1883.] 143 



(Edemera livida, three, by s'weeping ; Rhinomacer attelahoides, by beating various 

 trees, only three ; OtiorrTiynchus septentrionis, beat from birch, mauriis, one, under 

 a stone ; Erirrhinus cEthiops, river-side, after a spate ; Trypodendron Uneatum. 

 — Alfred Beaumont, Low Valleyfield House, Culross, N.B. : October 15tk, 1883, 



Some garden-visitors in 1883. — Having been lept witliin doors from the middle 

 of May until the end of June, I am unable to say what sort of insect aristocracy or 

 rabble visited the garden during that period ; but on the evening of the 6th July, 

 and for a week after that, there were a great many Plusia gamma flying about, and 

 these may have been the remnants of a large invasion or migration, respecting which 

 our friend Barrett is curious (p. 21, ante), but this is information of a character too 

 restricted to aid his hypothetic research. 



On the 6th July I also saw at one time two Vanessa cardui, a butterfly rarely 

 visiting our garden. These " painted ladies " were surely belles of last year ; their 

 paint was nearly all worn off, yet in their faded charms they were as lively as if 

 they had just come out in their first season, and they made such a vigorous attack 

 on tlie old-fashioned, modest Sweet Williams, that these blushed a deeper red, — at 

 i least I might well believe they ought to have done so. Not in the least abashed, 

 these belles dames sans merci then gaily departed on their tour of flirtation. 



On the 10th July a Macroglossa stellatarum came suddenly, and paid frantic 

 attention to the geraniums standing close to my chair, giving me good opportunity 

 to see that it was a female newly disclosed, in splendid plumage. This is an 

 insect that I have never seen here before, nor, indeed, have I since had such a beatific 

 vision. To plagiarize Wordsworth : — 



" She was a phantom of delight, 

 When first she gleamed uijon my sight ; 

 A lovely apparition, sent 

 To be a moment's ornament : 

 A dancing shape, an image gay, 

 To haunt, to startle, and waylay." 



I was but an accidental spectator of the elfin evolutions ; none the less was I 

 delighted with the flying visit of a representative of one of the earliest illustrators 

 to me of the poetry of insect-life. 



On June 30th a male Lucanus cervus swung himself with leisurely flight into 

 the garden, sailed about majestically for some time, and received my congratulations. 

 I had feared, in consequence of not seeing any of his family last year, that the race 

 had become extinct in these parts, by the destruction of trees which continually 

 goes on to make room for builders' " improvements," and so I was happy to find 

 that I had yet one old friend on visiting terms, although he was in the guise of 

 " such small deer." 



Speaking generally, all kinds of insects — that is, the ordinaiy habitues — have 

 been scarcer than usual. Abraxas grossulariata has been a failure, only two or 

 three individuals having been seen, instead of the multitude generally apparent. 

 ITematus ribesii has been very rare. The Aphides on the roses were at one time 

 tolerably common, but not harmful. Schizoneura lanigera just visible here and 

 there, biit not persistent. Lecanittm ribis ordinarily common on the red currant 



