188 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



quite broad and short. Eyes not widely separated, P. M. E. as close to 

 P. S. E. as to A. S. E., the A, M. E. are not very much nearer the A. S. 

 E. than to each other. Abdomen twice as long as the cephalothorax. 

 Femur 11. longer than the cephalothorax. The epigynum shows an area 

 longer than broad, with nearly parallell sides, divided by a rather narrow 

 septum widened at its tip, the apical part of the sides are dark circular, 

 and the basal part light and oval. Olympia, Washington. (T. Kincaid.) 



NOTES ON COLLECTING AT BLOOM. 



BY A. W. HANHAM, WINNIPEG, MAN. 



At Brandon, Manitoba, in 1896, some very successful collecting 

 was done on the prairies and open hillsides surrounding the town. 

 Except in the valley of the Assiniboine River, which is still well wooded, 

 the country around Brandon is very open — regular prairie country — with, 

 of course, a good proportion under cultivation, it being one of the good 

 wheat-growing districts of Manitoba. 



However, there is plenty of good collecting ground to be found in 

 almost any direction, and within a few minutes' walk. A short account 

 of collecting at bloom may be of interest to our entomological readers, 

 especially to those who have never visited " the boundless prairies of the 

 West." Or there may be some who have had that pleasure, but have 

 never tried collecting in this way, for lack of opportunity. 



In 1896, I was at Brandon from July 9th to August 4th, and in 1897, 

 from August 5th to 28th. 



In 1896, I had my first evening collecting on the 15th; in previous 

 years I had often collected off" flowers towards dusk, and that was my 

 procedure on this evening. It was on my homeward way that the 

 inspiration came to me to sweep the clumps of bloom I came to, and 

 the result astonished me, and led to the practice of collecting in this way 

 on all available evenings. 



It was quite too dark to see things moving on the wing or at rest 

 on the flowers, and the only way to find out the contents of the net, after 

 sweeping, was to hold it up against the sky line ; even then it was 

 generally impossible to tell what the catch consisted of, though the moths 

 in the net could be seen and counted. After sweeping a few heads of 

 bloom, it was nothing out of the way to find a dozen or more moths in 

 the net, and it was surprising how little struggling they did either in the 



