24 THE REPORT OF THE No. 36 



be Strangalia aniiata ; later on in the season I captured in iSTorth Wales a pair of 

 Strangalia niclanura, one on a composite, the other on a small umbellifer; and in 

 Somerset, on the slopes of the Quantocks, I captured the more rare Strangalia 

 quadrifasciata, sunning itself on a hazel leaf. The genus Strangalia is closely re- 

 lated to Leptura, and, like that genus, with its near allies frequents blossoms. 

 So far I have not found any in Canada, though some species are, I believe, not un- 

 common. From the wood I passed into the kitchen garden, for I remembered a 

 bed of orpine or livelong (Sedum telephium) where, 25 years ago, 1 could be sure 

 of some Red Admirals (Pyrameis atalanta) and an occasional Peacock (Vanessa io), 

 but alas! King Orpine's days were numbered, and Salpiglossis and Montbretia 

 reigned in his stead. However, I spied a bed of asparagus and went over to 

 review its ranks. I soon found that ladybirds were glutting themselves on a 

 small dark grub about the foliage; it was probably the grub of the asparagus 

 beetle (Crioceris asparagi), for I found a number of the mature insects on the 

 leaves. Though very small, this beetle is extremely beautiful when alive, the ver- 

 tical lines and cross-bars which appear black in cabinet specimens being of a rich 

 dark green in the living insect. I^ has a curious habit when alarmed of thrusting 

 its antennae straight forward in front of the head and remaining motionless like 

 a pointer ; this habit isi found in not a few of the Chrysomelians, as in some of the 

 Longicorns, notably the Saperdas. I saw no trace of the 12-spotted species (Crio- 

 ceris 12-punctata; indeed, at the time I did not know it occurred in Great Bri- 

 tain; but in September, 1907, I found both species on some asparagus in the late 

 Dr. Brodie's garden in Toronto, and the last two years I have found the latter 

 species abundant in Port Hope. In Dr. Bethune's day, I understand, it had not 

 yet appeared there. 



During the rest of my stay in England I did not do much collecting, as the 

 month of August forms a sort of interregnum in insect activity between the early 

 and the late broods. But I returned to Canada fully determined to prosecute 

 my search among flowers and foliage in the coming season. I knew, of course, 

 that I should thereby restrict my captures mostly to two or three families of beetles 

 — the Scarabs, Longicorns and Chrysomelians, but to some such form of amateur 

 specialism I was not at all averse. 



Accordingly, from early April in the spring of 1906, I was out and about 

 whenever I got the chance. It was not till May that my efforts met with much 

 reward. A species of ffidemeris that frequents the dogtooth violet was almost 

 the only capture. I had been told that a somewhat rare Longicorn was to be 

 met with on the blossom of the trillium, but my informant could not tell me its 

 name, nor did patient search in trilliums yield me any specimens of this family. 

 About the 20th of May, however, blossomed the early elder, and though I wasted 

 a great deal of time over elder clumps 'growing far away from woodlands, I did 

 at last, by good luck, direct my steps to some growing on the edge of a wood 

 about four miles north of the school. Here I found a new species of Scarab, 

 leaden-gray in colour, though disguised for the nonce in a light yellow coat of 

 pollen, with which it was thickly dusted over; it had long crooked hind legs that 

 looked too clumsy to be of much use to their owner, and were, indeed, trailed along 

 after it when it crawled. It was the male of Hoplia trifasciata, and I found it 

 abundant for two or three weeks on the early elder, the choke-cherry, and the haw- 

 thorn; at first only the males were to be found, but about a week later the females 

 became oommon; these at first I took for a distinct species, as they are very 

 different in colour, yellowish-white, with three irregular bands of brown across 



