17G 



THE CANADIAN SPORTSMAN AND NATURALIST. 



the term " this country." By referring to 

 page 104 vol. I, " Canadian Entomologist," a 

 description will be found of Euceros burrus, 

 Cresson, found by me as a parasite in the nest 

 of Vespa maculata, at Ottawa, in October, 

 18G8. I had, at the latter date, discovered a 

 second species attached to the cells of paper- 

 making wasps found near Ottawa, which 

 shows that Mr. Packard should have at least 

 remarked the discovery of one species in this 

 country. My Ottawa friends should look out 

 for the other forms parasitic on wasps occur- 

 ring in their neighbourhood. 



Entomologists please make a note of what 

 Vennor wrote to the Montreal Witness on 

 September 1st. He says that "the woods 

 along this portion of the Maine coast are ever- 

 lastingly green — being of pine — and this color 

 is not much affected by heat or drought. In 

 these woods there is ample scope ior the ento- 

 mologist in studying the habits of the pine- 

 boring beetles which abound. They are still 

 hard at work cutting off the tops of the 

 branches and boring down into the soft pith, 

 in which they deposit their eggs." Entomolo- 

 gical knowledge is not advanced one iota by 

 the above. I am loth to make remarks on 

 the subject ; but in the first place, to show the 

 ignorance of the writer, I say that the pine 

 boring beetles do not cut off the branches of 

 pine trees, neither do they deposit their eggs 

 in the pith. In fact, the pine-boring beetles 

 will not attack a perfectly healthy tree (if they 

 did there would not be many living trees in 

 the forests to-day) but the moment that decay 

 shows itself, then the parasites appear and 

 the work of destruction commences, not in the 

 living branches, but in the dead wood — the 

 solid trunk. M} r friend Vennor better let 

 Entomology alone; to commence dabbling 

 into it at this age of this science, will not 

 only be a source of annoyance to himself, 

 lint to those actually making it a study; the 

 latter can manfully stand up and tell the truth 

 as there is nothing to be gained from stating 

 otherwise. Vennor's story of the pine woods 

 on the coast of Maine appears similar to that 



related by an ordinary educated European 

 from a ship's deck when passing the Island of 

 Anticosti in June; the landscape looks green 

 and therefore beautiful ; there is something en- 

 chanting about it, but the eyes of the stranger 

 are deluded; he merely passes by, carrying 

 iirfpressions of his first visit to a new country. 

 That is all — with the exception that he did 

 not see the pine-boring beetles. 



In skinning an adult grey squirrel, on the 

 21st September, a larva of a bot-fly was found 

 beneath the skin, half way between the cheek 

 and upper frontal part of the femora of the 

 right fore leg. The larva (maggot) at this 

 date, measures 7-8 inch long, covered with 

 numerous rust-coloured dots and short stiff 

 hairs. The mouth is provided with two sickle- 

 shape'i teeth. The insect belongs to the Order 

 Diptera: Family Oestridjs: Genus Cuiere- 

 bra, i.e.— subcutaneous bots beneath the skin 

 of animals. The hole made by the larva 

 measures 2-8th inch in diameter. This insect, 

 it is said, inserts the egg (in fact it is possible 

 that some of the insects belonging to this class 

 of Diptera may be viviparous, nevertheless 

 the wound made by so small an object after its 

 insertion into the animal's skin, would not 

 probably produce sufficient irritation to cause 

 trouble, but when the wound is thoroughly 

 enlarged by the maggot becoming longer and 

 wider, the poor squirrel must suffer while it 

 occupies the cell,) into the squirrel's skin, 

 just in a place where the animal cannot easily 

 reach it with its tongue, and after the parasite 

 penetrates to a sufficient depth, all effort 

 made by the squirrel to destroy the cause of 

 irritation is ineffectual, until the insect attains 

 its perfect larval form, when it ceases to annoy 

 the animal by leaving it altogether. — Gastro- 

 philu's equi, Fabr, is the species which we call 

 the Horse Bot-fly, and I have known an 

 instance of this insect finding its way into the 

 stomach of a man who resided at Stonehani, 

 north of Quebec. The fly deposits its eggs on 

 the horse's body where the animal can reach 



