20 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Up to the 16th of August I did not recognise the species of these cater- 

 pillars, though I fancied they belonged to the Saturniadoe, but on my return 

 on the 28th, from the meeting of the American Association at Salem, I found 

 rather to my surprise, that they had grown to be about two and a half inches 

 long : and were of a delicate yellowish green colour with an abbreviated red- 

 dish lateral band. They had proved to be the very familiar larvee of what 

 is commonly known as the Io Emperor-moth of Harris (Hypprchiria varla ) 

 Walk.). One of them began to form his cocoon on the 7th of September, 

 the rest are still feeding, and a prodigious quantity they eat. I have reared 

 these larvoc before, though never from their infancy, and found them to feed 

 on the leaves of Willow and Elm. Dr. Harris (Ins. Ma*ss., p. 393), states 

 that they "live on the balsam poplar and the elm, and, according to Mr. 

 Abbot, on the dogwood or cornel and the sassafras ; they feed well also on the 

 leaves of clover and Indian corn." In his ' Entomological 'Correspondence/ 

 p. 295, he states that a brood of these larvos fed on Robiaia visensa. Dr. 

 Fitch (4th Report, p. 81), gives the cherry as the food-plant, and also (5th 

 Report, p. 52), the locust. Mrs. H. C. Freeman (Amer. Ent. i. 39), states 

 that she found it feeding on the hop vine. It thus appears that they are 

 by no means particular as to their diet. The imago usually appears between 

 the 1st and 20th of June ; those I bred last year and kept in the house came 

 out in April. — C. J. S. B. 



Notes' on a few Beetles. — Perhaps it may interest some of the readers 

 of the Entomologist to mention that that rare beetle, Necroplubis mbter- 

 ranev.ft, Fab., may be found during the last of September and in the early 

 part of October in decomposing fungus, particularly the '•' toadstool" species 

 growing in clusters on decaying logs. My earliest specimen was taken on 

 the 27th of September, the latest on October 13th. — It is probably well 

 known to all who have taken HaphcidU pygmxa, Dej., that it emits when 

 handled a most unpleasant and powerful odor, exceeding that of Chrysopa, 

 and vcquiri )^ repeated applications of soap and water to remove it from the 

 fingers. — IVk'hbdesma (AnobiunC) gibbosuYd, Say. ; of this species I dug 

 three specimens out of a dead maple tree in Oxford, January, 1807, and 

 early in July of the present year I obtained a number by beating the limbs 

 of trees. — J. Pettit, Grimsby, Ontario. 



Scudder's " Butterflies op New England." — I am very desirous of 

 seeing collections of Insects from every part of New England, New York ? 

 New Jersey and the Dominion of Canada, and repeat the promise made in 

 the spring, of naming any collection of butterflies from these districts sent by 

 express to the address below, early in October. I beg those who can do so 

 to send not one specimen only of a species, but as many as possible, especially 



