43 



ENTOMOLOGICAL CLUB OP THE A. A. A. S. 



The Entomological Club of the American Association for the Advancement of 

 Science held its annual meeting at Rochester, N.Y., August I7th to 19th, 1892, 

 under the presidency of Mr. E. A. Schwarz, of Washington, D.C. The President's 

 address is published in the Canadian Entomologist for September, 1892, pages 213-224, 

 and the full official report in the October and November numbers ; to these the reader 

 -is referred. The meeting was very interesting and successful, and was attended by over 

 thirty persons. The Entomological Society of Ontario was represented by its President, 

 Dr. Bethune, and Mr. James Fletcher, of Ottawa. The former was elected President of 

 the Club for the ensuing year, when the meeting will be hebl at Madison, Wisconsin, 

 in connection with the gathering of scientists at the World's Fair in Chicago. 



SOME INJURIOUS MIORO-LEPIDOPTERA. 



By J. Alston Moffat, 



The difficulty experienced in obtaining mtture examples of some of these tiny 

 creatures is often very great. The evidence of their work may be unmistakable by the 

 injury that is being done by their larvte in the effjrt to appease the craving of their 

 appetites, and yet it may be almost next to impossible to secure a specimen in the form 

 that originated the mischief. 



There are two good reason^ to account for it, one is that many of these moths are 

 active unly at night, and secrete themselves most effectually during the day ; another is 

 the extremely brief existence of many of them in the mature state. The females generally 

 come into the world with their eggs full size, requiring only to be fertilized before 

 depositing. The male, as a rule, emerges first, and is awaiting the appearance of the 

 females ; when fertilization is completed he dies. The eggs are then laid by the female, 

 which may be all done in one night's time, and when that is finished she also dies of 

 exhaustion. Hence the necessity for rearing them in confinement, so as to obtain con- 

 clusive evidence of the particular moth that laid 

 the eggs that produced the larva that we see is 

 doing so much mischief. And as this requires a 

 great deal of time, close observation and experi- 

 ence to accomplish successfully, we see the need 

 there is that some should be put in a position to 

 be able to devote their whole time to it, that thereby 

 the community may reap the benefit of the know- 

 ledge thus obtained. 



A good illustration of the truth of these 

 remarks is got in the case of the Codling- moth, 

 Carpocapsa pomonelLi, Linn. (Fig. 14). Almost 

 everyone has heard of it, and knows with more 

 or less distinctness that it is the cause of the 

 unfortunate worminess of the apples they grow 

 or have to use, and yet how few have ever 

 seen the moth, or would know it if they did see 

 it ? During all the years of my collecting I have 

 never found it in its -natural locations. My first 

 specimen was given to me by a friend who took 

 it on his cellar window. My next were obtained by enclosing a few infected apples in a 

 box, and not until the latter part of June, 1889, did I secure a satisfactory supply of good 

 specimens. I was stopping in the country at a place where an old house was used as^a 



