THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 277 



in the roots, they still have quite an extended gallery high up in the 

 stem. The reason for this was one day apparent when a very high 

 tide covered the marshes with several inches of salt water. In no way 

 discomfited, our friends now make use of their upper chamber, which in 

 cases of this kind is their only salvation. Hydrcecia larvae when mature 

 drown easily and are not able to withstand immersion in any such 

 manner as do the boring genera Nonagria and Belhira. 



So, taking all things into consideration, it was inferred some species 

 quite out of the ordinary should come of it, and there was almost a disap- 

 pointment when common everyday rutila was the final result. In our 

 particular location, where a blackish stream meanders through the salt 

 meadows, the food-plant grows at the very edges of the bank, and 

 the rather novel mode of getting larvae without leaving the rowboat was 

 experienced. Here, too, was a good example of their fondness for 

 location, as the old stems of last year containing the empty pupa shells 

 were frequently met, plainly showing a residence of former generations. 

 Plants thus situated were subjected to inundation at every spring tide, 

 not to mention the freshets when the ice breaks up in March. The 

 stems and root stocks are slender for the working of so large a borer, and 

 it is ever a tight squeeze with them. So all waste material must be 

 passed out of the larger ventilating aperture — there are several of these 

 — and this is not made at the ground level, but some distance up in the 

 stem, for reasons very apparent. These larvae are not given to Solidago 

 alone, but have a number of substitutes which do equally as well. 

 Becoming mature about August 15th, they are influenced by the stay-at- 

 home notions which most of the other species possess, so favourable to the 

 collector, and change to pupse within their burrows. Thirty days is about 

 the average of this period, and the moths when emerged are attracted to 

 light in numbers nearly equal to tiitela ; at least that is the experience at 

 Rye. 



It seems to have been an unsettled question as to how, when and 

 where these moths deposited their eggs ? From appearing rather late in 

 the season, it was quite naturally supposed by some that the moths might 

 hibernate over the winter and lay eggs the following spring. What 

 little circumstantial evidence that had come to light from former studies 

 did not, however, point in this direction, and particular pains were taken 

 the last season to keep the moths in surroundings as nearly natural as 

 possible so that eggs might be secured. The plan worked well and the 



