75 



Auratus. (Grote). This beautiful moth is very accurately described by Grote in 

 Can. Ent., vol. x., p. 18., from a specimen taken in the Adirondacks by Mr. W. W. Hill 

 in 1877/ It has since been taken by Mr. E P. YanDuzee, at Buffalo, New York (Can. 

 Ent., vol. xx., p. 100). I have a lovely specimen of the insect which I took in Brome 

 County, in July, 1865. It is of a faint purplish tinge. The fore-wings are decorated 

 with pale brown markings and extensive patches like as of dead gold. There are also 

 a pale golden spot, at about one-half the length and one-fourth the width of the fore- 

 wing, and, near the hind margin, three other pale golden spots triangular in form. I took 

 the insect with a net in the dusk of the evening, as it was flitting near the hedge-row of 

 a meadow, on a slope of the " Pine Mountain." 



Thule (Strecker) was described and figured by Strecker in " Lepicloptera," No. 12, 

 from a specimen sent to him by Mr. Caulfield, of Montreal. In February, 1884, Mr. G- 

 J. Bowles wrote that Streeker's specimen, a specimen in his own possession, and a third 

 in the possesion of Mr. J. G. Jack, of Ohateaugay Basin, were, he believed, " the only 

 specimens in collections " (Can. Ent. vol. xvi., p. 40). Since then the insect has been 

 taken by Mr. W. D. Shaw, and by Mr. H. H. Lyman. The specimen I have was pre- 

 sented to me by the last named gentleman. It was captured in July. Mr. Shaw found 

 the species hovering over and settling upon the Ox-eye Daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare), 

 in August, at Cote St. Antoine. 



Thule is about two and one-half inches in expanse of wings. It is creamy white in 

 colour. Starting from the base of the fore-wing, and touching the costa for about two- 

 thirds of its length, there is an irregular brownish patch. The costal edge is dark brown, 

 and projecting from this into the brownish patch are three conspicuous dark-brown rec- 

 tangular spots. On the inner edge of the patch, not far from the base, are two small 

 white spots in dark-brown rings, and on the further extremity of the same edge is a third 

 white spot in a dark brown ring. There are a few other less conspicuous brown spots on 

 the fore- wing, and, towards the hind margin, two slightly scalloped and interrupted brown 

 lines. The fringe on the hind margin is marked with brown spots. 



Gracilis. (Grote). This insect, described and figured by Grote, is the smallest of 

 the Quebec Hepialidae. In expanse of wings it measures one and one-fourth inches. The 

 wings are but slightly feathered. They are of a warm brownish hue streaked and spotted 

 with darker brown. From the inner side of the base of the fore-wing, sweeping round 

 to the tip, is an irregular, pale band. The fringes of the hind wings are brown and 

 white. The only specimen I have of this rare moth was taken at Cowansville, in July, 

 1881, resting on the under side of a Hoof Boletus (Boletus igniarius.) 



THE PJSE OF PRACTICAL ENTOMOLOGY IN AMERICA. 



BY AUG. KADCLIFPE GROTE, A.M., VICE-PRES. AM. ASS. ADV. SCIENCE (1878), ETC. 



There is another kind of moth found in Massachusetts — and with this echo of Dr. 

 Harris's style of writing repeating itself in my mind, I passed under the elm trees, crossing 

 Boston Common. It needed not to feed my imagination that the trees themselves were 

 placarded with Latin titles ; 1 felt that I was upon scientific and sacred ground. For 

 Boston, Science has not come in vain. Rather does she seem to dwell habitually within 

 Bostonian shrines, leaving the temples to her honour in New York empty of the divine 

 afflatus. That long past July day, its heat tempered by a cool east wind, my first in 

 Boston, sheds its light upon me still, while so many of its fellows have passed in darkness 

 from my recollection. I have never since been down by the Back Bay, or wandered 

 Cambridge ways, sub tegumine ulmi, without feeling a particular reverence for the place 

 strange to a wanderer who has passed through many cities of renown. While New York 

 is cosmopolitan in all its aspects, and its Jews and Gentiles combine to produce a tutti 

 frutti dish of American science, Boston has a scientific style of its own, descending, with 

 everything else, from the Puritans themselves. No matter who unfolds there his teaching, 

 he tends to lose some part of his individuality, his thoughts take a local cast, he shapes his 



