THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST, 171 



legs white, tarsi darker ; abdomen green with a median dorsal yellow line ; 

 fifth dorsal segment with a large brownish spot. 



Length, 13 mm. ; alar expanse, 46 mm. 



Habitat — West Chop, Massachusetts, July to August. 



The following notes on the habits of this species are of interest : — 

 " This beautiful little insect first attracted my attention while strolling at 

 twilight along the silent leaf-strewn wood-roads of the Vineyard, in the im- 

 mediate vicinity of West Chop. I first noticed it early in July, and it is 

 still common in mid-August. 



" It seems specially fond of oak trees and is nocturnal in habits, being 

 rarely seen by day. When startled from its resting-place by daylight it 

 flutters rapidly and erratically to a neighboring branch or downward to 

 the sheltering undergrowth of huckleberry bushes, which everywhere fill 

 the woods. Shortly after sundown, however, it awakens to activity, and 

 may then be observed as a dimply perceptible paleness drifting silently 

 and steadily through the twilight gloom. 



" When taken in the hand, this impalpable apparition resolves itself into 

 a ghostly little elf clad in pale-green and white, with brilliant purple eyes 

 and gauzy wings ; a veritable dryad of the woods." 



Nothochrysa califoniica, Banks. — Antennae shorter than the wings, 

 wholly black ; head reddish-yellow, antennal sockets surrounded with 

 black, three black streaks above, connected with the black of antennal 

 sockets, and a few blackish lines below antennae ; palpi black ; prothorax 

 black, with a median light stripe, broader at each end, and the extreme 

 margin light, narrowed in front, sides gradually sloping; meso-and meta- 

 thorax black ; wings hyaline, round at apex ; veins mostly black ; costa 

 and base of radius on fore-wing, costa and almost whole of radius on 

 hind-wings, yellowish ; pterostigma brown, throughout its entire length ; 

 sixteen or seventeen costal veinlets before the pterostigma, ten or eleven 

 between the radius and its sector, ten in the inner gradate series, twelve 

 in the outer gradate series ; less testaceous, middle and hind femora 

 darker, tips of tibiae and joints of tarsi black ; abdomen short, black, the 

 posterior margin of the segments on sides narrowly yellowish. 



Length, 9 mm. ; alar expanse, 26 mm. 



Habitat — California. 



I am indebted to Mr. Nathan Banks, Sea Cliff, N. Y., for notes on 

 this species. 



