1918 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. ^3 



marks on the bright reddish-brown elytra vary considerably in weight and are 

 occasionally almost entirely wanting. 



Last year's report mentioned basswood as the probable host of some stray 

 specimens of Chnjsomela captured by the roadside; ihese were a robust form of 

 Chrysomela scalaris, both larger and more strongly marked than the variety found 

 here on alder; another was captured this season at the same spot — west of Jackson's 

 Park — and careful search along the road margins and fences finally disclosed the 

 breeding ground — two basswoods about 100 yards north of the road; here large 

 numbers of the insect were found and upwards of fifty specimens captured about 

 the middle of June. 



The usual insect activity about blossoms in June and July was far below the 

 normal, owing to lack of bright, calm days of summer heat. For instance, before 

 Victoria Day in 1916 numbers of Pachyta monticola were captured in white 

 trillium, early elder, and other blossom. This year hardly a longicorn of any kind 

 was to be seen in May, and the trilliums were almost over before we had made a 

 single capture. Much of the blossom itself was nearly ten days late: in 1916 choke- 

 cherry had been almost over between June 4th and June 10th; this year it did not 

 open till the latter date. However, during the short season of its bloom I was 

 most fortunate in getting about three good days' collecting round the " Wood of 

 Desire," and the results were well worth recording. 



The puzzling little Anaglyptus — Microclytus or Cyrtophorus — of which we 

 got some fifteen specimens in 1916 and noted two pairs mating, was observed in 

 considerable numbers on June 9th, 11th and 12th, always on choke-cherry; and as 

 late as June 24th four specimens were taken on dogwood blossom (Cormis 

 aUernifolia) and spiked maple, the choke-cherry being by that date over. A pair 

 was once more seen mating in a flower cluster, and this time was segregated and 

 marked male and female as a verified pair. Altogether over 100 specimens were cap- 

 tured at four different parts of the wood, always just on the edges. On June 12th. a 

 very warm day and bright, over seventy specimens were captured, more than a score 

 being taken from a single tree. Except for its smaller size, the slighter gibbosity 

 of its elytral bases and the less marked compression of its thorax, the beetle can 

 hardly be distinguished in the open from Cyrtophorus verrucosus ; but it is much 

 more sluggish in habit and crouches or clings in the blossom when approached in a 

 manner quite foreign to Cyrtophorus. One of the most interesting points of this 

 year's observations was that about fifty of the insects were brought home alive in 

 small pill boxes, and when released from isolation and put together in a large glass- 

 lidded cardboard box began to mate freely; indeed, within a few minutes I was 

 able to withdraw nearly all the insects in verified pairs. The beetle has several 

 important points of identity with Cyrtophorus and at least one essential difference 

 from Microclytus gazellula. It can hardly fail to prove extremely clo-^e to the 

 European Anaglyptus mysticus; it is almost certainly the insect named from Lake 

 Superior by Dr. LeConte as Microclytiis gibhulus: it is the same as Casey's 

 Microclytus frosti, and will be found in many collections, public as well as private, 

 labelled Microclytus gazellula. 



While ransacking blossom for this little Anaglyptus, several longicorns new 

 to me or rare, were taken in June. On the 9th a beetle was distinctly seen to fly 

 from a grove of beechtrees to a cedar near the wood; it proved on cipture to be 

 Anthophilax atfenuatus, an insect entirely new to me. Mr. Harrington has re- 

 ported it from beech in the Ottawa district. On June 11th. re ting on the top 

 foliage of a tall choke-cherry, a beautiful specimen of AntJiopliilax malachiticus 

 was taken, the second insect of this species captured ])y me in over twelve years' 



