46 
hardness and metallic brilliancy of their bodies and legs. The great majority of 
the species found in Canada can be obtained in this vicinity. About thirty were 
taken by Mr. Fletcher and myself during the past season, including one at least. 
new to the Canadian list, viz.: Chrysobothris Harrisii, a beetle of a brilliant 
green, found on pine saplings. It is slightly smaller than the species figured in 
the lower left corner, which is C.,femorata. This beetle formerly inhabited oalc 
trees, but has now transferred itself to apple trees, which it greatly damages. 
The larva is very similar in form to those of the other Buprestians, and it is easy 
to distinguish the holes bored by them, as they are oval instead of round. 
Our excursion to the Mer Bleu was, I regret to say, productive of few 
insects. For my own part, I was feeling quite unwell, and far from able to make- 
any search for them. Our botanists added largely to their lists, and where new 
plants are found, new insects may be expected. We know, for instance, that 
there are some peculiar to the pitcher-plant. The pools and ditches filled by 
water from the mineral springs would appear favourable to the production of rare 
aquatic forms. Fluttering over the surface of the barren were great numbers of 
small butterflies, but as no specimens were captured, I cannot state confidently 
to what species they belonged, or if there was more than one variety. Other 
butterflies were seen along the route and at the Springs, including Lzmenztis 
arthemis, or the White Admiral. This is a very handsome butterfly, easily 
recognized by the broad, white band across its rich dark wings, Its flight, as it. 
sails about through the trees along the border of an open space in the woods, is 
most graceful, and as it alights but for very brief intervals, its capture is often 
attended with some difficulty. Some years it is comparatively abundant, but 
last season, in common with many other butterflies, it was quite rare. 
On our Saturday afternoon trip to Britannia, I observed few specimens new 
or worthy of description. Hpicauta cinerea, the ash-grey blister beetle, often 
occurs in great numbers on wild plants, also on potatoes, and quickly strips 
them of their leaves. This beetle belongs to the Cantharides, or blister-beetles, 
so named from the effect produced by applying their powdered bodies to the 
skin. Several species occur in Canada; the one shown, lower centre figure, is 
Meloe Augusticollis, a dark-bluish insect known as the Oil Beetle. The larva of 
this beetle is worthy. of much attention, both on account of the number of its 
metamorphoses, and of its peculiar and varied life. It emerges from the egg as a 
sprightly little six-footed creature, resembling certain forms known as spring- 
tails. Able to go without food for several days, it climbs upon some plant near 
by and lays in wait until a bee alights alongside it. _ When this happens, it 
transfers itself to the body of the bee, and holding on to the hairs with its little 
claws, is thus safely transported to the nest, where it fastens upon the nearest 
bee-grub, feeding upon it, and gradually changing to the footless form shown 
below. Other changes are undergone before it becomes a beetle, and even then 
it appears but little like one. 1 have not found it here, but my friend, Mr. 
Heron, has given me specimens taken up the Gatineau. 
Owing to the late date on which the last excursion—the one to Meech’s. 
Lake—was held, few insects were met with. The spring and early summer 
months are those in which insects are most abundant and in which the collector 
makes his richest haul. After that they are, of course, always to be found, but it 
is more necessary to know where to look for them, and more careful and system- 
atic searching is required to find them, so that at an excursion where much 
ground has to be traversed, and where sight-seeing, etc., occupy much of one’s 
time, it cannot be expected that very many captures will be made. Concealed’ 
by a large toad-stool, and feasting upon its substance, I found a number of the 
enrious little beetles called Onthophagus hecate. It is not an uncommon beetle, 
for it abounds wherever there is decaying animal matter, but owes its interest to 
the odd appearance of the male, which is easily distinguished by the upper part 
of the thorax projecting like a horn over the head, the front of which is alse 
