120 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [March, ’o8 
tomologically, hereabout, despite the unfavorable character of 
the early part of the season. The time of appearance of all 
lepidopters was later than the summer before by from a week 
and a half to three weeks, but when butterflies did put in an 
appearance they seemed to make up for lost time in numbers. 
Papilio cresphontes and troilus were more numerous than they 
had been for years, while turnus and ajax were common. 
The great moths Citheronia regalis and Eacles imperialis had 
their day along with the rest and their horrid (?) larvae were 
brought to the bugman in paper bags and glass jars for identi- 
fication, with the query as to just how long a human being 
would live after being bitten by one of these venomous ( ?) 
creatures. 
The year 1881 was a great insect year here as the writer now 
remembers it, and about the middle of June thousands of 
specimens of Argynnis idalia could be seen poised over wild 
flowers or on the wing in the prairie country west of Vandalia, 
Mo. Scarcely a dozen specimens of idalia have been seen by 
the writer since. 
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Notes on Necrophorus orbicollis Say. 
By C. O. HouGuton, Newark, Del. 
While at work about some peach trees in my back yard late 
in the evening of May 30, 1906, my attention was attracted to 
what I at first thought was the stridulation, at close hand, of 
the plum curculio, Conotrachelus nenuphar Hbst. I was about 
to strike a match to look for curculios on the limbs of one of 
the peach trees, when I discovered that the noise I had heard 
was caused by several specimens of Vecrophorus orbicollis Say, 
which had congregated about a dead mouse that lay on the 
ground beneath the tree. 
Wishing to learn something of their movements about the 
mouse, and the cause of the stridulation, I secured a candle, 
some matches, a box for a seat, and proceeded to investigate. 
It was then about 8 o’clock and the moon was shining. The 
night was still and the temperature about 60° F. | 
Just as I was seating myself near the dead mouse a large 
beetle came flying about the spot, and on knocking it down 
