1916 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 17 



Division No. 5, Port Hope District — Francis J. A. Morris. 



An active collector of Lepidoptera in Port Hope, Mr. H. L. Bowers, has 

 now moved to Oshawa and reports an unprofitable season's work due to bad 

 weather and unfamiliarity with his surroundings. He writes: 



I collected pretty steadily until Jime 15tli, but took few specimens, Oshawa being a 

 poorer hunting ground than Port Hope. Extreme wet seemed to keep insect pests in the 

 background. " Pieris rapae," owing to spread of wild mustard, seems on the increase; 

 in September the fields were white with them; milkweed butterflies were more numerous 

 than last year; other butterflies were scarce; such scarcity has been remarkable the 

 last two or three seasons. During 1912 I could have taken hundreds of Vanessa J-album, 

 but have seen few since. Tent caterpillars, both American and forest, were more numer- 

 ous this year than last. Many orchards around Oshawa were completely defoliated. I 

 was interested to see how much these were parasitized, and out of 100 cocoons, I did not 

 find one thus suffering. Pistol case-<bearer of the apple was very plentiful. I noticed 

 many apple trees badly infested with aphids. The tendency to allow wild apple, cherry 

 and plum to grow unchecked has a great tendency to render means taken by progressive 

 orchard-men to keep down insect pests, largely abortive. Practically all of the wild apple 

 trees that I have seen around Oshawa have been heavily infested with the Oyster-shell 

 scale. In September, I saw many cherry trees near Newtonville badly eaten by pear-tree 

 slug (Selandria cerasi). The caterpillars of certain species of Cramhiis were very 

 numerous in meadows. I noticed the maple trees in Oshawa badly infested with Pigeon 

 Horn Tail, which oviposited continuously from August 3rd to September 15th; Thalessa 

 lunator was also plentiful. Hemlocks on the main street were badly infested with 

 Tortrix -fxiniferana. Some horse-chestnuts were badly eaten by tussock caterpillars. 

 The Promethea moth, found very scarce at Port Hope (one cocoon in six years), seems 

 plentiful here. I took Phigalia titea, April 13th; Orthofidonia vestaliata were plentiful 

 for several weeks; Drepana arcuata, May 30th; Sphinx ccrisyi, June 13th; Thecla 

 liparops, July 18th. I have identified some of the captures made last year, and the 

 following is a list of those made at Port Hope, which have some interest. I believe they 

 are all fairly scarce: — 



m 



Sphinx cerisyi. Catocala vidua. 



Diphthera fallax. Raphia pater. 



Hyperaeschra georgica. Semiophora opacifrons. 



Fcntonia marthesia. Sewiophora tenehrifera. 



Galgula hepara. Hydriomena ruberata (Mrivataf) . 



Catocala innul)ens. Thecla edioardsii. 



Dr. "Watson of Port Hope reports the cutworm locally troublesome on cabbage 

 and cauliflower. 



Mr. Duncan, of the Department of Agriculture in Port Hope, says the Potato 

 Beetle was very prevalent and that he noticed in several places the Friendly 

 Perillus at work destroying the larvae. Aphids were not so abundant. He was 

 called to look at an apple orchard near Orono that was overrun by Tent caterpillars. 

 It was ten or twelve acres in extent, and most of the trees were denuded of 

 foliage and bore no fruit, except in the one corner that he was able to save by 

 spraying with arsenate of lead. Some idea of the numbers of these creatures 

 could be gathered from a sack that he saw slung over a branch in the orchard: 

 ex pede Herculem — in the folds of the sack he counted over fifty cocoons. His 

 recollection is that both species of caterpillar were equally numerous. The orchard 

 was a well-kept one and had not been attacked in 1914. This, again, points in the 

 same direction as Mr, Bowers' note. There were doubtless rich breeding grounds 

 along some nearby fences the year before, or even that same season, but the 

 larvae ran out of food and like many another young innocent crept into the apple 

 orchard. The canker worm was also prevalent in the orchard. 



The school collections of insects, Mr. Duncan says, were up to average and 

 a few collections were extensive and well arranged. In the Peterborough Col- 

 legiate 30 or 40 of these come in annually and I often find specimens of great 



