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LETTEES FEOM ALABAMA. 
I took a few days ago, sucking some flowers 
beneath the burning beanis of noon, a very pretty 
little creature, the Humble-bee Hawkmoth {Sesia 
Pelasgus), Having taken it in Canada, likewise, 
I presume it is widely scattered over the continent ; 
though my northern specimen differs somewhat 
from the present. It looks very much like a hum- 
ble-bee, the body being clothed with the same sort 
of down, and banded with black and yellow ; the 
wings are perfectly transparent, except the margins, 
which are covered with dark brown scales. Like 
the Humming-bird Hawkmoth {Macroglossa stella-- 
tarum) of our own country, it is abroad (I believe 
exclusively) by daylight, and delights in whisking 
from flower to flower ; its motions are swift and 
sudden. There is a beautiful flower now in blos- 
som in the gardens, the Horned Poppy {Argemone 
Mexicana)^^^h.\(Ai forms an attraction to these bright- 
hued insects. It is of a golden yellow, and has 
handsomely spotted, thistle-like leaves. 
Among the soft decaying wood, beneath the bark 
of a fallen tree, I found many specimens of a very 
minute Earwig {Forficula — — ?). Most of them 
were in larva; but one was in the perfect state, and 
very closely resembled in appearance our common 
European species, but for its minuteness, being 
less than one-fourth of an inch in length. The 
larvm of this genus have a far greater likeness to 
the imago than those of beetles, the forceps being 
present, and the shape identical ; but the elytra and 
wings of course are absent. 
There is another insect which I cannot pass 
over, for its very singular form. It is the Hair 
Spectre [Emesa of a light grey colour, 
about an inch and a half in lengthy with long 
