244 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [October, 



of Rhus aromatica, and I catch them repeatedly at that, though 

 I have not yet seen them near Cercis, also in full bloom, right at 

 hand. The eggs are laid, as described by Mr. Scudder, on the 

 very tips of the cedar twigs, and I have also noticed a great 

 number of ichneumon fly {Pimp/a, I think) diligently searching 

 among the ends of twigs, so that I think it may be a parasite of 

 damon, though as yet I have been unable to verify the suspicion. 



In early April a negro brought in eleven imagos of Dynastes 

 tityus, six males and five females, taken from the decayed base 

 of a recently felled white oak stump; from his description there 

 must have been many larvae and pupae there also, which he said 

 his chickens had destroyed. As soon as possible Prof. Alwood 

 and myself visited the place; the stump was much rotted on one 

 side, and we removed about a bushel of the excrement of the 

 larvae; we were too late, however, finding only one male and one 

 female imago, the remains of a pupa skin, and at last, by very 

 diligent search and by following each decayed rootlet to its base, 

 we secured two of the large, remarkable larvae, which are still in 

 captivity, in rotting wood supplied them in the breeding-case. 



Papilio glaucus is the only female form of turmis that I have 

 seen here, and they are smaller than those captured on the sea- 

 board of South Carolina. Eudamus cellus is occasionally taken 

 in the watered rocky ravines where the wild catnip covers the 

 ground. 



The males of Argynnis diana are flying in early June, and the 

 females appear about the last of July, being in full force in Au- 

 gust, at which times the males are much worn, and it is then 

 difficult to secure good specimens of the males. I have invari- 

 ably found the males more difficult to catch than the females; at 

 the first alarm they make for the forests on the hillsides and are 

 lost; in their early appearance in June they are mostly to be seen 

 on the wing, crossing and following the mountain roads, and are 

 then difficult to catch; later both sexes are attracted by thistle in 

 bloom, and also by the purple Eupatorium, but their favorite 

 plant is the iron weed, Verncmia angiisti folia, and its allies; so 

 much is this so that we used to call this " Diana Weed," and in 

 driving through the mountains always stopped whenever we saw 

 a patch of it. It is enough to make the heart jump to come 

 across a fine head of Vernonia and see two or three of the blue 

 females quietly feeding, their blue color contrasting well with the 



