THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 4l 



discoidalis and Chionobas alberta are out in swarms. Species continue 

 to appear in gradually increasing numbers until July, which is perhaps the 

 best all-'round month. Treacle may be worked with success from about the 

 middle of June, sometimes earlier, and in some years (notably in i8o4and 

 1896) is very prolific until the middle of September, and attractive to a 

 few autumn species even in early October. On one or two nights during 

 the above mentioned years moths positively swarmed on the treacled 

 fence posts. About eighty moths on a single treacle patch at one time 

 and fifty-five or sixty species in a night's treacling is about my record. 

 They couldn't have been thicker on the treacle, simply because there 

 wasn't room ! That was during hot, dry seasons. The last two seasons 

 (1899 and 1900) have been cold and wet, and absolute failures as regards 

 treacling, and Lepidoptera on the whole have been extremely scarce. 

 When I say that during the present year (1900) we had four of five inches 

 of snow on the ground on June 8th, and again on August 25th. and add, 

 moreover, that these storms were only a very few degrees colder than 

 many of those that occurred frequently during the whole summer, it may 

 well be imagined that captures were few and far between. However, at 

 this altitude and proximity to the eastern slope of the Rockies, summer 

 frosts are of frequent occurrence even in the hottest seasons, and the 

 minimum nightly temperature is rarely above 40 degrees. For some 

 reason or other, treacle put on green poplars is rarely, if ever, of any use. 

 The trees must be dead and dry. I usually treacle fence posts, preferring 

 those with the bark on. Attraction of moths by light has not on the 

 whole been by any means a success, though it has produced several 

 species that have not been captured by other means. In a warm, dry 

 season — i. e., when moths are thickest — the sky is usually too clear for light 

 to have sufficient attraction, and in wet seasons, when the sky is more 

 frequently overcast and the nights consequently darker, moths are scarce. 

 Owing to the shortness of the season, very few species are double-brooded 

 here, and most of those that are are only partially so, the second brood 

 consisting of but a few stragglers. 



The fauna of this district was practically unknown five or six years 

 ago, and even now specialists not only differ " inter se," but are often 

 undecided as to the identity of some of my species even after seeing long 

 series. The fact of living so far from " headquarters," of course, adds 

 largely to my difficulty in getting correct names. Many of my names, 

 therefore, are, and are likely to remain for some time longer, doubtful ; 



