178 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



here, having found some nice looking birch stumps with frass showing, 

 we set to work with a saw to saw off the sides, and so find we have 

 secured one or two larvae or pupse, and in a good afternoon's work may 

 perhaps obtain twenty. These we take home and put on wet moss to 

 prevent drying up, and with care may in about six weeks breed a good 

 many. I have found putting them under a bell glass a good way. I have 

 never taken this insect on the wing. 



The next, S. formicaeformis, with its pretty claret-coloured wings, 

 we find flying in the sun along the sides of the roads which intersect 

 our osier beds in the Mitcham district (about eight miles out). This 

 species seems on the wing all the day, and fifteen or twenty is a fair catch. 

 The larvae can be cut out of the osiers about April, but it is very risky, as 

 the basket makers have a decided objection to their osiers being cut. 



6". chrysidiformis, the handsomest of all our smaller Sesiiadae, with its 

 bright scarlet wings, was, until some twelve years ago, most rare, fetching 

 as much as two and three pounds per pair, but about that time they found 

 out how to take the larvae. Starting from the London Bridge station, on 

 the S. E. R., we take tickets for Folkestone (town station). Arriving 

 there after about two and a-half hours' run, we turn towards the Warren 

 (a sort of undercliff running along the shore for about three miles), and 

 after a mile's walk we get on to the slopes closest to the sea. Having 

 brought a good, sharp, two-inch chisel with us, we look round for roots of 

 dock and sorrel ; the former we find are very scarce, having been cleared 

 off by collectors; the latter, however, are still common, and having 

 selected a good strong one dig it up, and scraping part of the root away 

 see signs of workings. We put the root into a small sack we have provided 

 and then search for more. In the course of a day we get a nice lot 

 together, and upon our arrival home plant them into boxes. As it is only 

 April, and the imago will not be out till June, there is now nothing else 

 to do but to keep them watered and cover over with muslin till about 

 the end of May. One year, from three days' work in Folkestone Warren, 

 I bred about 150 fine imagos. 



6". cynipiformis, feeding in oak, is said to occur in Hyde Park, but I 

 have never been able to find it there. However, I have obtained the 

 larvse commonly at Tilgate in early May by finding the trunks of large 

 oaks which have been cut down two winters previous, then ripping off the 

 bark the larva- are found feeding in it. In England the trees are cut off 

 only four or five inches from the ground, and the moths seem to prefer 



