62 Cincinnati Society of Natural History. 



Meromacrus acutus, Fab. 



September 1, 1909, I captured here a male of this pretty 

 Syphid fly, which I have taken before at Brownsville, Texas. 

 The family of flies to which this species belongs (Syrphidae) 

 are numerous here. Many of them are beautifully colored, 

 mimicing in a remarkable manner some of the stinging insects, 

 such as bees and wasps. None of them are at all dangerous 

 to handle nor injurious in any way, and some species are vastly 

 beneficial to agriculture, feeding in the larval stages on plant 

 lice. An excellent monograph of the family has been pub- 

 lished by Williston, Bulletin No. 31, U. S. National Museum. 

 In the recent catalogue of N. A. Diptera, Smithsonian miscel- 

 laneous collections, Vol. XLVI, Page 390, this species is given 

 with a southern range. 



Calephelis borealis, G. & R. 



This little butterfly was flying in abundance July 18th, at 

 Terrace Park, Cincinnati, Ohio. It has been taken in Central 

 Ohio by Prof. Hine and at College Hill, Cincinnati, Ohio, by 

 Miss Annette Braun. Dr. Holland, in Butterfly Book, Page 

 233, gives it as a rare species. It seems to be common in Ohio, 

 though local in distribution. 



The Tussock Moth 



NOTOLOPHUS LEUCOSTIGMA, S. & A. 



July 16, 1908, the tufted caterpillars of this moth were in 

 su'ch numbers on a Carolina poplar tree in front of my house 

 ill Avondale, that the foliage was almost eaten up. On the 

 above date they were mature, crawling down out of the tree 

 and making their cocoons on the sides of my porch and house, 

 and in crevices of the bark of the tree. Their hairs and spines 

 caused considerable irritation when they touched the human 

 skin. None of the birds which frequented the tree were ob- 

 served to eat any of them. I feared a renewed visitation of 

 the pests the next year, but so completely were they parasitized 

 that none appeared, and up to the fall of 1909 there were none. 



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