30 



ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF ONTARIO. 



The President next called upon the Directors to report upon the insects of the y-iar 

 that had been worthy of note in their respective localities. 



Mr. Harrington, the Director of Division No. 1, gave the following account of che 

 season at Ottawa : 



NOTES ON THE INSECTS OF THE YEAR 1897. 



By W. Hague Harrington, F.R.S.C., Ottawa. 



The climatic conditions obtaining during the past winter were evidently unfavor- 

 able to many insects. Intense cold during periods when there was but a scanty snow- 

 fall, alternating with decided thaws, caused extensive injury to many species of plants, 

 and must have, in some degree, similarly affected insect life. The unfavorable winter 

 was followed by an unusually wet spring, with frequent and violent rain storms, which 

 undoubtedly destroyed myriads of our winged foes and friends, whose brief lives are 

 frequently prematurely ended by heavy showers and storms. As a result, apparently, of 

 this inclement weather there was, in the vicinity of Ottawa, a marked scarcity of the 

 larger hymenoptera, especially of bees and wasps, the number and strength of whose 

 colonies are dependent upon the survival of the fertilized females, and their ability to 

 provide food for the first brood. This scarcity of macro -hymenoptera was clearly notice- 

 able all summer ; very few of the larger ichneumonidse, etc., being observed, except 

 species which, like Thalessa, are parasitic upon wood-eating larvte, and are thus not 

 affected materially by unfavorable weather. Even in autumn, when the Spiraeas and 

 Goldenrods generally swarm with Crabro, Andrena, Halictus and many allied genera, 

 ■comparatively few species and individuals were observed. The minute parasitic forms 

 were obtainable in moderate numbers, but many species usually abundant were not met 

 with, especially such as appear in the early summer. 



As regards the occurrence of injurious insects there is but little of importance to 

 mention. The copious rainp, while destroying many insects, produced such a vigorous 

 plant growth, that the foliage became too 

 luxuriant to be much iDJured by any 

 ordinary manifestation of insect life. The 

 ravages of leaf feeding insects were there- 

 fore but seldom noticeable, and the foliage 

 during the summer maintained an unusual 

 freshness and plentitude. The only 

 noticeable exception to the general scar- 

 city of phytophagous insects was the 

 appearance of great numbers of the tent 

 caterpillars {Clisiocampa) Pig 19, which 

 were more abundant and destructive than 

 for many years. Early in spring their 

 webs were seen disfiguring the neighbor- 

 ing woods, and occasionally the city shade 

 trees, and as the larva 1 increased in size, 

 the unsightly webs became still more 

 conspicuous among the defoliated 

 branches. Many kinds of trees suffered 

 from this infestation, but the most exten- 

 sive operations were upon poplar?, of 

 which large areas were in some districts 

 so defoliated as to have the appearance 

 of having been scorched by fire passing 

 rapidly over them. Daring July the 

 newly emerged moths (Figs. "20 and 21) 

 appeared in countless thousands, and in the 

 city were a source of much annoyance, and 

 some little personal discomfort. They swarmed so at night around the electric arc kigafcf, 





Fig. 19. 



