20 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



By this mail I send you a pair of Nephopieryx Zimmermani Grote. If 

 am not mistaken, they will interest you as a new and very destriu ti j 

 insect ; and I think you are more interested in noxious insects than Ento- 

 mologists generally are. There is scarcely a Pine more than 4 ft. high, on 

 our grounds, that is not more or less affected by this borer. 



I have found it on Pinus strobus, P. rubra or tesifiosa, P. austriaca, P. 

 sylvestris, P. cembra, Corsican, Lofty Bothan and Russian Pines. P. syl- 

 vestris seems to suffer most, as the limbs, and often the main stem, are 

 constantly breaking off. Only a few days ago one of our finest specimens 

 of P. strobus (a tree over 30 ft. in height and almost perfect in shape) had 

 about 6 ft. of the top broken off — the effects of this borer. I am in 

 hopes that the small parasitic flies I found in the larva will soon get the 

 upper hand, so as to keep them in check. 



I have been after this borer for several years, but did not succeed in 

 getting the perfect moth until the summer of 1876, and until then sup- 

 posed they were only on P. sylvestris. Chas. D. Zimmerman. 



571 Main St., Buffalo, N. Y., Dec. 26, 1877. 



[The specimens so kindly sent by our esteemed correspondent reached 

 us in good order and will prove a valuable addition to our collection, for 

 which we tender our sincere thanks. — Ed. C. E.] 



May I suggest that the " seeming growth " on the eye of Papilio 

 philenor, to which Mr. E. M. Aaron calls attention at p. 200, is probably 

 the pollinia or pollen masses of one of the Orchidacea, objects which 

 have before now puzzled unbotanical Entomologists. Of course, without 

 seeing the things in question, I can only suggest this as a probable 

 explanation. In Mr. Darwin's work on the " Fertilization of Orchids," as 

 well as in the works of other authors on the same subject, will be found 

 lists of the insects on whose proboscises (generally — or at least near that 

 organ) pollinia have been noticed. Examples have also come under my 

 own notice. Mr. Aaron should watch the butterflies, and if he finds them 

 visiting any Orchidaceous flower, let him take a fine pin or grass stalk, and 

 inserting it into some of these flowers, gently, and in the same manner in 

 which the insect would insert its proboscis, the result will probably show 

 him the way in which the apparent growths are deposited. 



\¥. Buchanan White, Perth, Scotland 



