56 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 



menter's fingers, did not seem in the least to interfere with the 

 phenomenon, although decidedly different from the colour — to the 

 human eye — of the light of the female insect. 



A flash of a flying Lampyrid, closely resembling that of the 

 male of this species, was obser\-ed by the writer in the Soldier's 

 Home Park, in Washington, D.C., about April 20, 1911, and was 

 at that time ascribed, by Mr. H. S. Barber, to some northern 

 species not yet recorded from this locality. The distribution of 

 P. borealis in the surrounding country has not been worked out, 

 but it would appear possible that the flash seen in 1911 might have 

 been due to a chance male of this species. The spring of that year 

 was rather warmer than usual, possibly accounting for the early 

 date. 



Olivier (Accouplements anormaux chex les insects. Premier 

 Cong. Internat. d'Entomologie, 1910, pp. 143-145; see also 

 Gadeau de Kerville, Bull. Soc. Ent. France, 1896, No. 4, p. 85) 

 has mentioned the comparative frequency with which two male 

 lampyrids are found attempting to mate. During this investiga- 

 tion a number of live males of Pyractomena borealis were placed in a 

 test-tube, and upon examining them about half an hour later it 

 was found that two of them had coupled, the penis of the upper 

 one being held between the mandibles of the other; they remained 

 in this position at least two hours. The position of the terminal 

 segments of the upper male were those of normal intromission. 

 There was no evidence that one insect had attacked the other, nor 

 did either appear to be injured. 



It may be noted that the odor of this insect, while resembling 

 that of Photinus pyralis, is still rather different from that of the 

 latter species. 



2. Photuris pennsylvanica DeGeer. This species was observed 

 for the first time during the season of 1916, along the Conduit 

 Road between Great Falls and Cabin John Bridge, on the evening 

 of May 27. The insects first appeared as isolated, scattered speci- 

 mens about 8.15 p.m., but by 9.00 o'clock there were thousands of 

 them flashing in the trees and over the fields. As previously 

 noted (Can. Ent., 1911, vol. 43, pp. 403-4) difficulty had been ex- 

 perienced in connecting the luminosity with the mating conduct 

 in this species. Experiments with the use of the electric flash light 



