THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 15 



POPULAR AND ECONOMICAL ENTOMOLOGY. 



WINTER COLLECTING. 



I'.Y JAMES FLETCHER, OTTAWA. 



At the last annual meeting of the Entomological Society of Ontario, 

 it was decided that every month there should be at least one short article 

 upon the above subject. The Council consider it wiser not to increase 

 the size of the Canadian Entomologist at the present time, but to take 

 two pages from the space we now devote to Scientific Entomology. It is 

 true the space at our disposal is all too small to accommodate the valuable 

 articles sent in by our friends, but the demands are so frequent for articles 

 of the nature mentioned, that it has been decided to try the experiment of 

 having them regularly, and it is thus hoped to largely extend the influence 

 of the Society by inducing more lovers of nature to take up Entomology as 

 a study, and by providing agriculturists and horticulturists with short and 

 simple accounts of their insect enemies and the latest discovered remedies. 

 It has been suggested that the winter is an inappropriate time of the year 

 to begin such a series of articles ; but upon slight consideration this will 

 be found to be not at all the case. In the continuous chain of nature, 

 great interest will be found at every link and thing unexpected, strange 

 and of marvellous beauty will appear at every point. Even in Canada, 

 snow and ice-bound for so many months in the year, there is much col- 

 lecting which can be done in the winter. A favorite occupation of the 

 writer is to go off collecting with a congenial companion upon snow-shoes. 

 The charm of this pleasant exercise in which, supported by the light snow- 

 shoes, one can visit places inaccessible during the summer, is in no way 

 diminished by being able to take home with you specimens which will 

 afford ample occupation for many evenings. Starting off in a straight line 

 many objects of interest are met with as we go along, across field and 

 fences, throuf^h woods and swamos and over rivers, hills or even moun- 

 tains, all levelled and smoothed down to an even surface by their thick 

 covering of ice and snow. In passing through the woods and swamps 

 cocoons are eagerly looked for on the slender boughs of trees and shrubs. 

 It is seldom that we are not rewarded with cocoons of the large Emperor 

 moths. In crevices of bark and beneath moss, many hibernating insects 

 are discovered of several orders. I>arvae of moths and chrysalids of 

 butterflies, beetles and hemiptera. One of our g,nni;al trips is to a certain 



