72 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



miles east from Hamilton, this year. Amongst the greatest pests that we 

 had to contend with were the potato beetles {Doryphora lo-lineata, Say). 

 Out of 8,000 tomato plants set out during the first week in June, fully 

 2,000 were destroyed by these beetles within four days. We came across 

 some plants having as many as eighteen beetles on them. We have not 

 hitherto been annoyed by their attacking our tomato plants to a very 

 great extent, and can only account for their ravages this season owing to a 

 slim crop of early potatoes in this neighborhood, the late ones not yet 

 being above ground. 



The Tomato Moth grubs (Sphinx quinqtiemaculata) were also very 

 abundant and could have been had by the hundred. It appears that they 

 have other enemies than Ichneumons, as I came across dozens of empty 

 chrysalids, when picking the fruit in September, which had been rooted out 

 and devoured by some animals, possibly skunks, certainly not mice, judg- 

 ing from the excrement lying about. 



Terias /isa, Bd. — One, July 4th. The only rarity taken this season. 



James Johnston, Hamilton, Ont. 



THE LABELING OF ENTOMOLOGICAL SPECIMENS. 



BY CHARLES STEVENSON, MONTREAL. 



During a visit to Great Britain .a few years ago I looked over a num- 

 ber of the Entomological collections in the public Museums there. The 

 specimens in them were labeled so as to show the order, sub-order, and 

 family that they belonged to and their individual scientific names. With 

 few exceptions there were no records of their geographical distribution, 

 and when information of habitation was given it was of a wide nature, 

 as North America, Asia, or Europe. Data of seasonal appearance 

 or date of capture were entirely absent. Since then I have found 

 that many collections on this side of the Atlantic are in the same condi- 

 tion, and private collections in particular. That such information should 

 be wanting, especially in a public collection, is to be regretted ; for how- 

 ever beautifully mounted, classified and correctly named the specimens 

 may be, they are of little practical value. The biological student gets no 

 more information than he would from any entomological publication con- 

 taining plates, unless it be the identification of some rare insect. The 

 reason that public collections are lacking in such data is because they 

 have been built up from donations or by purchase — and until recent 

 years the study of insects rarely consisted of more than collecting, mount- 



