Having read in the Report of the Entomological Society of Ontario for 1877 an article by Prof. J. T. Bell, of London, Ont., entitled “How to Destroy Cabinet Pests,” I thought it might not be unprofitable to record my own observations on Dermestes.

Early in the summer of 1876 I captured four beetles, three males and one female, and placed them in a glass jar with a piece of the meat on which I found them feeding. I observed the female deposit a number of eggs on the meat, but before any were hatched I left home, and was absent about five weeks. On my return I found a large and flourishing colony of larvæ, most of them full grown.

It has not been supposed that animal life would be attracted by sugar, but while sugaring for Lepidoptera the contrary has been proven. On a number of occasions we have taken deer mice while in the act of feeding on sugar, and more recently we have taken a flying squirrel while lapping the sweet on a sugared patch.

Not long since, in making our rounds while sugaring, we discovered a skunk endeavoring to taste the sugaring, and so intent was he that our approach was unobserved uutil a piece of dead wood was hurled at him, when he reluctantly left.

In the early part of June, 1876, while plowing through a patch of Asclepias cornuti (the plant upon which beetles of the above genus are found), I observed numerous cerambycidian larvæ in the bottom of the furrow, stirring about in the soil. Two of the larvæ were put in a glass jar with a growing milk-weed plant. Although they were put in the soil near the roots, they soon came to the surface and wriggled about for a week, and then pupated, and finally came out perfect specimens of T. tetrophthalmus.

Among the North American species known to me in nature, there is not one identical with, or even similar to any European ; and the opinions of prominent Transatlantic colleagues, as to whether identical species occur in the two countries (Scel. centaureæ excepted, which is common to the Arctic regions of both continents) are very far divergent. Edwards on the authority of Boisduval cites in his Catalogue, Sylvanus and Tages, and besides, also, comma as American; while he places Pamph.Juba, Manitoba, Colorado, Nevada and sylvanoides (which are regarded as good species by Scudder) as varieties of comma.

The caterpillar of this beautiful butterfly is living here on Xanthoxylum carolinianum, or Prickly Ash; at least, till now I did not find it on any other plants. It can be found three times in a year, first in April and May, then in July, and again in September and October. If the caterpillars be touched, they stretch forth the reddish–brown fleshy fork from the neck, like all those of the genus Papilio. When they do not eat they are sitting rigid regularly on the surface of the leaves. It is most interesting that in this situation their appearance resembles very much the excrements of birds, on account of their color, consisting of white, gray and brown spots. This resemblance is considerably increased in the earlier stage of the larvae, which are particularly found on open places, and are thus very easily seen.

The interesting paper by Mr. J. A. Lintner, Entom. Contributions, No. iv., induces me to give some extracts from the papers by Prof. von Siebold, which the author could not compare himself, the more as they answer some important questions.

“I examined with much interest, in the Museum in Breslau, Prussia, the specimens of hair worms communicated by different persons. Those worms were found living in the heart of the apple some years ago, very frequently in Silesia (by F. S. Leuckart, Zoolog. Bruchstuecke, Heft I., 1820, p. 5). Four of them belong to Mermis acuminata, and others also to Mermis; also a specimen in Prof. Otto's collection. The Filaria found in an apple by Prof. Waga will probably also be a Mermis (Revue Zool.,1844, P. 366).”

Phigalia cinctaria, n. sp.

Wingless female.—Length .75 of an inch; exserted oviduct, .25 more. Color light gray with a very slight olive tint, and irregularly mottled all over with black; the spots large above, but smaller on the sides and beneath; the thorax nearly uniform black; the divisions between the segmentspea green while alive, but turning darker in drying. Head grayish b1ack, the clypeus black; antennae black, annulated with gray, reaching to about the middle of the body, when turned back. Hind wings reaching to the back part of the first abdominal segment, the forewings reaching to the middle of the same segment. Feet and legs grayish black, annulated with gray. The oviduct with two joints exserted, the last third of the outer joint hairy, the hairs perpendicular to the joint. Head short, scarcely to be seen from above, rather wide between the eyes; palpi short. From a single ♀.

In the years 1856 and 1857 Capt. Thos. Hutton communicated to the London Entomological Society (Trans. v., 85) and to the Journal of the Agri-horticultural Society of India (ix., 167-9) certain observations on the means employed by the imago of Actias selene in obtaining exit from its cocoon. In 1857 Messrs Horsfield and Moore in their catalogue of the Lepidoptera in the Indian Museum, quote and endorse Capt. Hutton's observations, and in the course of their remarks indicate indirectly that the same methods are employed by Antherea paphia, an Indian Attacian allied to our T. polyphemus.