172 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



has yet been made for introducing such a contrivance into general use. 

 Meanwhile a small apparatus consisting of an atomizer, a tank of fluid 

 supported on the back, and a pair of bellows fixed at the side of the 

 operator, has been independently introduced by a manufacturing estab- 

 lishment in Philadelphia, and I have been told is somewhat of a favorite. 

 It will doubtless be useful to a limited extent, and is not patented I 

 believe. 



For small arms, this or a somewhat larger and more complete instru- 

 ment will answer, but in the war against insect pests in which I have 

 endeavored to interest you, we must have heavy ordnance as well as 

 weapons for hand use. Large compound atomizer tubes, with five, ten, 

 twenty, or, in fact, an indefinite number of orifices for producing the 

 spray, can be made, connected with large tanks of fluid and worked by a 

 powerful current of air from a revolving fan, driven by man, horse or steam 

 power, according to the size of the instrument. When of sufficiently 

 large size, the machine can be mounted on wheels and transported 

 wherever it would be required for use. Before such instruments as these 

 an invading army of caterpillars, or even a recently hatched swarm of 

 locusts, would be annihilated. A comparatively small number of men 

 would be required to work a battery of this kind of field artillery, and it 

 would be found immensely effective. 



The organization recommended can be effected only by the strong 

 appeal of the people where agricultural interests dominate, for proper 

 instruction from the government and proper protection by legislative 

 power. We have game laws to protect our useful wild animals ; thistle 

 laws to guard against extension of noxious weeds. Why not have insect 

 laws for destruction of agricultural pests ? 



Farmers of the West, are you willing to exert yourselves to procure 

 this result ? The prize is a rich one — it is no less than immunity from 

 an annual destruction of property quadruple or sextuple that of the great 

 Chicago conflagration. 



ON A CANADIAN SPECIES OF AGROTIS. 



BY A. R. GROTE, BUFFALO, N. Y. 



Mr. George Norman has sent me specimens of a species of Agrotis 

 allied to tessellata, which were taken at Orillia. I propose to call the 

 species Agrotis versipellis. The male antennae are brush-like, eyes naked, 



