, and no postan- 

 tennal organs. Then suddenly interest flares up. Three anal spines! A hur- 

 ried search in Guthrie and Folsoni — this is a Friesea, and the only one of the 

 genus ever recorded in North America before was described by Guthrie, who. 

 finding it in a greenhouse, suggests that it is an exotic. My species does not 

 fit Guthrie's description, and living at the top of a 75 foot maple in a locality 

 that might almost be called the backwoods, it certainly cannot be anything but 

 a native Canadian. 



The next care was to get more specimens, and the following day I searched 

 the fallen top for two hours and found two more ; rate : one specimen per hour. 

 The top was close to Mr. Elliott's sugar-house, and as he was making ready 

 for the spring sap-boiling, I was afraid he might cut up my precious log for 

 fuel, so I asked him to spare it. He readily agreed, albeit with an indulgent 

 miile that might greet the naive request of a child or a slightly demented per- 

 son. But my precautions were unnecessary, for I completely unbarked the log 

 without finding a single additional specimen on it. 



I searched also in vain the trunk of the tree from which the top had 

 fallen and many other trees around. They yielded numerous other Collom- 

 bolans but no more Frieseans. 



Nor did I find any more anywhere else all summer, although I looked 

 for them in all kinds of places, likely and unlikely. It was not until late in the 

 autumn that they came into my life again; and strange to say, they were again 

 found in a fallen maple to]). On the 26th October fate led me through a hard- 

 wood grove 300 or 400 yards to the east of the sugar-bush of original discovery. 

 There I noticed a maple lately broken off about 40 feet up, and the 15 or 20 

 foot top, with its butt on the ground was standing upright against another 

 tree. The nice loose-looking bark of the broken piece appealed to me, and 

 I began to pry pieces off, and examine them with my watchmaker's glass. Al- 

 most immediately I saw my Friesea again. This time they were gathered in 

 groups of five or six, and many individuals were much larger than any of 

 those I had taken in the spring. In the course of the next few days, before 

 all the loose bark was removed, I collected here with delight 30 or 40 good 

 specimens. After the poverty of six small individuals that I had suffered 

 from before, this was affluence, and should have contented me. But no collect- 

 or is ever really satisfied. There is no wealth beyond the dreams of avarice, 

 and I felt like John D. Rockfeller when he had saved his first ten millions. 



And so the quest of the Friesea continued. Numerically, the subsequent 

 results have been poor, only two specimens having been collected during the 

 past year. But the remarkable feature of this, the third separate discovery of 



