l\\t Canadian ^utomolanbt. 



Vol. XL. LONDON, AUGUST, 1908. No. 8. 



RECENT WORK AMONG THE BORERS. 



BY HENRY H. LYMAN, M. A., MONTREAL. 



Since the publication in the September, 1905, number of this journal 

 of my paper entitled " New Gortynas," a number of papers deahng with 

 the same group of moths have appeared, which were naturally of great 

 interest to me. 



In the March, 1907, number of the Journ. N. Y. Ent. Soc. appeared a 

 paper by Dr. H. G. Dyar, in which a new species was described under 

 the name Hydroecia stefioceits, that author apparently using the names 

 Hydi'ffcia, Papaipema and Gorfyna interchangeably. 



The type of this species I saw during a recent visit to Washington^ 

 and it is certainly a very distinct species, which could not be confounded 

 with any other form at present known. 



But the papers of most interest to me were those which appeared in 

 the August and September, 1907, numbers of this journal, from the pen of 

 Mr. H. Bird. In these papers the author has described a number of very 

 interesting species, and made a very considerable addition to our knowl- 

 edge of this group, in which he has for years done so much good work. 



Mr. Bird very truly says that the working out of life histories in this 

 genus is a greater contribution to entomological knowledge than the mere 

 description of new forms, and this, I take it, would equally apply in the 

 case of most other genera. But Mr. Bird would not suggest that a species 

 should not be described unless its life history had been previously un- 

 ravelled, as he has himself described several species of which the early 

 stages are unknown. Moreover, the conditions in this group are very 

 different from those in most other genera, because these having boring 

 larvse, it is generally easier to find the larv?e than the moths, and in many 

 cases the determination of the moths is difficult unless they have been 

 bred. 



In the September number Mr. Bird described the species boring in 

 Pteris aqiiil'uia under the w^n\Q pterisii. This species I have had repre- 

 sented in my collection by a single specimen taken by one of our 



