74 



A few years ago I laid away, in an unused chamber, a hive, full of comb, that had 

 been vacated by the bees. Examining this hive some time afterwards, I found the comb 

 completely broken down and destroyed. On the bottom of the hive there was an un- 

 sightly mass of tangled webs, and fragments of wax, dotted throughout with the black 

 castings of the cereana larva?. The larvae themselves were gone; but, on examining a 

 heai- • i pamphlets and newspapers that lay near, I found the leaves stuck together with 

 mm > j rnus silken and beautiful white cocoons. From these, in due tinie> I obtained 

 ii-hiiv perfect specimens of Galleria cereana. 



r j h< bee-moths delight in ill-constructed hives, in which there are accumulations of 

 old -on 1 1 1. Their presence in any number is a sure sign of weakness in the bees. A hive 

 iu which they have well established themselves may be known by its offensive smell. 



To banish them the modern hives with moveable frames should be used. Affected 

 comb should be cut away and destroyed. It should be remembered that masses of web 

 and broken comb, thrown on the refuse heap, will afford both food and protection to any 

 larvae that may remain in them, and that, in due time, perfect insects will come forth to 

 invade the hives again. 



NOTES ON THE HEPIALIDJE OF THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC. 



BY THE REV. THOMAS W. FYLES, SOUTH QUEBEC. 



The Hepialidae, in England, are denominated " Swifts," from their peculiarly rapid 

 and oscillating flight. One of their number (Hepialus humuli) is called "the Ghost," — 

 the snow-white wings and hovering motions of the insect having suggested the name. 



«i>iiS*.;Our Canadian representatives of the family are few in number, and extremely rare. 

 Three of the four species that have been taken in the Province of Quebec have greater 

 amplitude of wing than most of their British congeners. 



Characteristics of the genus He/Aalus. 



Imago : — Antenna 1 , filiform and very short. Wings, distant at the base, lanceolate 

 or som iwhat falcate. Abdomen, elongate. 



Larva: — Naked, elongate. Head and second segment, horny. Feeds at the roots, 

 or in the stems, of plants. 



I'ii pi : — Furnished with shoit spines on the segments. 



Descriptions of Repialw Moths taken in the Province of Quebec. 



Argenteo-maculatus. (Harris.) This tine insect, which is about three inches in 

 expanse of wings, is in colour ash-grey with cloudy markings. The hind wings have an 

 ochreous tinge towards the tips. The silvery spots to which it owes its name are two on 

 each fore-wing. The one nearer the front edge is round; the other is triangular. The 

 insect is described by Harris, in " Insects injurious to Vegetation," page 410. Dr. D. S. 

 Kellicott, of Buffalo, succeeded in raising this species, from larva? obtained from roots 

 and stems of Alnui Can. Ent. vol. xx., p. 233), 



Gosse, in the "Canadian Naturalist, (page 218) speaks of Argenteo-maculatus (which 

 he names " the Dragon Moth,") as "quite numerous" in the latter part of July in the 

 fields around his residence at Waterville, P.Q. The circumstances in this case must have 

 been v ary peculiar, for, I think, no one else has found the insect numerous in any part of 

 Canada. Gosse found it "dancing from side to side on the wing above the herbage 

 within a space of a yard or two." A female which he pinned ejected small white eggs 

 to .< considerable distance with great rapidity. In 1871 I found what I believed to be a 

 pupa of this species in a stem of common alder ; but the insect, probably from lack of 

 moisture, perished. 



