44 THE EEPORT OF THE No. 36 



On the afternoon of September 13th, 1914, while walking along a path on our 

 Western Mountain, near the ski-grounds, looking for edible fungi rather than for 

 insects, I found a stramentosa, resting on a leaf of the rattle-snake root (Nahalus 

 racemosus) and a minute later disturbed another on a plant of the same species. 

 This plant was given a tug and it broke off short, but the root was easily dug up 

 and was evidently bored. On going back to the first plant, it was also found to 

 have been attacked. Things began to look interesting and mushrooms were put 

 aside for another day. By tramping among the plants and beating them with a 

 stick, a number of the moths were disturbed, either dropping to the ground or fly- 

 ing a short distance and hiding. Among the hundreds of plants in the neighbor- 

 hood a plant here and there was pulled up and most of them showed they had been 

 bored, and we felt so sure that the long-sought for plant had been stumbled across 

 that a supply of seeds was sent to Mr. Bird so that he might have a supply of plants 

 in Tiis " garden of borers " at Eye, N.Y., ready for the larvae that would follow 

 another season. 



Early this June, when the larvae of the borers were beginning their work 

 in burdock, thistle, cicuta, iris, etc., the same locality was visited, but the JSTabalus 

 plants were hardly visible above ground and those dug up showed no sign of attack. 

 We concluded that we were too early, for the moth being later in appearing than 

 ihost of the borers, it seemed possible that the egg was also later in hatching. The 

 next visit was three weeks later and the plants were about two feet high, but the 

 most careful search failed to find any trouble. Something had evidently gone 

 wrong with our discovery of the previous fall and stramentosa was still surrounded 

 by a mystery. One thing was very certain, however, namely, that if I had dis- 

 turbed a dozen or so of the moths there must have been in the neighborhood scores 

 or hundreds that were not seen, and as the number of examples seen about the 

 lights each year was about uniform, there must be a lot of larvse^. close at hand. If 

 they were not in Nabalus, they must be in something else growing commonly there. 

 iFortunately I was in a clear patch on a hillside and could get a sort of bird's-eye 

 view of the tangle of weeds and undergrowth. A plant was noticed that we had 

 seen In many places on Mount Eoyal Park and an isolated clump was selected. 

 There was no wilted top nor brown leaf to indicate attack, but on splitting the 

 longest stem down from the top, a boring was struck about a foot from the ground 

 and a section containing the little larva was quickly boxed. Other plants were 

 similarly treated but nothing was found, and it looked as if our day's take was 

 going to be only one larva. Something suggested that we were again off the track, 

 so we opened our box, removed the larva from its boring and had a good look at it. 

 It was seen to belong to a different genuS' — Papaipema, probably P. cataphracta, 

 and such it proved to be. This in itself was rather a discovery, as the insect, though 

 common enough in Ottawa and elsewhere, is seldom found with us, and it seemed 

 remarkable that the very first stem selected to be split open should have contained 

 a larva, which prevented my continuing the process down to the ground, which is 

 the simplest way of locating boring larvee in their earliex stages. We could not 

 recollect ever having pulled up a clump of this plant on any previous occasion and 

 as we looked at the erect stems with their perfect foliage surmounted by the forming 

 seed pods, which later on rattle merrily when touched, it seemed incredible that 

 they should be bored; and yet, that little cataphracta had been in one stem, 

 equally perfect externally. A cluster of stems coming* from one root was grasped 

 and given a tug. Up it came, and after giving it a shake, a fine fat larva about 

 11/4 inches long was seen shuffling back into its burrow. As we were extricating 

 hira. another dropped to the ground and was secured. This surely was our quarry 



