31. Agonum Affine, Kirby.—Length of body 4 lines. Locality not stated. A single specimen taken.

Body very black, glossy. Antennæ longer than the prothorax: prothorax of the same width before as behind, so as to appear more square than in the preceding species; its lateral margin at the base is likewise not reflexed, the dorsal channel is slight, and the disk is minutely and transversely wrinkled ; the basilar impressions are deep, large and circular; elytra very slightly bronzed ; three punctiform impressions, the anterior one adjoining the third furrow, and the two posterior the second, are visible in the usual situation; the four anterior trochanters are of a deep red.

On the 8th of January last, while searching for hybernating Coleoptera in the woods near Ottawa, I had occasion to strip the bark of a decayed ash tree, under which, among other insect store, I found a small transparent and curiously-formed cocoon containing a larva of a fly which was at that time unknown to me. The cocoon was imbedded in the bark, occupying what I am now led to believe the excavation made by a grub of Cerambyx, or some other coleopterous bark-borer. when cocoons belonging to the genera Evaniidæ or Icheneumonidæ are found under bark of trees, or stones imbedded in the earth, we may safely assume that they are accompanied by parasites, and that the original possessor has been devoured because it was just the food that suited them.

With a fruit farm in the country frequently visited, and a fruit garden in town, my opportunities for observing the times and doings of insect foes and friends are sufficiently ample to satisfy the desires of the most active and enthusiastic “bug-hunter” that ever carried a net. Norv a swarm of caterpillars disfigures the form and mars the beauty of a handsome tree, by consuming a considerable part of its foliage ; again, a host of aphides, by their constant sucking of the juices of the leaves, will cause them to shrivel, curl up, and often change colour, and the enormous rate at which these creatures increase adds much to the difficulty of their extermination ; or some unwelcome “little Turk” sits down uninvited to feast on our finest fruits, and, not satisfied with appeasing its own appetite, leaves its progeny behind to complete the work of destruction; or it may be some rascally borer insidiously undermines one's fondest hopes by girdling and thus destroying trees or shrubs whose growth has cost years of toil and watching

I inclose an ichnenmoned spider's cocoon, which I found on the mountain of Montreal early in May last. When I opened the cocoon, the larvæ had a bluish colour and were quite active. It produced about forty specimens of the fly, which I send you, as I have no means at hand of determining the species. There is, however, a very nice investigation in regard to the economy and modus operandi of this little ichneumon. That is, how does it reach the spider's eggs ? I cannot detect an ovipositor, and the body of the creature itself is only about a sixteenth of an inch long.

It is easy to distinguish the species of the genus Drepanodes from the other Phalænidæ, by their falcate or acutely produced primaries and their strong casual resemblance, both in size and ornamentation, to the Platypteryginæ (Drepana, Platypterix, Dryopteris), a subfamily of Bombycidæ This resemblance, while it has suggested to M. Guenée the generic name, is paralleled in the sub-order in different instances; but is here noteworthy as illustrating the synthetic relation which the great family Bombycidæ sustains to the other moths, The nearer affinities of Drepanodes in its family are with Chærodes.