220 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



food plants of h. maia. 

 Dear Sir, 



I am reminded by Robert Bunker's remarks on the food plant of 

 Hemileuca inaia (p. 119 of current volume of Can. Ent.) that in 1874, in 

 a circular issued from the Department of Public Instruction of the State 

 of Illinois, I wrote the following : 



" Our savants in Entomological lore give Oak, Willow and Spiraea as 

 usual food plants for the larvae of Honileuca mala, but here, on or near 

 these spacious marshes [along Calumet River, south of Chicago] these 

 plants are scarcely abundant enough to warrant so numerous an array of 

 the perfect insect. The unavoidable inference, therefore^ is that either 

 some other food plant is specially abundant in the locality, or else some 

 other feature of the neighborhood which, perhaps, has hitherto escaped 

 the attention of Entomologists, constitutes to them a strong attraction." 



The tract of country alluded to is just such a swampy locality as Mr. 

 Bunker speaks of in his communication. No doubt the list of food plants 

 for these larvae is yet far from complete. 



O. S, Westcott, Racine, Wis. 



Dear Sir, — 



From among numerous fine captures during this last season I mention 

 the following as being of especial interest to many collectors, as they were 

 taken in the Township of Roselle, New Jersey ; 



Sept. I St — Catocala niarmorata, relict a and iinljicga. The former was 

 resting upon a white oak. 



The following Sphingidae in larval form are secured ; the first is of 

 exceeding great rarity : Smerlnthus astylus d.x\^ my ops ; Cressonla Juglafidls; 

 Darapsa versicolor. 



Geo. W. Peck, 226 Pearl St., New York. 



Dear Sir, 



I would suggest that the " seeming growth " observed by Mr. Aaron 

 on the eye of P. phllenor is nothing but the pollen of the flowers visited 

 for honey by the butterfly. In this way Darwinists believe that cross- 

 fertilization is effected in many plants, and they show also that such 

 cross-fertilization is beneficial to plants. 



A. R. Grote, Buffalo, N. Y. 



