PROCEEDINGS, 1915. 93 



above the snow is low enough to produce torpidity. The passage of 

 even a light, fleecy cloud over the sun is sufficient to cause them to in- 

 stantly settle on the snow, where they will remain in a torpid condition 

 until the sun's rays again warm them into activity. 1 have several times 

 seen the snow litcrall}' covered with all kinds of insects which had 

 migrated with the wind and had been caught b}- the cold of the snow 

 field. In many cases where there has not been a recent rain or snowfall, 

 man>- of such specimens may be secured in perfect condition. A very 

 curious thing has often occurred to me in reference to Euvanessa antiopa. 

 It is well known that this species hibernates and often lives long into 

 the succeeding summer, in fact I have seen one instance where freshly 

 emerged specimens were seen in late August in company with poor, 

 bedraggled hibernated specimens ; but the fact that I wish to describe 

 alludes to their habit of remaining in the vicinity of their growing brood 

 of larva. They keep up a short flight along the road for a distance of 

 from three to five hundred feet on either side of the brood, and, when 

 approaching the location of the feeding larvae, will rise and fly round 

 over them several times before proceeding past them in the opposite 

 direction. We all know how animals will protect their young from 

 attack ; also we have the case of the English Stickleback and the Ameri- 

 can Black Bass as two cases where fish are known to protect their young 

 brood, and it has often occurred to me that this peculiarity of antiopa 

 might in some way be a like example in the case of insects. Does 

 antiopa keep watch over the brood to dri\e away Ichmeumonidae or 

 other insects which might be parasitic on her brood? One fact may also 

 be mentioned, and that is that by far the greater majority of larvae are 

 free from the attack of Ichmeumonidae while they are feeding in colonies 

 than may possibly be found in the case of any other species having the 

 community instinct. The question remains to be solved, why is antiopa 

 given the gift of the longest life of any of the North American butterflies, 

 and for what reason does the female remain in the '\-icinity of her brood 

 during the early stages? 



The article by F. H. W'olley Dod in Canadian Entomologist, dealing 

 with the habit of flying over water of Smerinthus cerisii, also applies to 

 S. opthalmicus. Df the Saturnidae I have already published in the 

 annual reports of the Canadian Entomologist Society for 1906 some 

 notes on the spinning methods of Telea polyphoemus in the west, show- 

 ing how they invariably attach their cocoon by a silk thread to a limb 

 instead of allowing it to fall as described by eastern writers. I wish, 

 however, to refer only brieflx- to the method of Samia rubra. The larva 

 of this species usually selects the ridge of a sunn}- liank facing the south 

 on which to ]nipate. I am inclined to attach some significance to the 

 height at which the cocoons are attached on the brush as relati\'e to the 

 amount of snow during the following winter, i.e., that when the snow 

 is liable to be deep the cocoon may be spun high up on the brush, whereas 



