1 895-] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 227 



be something new to collectors. At the same time I would like to make a 

 few remarks about finding Diccebis purpuratus, of which I took one this 

 trip. I have at different times taken seven or eight, but never more than 

 one specimen on a collecting trip. Last year I went collecting in the 

 same locality for three successive trips and took one each time; all of 

 these I found under very large stones, which I was hardly able to turn, 

 and the rest I found under small bits of bark, hardly large enough to 

 cover the beetle, and in every instance they were alone. I have taken 

 D. elongatus, D. dilatatus and D. teter, and have always taken these in 

 numbers. Now, how is it that I was unable to take more than one at a 

 .time of D. purpuratus'^ Would like to hear from some collector with 

 more experience than I have.— Edwin A. Bischoff, Newark, N. J. 



On a bright day near the end of July, 1893, a friend of mine, who is also 

 an entomologist, came after me to go on a collecting trip with him to 

 search for Lepidoptera larvae in a cemetery near Brooklyn, N. Y. We 

 succeeded well with larvae of Smerinthus and Eacles imperialis. On our 

 way home we passed a lilac and the gravel underneath showed droppmgs; 

 we soon located the eaten leaves and found the peculiar larva of Harrisi- 

 vienina sex guttata shaking its head from side to side; the inch long hair 

 on the head with the remains of the old skin on the end give them a 

 strange appearance. This larva is not very common in this locality, and 

 feeds on various plants, such as button-ball, inkberry and rose. I tried 

 to locate another one in the vicinity when my friend called my attention 

 to several defoliated branches on another lilac bush and a fine full-grown 

 larva of atheroma regalis had to wander into the satchel. This was our 

 first knowledge of this species feeding on the lilac bush. On button bush 

 they have been found by several collectors, but most have been taken 

 from walnut, hickory, gum, persimmon, Oriental plane, etc. In 1893 I 

 found, among fifty Dolba hylceus, that I had two larvae which were black 

 marked on their triangular heads. A scale fungus killed them along 

 with half of my hylceus. In June, 1894, while collecting for larvae and 

 eggs of hylcBus on Ilax (inkberry) I found four much paler eggs which I 

 kept separated from the rest and they turned out four black heads and 

 two of them emerged as imago of Sphinx kalmicB, and two are yet chrys- 

 alids. I have never seen Ilax reported as a food-plant of this species. 

 I took a hundred geometrid-like larvae on sweet-fern. They were resting 

 on the tdp branches and were hard to see in the bright sunshine; the 

 larger were more like the stem in color, but much spotted lower against 

 the stem; none were near the ground. They turned out to be the jet- 

 black Catocala antinympha. I failed to preserve some larvae, and learned, 

 later from Dr. G. D. Hulst, that the larvae had not yet been described. 

 Catocala were quite common in July, 1894, but scarce in August. In one 

 day I took forty-eight specimens with the cyanide bottle. Previous years I 

 had difficulty in finding them, but now being acquainted with their habits 

 and hiding places I have more success. They change their resting places 

 several times a day, and in damp weather it is best to look for them near 



