18 
a beating of drums as the Queen of England holding high festival in Windsor 
Castle never heard, for it seemed as if from every tree Cicada canicularis was 
sounding its note. The tattoo of this insect increases in intensity for a while 
and then breaks off with a few disjointed beats. Now and then a sudden whir-r-r 
would be heard and the dark body of the bug would be seen shooting like a 
bolt to fresh vantage ground, the transparent wings of the insect being invisible 
against the blue sky. 
After luncheon the most interesting discovery that I made was that of a 
species of Gelechia inhabiting galls on the white aster (Diplopappus wmbellatus 
Torrey and Gray). The galls were found well up the stems of the plant, from a 
foot to two feet above the ground, and were smooth and onion-shaped. The 
largest specimens were five-eighths of an inch across. On opening the galls I 
found in several a brown chrysalis resting upon a web stretched across the 
interior. At the bottom was some decomposed matter, and near the top a neat 
round hole bitten through to the outer skin of the gall. In others of the galls I 
found a number of white shining grubs, blunt at one end and tapering at the 
other. Their length was about one line. I counted ten of these in one gall, 
and they were evidently consuming the remains of their host. In some instances 
the grubs had spun up into light drab cocoons. 
In a few days I obtained from the galls four moths and two ichneumon flies. 
The latter were black with orange legs. The following is the description of the 
moths : 
Length of body four lines, expanse of wings eight to nine lines. | 
Head white, eyes black, labial palpi recurved—first joint large and white, 
lower half of second joint white, upper brown with a white tip, antennz filiform, 
light brown ringed with black. 
Thorax reddish chocolate in colour; fore-wings rich chocolate red with a 
white divided fascia near the hind margin, under side grey ; hind-wings pale 
silvery grey; fringes grey with a faint brownish gloss. 
Abdomen golden yellow on the upper side of the three first segments, the 
rest light brown. 
These moths differ considerably from those figured and described by Mr. 
Kellicott in Vol. X. Can. Ent., p. 201, and from those described by Mr. Riley in 
the First Missouri Report, p. 172. I would suggest for them the name of 
Gelechia gallediplopappr. 
The life of the Gelechia in its early stages is an interesting and sugges- 
tive one. The creature lives and toils in the narrow area of its prison-house, 
knowing nothing of the higher life and the glorious field for which it is des- 
tined, yet impelled by its instincts to make preparations for the change. 
Dire foes it has; and can it be that some violationof instinct,some erratic course on 
the part of the larva lays it open to the assaults of these? We know not, but 
possessed by these, it fails to attain to that nobler state of existence—which 
things are an allegory, suggestive to us of joys for which we yearn and evils 
which we fear. 
Here as elsewhere this season I could not but notice the abundance of hairy 
caterpillars, Arctians of various kinds. A large proportion of these caterpillars 
had been overtaken with a strange disease—a sort of mange—and many had 
already succumbed to it. The warts upon the caterpillars had dried up, the 
bristles had blanched and loosened, the intestines had disappeared, and the outer 
frame of the insect had become spongy, the annules parted at a touch. The 
unfortunate insects were the prey of a fungus which has been identified by Dr. 
