AUGUST. 279 



F. — A fine male Sirex, with red abdomen ( Tremex Co- 

 lumba) I met with in the woods a few days since ; I also 

 saw a winged specimen of the Great Ant of Newfoundland 

 Formica Pubescens ?), and the Falcate Crane-fly {Pedicia 

 ?) so common in that country. It is rare here. 



C. — Are the insects which are resting on this potato 

 plant, wasps ? 



F, — No ; if you examine them closely^, you will see that 

 they are Lepidoptera, unlike as they appear. They are a 

 small species of Sphinx, the Yellow-Belted Hawk-moth. 



(^Mgeria ?) I have myself often mistaken them for 



wasps, as the resemblance is very striking; the alternate 

 black and yellow belts of the abdomen, the shape, the mode 

 of holding the wings horizontally extended at an acute angle 

 with the body, are decidedly waspish. These I have taken 

 in some numbers, chiefly on the willow and the potato ; 

 and two other species somewhat resembling them, I have 

 met with, but very rarely (but one specimen of each) ; the 

 White-Belted and the Gold-Belted Hawk-moth, the latter 

 larger, and much brighter, and 

 more beautiful. I am not cer- 

 tain, however, that these two 

 may not be varieties of the first- 

 named. The Gold-belted laid 

 in my box a great many shin- 

 ing, kidney-shaped, dark red 

 eggs. The economy of this di- gold-belted hawk-moth. 



vision of the Sphinxes is pecu- (Mgerm 1) 



liar j the caterpillars are whitish, and usually feed on the 

 pith and wood of trees or shrubs, emerging into daylight 

 only as the perfected moth. They are often destructive to 

 fruit trees, by their insidious and hidden attacks. 



C. — I have just turned up a stone, and found under it a 

 small, pale-reddish Lizard, which moves slowly ; there is 



