THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 155 



cocoons may be looked for, and removed in time to check their further 

 increase. In the caterpillar state they are not of dainty appetite, and, 

 while partial to the apple, will eat other foliage as well ; were it not so, 

 we should soon hear more of their destructive effects. We have taken 

 them feeding- on cherry, plum, maple, willow, lilac, black and red currant, 

 and hazel, and they are said to attack also the hickory, birch, elm, honey 

 locust, barberry, hawthorn, and elder. 



The natural increase of this insect being so great, a wise provision has 

 been made to keep it within bounds. Besides enemies which attack the 

 egg, and young larva, there are several parasites, which live within the 

 body of the caterpillar and destroy it before reaching maturity ; and in 

 this way, their numbers, which would otherwise soon be alarming, are kept 

 within moderate limits. 



INSECTS OF THE NORTHERN PARTS OF BRITISH AMERICA. 



COMPILED BY THE EDITOR. 



From Kirbx's Fauna Boreal i- Americana : Inseeia. 

 (Continued from page 137.) 



[103.] 145. Oiceoptoma [Silpha] Americanum Linn. — Length of 

 body Sj4 lines ; breadth 7 lines. Taken in Nova Scotia by Capt. Hall. 



Body very much depressed, thickly punctured with a hair issuing from 

 each puncture ; on the under-side black. Head with a round impression 

 between the eyes: prothoroix pale-yellow with a subquadrangular sublobate 

 black spot in the disk ; punctures of the prothorax very thick, those of the 

 discoidal spot resembling scratches : elytra brown-black, rather silky, with 

 two longitudinal, undulated, obsolete ridges that do not reach the apex ; 

 their surface is covered with irregular elevations, and near the suture is a 

 series of punctiform impressions ; epipleura very wide with its horizontal 

 portion resplendent with a lustre between bronze and gold, vertical part, 

 or inner margin, yellow ; the suture of the elytra terminates in a minute 

 point. Olivier says there are three ridges on the elytra, but only two are 

 discernible in the specimen here described. It is singular that no author 

 has noticed the brilliant side-covers of the elytra. [Synonymous with 

 S. peltata Catesby. Common in Canada ; north shore of Lake Superior 

 (Agassiz).] 



