44 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF ONTARIO. 



Chionoras Taygete, Huhner. Hudson straits (Payne). 



Ohionobas Semidea, Say. Labrador, Hudson straits, NewfounJland. 



CniONOBAS Crambis, Frey. Hudson straits (Payne). 



Chionobas CEno, Boisd. Labrador (Couper). 



Chionobas Bore, Esp. Labrador (Couper). 



Ltc^na Aster, Echo. Newfoundland (Gosse, Mead). 



Lyc.exa Lygdamus, Douhl. Labrador (Couper). 



Papilio Machaon, Linn. Rupert House, Hudson bay (Payne). 



CoLiAS BooTHii, Curt., var. Chione, Curt. Hudson straits (Payne, Geddes, Can. 

 Ent., xxi., 59). 



CoLiAS Hecla, Lef. Hudson Straits (Payne). 



CoLiAS Edwardsii, Behr. Fort William (Geddes). 



CoLiAS Nastes, Boisd. Labrador ; Hudson stri^its (Payne). 



OoLiAS Labradorensis, Scud. Labrador. 



CoLiAS bcuDDEBii, Reak. Labrador, Hudson bay. 



THE PITCHER-PLANT MOTH. 



{Exyra Holandiana, Grt ) 



By James Fletcher, Ottawa. 



There are few of our native plants of so much interest as our native pitcher-plant, 

 Sarracenia purjJitrea, from its peculiar beauty and the curious shape of its leaves and 

 flowers, and there are few insects more interesting than the pretty little moth Exyra 

 Rolandiana, of which the caterpillars or cocoons may generally be found by making a 

 close search inside the leaves of the pitcher-plant during the month of June or early in 

 July. 



This moth was first described by Mr, A. R. Grote in Psyche, vol. ii., 1877, page 38, 

 from specimens reared by Mr. Roland Thaxter, at Newton, Mass. It is a small, thick-set 

 insect, about three-eighths of an inch in length, of a dark, metallic, purplish hue which 

 on the forewings is relieved by a yellowish discal patch. The base of the wings is deep 

 red. The dark color on the wings of the females is much blacker than in the other sex. 

 The hind wings in both sexes are black. When at rest the wings are sloped like those of 

 a Plusia. 



In the Canadian Entomologist for 1874, vol. vi , page 207, Prof. Riley contributed 

 an article " On the Insects More Particularly Associated with Sarracenia variolaris," 

 and in this article he treats of the closely allied moth, Xanthoptera semicrocea, in a most 

 entertaining manner, giving figures of all its stages. The insect catching power of the 

 pitcher-plants is well known and has been frequently referred to. By an examination 

 of the decaying remains, which may be at any time found in the leaves, it will be seen 

 that insects of almost all orders fall a prey to these treacherous death traps. Ants, how- 

 ever, seem to far outnumber all other kinds of insects, and Prof. Riley &uggests that the 

 acidulous properties which their decomposing bodies give to the liquid, with which the 

 lower portion of the pitcher is always filled, render it all the more potent as a solvent of 

 the bodies of the entrapped insects, from which doubtless the plants derive benefit, if 

 indeed they be not, as some believe, truly insectivorous. The leaf of the pitcher plant, 

 from its shape, namely that of a hollow tube tapering to a point at the base, swollen a 

 little above the middle and contracted at the mouth, forma a trap from which it is very 

 difficult for any insects to escape wnen they have once entered. In addition to the shape 

 of the leaf there are other characters which add to the difficulty of egress. Above the 



