190S 



ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



29 



the abdomen, ia set with white branched spines. The perfect insect is a pretty pea-green, 

 shield-shaped beetle. I have described it in the Canadian Entomologist for this month. 



The Syrphus flies (Fig. 14) lead a remarkable life. Their larvse come from eggs laid upon 

 plants on which aphides abound. They are blunt at one end and tapering at the other, and 

 they have powers of extension and retraction (Fig. 15). They drive their sharp mouth organs 

 into the aphides and suck them dry — as a boy might suck an orange — rejecting the skins. 

 They sjiend the pupal period of their existence in curious hunched-up cases. The flies are 

 handsome. They sustain their life upon the nectar of flowers, and they may be seen upon the 

 heads of yarrow as late as the beginning of October. There are several species of them. 



One day in September I was examining the blossoms of the Turtle-head {Chelone glabra), 

 and admiring the beautiful gothic arches formed by the curved stamens and the flocculent 

 anthei's. I noticed that the pistil of the blossom extended over these and was bent down in 

 front of them so that it would come in contact with intruding insects and be charged with 

 pollen that they conveyed. I looked round to see what insect would venture to open that 

 Turtle-mouth and tread that arched way. A movement in one of the blossoms arrested my 

 attention and I saw that there was an insect within. So busily engaged in the recesses of the 

 flower was this spoiler that I was able to pluck the blossom and put it and its occupant into a 

 box that I had ready. 



Fig. 14. — Syrphus fly. 



Fig. 15. — Syrphus fly larva 



sucking out the vital 



fluids of an aphis. 



Fig Ki. — I^ai.'e-wiMged tiy. 



Fig. 17. — Lace-winged fly, 

 eggs and larva. 



On reiching home I found that the fly was SytyJnu Americaita, Wied. The Syrphus fly is 

 a beneficial insect — it leads a useful life. 



V. We say that the plant is teeming with life, meaning that numerous living things 

 infest it. 



At Montmorency, on the 30th of July, I noticed something peculiar in the plants of 

 (Enothera hientiis, L. that abound there. Instead of growing in a graceful s )ike, the flower- 

 buds were crowded in a flattened mass. I plucke 1 a number of the heads and examined them 

 at leisure. They were alive with aphides, and preying upon these were larvoe of the Lace- 

 wing fly {Mehoma Slossona', Banks) (Figs. 16 and 17) and larvas of four kinds of Syrphus flies, 

 viz., S. areuatns, Fallen, S. Armericanus, Wied., Platychirus quadratus, Say, and Sphcerophori a 

 ciilindrica. Say. I also found in them caterpillars of the noctuid Alaria florida, Guenee, and 

 of a beautiful little Tor trix that is new to me. From the aphides 1 obt lined some minute 

 Proctotrupids. 



Another plant that abounds with inject life is the Golden Rod {'•'olldago Canadensis, L ). 

 At the summit of the flower-head works the larva of Pedisca Scudderana, Clem. In the stem 

 are found the hollow galls of Gellechia gallo-solidaginis, Riley, and the pithy galls of Trypeta 

 solidaginis, Fitch. In the leaves are the disks caused by the fly called by Osten Sacken, 

 Cecidomyia carbonifera. These three last named species are liable to the attacks of parasites. 

 Among the blossoms of the plant lurks the Hemipteron Fhymota erosa, Linn, awaiting its 

 prey ; and numbers of butterflies, moths, bees and flies resort to the plant — it abounds 

 with life. 



One of the most remarkable assemblies of insect life that I have witnessed was on the 

 walls of an electnc power-house at Cote St. Paul, Montreal. The building was close to the 



