43 



active every evening during the latter part of May, the whole of June, 

 and the first part of July, swarming on the upper-story windows of 

 houses. 



In the Diptera several species never known to be injurious occurred 

 at times in some abundance. A very sleek-looking, black, pubescent 

 fly (Laphria canis Will., determined for me by Dr. Williston) appeared 

 in very large numbers in May, 1886. They covered the grass as well as 

 raspberry and currant bushes, and were to be seen on almost every- 

 thing, yet it could not be ascertained that they did any injury. The 

 species passes its larval state in the ground, probably feeding on the 

 roots of plants or other vegetable substances, while in the perfect state, 

 together with other members of its genus, it is rapacious. Some mem- 

 bers of the family are even predaceous in their larval state, devour- 

 ing the larvae of beetles found in grassy places (Williston). In two 

 local lists of Diptera, one of Montreal and the other of Philadelphia, 

 this species is not included, but it was described by Dr. Williston from 

 two specimens, $ aDd $ , taken in Connecticut, June 25. Three other 

 Diptera were observed in considerable numbers on currant bushes in 

 1882, on May 9 and later in the same month. They are Bibio femoratus 

 Wied., $ and 9 , a smaller undetermined species of BiMo, and Scatophaga 

 stercoraria Linn. The first of these is given the locality "Atlantic 

 States," in Osten-Sacken's list, and in the local lists just mentioned is 

 recorded from Philadelphia, but not from Montreal; the last species 

 occurs in both local lists. These three species appeared in more moder- 

 ate numbers at the time than did Laphria canis in 1886, but were still 

 quite numerous. They doubtless occur in smaller numbers every year, 

 but were not noticed as particularly abundant after 1882. 



Of the Coleoptera, one of the May beetles, Laclmo sterna prunina, 

 rather rare in collections, though locally abundant as will be seen, oc- 

 curred in good numbers in 1886 on raspberry, blackberry, oak, and apple, 

 in the evening, and there is good reason to believe that it has been nu- 

 merous in previous years. It first appeared May 2. On May 22, at 1L 

 o'clock in the evening, 82 specimens were beaten from raspberry bushes 

 in the course of a half hour. It would seem that where there were so many 

 of the beetles on the leaves they would be apt to cause some damage, yet 

 the leaves had not been eaten. The beetles were abundant only on 

 bushes in grass or sod, those kept clean of grass and weeds yielding 

 very few specimens in proportion. In the larval state this species is, 

 as are its congeners, destructive to the roots of grass. Numbers of the 

 beetles were found every fine evening buzzing about in the grass in va- 

 rious places and finally flying away, these being no doubt individuals 

 which had but recently emerged from the pupa state. This is in explana- 

 tion of their being found in abundance only on the bushes that were in 

 grassy places. 



In the Hemiptera, Brood XXII of the Periodical Cicada may be re- 



