THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 59 



We had often tried to rear the larvae, but always failed until we dis- 

 covered the cause. After they were full fed they would rove around the 

 feed box, gnawing a little here and there, but refusing to pupate, and 

 finally died. 



A few years ago several larvae were discovered on a lilac bush where we 

 could watch them daily ; when ready to pupate they left the leaves and 

 went down the stalks until they found one that was dead and somewhat 

 decayed ; here they bored round holes of the same diameter as their 



. bodies, they wadded the chips up into round balls about the size of B. 

 shot, a§ they took them out, and then dropped them to the ground. The 



.holes extended into the stalk horizontally about .25 of an inch, and then 

 down about two inches ; when finished it was a perfect woodpecker's hole 

 in miniature. After the holes were made the larvge entered them, but 

 whether they backed in or went in head first was not observed. It is pro- 

 bable that the former method was adopted, as the holes were so small 

 it is scarcely possible that they could have turned after entering. They 

 covered the opening with a, thin parchment like silk, very near the color 

 of the bark on the stalk, so that the place was hardly observable ; in a 

 few days the change to pupa takes place, and the moth comes out the 

 next spring. Any one wishing to rear the larva of this moth can readily do 

 so by putting some partly decayed sticks of lilac ^into the breeding cage. 

 When they are full fed they will make their holes in the sticks as readily as 

 when at liberty. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



V. 



EXPLANATION. 



Dear Sir : In reference to an article by the Rev. Geo. W. Taylor, of 

 ancouver Island, in the December No. (1885) of the Entomologist, a few 

 words in explanation of my connection with the matter seem to be in place. 



In looking over the collection he sent me, in the usual way for identi- 

 fication, I noted several species new to me, and I believed new to science. 

 This opinion was shared in by the Toronto Entomologists to whom I 

 showed them. Being in correspondence with M. L'x\bbe Provancher, and 

 believing him to be the best American authority on Northern Hymenop- 

 tera, I mailed the lot to him, except about twenty species, about the 

 identity of which there could be no doubt. In a short time the box was 



