282 FORTT-SECOND REPORT ON THE StATE MuSEUM. [140] 



Among those at Middleburgli were a number of Trypetdioe, of the 

 group in which the wings are exquisitely marked with clouds and 

 spots in the beautiful patterns so admirably delineated in the four 

 plates of Baron Osten Sacken, and the late Dr. Loew, of Prussia, in 

 their valuable Monographs of this interesting family. These flies had 

 seldom fallen under my observation before, and then in only single 

 examj)les; but at this time (middle of July) and place they were not 

 at all uncommon, traveling, with the strange movements peculiar to 

 them, over the leaves and stalks of the milkweed (Asclepias cornuti) 

 and wild parsnip (Fastinaca sativa), within which the species may 

 perhaps breed. 



The time of my visit to Elk lake — August fifteenth to thirtieth — 

 was favorable for the collection of two species of butterflies which are 

 rarely met with in this State, except in localities having high eleva- 

 tions, approximating that of Elk lake, which is 2,000 feet above tide. 

 Grapta Faunus (Edw.) and Grapta j -album (Boisd.-Lec.) were compara- 

 tively abundant in the roadway leading to the lake, resting for a 

 while upon the damp soil to imbibe its moisture and then flitting 

 away to the adjoining shrubbery. Both species had evidently but 

 just emerged from their pupal stage. Of another species of butterfly, 

 Feniseca Tarquinius (Fabr.), which appears to be quite local in its dis- 

 tribution and to occur more frequently within this State, in the 

 Adirondack region than elsewhere, several examples were captured, 

 but all in indifferent condition, showing that they had already been 

 abroad for a number of days. Its larval food-plant was said by Mr. 

 Glover to be hawthorn (Cratcegus),* but in this and in both previous 

 instances in which the butterfly has been observed by me, it has been 

 associated with alders {Alnus species), and where the hawthorn was 

 not seen to occur. 



An interesting illustration of the abundance at times and in certain 

 localities of a particular species of insect, conjoined with the absence 

 of other allied and perhajDS more common forms, was given me at this 

 locality. With a single exception, in a solitary example of Catocala 

 unijuga Walker, the only noctuid moth observed during my 

 fortnight's sojourn here was Agrotis clandestina (Harris). To add to 

 the interest, all the examples had one common hiding-place, viz., 

 behind and about the sliding window-sashes of the exceedingly simple 

 log structure that was dignified with the name of the Elk Lake Hotel. 

 The only conceivable attraction of such a multitude of moths to their 

 covert was a single kerosene hand-lamp, and later at night for a brief 



* The larva has since been found to feed on the woolly plant-lice that occur in large 

 clusters on the trunks and limbs of Alders : See 4<7i Rept. Ins. N. Y., 1888, p. 179. 



