THE REPORT OF THE 



No. 19 



There has been a remarkable abundance of Walking-stick insects {Bia- 

 pheromera femorata) Fig. 1, in Niagara Glen this year; they have also been 

 more plentiful than usual around Toronto. Some of us were at the Glen on 

 the 18th of August, and took a few specimens, nearly all of which were 

 males, but did not notice, then, anything remarkable in their number. Dr. 

 Brodie was , over again on September 18, with some friends, and reported 

 them as very numerovis ; many specimens having fallen on them from the 

 trees, as they walked through the woods ; so I went over on September 23 to 

 get a few more specimens. I could have got hundreds, if I had wanted them. 

 They are not generally very plentiful around Toronto; one may sometimes 

 get about a dozen, in an afternoon by specially looking for them ; but often 

 one may not see that number in a whole season. 



Fig. 1. VValkins-stk'k insi'ct. 



I have read accounts of their being very numerous in parts of Pennsyl- 

 vania ; but I never expected to see such hosts of them in Canada as I did on 

 the afternoon of September 23. In a part of the north end of the Glen, where 

 they were most numerous, many of the bushes were quite stript of their foli- 

 age, only the thick veins of the leaves being left, and some large trees also 

 were quite bare. 



On one tree, whose top still retained a little foliage, there was a line of 

 them almost covering one side of the trunk and reaching from the ground 

 as far as the eye could see. Some were constantly running across the paths 

 BO that it was difficult to avoid treading upon them; and a continual drop- 

 ping could be heard as they fell from the trees and bushes. I took some 

 large ones, that were at least half an inch longer than the average Toronto 



