THE BIOLOGICAL REVIEW. 103 



ENTOMOLOGY, 



PLATYSAMIA COLUMBIA NOKOMIS. 

 By Wm. Brodie. 



In the summer of 1863 I found a bombycid cocoon firmly 

 attached to a twig of a double spruce Abies nigra growing in 

 the Township of Whitchurch, York County. It was the first 

 of the kind I had ever seen, and, although it was very different 

 from the usual Cecropia cocoon, I thought it might have been 

 made by a starved and diminutive Cecropia larva, but as the 

 imago had emerged it was not possible to determine. 



In Vol. III., p. 201, of Canadian Entomologist, December, 

 1871, the late G. J. Bowles gave an account of the collecting of 

 larvae of P. Columbia by himself and the late Mr. Cowper in 

 the Province of Quebec. He also gives an engraving and 

 Prof. Smith's descriptions of the imago Columbia and of the 

 cocoon, which was originally published in the proceedings of 

 the Boston Society of Natural History, March, 1865, but which 

 I had not seen until it was reproduced in the Canadian Ento- 

 mologist. From Prof. Smith's description I was pretty sure the 

 cocoon I found on the double spruce was the cocoon of P. 

 Columbia. Provancher in Vol. IV. of the Nataruliste Canadien, 

 September, 1872, gives a print of Bowie's lithograph of S. 

 Columbia and some general matter, but adds nothing new. 



In the Canadian Entomologist, Vol. X., March, 1878, there 

 is a very good coloured lithograph of the larva of P. Columbia 

 by the late G. J. Bowles and a short paper by the late F. B. 

 Caulfield giving a description of the larvae. There is also on 

 page 43 an article by C. H. Fernald, in which he gives several 

 food plants, a description of the egg, of the larvae in the several 

 stages of development, and some valuable general information. 

 Up to this time very little had been published as to the geo- 

 graphical range of the species. From 1875- 1880 I received 



