THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 385 



he certainly had grey hairs in his head — a respectable married man 

 and a regular church-goer, but alas, gentlemen, a lepidopterist in 

 an advanced stage. He greatly coveted specimens of the swallow- 

 tail butterfly. This is almost extinct in Great Britain, though 

 still occasional in the fens of Cambridgeshire; the made-in-Germany 

 kind that are exported from the continent to English dealers, 

 ready set and pinned, did not satisfy him, and at last he was obliged 

 to compromise matters by rearing some imported larvae and liber- 

 ating the imagoes in his back garden, in order to catch them again 

 with his butterfly net. Now, what is that but childish make- 

 believe? Unfortunately, most of us left this faculty of self-decep- 

 tion behind in the nursery and are incapable of hoodwinking our- 

 selves so easily. Yet I confess to a greater liking for my specimens 

 of Asparagus Beetle since I took them on wild plants that were not 

 growing in a garden, and I never really loved the Potato Bug and 

 the Squash Beetle till I caught them on mysideof the farmer's fence, 

 the one feeding on the Bittersweet and the others on the blossoms 

 of the Goldenrod. 



Moreover, were it not that such a consummation would 

 jeopardize the existence of one of the world's lilies and eventually 

 defeat its own end, I'd sooner see every stalk of asparagus in my 

 own as well as in all my neighbours' gardens devoured by either 

 species of Crioceris( both, perhaps) than invent or discover an in- 

 secticide that should prove fatal to so pretty a beetle. 



It is, I admit, bearding the lion in his den to appear before 

 an audience largely composed of economic entomologists and talk 

 from so alien a point of view as this about Chrysomelidae of all 

 insects in the world; for in the whole order of Coleoptera this is 

 probably the one family that most violently flaunts its existence 

 before the public eye, by the invasion of the kitchen garden. 



Is there such a thing as a beetle-fancier, I wonder? If there 

 is, that's what I am, and to show you that I have the courage of 

 my opinions, I invite you all as fellow-members of this Society, or 

 as guests interested in insects, to join me in a cross-country tramp 

 north of Port Hope on a fine day about the middle of July. We 

 shall start from our honoured President's old home of Trinity 

 College School, and in order to enjoy the day thoroughly I'll ask 

 each of you for a little while to fanc\- yourselves back at school 



