14 The Ottawa Naturalist. [April 



with the exception of the pupa, has been secured from these 

 eggs. Mr. Willing also sent eggs of Argynm's Freya from which 

 Mr. Scudder reared the larvse to the last stage in Boston, U.S., 

 but unfortunately they then all died. It is hoped that future 

 experiments with these species will be more successful. 



Hymenoptera. — Satisfactory advance has been made in 

 our knowledge of such members of this order as inhabit this 

 region, and the number of forms which have been collected ex- 

 ceeds probably even that of our Coleoptera, the smaller parasitic 

 species being remarkably numerous. Collections during the 

 past summer were not so extensive as in some former seasons, 

 but such an amount of undetermined and unarranged material 

 has accumulated in our cabinets that there has been no lack of 

 forms to study and to profitably employ the winter evenings. A 

 preliminary list has been prepared of the species belonging to 

 the family Proctotrypidae ; the first portion of which was printed 

 in the December issue of the OTTAWA NATURALIST, while the 

 remainder is now in type and will appear in the March number. 

 These minute insects have in the past been greatly unmolested 

 by Canadian collectors, so that new and interesting species have 

 proved very numerous, as will be seen by the list which contains 

 in all over 1 50 species. A case is exhibited this evening con- 

 taining examples of all the species except such as are known only 

 by type specimens in the collection of Mr. Ashmead, who has 

 described nearly all the species. It will' we observed that these 

 insects are all very small, and with few exceptions require a 

 microscopical examination for their indentification. They are all 

 parasitic in their mode of life, infesting the eggs and larvse of 

 other insects, but only a small proportion of the species has yet 

 been bred, so we have yet to ascertain upon what insects many 

 of the most common species are parasites. 



One very remarkable instance of the manner in which such 

 minute parasites destroy other insects has been recorded in a 



