1 8 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [Feb. 



woods to fly rapidly a few feet and drop again suddenly to the 

 Iground. L. lactispargata Walk, is generally a little later. On 

 1 8th or 20th comes the early brood of Selenia keniarm G. & R. 

 No one who has not seen these early specimens at this season can 

 know anything of the real beauty of this species. These first 

 comers are larger and infinitely deeper and richer in tint than the 

 later ones, and there is a soft, tender bloom upon the surface of 

 the wings which is as evanescent as lovely, and is quite lost in 

 drying. Before the 20th Eufidonia notataria Walk., Fidonia 

 truncataria Walk, arid Ematurga faxonii Minot, are plentiful. 



All these are day flyers, of course. The nights at this season 

 are still very cold, and often frosty, but it is marvellous to see 

 how many noctuids are moving about and are attracted to sugar 

 and to light. Two years ago, between May i6th and 20th, Ho- 

 moptera edusa Drury, was in great abundance, flocking at night 

 to our sugar-stations and also to our lanterns on the piazza. We 

 have often taken more than a hundred of this species with its two 

 varieties, bcnata and saundersii, in an evening. With them came 

 also H. Miiilineata Gr. , H. woodsii Gr. , H. benesignata Harv. , 

 Zale horrida Hub., and the three forms of Ypsia undularis Drury. 

 TcEniocampa incerta Hiib. is one of these earliest moths and very 

 abundant. By the end of the month some of the Bombycidce 

 make their appearance; the Spilosomas — virginica ■axiA prima — 

 Halisidota maculata Harr., H. tessellata A. and S. , P. Isabella 

 A. and S. , L. acroea Drury, Ardia virguncula Kirby; Notodonta 

 stragula Gr. ; N. basistrieus Walk. Lophopteryx elcgans Strecker ; 

 Nerice bidentata Walk, and many others. And you must re- 

 member that this is not in the May of Pennsylvania, or even that 

 of southern New England, but in the tardy cold spring of the 

 northern hill country. There the snow often lies upon the ground 

 until June; the streams are icy cold, and all vegetation exceed- 

 ingly backward. Upon what do these early subalpine moths 

 feed? There are almost no blossoms at the season of which I 

 speak. From under the snow the epigcea lifts a few pink buds, 

 and in a favorable, sunny May, viola rotundifolia, v. selkirkii Siwd 

 a few — a very few — other hardy little plants open tiny blossoms. 



I must not forget to say that it was in the last week of May, in 

 a very backward season, while snow Jay in heaps and drifts, in 

 sheltered, shady spots, that I took at light my fine specimen of 

 Phragmaiobia assimilans Walk. This beautiful insect known only 



