1908] Report of Entomological Branch 39 



REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL BRANCH. 



1907 



(Read before the Club, January 21st, 1908). 



The Leaders of the Entomological Branch have again 

 pleasure in reporting that manv of its members have been actively 

 engaged during 1907 and that much useful work has been done, 

 even although the season, from an entomological standpoint, 

 was a very poor one. In the Ottawa district, the local members 

 have assiduously continued their studies and many new records 

 have been made of insects not hitherto found in the vicinity. 

 Special attention has been devoted to the moths and butterflies, 

 dragonflies, bees and the true bugs, as well as to the spiders. 

 The beetles and flies have also been worked to a less extent. 

 Large collections of Ottawa dragonflies have been made and 

 these are being worked into a paper for The Ottawa Naturalist 

 by Dr. E. M. Walker, of Toronto, with the special object of 

 encouraging and helping our local collectors to devote more 

 study to these important insects. 



The fortnightly meetings of the Branch were continued in 

 1907, and these gatherings proved, as in the past, of much benefit 

 and interest to those who attended them. Much valuable 

 information is brought out in the discussions at these meetings 

 which otherwise would be lost to the members. 



During the past summer some of the members of the Branch 

 had the pleasure of enjoying the visits to Ottawa of two dis- 

 tinguished entomologists from the United vStates. Tn June, 

 Mr. W. D. Kearfott, of Montclair, N.J., the well-known specialist 

 in microlepidoptera, who has identified so manv local species, 

 spent a week in Ottawa, and. with some of the members, made 

 several expeditions to localities recognized as being within the 

 area known as the Ottawa District. Special trips were made 

 to Meach Lake and the Mer Bleue and hundreds of specimens 

 of desirable material were collected. Mr. Kearfott is working 

 up the species taken while here, and a paper treating of these will, 

 we hope, soon be readv for publication. Almost following Mr. 

 Kearfott's visit, Dr. Henry Skinner, of Philadelphia, one of the 

 leading American authorities of diurnal lepidoptera, arrived 

 in Ottawa for a short stay and met some of the members of the 

 Branch. 



During the year, six of the local members made special 

 collections of insects at different points in Canada. Dr. Fletcher, 

 with Dr. Skinner, travelled through Manitoba and the Northwest 

 in July and August, and specimens in all orders were 

 taken, at Nepigon, Ont., Aweme, Man. (the home of our 



