THE REPORT OF THE No. 19 



therein a wad formed of elastic fibres of wood." Usually his sawing is so accurate that he 

 has not long to wait before he falls with the limb. After the branch has fallen the grub con- 

 tinues to eat and grow. It changes to a pnpa (Fig. 29) sometimes in the fall, but usually in the 

 spring. The adults appear in June, the female to lay her eggs as already described. 



March Fije.s (Bihio). 



Under date of May 29th, a correspondent at Weston sent me three specimens of Bibio. 

 He says : — "Yesterday our beds were infested by an immense quantity of flies, — eating Pansy 

 buds, and also the flowers." At other dates also, reports have been received regarding the sup- 

 posed damage to plants by these flies ; but although I have invariibly at the time asked for 

 specimens actually seen injured by the flies, 1 have never received any. It is hardly likely that 

 these flies injure the buds and blossoms, although the maggots are known to attack the roots of 

 grasses. The usual f'ood of the larvae, however, is decaying vegetable matter. 



In the discussion which followed upon the reading of this paper Prof. Webster referred to 

 the Hazeltine Moth-trap, which he denounced as a perfectly useless affair and recomended that 

 the Canadian government should impose a duty of $5.00 on everyone imported into this country 

 in order to preven*: its introduction, 40,000 had been sold in the Unit«^d States this year and the 

 owners expected to sell 50,000 next year. He had yet to learn that it had caught any codling 

 moths, or at any rate more than a viry few, though it professed to exterminate them in the 

 orchard where it was placed. 



The Potato Stalk-borer he had found destructive to tomatoes and egg-plant as well as po- 

 tatoes, near Lake Erie. The 12-spotted asparagus beetle had not yet been found in Ohio, but was 

 evidently spreading rapidly. For the Rose Chafer he could not advise poison, as no poison had 

 been found to kill it, it would eat those in ordinary use and apparently thrive on them. It can 

 however, be destroyed on fruit-trees by using a can with some coal-oil in it attached to the end 

 of a pole and knocking off the beetles into it with a light rod ; this can best be done early in the 

 morning when they ai"e not so active as in the heat of the day. It breeds in sandy soil which is 

 not very dry, and forms its pupa there ; the least disturbance of the soil by cultivation will kill 

 it out. 



Mr. Moff"at presented an acccount of the death of a woman at St, Thomas which was sup- 

 posed to have been caused by the bite of ah insect. He had obtained the specimen from the 

 doctor in attendance and exhibited it to the meeting. It proved to be the well-known ground 

 beetle, Galerita Jtmu', Fabr., which is usually found under stones in moist places and is classed 

 among beneficial insects. As this beetle was found in the patient's bed four days after she was 

 taken ill, it seems incredible that it should have had any connection with the blood-poisoning, 

 which began in the patient's face so many days before, and terminated fataljy. 



. NOTES ON THE SEASON OF 1901. 



By J. Alston Moffat, London. 



After an unusually severe January, February and March a favorable opening of spring was 

 anticipated, but in that we were d'sappointed in this locality. April was cold until near the 

 close, when we had a few warm days, which had a marked effect on insect life, and brought 

 forth Hymeaoptera and Diptera in profusion, whilst the hibernated butterflies enjoyed the 

 bright sunshine iumiensely, and the small blues came out in numbers. May was decidedly dis- 

 appointing. For although it brought forward vegetation rapidly, it was quite too cool to pro- 



