14 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Other." Now, though I have found the pupa of E. parallelum^ Newm. , 

 very early in the fall (i8th Sept., as stated above), and Mr. Clarkson has 

 found the imago of E. villosuni, Fabr., in November, I am inclined to 

 think that these early metamorphoses were from eggs deposited earlier 

 than others, or that by some favorable circumstances these individuals 

 developed more rapidly and thus metamorphosed earlier. It is my 

 opinion that both these species may assume the imago state either in the 

 fall or the following spring, some, more forward than others, attaining this 

 state in the fall. Perhaps favorable years, when some of the eggs may be 

 deposited earlier in the summer than usual, produce the autumn imagos, 

 which then remain within the twigs during the winter and emerge early in 

 the spring. These in turn, if the season is at all favorable, will lay their 

 eggs earlier than the others, and thus continue the early metamorphosis. 



Toward the conclusion of his account Dr. Fitch says that " in at least 

 three-fourths of the fallen limbs no worm is to be found," it having been 

 devoured by birds either at the time the branch fell or afterward. The 

 ground under oak and hickory trees here I have known some years (1884) 

 to be covered with the twigs early in September, blown down by heavy 

 winds, and at such times nearly all of the larvae are destroyed by insectiv- 

 orous birds, which extract them from their burrows, if they have not 

 already been dislodged. This explains why so few of the beetles were 

 obtained from the twigs I had saved — only 18 beetles from a large supply 

 of the twigs, every one of which had certainly fallen that season, and been 

 occupied at the time — the birds had destroyed all the others, and that 

 very soon after their fall ! But I cannot concur in the view taken by Dr. 

 Fitch, that the larva severs the branch that it may fall to the ground, thus 

 to aid its transformation. It is very probable that the larva cuts the twig 

 to stop the flow of sap, the dead wood being necessary to mature its 

 growth, and is conscious of none of that "consummate skill and seemingly 

 super-terrestrial intelligence " which the worthy Doctor so enthusiastically 

 attributed to it. 



MISCELLANEOUS NOTES ON BUTTERFLIES, THEIR 



LARV.^, ETC. 



BY W. II. EDWARDS, COALBURGH, W. VA. 



2. On the scarcity of certain Species in 1885. 



The most notable instance was that of C. Philodicc, which is usually 



