8 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 



ninety-nine cases out of a hundred — it turns into an aculeate hyme- 

 nopteron and poniards the cord of your neck with that most 

 venomous of stillettos, the wasp sting; in the hundredth case, of 

 course, it simply flies away. I was on the horns of a dilemma: if 

 that creature was Chrysomela scalaris, I wanted it badly; on the 

 other hand, I stood good chances of being stung, literally or figura- 

 tively, by its proving a wasp or something worthless or making its 

 escape. My embarrassment was worse than that of the Cockney 

 sportsman (as pictured by Punch) when the bird he was aiming at 

 suddenly settled on the middle of his gun-barrel ; because, though 

 I am told this would make a very difficult shot, at least the man 

 knew what he was trying to bag. There were big risks, it was a 

 daring shot, but I took it and grabbed the insect as it was pushing 

 down behind the collar of my neglige. An awful moment, while I 

 waited for telegraphic communication from my neck to my inner 

 consciousness of the sensation of five inches of hatpin jabbed 

 viciously into the quick and centre of one's being, that matter-of- 

 fact people call a wasp-sting; but there was no telegram, this was 

 was the 100th chance, and sure enough, when I came to examine my 

 capture, it was what I had been looking for — Chrysomela scalaris. 

 Where had it come from? I am certain there was none on the 

 basswood ; it had simply dropped out of pure cussedness on to my 

 head, I presume, from the sky. Next season I found three more 

 species — one on willows very like Chr. philadelphica of the dogwood, 

 but with the front and sides of the thorax margined with cream; 

 I have taken a great many specimens of this beetle in various places, 

 always on the willow; it is Chr. bigsbyana. The second new species 

 was a smaller member of the genus called Chr. elegans, first found 

 early in the season crawling on railway ties, which are not its food- 

 plant, but afterwards found feeding in abundance on water smart- 

 weed about the surface of a stream a couple of miles south-east of 

 here. There is another species of small size closely resembling this, 

 called Chr. suturalis. I have never discovered the food plant to 

 which this beetle resorts about Port Hope, but I have twice found 

 a stray specimen on grass blades. One year in August, when I 

 returned from my holidays, I was looking over my friend's collec- 

 lection of Chrysomelas, mentally checking off their food-plants- as 



