NATURE IN ACADIE. 13 



The day being particularly fine and warm many 

 insects were abroad in spite of the lateness of the 

 season, which, however, hardly corresponds to the 

 chilly and windy October of old England, for here the 

 autumn is the most beautiful and enjoyable time of all 

 the year, and is usually continued, in days of singular 

 fineness, right up to the middle of December. 



I found, however, but two species of butterflies still 

 remaining. One of these (Colias philodice) much re- 

 sembled the pale clouded yellow (C. hyale) of Europe, 

 and I met with it in some abundance on the roadside 

 near a strip of pasture land. The other species (Vanessa 

 milberti} presented a good deal of resemblance to the 

 familiar lesser tortoise-shell (V. uvticcz) of the old 

 country, but the markings on the basal half of both 

 anterior and posterior wings constituted a clearly- 

 defined patch of black, with only a faint indication of 

 reddish markings on the anterior wings, while the 

 remainder of each wing was unspotted reddish orange, 

 with the edge of the wing similar to that of V. uvticce, 

 except that there were no white markings. The speci- 

 men which I obtained flew from over the wall of a 

 garden close by and glided along by a bank on the 

 roadside, much as our English variety would do. 

 Vanessa milberti appears to be spread over the larger 

 part of North America, being found across the United 

 States to the Rocky Mountains, but it does not appear 

 to be very common in Nova Scotia. 



This similarity to the old-world fauna is just as 

 evident in the Heterocea or moths. There is, for instance, 

 a species of Abraxas common enough about Halifax 

 which can scarcely be distinguished by a casual observer 

 from the " currant moth " (A. grossulariata) of England. 



I met with a small species of the Libellulidae in con- 

 siderable abundance on the roadsides about the forest. 

 The male insect had the abdomen above of a bright 

 ruby colour, while the female had that part reddish 

 brown, the abdomen being slightly depressed and 

 thicker than in the Agrions of Europe, while the insect 

 was also larger than the typical examples of that genus. 



