

Feb. 1886.] 
Winter Collecting. 
Nearly all young collectors labor under the er- 
roneous impression that there is no outdoor work 
for them in the winter. That isa mistake. No 
matter how cold the day, many specimens of in- 
sects, very rare in summer, may be found housed 
away in some secluded spot, under the bark, in 
decayed wood, and in fact almost anywhere that 
there is room for them to crawl in out of sight. 
This is also the best time to secure many larve 
and pup, for many of the former are preparing 
to transform in the early spring, and the trecs 
being denuded of their foliage the chrysalides are 
much more easily discerned. On the 10th inst., 
two of us packed our kits, shouldered our snow 
shoes and took the eight o’clock train for Malden. 
The snow was deep and light, and the thermome- 
ter registered from 8° to 11° above zero. The 
ground selected for the day’s operations was 
destitute of dead or decaying wood, hence our 
capture was lighter and less varied than it other- 
wise would have been. We only remained about 
three hours, and our time was spent examining 
the crevices in and under the rough bark of live 
pines, foot or snow shoe racing, picking ourselves 
out of the snow, ete. Our capture consisted of 
the following : 
Coleoptera: Axinopalpus biplagiatus, 3; Gy- 
nandropus hylacis, 7; Adalia bipunctata, 5; Lae- 
mophlaeas biguttatus, 4; Nemosoma parallelum, 
1; Catogenus rufous, 57; Cyphon variabilis, 43 ; 
Betarmon bigeminatus, 2; Melanotus communis, 
6; Ellychnia corrusca, 20; Clerus thoracicus, 3 ; 
Tanebrioides? 4. Hemiptera,15. Orthoptera, 192. 
Arachnide, 11, and Lepidoptera, 2. One of the 
latter was a @ Phalaena autumnata, alive and 
smart. I went out again on the 17th inst., and 
got, besides many duplicates of the above, some 
additional species of Lepidoptera and Coleoptera, 
including Rhagium lineatum (larvee, pup and 
imago,) and a fine specimen of Vanessa antiopa. 
CYANIDE. 

Sphingidae of New England. 

FAMILY: SPHINGIDAE. 
The simple eyes on the vertex, at the base of 
antennae are wanting. Head large, hairy and 
seldom tufted; antennae prismatic, thickened 
toward the tip and terminating in a hook, and 
usually a ciliated seta; doubly ciliated in the 
males and simple in the females. The eyes are 
generally large, round and prominent; the palpi 
have the third article reduced to a mere point, 
resting on the summit of the well developed 
second article. The tongue is usually almost 
AND OOLOGIST. 31 
twice the length of the body, sometimes more 
and occasionally almost obsolete. 
Thorax always large and powerful. The 
Wings are elongated, narrow and dense, with 
the inner border much shorter than the out- 
er, and are usually attached to each other by 
a bristle and hook. The nerves are thick, strong 
and contiguous to each other at the base. The 
abdomen is usually cylindrico-conical, longer 
than the posterior wings, and occasionally 
tufted at the tip; the legs are usually long and 
strong, and the tarsi furnished with a pair of 
simple, free claws. The anterior tarsi have a 
long single spur on the inner surface, the middle 
a terminal pair, and the posterior two pair. 
The eggs are laid singly, or in small clusters, 
on the food plants of the larvee, which usually 
grow very large and lead a solitary life. Bodies 
naked, cylindrical, and generally more or less 
ornamented with bright colors. They have eight 
patrs of feet, the terminal ones being large, strong 
and square; the eleventh segment is surmounted 
by either a caudal horn or a lenticular tubercle. 
The pup are cylindrico-conical, terminating 
in a stout, sharp spine. Transforms in an im- 
perfect cocoon, just below the surface or in an 
underground cell. 
GENUS SMERINTHIS.— Latru, 
Body robust; tip of abdomen turned up. Head 
small, sometimes depressed; front broad, pilose 
or sub-tufted; eyes small; palpi thick and short; 
tongue short; antenne generally without term- 
inal hook. Thorax short; abdomen cylindrico- 
conical, more than twice as long as the thorax. 
Wings without bristle and hook; anteriors longer 
than body, and about twice as long as broad. 
Male antennz densely sub-pectinate; femate an- 
tenn, simple. 
Larvae: head semi-oval, with acute vertex ; 
body granulated, and with a caudal horn; ob- 
liquely banded with dorsal thoracic lines on each 
side. Transforms in a cell below the surface of 
the ground. Pupze smooth and cylindrico-conical. 
I.—S. MODESTA.—Ha77’. 
Palpi, head, and upper side of thorax, oliva- 
ceous-brown; under side of thorax, abdomen, and 
tibize olivaceous. 
Anterior wings, from the base to beyond the 
middle of the disc, very pale olivaceous, with an 
indistinct, irregular, darker streak across the mid- 
dle, and margined toward the base of the wing 
with a still paler hue; a broad, deep, olivaceous 
median band, undulating anteriorly and crenated 
or undulating posteriorly, containing a pale, angu- 
lar, discal spot, and darkest toward the base of 
the wing; a dark olivaceous line across the mid- 
