28 Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society Vol. XV 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE BROOKLYN ENTOMOLOGICAL 



SOCIETY. 



Meeting of October i6, 1919. — Long Island Records: Mr. Wm. 

 \ T. Davis reported that the southern cotton worm, Aletia argil- 

 ■\ lacea Hiibner, was quite common this fall on Staten Island. 

 Mr. G. P. Engelhardt also had seen it in great abundance at 

 Bergen Beach and in Brooklyn. Mr. Jacob Doll spoke of the 

 aquatic caterpillars of the genus Bellura; one of whose species is 

 found commonly on cat-tail in salt marshes near New York ; 

 while another lives on arrow-weed. 



Scientific Programme: Collecting experiences of the members 

 '^ ^ during the summer of 1919. Mr. W. T. Davis reported on the 

 ^ seventeen-year locust on Long Island in 1919, published in this 

 number. Mr. Notman spoke of collections for the New York 

 State List of Coleoptera. Mr. Pasch related his collecting ex- 

 periences in the Ramapo Mountains, noting the abundance of 

 \ Argynnis.~^Mr. Shoemaker said that he had devoted some time 

 along the Potomac River, near Washington, D. C, in search 

 of Cychrus ridingsii Bland., of which very few specimens were 

 trapped ; he also mentioned the occurence there during Septem- 

 ber of Sannina uroceriformis Walker. 



Mr. Engelhardt exhibited a series of upward of one hundred 

 specimens of Hepialus gracilis collected during July and August 

 at Dublin Shore, a small fishing village near the mouth of the 

 ^3 La Havre River on the Atlantic Coast of Nova Scotia. Spruce 

 wood bordering on sphagnum bogs, a combination quite char- 

 acteristic of the region, proved to be the favorite habitat of this 

 insect. On every favorable evening during a month's stay hun- 

 dreds of the little ghost moths could be seen flying about in 

 search for mates. The flight begins suddenly, soon after sunset 

 and terminates just as suddenly in less than thirty minutes before 

 darkness sets. in. The males in wild, erratic flight dash in and 

 out among the trees and underbrush ; the females, far less 

 numerous, fly slowly close to the ground. After capturing a few 

 of the males with a net is was noticed that in their mad search 

 for the females they often would strike a cotton sheet stretched 

 across a small clearing as a backing to an acetylene light. Here 

 they would hover up and down sufficiently long to permit the 

 use of a cyanide jar. 



The whereabouts of females frequently was indicated by the 

 actions of the males, when during flight they suddenly dropped 

 into low branches or plants near the ground. Search in such 

 places usually would be rewarded by finding a pair, copulation 

 being almost instantaneous. 



