In a foot note to his paper on “The Butterflies of Laggan” (Can Ent., XXII., 129), Mr. Bean says: “I hope none of my younger readers entertain the absurd mediæval superstition that hibernating caterpillars pass the winter in a frozen condition. In succesful hibernation they do not get near to such a condition; but if they do absolutely freeze, then are they undone caterpillars.

Pyrameis cardui, Linn.

The life history of this well known species has not been written, to judge from the references given by the late Mr. Henry Edwards in his useful catalogue, so I present it here:-

Egg.—Cylindric-conical, the base flat with the usual vertical ribs: colour pale yellow; diameter .6 mm. Laid singly.

In the Canadian Entomologist for May, 1886, I gave descriptions of the only two species of Leptochilus at that time known to inhabit North America. I am not aware that any additional species have been described since the appearane of that paper. My collection contains representatives of three as yet undescribed species which will be found duly characterized below.

There was brought to me by Mr. T. H, Hill, of this city, one of our young collectors, a dragon fly captured at Delaware, a village a few miles west of here. It was one I had not seen before. On referring to Glover's Plates I found it there, figured and named. It is Hetœrina Americana, Fab., the Lestes basalis of Say, in the family Agrionidæ; a beautiful creature. Its most noticeable characteristics are the bright sangineous colour on the base of the wings, the clear copper colour of the thorax, and the brilliant gem-like ornamentation of the head.

Gall at the base of the stem of Nabalus altissimus, usually in masses surronding stem, often extending down on main root, rarely on main fibres of root, usually about an inch under the ground, sometimes partly above the ground. Galls roughly spherical, 5 mm.—10 mm in diameter each containing 1–10 cells, usually aggregated in irregular cylindrical masses of 2–14, resembling small knobby artichokes or irregular small white potatoes.

The editor informs me that he wishes to publish in this year's volume of the Canadian Entomologist several short articles for the benefit of beginners and many others, who, although they do not aspire to being considered entomologists, yet would like to know something about our common insects, and the best way to preserve such interesting specimens as may chance to come in their way, until they may have on opportunity of mounting them for their own collections or giving them to interested friends. I have been asked to send some notes on the above subject.

In Goldthwaite's Geogl. Mag., Vol. 2 p. 738 (Nov., 1891), is a paper on “Butterflies that Bathe”, giving observations of M. G. Lyell, Jr., in Australia, on certain butterflies, species not stated, that “ backed into the water unitl the whole of the body and the lower part of the hind legs were under water, the two forelegs only retaining their hold on dry land.

On the Report of the Entomologial Club, as given in the Canadian Entomologist for November pp. 246–247, I would make the following remarks:-

Mr. Smith's statement that there are two distinct series in the Sphingidœ, as also that the Smerinthinœ have their probable orgin in Ceratocampid forms of the Bombycidœ are both original with myself. The series Hemaris, Choerocampa and Smerithus belong together. So far as I know, I am the first to show, from imaginal and larval characters, that Choerocampa and Smerinthus are allied, and I am the first to describe an ocellated Choerocampid from Brazil.

About the first of July I was informed by Mr. W. E. Saunders that shortly before, when out on one of his Ornithological and Botanical excunsions, he had seen Melitœa phaelon, in a cedar swamp, two miles from Komoka station, which is ten miles west of London, on the Grand Trunk line. I took the first favourable opportunity of getting a sign of that insect alive, which occurred on the ninth. I found the swamp, and soon saw the butterflies disporting themselves in the sunny spots, seemingly quite plentiful. They would not have been difficult to secure had the footing been solid, but a previous heavy rain had set that afloat. I took five, and saw quite as many more during the short stay I made in the woods.

While I recognize the fact that each one of us has a right to make lists of insects to suit himself, and others are not obliged to follow them, errors of identity are not a matter of opinion, and are therefore subject to criticsm. With this view wish I to point out a few errors in the genus Catocala in Prof. John B. Smith's new “List of Lepidoptera.” First, var. Virens, French, is not a variety of Cordelia, Hy. Edw., but of Amasia; and Cordelia is not the one figured by Dr. Strecker, pl. 9, p.12.

In July, 1891, Mr. I. I. Bowrey gave me a sphingid larva, about to pupate, which I described as follows:-

Larva.— Chœerocampa like, ground colour pale ochreous, sides immaculate. Dorsal region (sharply defined from sides) dark, from a close, fine black marbling or mottling, which tends to run in anteroposterior lines. A band-like process of this marbling enters the side area on each segment, obliquely projecting towards, but hardly reaching the spiracle.