110 
ORN oe 
[ Vol. 11-No. 7 


ENTOMOLOG ee 
WRIGHT & BATES, 
73 Hanover St., Boston, Mass., 
ASSOCIATE EDITORS. 
Address all communications for this department as above. 



Seasonal Notes. 

Now is the harvest time of the entomologist 
and we hope that our readers will improve their 
opportunities and report progress. The air is 
alive with insect life everywhere, and there is 
plenty of work to do. - Several species of Sphin- 
gidae have made their appearance and by the 
time this number reaches you the family will be 
well represented. Most of them can be taken on 
the wing only in the evening and early morning, 
but a careful search of the fences, trunks of trees, 
and in fact any place that will furnish a resting 
place for them to dry their wings will frequently 
be rewarded by beautiful specimens fresh from 
the chrysalis. When such are found, do not pin 
them too quickly, as the moisture is apt to ooze 
out around the pin and stain the plumage.. 
Many of the butterflies have arrived, and in 
fact, all the families of the Lep. are well repre- 
sented. 
Coleoptera are quite plentiful and will be until 
late in the fall. Even then many species may be 
taken in their winter quarters. 
We would advise collectors to pay more atten- 
tion to the rearing of larve, especially of Coleop. 
It will require considerable care and patience but 
you will be well repaid for your pains. In addi- 
tion to getting your specimens perfect, you will 
enjoy watching the changes during the numerous 
moults and transformations. We have raised 
quite a number of Lepidoptera and Coleoptera in 
our vivariums. Amongst others some A. Cynthia 
raised from last spring’s moths. 
The main point in rearing larvee is to make all 
the conditions—food, locality and surroundings— 
as natural as possible and protect them from their 
numerous enemies, both parasitic and insectivor- 
ous. Take all the larvee you can find as also the 
eggs and chrysalides. Keep them well supplied 
with their natural food and keep it as fresh as 
possible. If a larva has become accustomed to 
any special fool, do not try to make it change 
even though the substitute might be considered a 
more natural food than the one it selected. Such 
attempts are almost invariably failures. Make 
notes of dates, locations and conditions of cap- 
ture, appearance and peculiarities, in fact every- 
thing that will tend to enable you to recognize 
the species in any of its stages from the egg to 
the perfect fly. 
Insect Mimicry. 
BY- A. Wk. 

No fact set forth by insect hunters has more 
thoroughly excited the contempt of the incredu- 
lous for entomology and entomologists than this 
one of mimicry as a means of self protection to 
insect life. For years I was a faithless reader of 
what I deemed a theory rather than a fact, and 
wondered how such absurd conclusions could 
find endorsement anywhere. I was aware that 
certain insects did escape their pursuers by hiding 
upon the bark of a tree which found its counter- 
part in the color of their wings and body, or upon 
dead leaves or among twig debris in the woods 
from a similarity of color or form, but this I re- 
garded as an accident or design of nature, rather 
than something to be credited to the effect or de- 
sign of the insect itself. 
On May 30, 1884, I was converted by a fe- 
male sulphur butterfly, to insect mimicry as a 
fact. It was acool day and so breezy that but- 
terflies could take no pleasure upon the wing, but 
were forced to seek shelter. In a bed of pansies 
I noticed this female Colias philodice clinging to 
the lower striped petal of a light yellow pansy. 
I was with two friends within ten feet of the 
flower. How I came to notice the butterfly I do 
not know, for its wings were folded over its back 
and the black borders pressed together appeared 
to the eye like one of the dark lines of the petal 
upon which she sat. I was astonished at the suc- 
cess of the performance, and fearing that I might 
be observing and accepting more than there was 
any reason to, from the circumstance, I called the 
attention of my friends to the flower, which I 
readily pointed out to them, and said, “Can you 
see a butterfly upon that pansy?’ They scanned 
the flower closely and replied, ‘* There is no but- 
terfly there!” Ll rejoined, “I think there is. It 
is a capital piece of mimicry, and I wished to see 
if it were possible for you to discover it!” They 
looked again, and although plainly told that the 
butterfly was poised upon the lower petal of the 
pansy, declared, “ You have imagined it,” and 
would not believe it, when before their eyes I 
walked to the pansy and to their astonishment 
took the butterfly from the lower petal, as desig- 
nated. 
My friends were astonished, and we all then 
and there took our first lesson in insect mimicry, 
and it was a most convincing one. 
SESE ARREST 
As a further proof of insect mimicry, I have 
noticed, when examining an infested leaf, that 
the minute Aphide would congregate upon a 
portion of the leaf which harmonized in color 
with themselves.—/*. JZ. C. 
