50 



NOTES ON LEPIDOPTERA. 



Honey for Sugaring. — I want to suggest to the members of your 

 Club to try extracted honey in sugaring for Lepidoptera. It must be pure and 

 free from glucose, and can be obtained in solid candied form from L. C. Root, 

 Mohawk, N. Y. I should not dilute it much (it any), but only liquify it. It 

 will, I think, prove very attractive. —F. C. Bowditch, Boston. 



ArCTIA Dione. — On July 8, 1881, I obtained a ? , which gave 320 eggs. 

 . Half of these were lost or given to friends, but 63 went to chrysalis, and 28 hiber- 

 - nated as apparently full grown caterpillars. In due time 51 emerged as perfect 

 moths, presenting very great variation in the markings. The eggs were placed 

 close 'Ggether in one patch, and in regular rows. Food plants, Plattta^o and 

 Polygonum. Mr. R. ISunker, of this city, is rearing some Dione from eggs laid 

 by my brood, and they hibernate as half grown caterpillars.— H. Roy Gilbert, 

 Roches er, N. Y. 



Synopsis of the Noctuid^. — Mr. J. C. Smith is publishing in The 

 Bulletin, Brooklyn Entm. Soc, a careful revision of this difficult group. It will, 

 doubtless, be of great va ue to students. — EDITOR. 



Rare Noctuids. — The following species were taken at Centre, N. Y., 

 during the past year. 



Leptina Doubledayi Guen. ? ( a 



Hadena fractilinea Grote. ,;' ? ( august. 



Agiotis dilucida Morr. $ ) 



" janualis. Grote. 2 ? > September. 



" perpoii a Morr. ? ) 



Scopeloooma trisisignata Grote. i 3 2 ? ^ 



" Morrisonii Grote. 2 (5 i $ | 



" vinulenia Grote. 4 ,? 2 ? | 



Glaea viatica Grote. ? } October. 



Xylina semiusta (}rote. S \ 



" unimoda Lmtn. $ | 



" lepida Lintn. 2 ^ 3 $ j 



The results of the past season have been, on the whole, remarkably poor. 

 Where hundreds of examples came formerly to sugar, but few scattering ones 

 were observed. W. H. Hill, Albany, N. Y. 



Melittia cucurbits. — Haw. From numerous observations, I am 

 assured that this insect hibernates in the'caterpillar stage, and does not transform 

 to the pupa state until the spring. The pupa cases are formed in the latter 

 part ol the summer, and, in every instance thus far, I have found the larvae in 

 the cases unchanged. The last examination was made only a day or two since. 

 — N. Coleman, Berlin, Conn., February 24, 1882. 



BOMBYCID^ OF N. America. — The readers of " Papilio " will be glad 

 to learn ihat Mr. R. H. Stretch is about to issue a volume, illustrating the 

 whole of the known species of N. American Bombycid^e and ZygEenidee. It will 

 contain about twenty plates, which will be lithographed in black and white only, 

 from pen and ink drawings. The price will not exceed $2.50 for the whole 

 work. We shall refer to the subject again, when the work is nearer comple- 

 tion.— Editor. 



Parnassius Smintheus in California. — It has seemed somewhat 

 strange that this species should have been so long unobserved in California, 

 when its yellow spotted form (P. Behrii.) is comparatively common on the slopes 

 of the Sierra Nevada. In June last, however, I observed the true Smintheus 

 rather abundant in moist spots in the Shasta district, and later, that is in 

 August, I saw considerable numbers in the wooded sides of the mountains near 

 Castle Lake. I took one magnificent example, with very large red spots, at 

 first sight looking like Par. Nomion. It was flying on the top of Mt. Bradley, 

 about 7500 feet above the sea level, and seemed attracted to the flowers of a 

 species of Sedum. — James Behrens, San Francisco. 



