38 



This month, however, I will content myself with a few general and preliminary 

 remarks. Our climate (I am speaking only of the south-easterly portion of Yancouver 

 Island) is supposed to resemble that of the south of England, but I should call it decid- 

 edly milder. Our spring is warm and early, and the summer hot and dry, but with cool 

 nights and copious dews. On the other hand, the winter is mild, and for about three 

 months exceedingly wet. All kinds of vegetation are very luxuriant. The uncultivated 

 lands are thickly covered with heavy timber, and the cultivated lands are at present few 

 and far between, which makes it easier to combat the attacks of our noxious insects (and 

 of these we have not a few). All our climatic conditions, except perhaps the wet winter, 

 are favourable to abundant insect life, and this undoubtedly exists here. There are 

 several points about our insect fauna that cannot fail to strike an observer. In the first 

 place the extreme abundance of Diurnal Lepidoptera must attract attention. Nearly 

 forty species may be marked abundant. A patch of blossom in May, covered with Blues 

 and Frittillaries, with an occasional Colias and two or three magnificent species of Papilio, 

 is a sight such as an English entomologist, at least, never sees at home, and later in the 

 year the hundreds of Vanessa, Chrysophanus, Pamphila and Limenitis make a very 

 different but not less beautiful picture. 



The Orthoptera, too, intrude themselves upon our notice. Grasshoppers in thous- 

 ands exist in some localities, and do considerable mischief, and large and gorgeous species, 

 with red or yellow under wings, astonish the uninitiated by their sudden appearance or 

 equally sudden vanishing. Two kinds of Cricket fill the air with music in early summer, 

 and a couple of species of Cicada lend them most efficient aid. Of Hemiptera, Neurop- 

 tera and Diptera, I have not collected many, perhaps only 200 species in all, but they 

 include some remarkably fine kinds. Among the Coleoptera 1 am struck with the abun- 

 dance of Adephaga, many of them, too, being of large size. The genera Calosoma (e. g. 

 tepidum Lee), Cychrus (marginatus Dej. and angusticollis Fischer), Carabus (t&datus 

 Fabr.), Omus (Dejeai/i Reiche and Audouini Reiche), Holciophorus Prumecognathus, &c, 

 being represented by very fine species. The Longicornes, too, are abundant, and most of 

 them are absent from Brodie & White's list. The Elaterid* and Buprestidae are also 

 numerous ; in fact all wood-feeding insects seem to abound, as do carrion feeders, while on 

 the other hand, Lainellicornes are very scarce. 



Our Hymenoptera are fine and interesting; the Vespas are in fact decidedly too fine. 

 I", maculata Fab., V. media Oliv., and a supposed new species, being remarkably plentiful 

 and pugnacious. Less plentiful, but no less conspicuous and interesting, are the TJroceridse, 

 my first five specimens proving to belong to as many different species. 



Nearly one hundred species of Hymenoptera (about half my collection) have been 

 identified for me through Mr. Brodie, of Toronto, and they are consequently most of them 

 included in his check list. These shall form the subject of my next communication, and 

 in concluding for the present, I may mention that my duplicates and the loan of my type 

 specimens in any particular family or order will be accorded with very great pleasure to 

 any specialist who will favour me with a request for the same. 



SPINNING CATERPILLARS. 



BY FREDERICK OLARKSOX, NEW YORK OITT. 



Milton, when he wrote of Nature's bounty, and referred to the 



" Millions of spinning worms 

 That in their green shops weave the smooth-bair'd silk. " 



had thoughts no doubt of the obedience due from Nature's subjects to Nature's King. A 

 work ordered and a work performed. Were men as loyal to their King, what a garment 

 of righteousness would each man weave Avherein to appear amid the flood-light at the 

 Court on high ! The caterpillar, at the sighing of the autumnal wind, enfolds itself in its 



