PROCEEDINGS, lOm 21 



As p. californica when numerous has proved a bad pest amongst 

 the alfalfa fields, it remains to be seen if they will pass the winter in 

 sufficient numbers to make them a bad pest in the coming summer. 

 Regarding the economic vakie of records of swarms of insects, it may 

 be well to conclude this article with a few notes. V. californica feeds 

 only on the Ceanothus which, when attacked by a swarm, is completely 

 defoliated, areas of many acres ha\e been observed which had been 

 entirely stripped of every vestige of foliage, and it is not unusual to 

 find the pupa; suspended from the leafless branches. I have seen 

 instances where the pupae hung in rows (with an intervening space in 

 some cases not exceeding one inch) right along the branches. The .fact 

 that V. californica only feeds on the Ceanothus forms an exception to 

 the many insects which favour this shrub as a food plant, most of the 

 other insects which feed on it will attack the foliage of the apple trees 

 which have superseded the wild brush on the cleared land. 



Another fact that was observed after the swarm of 1890 was the 

 almost entire absence of the insect for several years following. This 

 year swarms of them are hibernating. During January I had occasion 

 to remove some lumber which had been piled in the roof of the barn 

 and fovmd thousands of them packed in between the stacks of boards ; 

 it would have been easy to fill a quart measure with them. 



.\s regards P. californica I have reason to believe that all the 

 Plusias that occur in this section of British Columbia are single brooded., 

 Californica hibernates and in the spring of 1914 was greatly in evidence 

 flying round the fruit tree bloom, to which I believe they acted as 

 good pollinators. 



I would like to refer to a pamphlet issued by the Entomological 

 Department, being a re-print of an article by Mr. Arthur Gibson which 

 was published in the Agricultural Gazette, entitled "The Alfalfa Looper," 

 in which the statement is made that -there are probably two distinct 

 broods each year; this statement I fielieve to be incorrect. It is a fact 

 that freshly emerged specimens may be found during July, but it is 

 also very probable that some specimens may have been confused with 

 Pseudogamma. These two species are so much alike that a correct 

 identification is sometimes difficult. 



Pseudogamma flies during July, August and September and passes 

 the winter in the larval stage. I have never seen a hibernated specimen 

 of it. I have records of Californica from July to the following June, 

 but all those taken in the spring are hibernated; the records of Pseudo- 

 gamma run from July to October, with no record of any hibernated 

 specimens in the following spring. 



I have no records of the capture of hibernated specimens of any 

 of the fifteen species of Plusia that occur here, except as stated in the 

 case of Californica. 



