THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 43 



'■'•Resolved. — That the members of this Society have learned with deep regret 

 of the sudden death of Benjamin D. Walsh, State Entomologist of Illinois. We 

 have long admired his zeal and earnestness in endeavouring to advance entomolo- 

 gical science, and we feel that our favourite study has lost in him one of its 

 staunchest supporters and advocates, and those of us who had the privilege of his 

 personal acquaintance, a warm friend. We tender our heartfelt sympathy to his 

 bereaved widow and friends, and assure them that his labour of love manifest in 

 his many valuable contributions to entomological literature will ever be fondly 

 cherished in our memories." 



"Resolved. — That the Secretary be instructed to transmit copies of the above 



resolution to the widow of the late B. D. Walsh, and also to the editors of the 



American Entomologist, and Canadian Entomologist, requesting them to insert 



the same in their next issues." 



 — 



A SINGULAR CASE. 



Seeing in the last number of the Canadian Entomologist, a description of 

 the eggs of A. Luna, reminds me to ask of you the explanation of a curious 

 circumstance in the life-history of one bred by me from the larva last year. I 

 will premise that I am writing wilhout my notes, and therefore cannot give figures 

 accurately, but can give the facts. There may be nothing very strange about 

 it, but two of the best entomologists in the United States inform me that it is 

 entirely new to them. It is this: — Some time in the latter part of the summer 

 of 1868 I took, feeding on walnut leaves, a mature larva of A. Luna, from 

 which I did not hope to rear the mature insect, because I counted on the 

 larva over twenty eggs like those of a Tacliina. Underneath some of these 

 eggs I could discern with a lens a minute opening through which the fly -larva 

 had eniered the body of the Luna larva. The skin of the latter was more or 

 less discoloured under each egg, but under some — under many in fact — there 

 was a dense black spot, sometimes two lines in diameter. I made a slight 

 incision in the skin of the Luna larva at the place where a Tacliina larva 

 Beemed to have entered by one of the little holes, to see if I could find the 

 Tachina larva. It was a very slight incision, as I did not wish to kill the 

 Luna larva, but wanted to rear the flies from it to see if they were the same 

 as those bred from Saturnia Io. Before it spun up it changed colour, becom- 

 ing almost pink. It spun up, and to my surprise, instead of producing Tachi- 

 nos, there last spring emerged from it an unusually large Luna. The question 

 which puzzles me is, what became of the parasites ? According to all the 

 books, 1 believe, the entrance of the parasite into the body of its proper host 

 is certain death. Could it have been that the parent Tachina made a mistake, 

 and that its progeny, not finding the Luna to their taste, died or made their 

 escape? Even if they had died inside the Luna larva, must they not have 

 occasioned its death, especially considering the number of them ? 



