26 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 



to get something from the bunches of live willow sprouts that ha\'e escaped 

 the grass fires. The attempt always brings a multitude of Crepidodera helxines 

 L., or a shower of brown-tail moth caterpillars into the umbrella, and to-day 

 is not the exception. I have occasionally found a few Rhyjichiies cyanellus Lee. 

 among the usual vermin. 



My beating stick is any handy dead limb of suitable length, and it can 

 easily be replaced. The blows on the scraggly old dead willows shower down 

 bits of bark and moss Avith an occasional Allandrus bifasciaius Lee, Acoptus 

 suturalis Lee, or Chramesus icorice Lee. From the smaller trees I get a score of 

 Laemophlaeiis adiistus Lee. and convexulns Lee, an occasional biguttakis Say or 

 fasciatus Mel., Psenocerus snpernolatiis Say, Orchesia castanea Melsh., and still 

 more rarely Pogonocheriis salicicola, Lepturges qnerci Fitch and facetus Say. 

 Across the track the alders and fire-killed bushes yield numbers of Laemophlaens 

 and Molamba which are barely discernible as minute dots crawling on the dark 

 umbrella. Some of the Cerambycids remain perfectly still on the cloth, and 

 are occasionally picked from the very edge where the least motion would tumble 

 them to safety. 



New fields lure me on down the track half a mile more to the woods and 

 meadows, but I must always stop to take a whack at the clump of poison sumac 

 growing by the fence on the edge of the swamp that stretches away to the brook 

 beyond the higher ground. It yields as usual only Psenocerus superno^aUis, 

 and the chokecherry and red maple are even less productive, although I have 

 taken some good things from the sprouts of the latter, notably Purpuricenns 

 humeralis Fab., Limonius aurifer Lee. (in Maine), and Corymbiks nigricornis 

 Panz. (typical nitididus Lee.) once in numbers. 



Near the track fire has killed all the large trees of the high ground, and 

 it has grown up with bunches of blueberry, amelanchier and sweet fern. The 

 former yields nothing at all generally, but the amelanchier I have now visited 

 at the most favourable time, and when I have finished with them I have several 

 specimens of the rare Agrilus viitati colli s Rand, and a set of Saperda Candida 

 Fab. The latter I have never taken otherwise, except once only, when I suddenly 

 saw one balanced on the tip of a dead sprout almost between my legs. 



Travelling east again down a wood-road, I visit a few white pines that 

 have escaped the fires. The lower branches of these I am able to reach with 

 a long limb, and almost the first blow brings down a beautiful green beetle, 

 Chrysobothris harrisi Hentz, a very welcome find. I attack the trees with 

 renewed vigour when a sharp sting in the vicinity of my collar bone causes me 

 to suspend operations with visions of a ferocious, white-faced hornet probing 

 about my jugular vein. Hastily throwing off my coat and bag I frantically 

 try to dislodge the intruder by tearing open my shirt and getting head down 

 over the umbrella, for entomological curiosity compels me to search out the 

 identity of the insect that has violated the sanctity of my person. At intervals 

 during these manoeuvres, when the clothing binds the insect, it deliberately, 

 but with unexpected moderation, punctures my skin, selecting five different 

 places before it is released and falls to the umbrella; it is a yellow hymenopter 

 whose identity is unknown to me. After arraigning the intruder in appropri- 

 ate, if not ethical, language the search for C. harrisi is continued with one more 

 specimen as a reward. In Maine Corymbiies medianiis Germ., and propola 



