THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST ' 113 



captured; only the patch on this last is snow-white and situated 

 at the outer end of the elytra. 



Before dropping my prisoner into the oubliette, I took off 

 my glasses and examined it closely; it was entirely new to me; 

 on the centre of the thorax was a perfect little fleur-de-lys or trefoil 

 of fawn-coloured pubescence, while on the scutellum was a tiny 

 spot of white. On getting a front view of the head, I found it 

 had the long, broad, flat "horse-face" of the Atithribidce, and this 

 feature was rendered all the more conspicuous from being white 

 with dense pubescence. I had never ventured very far into even 

 generic distinctions of the great Clan Curculio, and made no at- 

 tempt when I got home to examine my find under a lens. But 

 meantime I searched carefully over the bark of the hemlock for 

 more, and at last, just when I was giving up the search, I spotted 

 a second specimen (rather larger, but with decidedly shorter 

 antennje) right on the upper surface of the hemlock. Seeing 

 two or three more hemlocks in the same condition of decay, I 

 spent an hour of unremitting toil scouring their surface, above, 

 below and on the sides, ferreting into every nook and cranny with 

 searching looks; but all in vain. 



When I came to pin my captures, I found that the tiny white 

 scutellum had immediately behind it (i. e., further from its base) 

 a spot of jet black pubescence that looked like a cavity, and also 

 that the roughness on the elytra was strongest a little behind the 

 base, where it rose into two bold tubercles (one on each elytron), 

 for all the world like a pair of projecting shoulder blades; and 

 these tubercles were partly within, partly without the white 

 patch mentioned before. After dating the insects and putting 

 them into one of the collecting cases in which I keep the season's 

 cat<ch from spring till fall, I soon forgot all about them in the more 

 fast and furious fun of hunting Long-horns. 



During July and August I was corresponding with a well- 

 known New York coleopterist in the matter of Microclytus gazel- 

 lula Hald. and its puzzling little doppelganger Microclytus gib- 

 bulus LeC. This correspondence culminated in the arrival of a 

 precious little box at our tent on Cache Lake. It contained a 

 beautiful specimen of M. gazellula; in writing to thank for this 

 most acceptable present, I promised the donor a verified pair 



