HEMARIS DIFFINIS 77 



down into the purple-pink tlower-lieads, and not giving 

 up their i:)laces to real bees, butterflies, beetles, or even 

 the swiftly darting humming-birds which came flash- 

 ing in among the thistles' visitors, startling the butter- 

 flies and sending the bees humming away to other 

 thistles. In our experience there is no place like an 

 old hillside pasture in August with a good growth of 

 pasture-thistles for giving great variety of insects and 

 for good views of humming-birds. 



Until very lately the spring brood of H. diffinis was 

 thought to be a different species and was called H. te- 

 nuis^ but Mr. Ellison A. Smyth, Jr., has proved that the 

 two are the same species by rearing diffinis in July 

 from eggs of tenuis laid in May, and rearing tenuis 

 from eggs of diffinis. 



Hemaris thyshe, next of kin to H. diffinis, was also 

 found feeding at the thistles, and was caught in the 

 same easy way. 



