of insects. During the past summer lie has sent to Mr, Edwards and myself the 

 eggs of so many butterflies of exceptional rarity, and in such numbers, that I con- 

 sider it no exaggeration to say that he has helped on the study of the preparatory 

 stages of butterflies more than anyone else in Canada. Amongst the rare species 

 of which eggs were sent by Mr. Bean, I will mention the following : Colias 

 Elis, Colias Christina, Colias Nastes, Golias Interior (?), Pamassius Smintheus, 

 (Eneis Jutta and Melitasa Anicia. Mr. Bean's collections in the Rocky Mountains 

 have also added largely to our knowledge of the geographical distribution of 

 many of our insects of various orders. 



Perhaps one of the most interesting points, scientifically, which has been dis- 

 covered by Mr. Bean, is the positive knowledge that insects of the genus Colias 

 will feed upon plants outside the order leguminosse. I had myself suggested in 

 our last year's report, from observing Colias Interior in nature, that they might 

 feed upon species of vaccinium or "blue berry"; but Mr. Bean has discovered 

 that not only is vaccinium myrtifolius the food-plant of Colias Interior, (or a 

 closely allied species), but that Colias Nastes feeds naturally on willow, although 

 it is true it will eat hedysarv.m boreale, a leguminous plant. It eats this, however, 

 apparently without relish, for of 15 young larvse which'hatched from eggs sent to 

 me by Mr. Bean, only two fed on the Hedysarum, and this only after eating 

 nothing but their egg shells for two days. 



Another gentleman who has assisted materially in this interesting work of 

 breeding butterflies, is Mr. David Bruce, who has spent the summer in Colorado. 

 He has sent Mr, Edwards egg^ of many rare species, and I have myself, at Ottawa 

 larvae bred from eggs that were sent by him inside letters from the mountain tops 

 of Colorado. In our last report I referred to some experiments in breeding (Eneis 

 Macounii. Of several young larvse which hatched from eggs collected at Nepigon, 

 but one passed successfully through the winter ; but this one, by its behaviour, 

 raises a point of considerable interest. The perfect insect occurs at Nepigon in 

 the last week of June, so that the caterpillars would probably pupate about the 

 end of May. The specimen which I carried through the winter was only at that 

 time (the end of May), half an inch in length, and had only moulted twice, once in 

 autumn and once in spring. Full growth was not attained until the end of July, 

 when I had a figure made, through the courtesy of the United States Entomolo- 

 gist, which has appeared in the pages of " Insect Life," with an account of the full 

 grown larva. From that time until the present, although the caterpillar eats a 

 little, it is decidedly getting smaller, is paler in colour, and is very sluggish — in 

 fact it has every appearance of going into hibernation. An interesting feature of 

 this life-history, as illustrated in this specimen, is the probability of a second hiber- 

 nation. The only person as far as I know who has succeeded in breeding a species 

 of this genus, is the Rev. T. W. Fyles, of Quebec, who bred QZneis Jutta from eggs 

 laid at Quebec in the beginning of June. The larvse passed through all their 

 stages and hibernated full grown, and the perfect butterflies emerged in May of 

 the following year. On the other hand, larvse from eggs laid by the same species 

 at Ottawa only a month later, both with Mr. Scudder at Boston and Mr. Edwards 

 of West Virginia, as well as with me at Ottawa, behaved in exactly the same 

 manner as the larvse of Oe. Macounii from Nepigon, they passed only one moult 

 and then hibernated in the second stage, and had all their growth to make the 

 next year, This was also the case with larvse from Rocky Mountain eggs of Jutta 

 sent by Mr. Bean during the past summer. This points to a dual habit in the same 

 species, which, if regular, is of great, interest, and reminds one of what is known 

 to be the case in the arctic regions where, probably on account of the uncertain 

 climate, many species of genera which normally pass through all their stages in 

 one year, there take two or even more before they arrive at maturity, 



