58 



migratory. He found JSeuglenes apterus at different times in decaying 

 poplars, without being able to explain how it was possible for them 

 to get to such situations on account of their feebleness and awkwardness 

 and the dryness of the air. The distribution of the species, however 

 over the whole of Europe points with certainty to a greater agility than 

 the blind and wingless form could possibly have. In the same way 

 Flach had not been able to explain the wide distribution in the East of 

 the blind Pteliolum oedipus until the mystery was solved by the discov- 

 ery of a female with well-develox^ed eyes and wings among seventy 

 specimens of the degraded form from the Caucasus. He concludes that 

 as forms with eyes as a rule appear to be much scarcer than the blind 

 ones it would be a very interesting investigation to endeavor to decide 

 to what particular conditions of their mode of life the change is due 

 (light or dryness), or, have such changes taken place at cyclic intervals? 



CATERPILLARS STOPPING TRAINS. 



Under this caption we printed in No. 1, Vol. I, page 30, an occurrence 

 in South Carolina, which turned out on investigation to be a great ex- 

 aggeration. 



On June 29 of the present year we received a letter from Mr. Stark 

 Webster, of Mattawamkeag, Me., inclosing a clipping from the Upper 

 River News of May 25, detailing a very similar circumstance. Mr. Web- 

 ster also stated that in the Northern Penobscot region the same worm de- 

 foliated most of the orchards and all of the poplars, leaving them as bare 

 as in mid- winter. He also noted that many of the cocoons spun in the 

 latter part of June contained a large white maggot. A subsequent let- 

 ter, dated July 6, was accompanied by specimens in which it was seen 

 that the insect they contained was the Tent Caterpillar of the Forest 

 (Clisiocampa sylvatica), and Mr. Webster wrote further that they seemed 

 to prefer Poplar, and also fed upon Oak and Cherry, and after all these 

 are stripped they attack the Elm, Gray Birch, Willow, Eock Maple, and 

 some other trees. 



In the first volume of the American Entomologist, page 210, the oc- 

 currence of this same species upon a railroad track in great numbers 

 was recorded. 



The newspaper clipping which Mr. Webster sent is here reprinted 

 with its head-lines, although for the sake of brevity we do not use the 

 same display. 



The grand march, of the caterpillars. — They blockade a train on the Canadian Pa- 

 cific. — Freight locomotives and railroad men powerless. — Mosquitoes join in the 

 raid and do bloody work. — Additional motive power and sand effect their release. 

 The first freight train run in connection with the Bangor and Piscataquis over the 

 Canadian Pacific met with a novel and what at one time threatened to be a serious 

 as well as a laughable mishap Sunday. Our managing editor was in it. At a point 

 a few miles from Sebois, on the Canadian road, the Messrs. Pierce Brothers, of Milo, 

 had collected 1,500 ship knees, and Superintendent Van Zile sent down a big engine 

 and eleven flats to draw them up to Brownville crossing. 



They were loaded, and the return trip of 15 miles was begun, which occupied ten 



