THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 113 



dried-up, blackened leaf, portions of which, are drawn together so as to make 

 a rude case, the centre part of which, where his highness resides, is lined 

 with silk. It is very fond of going just where you do not want it. It is 

 partial to the blossoms and newly-formed fruit. If you have a new pear or 

 spple fruiting, with a single bunch of blossom on it, which you are anxiously 

 watching, by-and-by you find that several of the blossoms have set, and while 

 you are flattering yourself that they are doing well, along comes this mischief- 

 maker, pitches his tent alongside this very spot, and drawing the young fruit 

 together with silken threads, holds high carnival among them and frustrates 

 your hopes. Another of its tricks is to gnaw a hole into the top of the 

 branch from which your bunch of blossom issues, and, tunnelling it down, 

 cause the whole thing to wither and die. Often it contents itself with 

 damaging the leaves only, and this one does not mind so much, drawing one 

 after another around its small inside case, until it forms quite a little belt of 

 withered and blackened leaves. 



Hand picking is the only remedy suggested for these, unless you can 

 employ small birds, such as sparrows, in hunting them up for you. 



The moth which this caterpillar produces is rather a pretty little thing. 

 Its name we are not yet able to give. It measures, when its wings are 

 expanded, about half an inch. Its fore wings are greyish brown, with a 

 shining white, almost silvery band across the middle, widest on the front 

 margin. The hind wings are plain pale blue, and both are prettily fringed 

 with fine brown hairs, those on the hind wings longest. It appears on the 

 wing from the middle of June until the early part of July. It probably lays 

 its eggs on the leaves, and when the young worms appear, which is most 

 likely early in the fall, they make their small inner silken case, and, attaching 

 themselves to some part of the tree, remain unobserved, and in this condition 

 probably winter, awaking to new life and energy with the opening spring. 



ICHNEUMON IN A SPIDER'S COCOON. 



BY Wil. COUPEE, MONTREAL. 



I inclose an ichneumoned spider's cocoon, which I found on the mountain 

 of Montreal early in May last. When I opened the cocoon, the larvae had a 

 bluish colour and were quite active. It produced about forty specimens of 

 the fly, which I send you, as I have no means at hand of determining the 

 species. There is however a very nice investigation in regard to the economy 

 and modus operandi of this little ichneumon. That is, how does it reach the 

 spider's eggs ? I cannot detect an ovipositor, and the body of the creature 

 itself is only about a sixteenth of an inch long. The eggs were protected 

 with a dense covering of silk, which interiorly was very hard and difficult to 



