206 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



optera, and is never happy unless he has some living thing in his hand. 

 He takes particular delight in catching that ferocious Dipter, the green- 

 headed fly, which he dexterously holds by the legs, greatly admiring its 

 buzzing, and can not be induced to go to bed without having one of them, 

 or something else, in his fist. His captures are never killed nor tortured, 

 but dexterously thrust into a tin box with a sliding lid, which he carries 

 with him ; there he puts what he calls millers, grasshoppers, crickets and 

 bugs. When he takes anything, he examines it with as much interest and 

 gravity as his older brethren. He has no fear, handling caterpillars and 

 worms with great composure, to the intense disgust of his mother and his 

 lady acquaintances, who say the more hateful and horrid a thing is, and 

 the more it wriggles, he likes it the better. His admiration was unbounded 

 when I presented him with a larva of Polyphemus. He cares little for the 

 companionship of other children unless they join him in catching insects. 

 This entomological disposition was manifested, his mother says, before he 

 could crawl, and all her endeavors have not in the least tended to wean 

 him from what she calls " such horrible and disgusting playthings." 



Perhaps I am now writing the first page of the biography of a renowned 

 entomologist of the future. Who knows ? This sketch will recall to such 

 as have read " The Life of a Scotch Naturalist, by Samuel Smiles," the 

 childhood days of Thomas Edward, associate of the Linnaean Society. 

 Those who have not, have neglected one of the most intensely interesting 

 biographies ever published. 



MONOGRAPH OF THE EMBIDINA. 



(Continued from page igg.) 



BY DR. H. A. HAGEN, CAMBRIDGE, MASS. 



17. Embia (Olyntha) Midler i, n. sp. 



Wingless form, female ? dry. Length of body 1 2 mill. 



Body large, stout, black, very sparingly clothed with yellow hairs . 

 shining, the head alone semi-opaque. Head large, flat, scarcely longer 

 than broad, a httle narrowed to the occiput ; hind angles rounded ; a shal- 

 low impression above with a short longitudinal engraved line ; eyes black, 

 small, not prominent ; antennae only 2 1 joints present, which are as long 



