Anyone finding the strange-looking insect shown at fig.1 will at once recognize it as the Northern Mole cricket. It is apparently an uncommon insect in Canada, and it is partly to ascertain from the readers of the Canadian Entomologist whether or not this is the case that I am writing these notes upon a specimen which I have had in confinement for some months. I have been trying for years to get living speciments, but only succeeded last autumn when I had a fine female sent to me by Mr. W. W. Hilborn, who had caught it in his garden at Leamington, in Essex County, Ont.

Xiphidium Scudderi, nov. sp.

Female.—Front and sides of head and body dark reddish-brown; vertex, disk of pronotum and tegmina greenish-brown in life,(dull yellow after immersion in alcohol). A dark reddish-brown stripe extends from the front extremity of the fastigium to the posterior border of pronotum, and contrasts strongly with the general colour of vertex and disk of pronotum. Femora greenish-brown punctate with many dark brown impressions on their upper surface; the tibiæ darker. Antennæ with the basal third reddish, the remainder fuscous.

Since my first paper on “Indiana Acrididæ,” which was published in the Entomologist for April and May, 1891, was prepared, six additional species have been taken in Vigog County. Of these, one is new to science; a second has been known in the United States only from Florida and Nort Carolina; of a third, but one specimen, a female, has hitherto been recorded, and from it Dr. Thomas described the species; while a fourth has not before been taken west of New Jersey.

In a paper entitled “A Day in the Woods,” I brought under the notice of the Entomological Society of Ontario, at its annual meeting held in London, on the 27th of August, 1890, the galls formed by G. gallœdiplopappi, and gave an account of the chrysalis and perfect insect. I also alluded to two kinds of parasites preying upon the species. The description of the moth was reproduced in the December number of the Canadian Entomologistof that year (Vol.XXII., p. 248).

This leaf-hopper is considered a clover pest, but is also known to feed on beets, rutabagas, cabbages and blue grass. It is active even in midwinter on sunshiny days. The eggs are thrust beneath the epidermis of the food-plant, and the first brood of larvæ appears from the middle of May until July 1st. The earliest individuals of the brood are nearly mature by the first of July and are supposed to begin egg-laying a little later. Larvæ can be found in all stages of growth from this time until the advent of winter, but most of the individuals are believed to be included in two broods.

The preliminary List of the Orthoptera of Iowa, published by Prof. C. E. Bessey in the Seventh Biennial Report of the Iowa Agricultural College, is revised, a number of species being added and a number of names taken from incorrectly determined specimens rectified.

The Box Elder Leafroller, Cacoecia semiferana, was very abundant in many places in Colorado last summer, and in July the moths were swarming in the trees in the evening, presumably to deposit their eggs. The eggs were found beneath a gluey mass, somewhat similar to that used by the tent caterpillar in protecting her eggs, but it was largely covered with what appeared to be scales from the moth, placed like the shingles on a roof.

Philydrus, Can, Ent., XVI., 186.—The paragraph commencing with “Philhydrus” should be corrected as follows:- Philydrus perplexus, Lec., and P. Hamiltoni, Horn, are found [on Brigantine Beach] in the fresh water pools which form at the base of the sand-hills, with Hydrophilus glaber and Copelatus glyphicus; while Philydrus reflexipennis occurs in the salt marshes under pieces of wood and recent tide-drift, seeming to inhabit salt of very brackish water, as it has not been taken in fresh water with the species mentioned.

The Lepidopterous family to which these notes pertain is a homogeneous and distinct one, clearly and sufficiently separated from other families. The larvæ, so far as known, are borers in roots, stems, branches, or excrescences of trees, shrubs or annuals, yet all strictly retain the structure and appearance of the young of their order. Most of them pass the winter buried in the food plant.