27 



diluted with ten parts of flour had little effect on the worms, but when used neat it 

 stopped their feeding and killed two of them in a couple of days. But there is the trouble 

 of looking up the creature (green on a green ground) in order to put the powder " where 

 it will do the most good," whereas one need only shake the powder- tin over the plant and 

 pass on, leaving the worm to poison itself. 



The same is true of the Cabbage Butterfly (P. rapm) in the early stages of growth 

 of the cabbage. I have used Buhach, and a friend of mine is now using it on a plot of 

 3,000 heads of cabbage, but the time spent in finding the green worm on the green leaf 

 is a serious drawback, and while the plant is very young I prefer using the " poison-dust. " 

 I can sprinkle a whole bed while I am finding the worm on a dozen cabbage heads in 

 order "to put salt on his tail." The "poison -dust" to which I refer is made by mixing 

 one part of London Purple and sixty parts of ashes and passing the mixture several times 

 through a fine sieve. I may add that I find this a very efficient remedy for the turnip fly. 



NOTES ON LAST YEAR'S COLLECTING. 

 By J. Alston Moffat, Hamilton, Ont. 



No one I think can have been long engaged in collecting insects without having 

 noticed the remarkable diversity in the products of different years, not only in quantity, 

 but in kinds. Each summer seems to bring its own particular species to the front, so 

 that if a person wishes to get a moderately correct idea of the insects of any locality, it 

 is necessary for him not only to hunt diligently all the season, but every season for a 

 considerable length of time ; and if he has from any cause missed one, he may be sure 

 he has missed something which it may be years before he will again have an opportunity 

 of securing, or securing in the same abundance. The causes of these variations seem as 

 yet to a great extent a mystery. 



Insect hunting could not be said to be good in this locality last summer. It might 

 be considered very poor, pet it produced its new things for the collection, and some things 

 in plenty which had hitherto been scarce. On the 12th of May I came across some 

 specimens of a Pieris which I thought were poor specimens of oleracea, but which Mr. 

 Edwards determined to be Virginiensis. On the 23rd I took a very attractive Chrysomela, 

 which is in'the Society's Coll. in London as C. labyrinthica, but which the authorities say 

 is multiguttis of Crotch's Check List, of which scalaris is synonym. Rather remarkable, 

 surely, that so handsome and distinctly marked an insect should not have a name of its 

 own. Its season lasted about four weeks, during which I secured over a dozen. I took 

 one specimen of Stenosphenus notatm Oliv. Of this species I captured in May, 1879, 

 three specimens,, the first I ever took, and that year, a week or two previous to my 

 captures, I received from Mr. Reinecke, of Buffalo, a pair labelled Dallas, Texas. 

 They are exactly similar. The Cerambycidae were ten days later than usual this year. 

 Goes debilis was numerous, and I took my first and only specimen of S. pulcher. Saperda 

 discnidea, although never plentiful, is interesting from the great difference in size and the 

 markings of the sexes. I had always found two or three females to one male until last 

 season, when the males were most numerous. There were several species of Leptura 

 quite common, especially vibex, which I had not seen before. Gaurotes cyanipennis was 

 in great abundance, but although you could bring a dozen down with one stroke, you 

 might not secure more than two or three, they were so quickly on the wing again. The 

 months of July and August were barren of anything worthy of note. In the second week 

 of September the fall moths began to appear, and up to the end of October were quite 

 plentiful. Those attractive genera, Scopelosoma and Lithophane, were more fully 

 represented than I had seen them since the fall of 1877, when I took eight or ten species 

 for the first time. A few 8. Graefiana and L. Bethunei can be found every year, but 

 Scopelosoma Pettiti and ceromatica, and Lithophane semiusta, pexata, signosa, petulca, quer- 

 quera, are rare. Some of these choicer species were easily secured again last fall. I also 

 took one new to me, L.ferrealis, whilst a friend here, Mr. J. Johnston, took S. tristigmata 



