106 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF ONTARIO. 



The most effective remedy for this insect appears to be the encouragement of the unsavoury 

 skunk in the hop-yards. In the northern part of the State of New York and in Wis- 

 consin, this animal has been found most uselul from its habit of digging round the infested 

 plants and devouring the worms. The turnip and blister-beetles referred to have been 

 very destructive in the Northwest Territories, the latter attacking the Windsor Bean, 

 while the Birch Bucculatrix has infested the trees in the neighborhood of Ottawa. Mr. 

 Fletcher also describes several useful parasites which serve to keep in check the currant 

 and willow saw-flies and other injurious insects. The remainder of his report is devoted 

 to an account of the Potato-blight, which affects the leaves of the plant and the Potato- 

 rot affecting the tubers, and a chapter on Lawn Grasses and Fodder plants. 



Catalogue OF the Lepidopterous Super-family Noctuid.e Found in Boreal America. 

 By John B. Smith, Sc.D. (Bulletin No. 44 of the United States National Museum; 

 Smithsonian Institution, Washington, 1893. 



This volume of four hundred and twenty-four pages will be heartily welcomed by 

 every student of the Nottuidte of North America. It is not a mere list of species but a 

 complete bibliographical and synonymical catalogue. The authority, date and reference, 

 are given for each genus, and under each species are given the date, author and place of 

 publication of the original description, followed by any other publshed references, the 

 synonymy, habitat and where the type can be found. Any one who has attempted to 

 keep a record of the published references to our Lepidoptera — and we have all been com- 

 pelled to do so in some form or other — will appreciate the immense amount of labor that 

 Prof. Smith has performed in the preparation of this work, and must feel heartily grateful 

 that he has now relieved us of a task that few are competent to accomplish satisfactorily. 

 The saving of time and the satisfaction of knowing that one is not now likely to overlook 

 anything that has been published regarding a species are no small boons to the student. 

 For a full explanation of the origin and purpose of the work we must refer the reader to 

 Prof. Smith's somewhat lengthy preface, which will be found well deserving of careful 

 perusal. The general index at the end of the volume makes the work complete, and we 

 have no hesitation in saying that it is the most useful publication on the North American 

 Noctuidfe that has yet been issued from the press. We trust that the author will before 

 long be able to lay us under still greater obligations to him by the publication of his con- 

 templated monograph of the whole of this family of moths. 



Brief Guide to the Commoner Butterflies of the Northern United States and 

 Canada. By S. H. Scudder (Henry Holt & Co., 12 mo., pp. XI + 206, 1893). 



It has been known for some time that Mr. Scudder has in preparation a Manual of 

 the Butterflies of the Northern United States and Canada, similar to Gray's Manual of 

 Plants, and all must agree that such a work is much needed. The present " Brief Guide" 

 has, however, been produced in the meantime to meet a demand for something even less 

 technical, by means of which boys and girls might be tempted to enter the ever charming 

 fairy- land of science by having an easy way laid open before them. There are few]objects in 

 nature, which so soon thrust themselves upon the notice of young people as flowers and 

 insects and of these none have been so useful as a first stepping stone or allurement to the 

 realms of natural history as butterflies — " those winged creatures of beauty which add 

 such a charm to the summer landscape." 



There was not, however, until now, any work which could be placed in the hands of 

 boys or girls who had caught a common butterfly, by means of which they could identify 

 and find out something of the life-history of their newly-found treasure. This want Mr. 

 Scudder has filled with his Brief Guide, in which he treats chiefly of those " butterflies — 

 less than a hundred of them — which would almost surely be met with by any industrious 

 collector in the course of a year's or two years' work in the more populous Northern States 

 and in Canada." Should a young collector therefore be lucky enough to capture a butter- 

 fly not mentioned in the book, he may be sure that he has taken a rarity, which, as the 

 author remarks, is " a discovery not always distressing to the amateur." 



