21 



plan above recommended has so far reduced the labour of the work and the disappoint- 

 ment incident to it, as to lead me to hope that I shall be able to prepare and keep a col- 

 lection of insects in the future without much more outlay of time and thought than is 

 required for a collection of dried plants. I think if other teachers who, like myself, are 

 short of time and distracted by teaching several subjects, will adopt the same plan, their 

 verdict will be equally favourable. 



The cases, too, are convenient, and can be handed round a class for inspection with- 

 out risk, while they make a handsome appearance in the museum, and from their neatness 

 and showiness and cheapness, they form a strong inducement to the* students to undertake 

 a collection on their own account- — no small argument with the practical teacher. 



Note. — At the close of a few remarks made by the author on this subject before the 

 Entomological Club of the American Association at its recent meeting in New York, an 

 entomological friend objected that he had found gasoline ineffective to kill many insects, 

 and instanced the Catocalas as an example. By a rather curious coincidence, the last 

 specimen that I captured before leaving for the meeting was one of these, the Red Under- 

 wing (C. ultronia), and the first that I captured on my return was the same. In neither 

 case was there the slightest trouble ; the insect succumbed immediately. I may remark 

 that, in my own experience, I have found the Tigers (Arctias) the most refractory, requir- 

 ing, in some instances, two applications. In most other cases death is almost instan- 

 taneous. So effective and so convenient do I find the gasoline that I have for years 

 abandoned the use of the more cumbrous and dangerous appliances and now carry only 

 an ounce phial of this liquid with me into the field. 



SOME EEMARKABLE CAPTURES IN ONTARIO. 



By Gamble Geddes, Toronto. 



The following paper was read on some remarkable captures during the summer of 

 1887 in Ontario, by Capt. Gamble Geddes, of Toronto : — 



Pelecinus Polycerator, Say. — I had the good fortune to take the male of the above 

 species at Eastwood, Ontario, about the 11th of August. I captured one and saw a 

 second a few minutes later, which, however, proved too quick for me, and I missed it 

 with the net. 



I have never observed that the females of this insect fly very high, but that the 

 the males do, I have no doubt, as the one I caught was very quick and started to fly 

 straight up in the air over my head, whilst I barely reached it inside the hoop of a 

 long-handled net. The male that I missed capturing, immediately soared aloft and out 

 of sight amongst the high branches of the trees. 



I may say that I have watched by the hour for these rare males where the females 

 are in the habit of congregating in large numbers, and have never seen but the two 

 specimens above referred to, alive. The only other one I have seen was captured by 

 Dr. Brodie, in 1886, at Toronto. 



If any of your subscribers know anything of the life-history of these insects, the 

 information would be most acceptable to many readers of the Entomologist in Ontario, as 

 I have made several enquiries, as to their habits, with little or no success. There is no 

 doubt that the female is slow in her flight, and that she is handicapped by the long abdo- 

 men that she is obliged to carry with comparatively diminutive wings. It is no wonder 

 that she is not fond of moving about when the wind is blowing, for she is knocked about 

 and quite unable to preserve a straight course from one point to another, whilst the male 

 with his short club-shaped abdomen, has wings equally large, and to all appearance, 

 stronger than the female and can go as he pleases. 



