1917 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 23 



It- was on July 6th that we first noticed Hyperplatys aspersa on the top of a 

 woodpile. This pile consisted entirely of 'Populus tremuloides, cut into short- 

 length cylindrical billets, the bark stillon; the billets ranged from two or three 

 to six or seven inches in diameter. During ten days, six visits were made to the 

 woodpile; on each of the last three visits every billet in the pile was lifted and 

 turned over for insiDection, with tlie following result: 



Hyperplatys aspersa, 117. (These insects were not collected after the fourth 

 visit, though several were seen). 



Liopus variegaiuH 13. 



Liopus cinercus 6. 



Acanthoderes sp? 2. 



Fogonochaerus mixtus 2 (var. salicola, Casey.) 



Paratidra hrunnea 1. 



Saperda calcarafa 1. 



Also, several species of Endomyrhid, Clerid, Elaterid, Buprestid, Teiiebrionid, 

 and Rhynchophorid beetles. 



During the same period Dr. Watson, of Port Hope, was having a similar ex- 

 perience about dying branches of sumach ; his captures included Goes oculuta, 

 Lopiodylm macula, Liopus cinereus, Lepturges signatus and Hyperplatys aspersa. 



The weeks from July 18th to the end of August, were spent in the Algonquin 

 Park. About Cache Lake, on fallen balsam and spruce (besides white pine), Mono- 

 hammiis con f user and M. scidellatus were both observed; on spruce were captured 

 single specimens of Tctropium cinnamoplerum, Neoclyfus muricaiuhis and the 

 Melandryid, Phlocotria quadrimacidata (Dircaca lifnrata) ; on balsam, a single 

 s]x>cimen of Xylotrcchus undulatvs. Aprparently breeding about the brandies of 

 a small felled white pine over 100 specimens of Pogonochaenis mixtus were cap- 

 tured in five weeks. Several specimens of Leptostylus 6-guttaiiis were also taken 

 on white pine. Half a dozen specimens of Leptura canadensis (all female) were 

 taken about the woods, and as many (all male) feeding on spiraea blossom; no 

 female was seen on blossoms. On spirasa were also taken both sexes of L. suh- 

 hamata, L. proxima, L. vagans and some other common species; also two specimens 

 of a very dark form of L. plebeia; this beetle had never been taken before 1916; 

 but on July 6th we had been fortunate enough to observe a specimen settle on the 

 trunk of a large white pine, just low enough not to afford one more tantalizing 

 example of how the human enthusiast's reach exceeds his grasp. 



Not many observations of economic interest were made during the season. 

 Depredations of the willow-boring weevil were in further evidence about Port Hope 

 where some specimens were noticed as early as the first week of June ; in that 

 neighbourhood it was found also .on Populus tremuloides, and near Oshawa on 

 Balm of Gilead; a patch of willows near Peterborough was yioticed in September 

 badly damaged by this insect. The wet May and June caused aphids to be quite 

 a severe scourge to foliage, especially elm. poplar and maple. Grasshoppers in the 

 later summer were terribly destru(^tive, though less so in the Port Hope district (Mr. 

 Duncan tells me) than elsewhere. Apple and other fruit trees whose branches 

 were a riot of blossom in !May and June managed to set very little fruit, the 

 disastrous rains of the early summer having prevented insect fertilization. 



