-v * * 
As regards remedies and prevent 
ives; in the Mississippi valley, when 
the southern species appears in such 
immense numbers, very heroic meth= 
ods have to be employed, eveiyte the 
extent of administering Carbouate of 
ammonia and whisky every three or 
four hours to the bitten animals until 
they recoyer. Probably the b$st pre 
cantons to be emplo. ed here is to rub 
soh^ kind of grease or oil.over bare 
J^abrased spots; Cotton Seed oil, oil 
of tar, fish oil, crude ; coal oil, kero- 
sene oil, kerose’ffe mixed with axle 
grease, and other like substances are 
recommended. To be effective, the 
grease must be used at least twice a 
day, because as soon as its odor disap 
pears it becomes inoperative. If the 
gnats are very numerous, oil of tar 
may be washed all over animals sub= 
ject to their attacks, as often as seems 
necessary. 
The buffalo gnat spends its early 
life in the water. The parent lly de- 
posits her eggs close to the margin of 
.•-mall and rapid creeks, and the young 
larvae or grubs, hatching out, inline* 
diately take to the water. These 
larvae fasten themselves to submerged 
slicks, dead leaves &c., especially 
where the water is running fast. They 
live upon minute Crustaceans and 
other microscopical animals, which 
are caught by fan-like organs, the 
motion of which create currents of 
water towards the mouth of the larvae, 
and so sweep in whatever may be 
floating bv. When fully grown, the 
larvae descend towards the bottom of 
the stream, where they form their 
cocoons, from which the perfect flies 
eventually emerge. The gnat, on 
leaving the cocoon, according to Ri- 
ley, “p°P s up t° the surface of the 
water like a cork, runs a few inches 
over the water. and darts away with 
great swiftness.” 
THE BUTTERFLIES OF COLORADO 
Co li as eurythrme, is the name of 
the medium sized orange buttciflv 
that is so common in Custer county 
in the summer time. It has two gen- 
erations in a year, and it is a most re- 
markable fact that the orange genera- 
tion of the summer appears to alter- 
nate with a generation of pale sul- 
phur butterflies, which appear in late 
autuipn and early spiing. . These 
forms arexalled intermedia (the or- 
ange one) and autumnalis (the sul- 
phur one) respectively. It was sup 
posed that no other form except a 
nearly white variety of the female oc- 
curred here, but we now find that 
there is a short flight of a different 
sulphur variety, called enphyle, in 
September. 
It seems, in fact, that there are two 
distinct sets of these bintei flies, which 
do not interbreed. Set i comes from 
the autumn and early spring examples 
of autumnalis, which lay eggs and go 
through their transformations to pro- 
duce late sunnfieV intermedia, the 
progeny of which pass the winter . as 
adult or nearly adult larvae, .(or if the 
weather is mild partly give rise to the 
late fall autumnalis,) and produce 
autumnalis again in the spring. Set 
2 comes from the late spring and 
early summer intermedia, which pro- 
duce as a second generation the Sep- 
tember eriphyle, the caterpillars aris- 
ing from which pass the winter quite 
young, and eventually become the 
first specimens of intermedia appear- 
ing the next year. 
Most of our common butterflies are 
familiar to all, but we venture to 
* 
b 
