29 



species than was brought to our attention during 1887. Tlie species in 

 question is Apatura celtis, one of the Hackberry butterflies treated of at 

 some length in the sixth report on the Insects of Missouri. The larvae 

 are found feeding upon the leaves of Celtis in the month of May, trans- 

 form to chrysalids the latter i)art of the month, and issue as butterflies 

 in the latitude of Saint Louis about the middle of June. A second brood 

 of butterflies appears in August and the insect hibernates in the larva 

 state at the surface of the ground. 



The present spring, considerably south of the locality where we studied 

 the species, an extraordinary swarming was noticed by two of our corre- 

 spondents. Mr. Carl Holzgaug, of Clay Center, Kans., wrote, under date 

 of May 24 : 



Aa T passed last Thursday (May 19) aloncj the Mississippi Valley, west side, near 

 Memphis, up the Arkausas, a swarm of millious of moths like the inclosed were fly- 

 ing along the road going south, etc. 



On the same day (May 24) Mr. F. M. Webster, who was at that time 

 in Arkansas, wrote as follows : 



With this I mail you * * • examples of what I take to be ^j^afMra ceZtts. Never 

 in my life have I observed such numbers of any species of butterfly as I saw of these 

 along the Saint Francis River on the 14th and 15th of the present month. For a dis- 

 tance of about 30 miles the shores of the river were literally lined with them. On 

 stumps they would be packed in so thick that with wings erect they completely cov- 

 ered the surface. The sides of the email steamer on which I was traveling were 

 covered, and I counted 17 on the back of a deck hand as he was going about bis work. 

 When a landing was made and I got ofl^to examine the brush, they would rise up in 

 clouds about me and get into my eyes and mouth so that I had to beat about with a 

 bush to protect myself. The engineer of the boat said he had been running on the 

 river fifteen years, but never saw so many before. The inhabitants along the river 

 were as surprised as myself. » * * 



The swarming of this species in spring is the more interesting that 

 in most other instances the swarming takes place in the autumn, and 

 the only explanation of this exceptional phenomenon would seem to be 

 that the conditions for successful hibernation of the larvae were excep- 

 tionally favorable. 



SOUTHWARD SPREAD OF THE ASPARAGUS-BEBTLrE. 



The Imported Asparagus-beetle (CWocem aspara^i L.) is spreading 

 gradually southward. Following the coast and the water-courses, it 

 was found four years ago as far South as Cherrystone Creek, in Mary- 

 land, oil Chesapeake Bay, by Mr. Otto Lugger, and during 1886 was 

 found at Old Point Comfort, Virginia, by Mr. E. A. Schwarz. Inland 

 it has spread more slowly, and never damaged asparagus beds in the 

 vicinity of Washington until 1887. The farthest inland Southern point 

 of which we have heard is Falls Church, Fairfax County, Va., where it 

 did some damage in the spring of 1887. 



