THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



FIELD NOTES— 1881. 



BY W. H. HARRINGTON, OTTAWA, ONT. 



The earth covered by its first mantle of snow reminds one that the 

 collecting season is virtually ended, and the lengthening evenings allure 

 one to the study fireside to go carefully over note books and collections 

 and to read the recorded labors of fellow Entomologists. 



A few memoranda from my own note book may perhaps not be barren 

 of interest to some of the less experienced readers of the Entomologist. 

 I find that almost the first insect of spring was the Mud- wasp, Polestes 

 atimilatus, which appeared with a few flies and spiders about the 15th of 

 March. This wasp is very abundant here, and from the pulverized mac- 

 adam of the streets thousands of its mud cells are constructed every 

 summer under the window-sills and numerous cornices of the Parliament 

 Buildings, about which the wasps linger until the end of October. Toward 

 the end of March a few bees and a number of small beetles, as Amara 

 interstitialis, appeared. Fieris rapce, the cabbage butterfly, was observed 

 on April ist, but from this date to the 8th of the month a severe cold 

 spell (thermometer touching zero) reduced insect appearances to the 

 minimum again. At its conclusion they emerged in still greater variety 

 and number ; Vanessa antiopa flitted about in sunny glades of the wood ; 

 Cicindela ptcrpurea enlivened the fields, and its relatives, C. vulgaris and 

 C. sex-guttata, the roads. Mosquitoes came in full force a fortnight later, 

 and on the 24th I obtained a number of Buprestidae upon young pines, 

 viz., I ^ and 2 ^ C virginiensis^ and 14 ,^ and 13 $ C liherta. I was 

 somewhat surprised to find them so early in the year, yet could have laken 

 many more. They were generally paired, in several instances copulating. 

 Some Pissodes were also seen, and these were with few exceptions copu- 

 lating. Great numbers of Saw-flies were also upon the pines. A few days 

 later I captured specimens of A. striata, and by the beginning of May all 

 orders of insects were well represented. On the 6th Serica sericea was 

 abundant on the foliage of wild gooseberry bushes. Chrysomela elegans 

 was also unusually numerous, but I could not find upon what it fed. 

 Platycerus qiiercus ? was found eating the buds of maples and other trees. 

 The buds were often completely eaten out, and the beetles hidden from 

 view therein. In some buds a male and female were found copulating. 

 This beetle was new to my collection, but I found them frequently again 



