50 THE Ci^NADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



the elevations, are reddish purple. In other examples the whole space 

 between the hnes, except four or five greenish patches^ is reddish purple, 

 there being various intergrades. In all cases the purple is mottled. The 

 sides are specked with purple ; stigmatal line yellow with traces of one 

 above this. Head with a dark purple line each side, outside of which is 

 a yellowish line. 



The larvae from which this description was taken, 13 in all, were 

 taken on a young elm tree September 29, 1884. By October 5th all but 

 one had disappeared for the purpose of pupation, going beneath the sur- 

 face of the dirt in the breeding cage. Nine imagines were produced the 

 following spring, the times of emergence ranging from May 24th to June 

 7th. There seems to be two broods in a season, for larvae were found on 

 elms during the early part of summer, but these were not reared to find 

 out the period of the summer brood. 



NOTES ON PAPILIO TURNUS AND PYRAMEIS CARDUI. 



BY MRS. C. H. FERNALD. 



Previous to the summer of 1884, Papilio turiius and Pyrameis cardui 

 had been quite rare in Orono, Me., and vicinity, not more than half a 

 dozen of the former and two or three of the latter having been seen each 

 year ; but in June of that year P. turnus was so abundant that it was not 

 uncommon to see a dozen or more flying together. In August of the 

 same year fresh specimens of P. cardui were so abundant that in a small 

 piece of red clover, not more than two rods from the house, I captured 

 twenty-five in half an hour, and the numbers were not perceptibly dimin- 

 ished. The next day they were equally abundant, but the following day 

 we had a cold rain storm, after which only a very few poor, faded ex- 

 amples were seen. The next summer (1885) P. turnus was again rare, 

 and not one example of P. cardui was seen by myself, nor by any one in 

 this vicinity. Parasites might have made the difference in the number of 

 P. ttinms, but could they have done so with that immense number of P. 

 cardui, or did that storm so effectually destroy them before laying their 

 eggs that there were none the next year, or is it possible that some epi- 

 demic attacked them, leaving none to perpetuate the race ? We can 

 understand the gradual increase and decrease of certain species which is 

 noticeable every year, but the sudden abundance and scarcity of some 



