THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
179 
Captures in the North. — I found some 
old acquaintances in a spot where I little 
expected to meet with them. The vessel 
in which I left England was cast on a 
reef off Anticosti. A wade to the land 
at ten o’clock at night, an attempt to 
rest on a piece of sail-cloth well moist- 
ened by the rain and spread on the wet 
beach, and an assault from the infernal 
moschetoes, were not the best prepara- 
tives for entomological pursuits, nor did 
the necessity for felling timber, and for 
building huts allow of a very extended 
excursion. I wandered, however, for 
about a mile along the shore, which was 
strewn with velvet, broad-cloth, ribbons, 
&c., the remains of our cargo, and found 
larvae of Cerura Vinula, Orgyia Aniiqua, 
and a worn imago of Melanippe Bi- 
riviata. I also saw a Tortrix with which 
I was unacquainted. — Thomas Fyles, 
Point Levi, Canada ; Aug. 6, 1861. 
OBSERVATIONS. 
Achroia Grisella.. — Before I left home 
I had the pleasure of observing this spe- 
cies under favourable circumstances. In 
June I obtained a number of hybernated 
larvae, and placed them in a glass case. 
The way in which they formed their 
galleries was very interesting ; they 
worked under cover, spinning their web 
loosely and then thrusting it forward. 
At the slightest disturbance they became 
perfectly motionless. In the beginning 
of July perfect insects began to make 
their appearance in my case, and I went 
to the apiary from which I obtained the 
larvae, and found perfect insects there in 
great abundance. They flutter much as 
bees do before the entrance of the hive. 
The males are usually much smaller than 
the females. I shut up a male and a 
female together : I did not observe them 
in cop., but in a few days I saw the 
female laying eggs. Her ovipositor was 
very long, and she felt about with it 
before laying an egg, as if in search of a 
spot suited to her purpose. The eggs 
were of a regular oval, and of a milk- 
white colour. I left home before they 
were hatched. — Thomas Fyles, Point 
Levi, Canada; Aug. 6, 1861. 
Cynips Rosce spinosissima. — Visitors 
to the sea side in the summer months 
must have noticed the curious red balls 
that beset the pretty little burnet rose 
(Rosa spinosissima). Hardly any part 
of the plant seems free ; the calyx itself 
is made to assume unnatural proportions, 
while the stem and leaf-stalks offer a 
series of little wens of varied size and 
form. These are the work of a tiny gall- 
fly (Cynips) that pierces the plant and 
causes the sap to stagnate in these 
strange excrescences. Each ball is 
usually tenanted by a single Cynips, 
which finds therein its nutriment and 
shelter till it puts on wings and leaves 
its singular home. The galls are smooth, 
thus differing from the bedeguar of the 
hedge-rose. This circumstance, I may 
remark, is the more strange when we 
consider how much more spiny is the 
stem of the burnet-rose than that of our 
friend of the green lanes and hedges. I 
have lately hatched several of this Cy- 
nips. Its characters are here given : — 
Colour black. AntennEe geniculated, 
hairy. Head and thorax dull black, 
pitted and dotted over with grey pile. 
Abdomen shining black. Legs black 
with the tarsi paler. Insect much 
smaller than the Cynips Ros<e. — Petek 
Inchbald, Slorthes Hall; Aug. 30. 
. EXCHANGE. 
Bggs. — Having a collection of eggs, 
upwards of ninety good specimens, and 
a box with five trays, I shall be glad to 
forward any gentleman a full list of them 
and price. — J. E. Chalonek, Plumtrce, 
near Bawlry, Notts. 
