wide-spread species on this continent — that " the richness of this genus in America, and its 

 extreme poverty in the Old World (where only a single species is known), lead to the pre- 

 sumptinn that the genus had its origin in our own country, and that temperate North Ame- 

 rica is its proper metropolis." I have examined and compared specimens of Pamphila comma 

 of Europe, and P. Manitoba of America, and cannot discern the slightest difference in their 

 forms and markings. Even in the forms of abdominal appendages there is but slight differ- 

 ences in these two forms. It may be further stated, as it has been by others, that P. comma 

 was introduced into this country from Europe. Moreover, like other introduced species, it 

 had perliaps to feed on a different food plant to that on which it fed in the Old World. This, 

 in my opinion, produces at least external changes, and in connection with the wide spread of 

 the form, we must as a natural result have varieties, the latter unfortunately being evidently 

 considered species. The HESPERica; intermix to some degree, and it is extremely difficult 

 to trace the true form from its variety. Mr. Scudder is the chief authority on the Hesperid.*: 

 of the country, having made extensive research among this dithcult class of butterflies ; there- 

 fore he has greater facilities to prove diflerences between them, but I cannot look upon these 

 two butterflies and discover the slightest deviation more than we find in the examination of a 

 number of specimens of any particular species. A well-known European and American but- 

 terfly, Vanessa Antiopa, has a wide range and undoubtedly holds its metropolis on this conti- 

 nent. The colour of the wing-margins of this species has changed since its introduction into 

 temperate America. All of us have seen the change which numbers of Pieris raptr has gone 

 through since its introduction into Canada, but after all it is nothing but the rape butterfly 

 of Europe, slightly altered by change of food and climate, and it is just pos.siljle, by like 

 influences, that the abdominal appendages of P. rapo: may in twenty years hence show differ- 

 ences in wide-spread varieties, as we have now shown to us in Pamphila comma of Europe, 

 and P. Manitoba of Scudder. When Pieris rapte came to us at Quebec, it changed and spread 

 gradually, and although it lingers before the pressure of a parasite, yet it seems to hold against 

 the enemy. This shows that there is something in this diversified climate favouring its spread 

 which is southward and westward, and it is now a permanent insect of the United States. In 

 these days there are so many ways by which insects are carried from place to place, that we 

 cease to wonder when a strange species turns up in a locality wherein it was hitherto un- 

 known. 



It is a notorious fact, that almost all the insects which annoy our agriculturists and 

 horticulturists came to us from the Old World. For instance, we have a saw-fly, which is 

 found in our woodlands. It has lived there from time immemorial on wild gooseberries, and 

 perhaps on the wild red currant, and we cannot find many instances of this species having at- 

 tacked the domesticated gooseberry or currant to any extent. But the species introduced some 

 twelve years ago from Europe has almost put a stop to the cultivation of the gooseberry and 

 red currant throughout many parts of the United States and Canada. We have also a native 

 onion-fly (Ortalix arcuota), which, although parasitic on the onion, does not appear to affect 

 the crop generally, but the imported onion-fly (^Anthmiyia cepanim), an allied species, is a 

 terrible pest to the onion-growers througliout the extent of the dominion, [ndeed. we have had 

 an alarming number of insect foes imported into this country from the other side of the 

 Atlantic Another ,«pccies of the latter genus has been destroying the cabbage in the neigh- 

 bourhood of this city. This Anthomyia was also imported from Europe. The question may 

 be asked, did these insects follow the introduction of certain plants from the same quarter ? 

 \^ Antiopa followed man to this country, its migration benefits the species, as the willows on 

 which it f eds are far more abundant here than in Europe ; but man has been in itrumcntal in 

 carrying noxious plants as well as insects, there being now distributed in America upwards 

 of TWO UUNIiRED AND THIRTY-THREE distinct spccics of plants from the Old World, all of 

 which have run wild. It would seem that tlie climate of America is very conducive to the 

 acclimatization and extension of European species. No doubt a number of North American 

 ins(}Cts have been, and will be from time to time, introduced into the Old World, but it 

 appears that those already detected as coming from this country have not spread and become 

 common there. These statements are made on the authority of British Entomologists and 

 from the pen of C V. Riley, the State Entomologist of Missouri, U.S., who accounts for the 

 cause as follows: — "Since, then, it can be demonstrated by hard dry facts that Amtrican 

 plants and insects do not become naturalized in the Old World with anything like the facility 

 with which the plants and insects of the Old World are every day being naturalized in 



