167. Byrrhus Cyclophorus Kirby.–Length of body 3¼ lines.One specimen only taken.

Body underneath and limbs dull feriuginous, above black with some cinerous hairs intermixed. Antennae piceous: elytra with two deep black subinterrupted stripes, and inscribed in the middle with traces of a circle formed of pale, or cinercous hairs, common to both. The circle is probably more distinct in recent specimens. [Taken at Grimsby, Ont., by Mr. Pettit, and at Toronto by Mr. Couper; north shore of Lake Superior by Agassiz's Expedition.]

I write no less to elicit information, than to offer such as my limited material affords. In a very interesting and origional paper on Asymmetry, published by the Boston Soc. Nat. Hist. 1869-71, Messrs. Scudder and Burgess describe and figure the genital armor of all our species of Nisoniades, making seventeen species, of which nine are new. Their Virgilius I have not, and doubt its validity, my specimens of Horatiushaving a mixture of the characters of the two species; the specimens differ somewhat from each other in armor, and, what is puzzling, are very different in size, though wonderfully alike colouring, and very unlike all our northern species in one respect to be mentioned.

[This family, usually regarded as a subfamily of the Dytiscidæ,is restricted by Le Conte to the genera Haliplus and Cnemidotus; but Kirby, as will be observed, includes in it the genera Hydroporus and Laccophilus.

Attacus cecropia.–During the winter months, when the apple trees are leafless, the large cocoons of the Cecropia moth may be found here and there, firm1y bound to the twigs, and occasionally I have seen them on young trees attachcd to the stock near the ground. They are about and are entirely constructed of silk, the fibres of which are very much stronger than those of the common silk worm Bombyx mori. This silk has been worked to a limited extent and manufactured into socks and other articles, which have been found very durable; but a drawback to the advancement of this branch of industry lies in the fact that the caterpillars do not bear confinement well, and hence are not easily reared.

While inspecting, during the past summer, the fruit orchards of a friend residing in this neighbourhood, my attention was attracted by the peculiar appearance of the leaves of a young plum tree. At the first glance, I thought it might be affected by aphides, but, on closer examination, I found unmistakable evidence of the work of some leaf-cutting bee, in the circular holes in many of the leaves, and on opening one of the coils of leaves, of which there were four or five, I discovered the curiorts chambers of the bee, each containing a half-grown grub, comfortably ensconced, with its modicum of food.

Agrotis repressus, Gtote. Hind tibiae with two, middle tibiae with one pair of spurs; fore legs unarmed. Palpi prominent, porrect; 3rd joint elongated. Body somewhat flattened, much as in A. clandestina. Squamation lustrous, silky. Unicolorous pale testaceous or greyish brown. Fore wintgs and thorax concolorous the first are without markings, except a short dark dash on the cel1 in place of the orbicular, and two similar superposed marks at the extremity of the cell, in place of the reniform spot. Three pale ante-apical dots on costa. veins subobsoletely marked with darker scales.

Attentive readers of the entomological portion of the late Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture for the Province of Ontario, will have noted the fact already well known, to entomologists, that the female moth of this species is wingless, and lays her eggs on the outside of the cocoon from which she has escaped. Last fall the moths were unusually common, and their nests of eggs are now so abundantly distributed among our fruit trees that unless some effort is made to destroy them the larvæ will probably be exceedingly numerous and destructive during the approaching season.

Body very much depressed, thickly punctured with a hair issuing from each puncture; On the under-side black. . Head with a round impression between the eyes: prothorax pale-yellow with a subquadrangular sublobate black spot in the disk; Punctures of the prothorax very thick, those of the discoidal spot resembling scratches : elytra brown-b1ack, rather silky, with two longitudinal, undulated, obsolete ridges that do not reach the apex; their surface is covered with irregular elevations, and near the suture is a series of punctiform impressions; epipleura very wide with its horizontal portion resplendent with a lustre between bronze and gold, vertical part, or inner margin, yellow ; the suture of the elytla terminates in a minute point.

Genus Dichelonycha Harris.–Labrum transverse, lanceolate, scarcely emarginate. Mandibles short, trigonal, incurved, toothless, acute : molary space transverse, furrowed. Maxillæ minute, linear, bidentate, with short teeth. Labium subquadrangular, not distinct from the mentum. Palpi maxillary four-jointed ; first joint very minute ; second longer than the third, obconical; third trianguler; last joint as long as the three others together, very large, subsecuriforrn. Palpi labial three-jointed; joints short, subfiliform ; last truncated.

The approach of the season for the study of the habits of insects urges me to write a few hints for the guidance of young Canadian beginners. I find that many young persons collect insects more for the sake of recreation and pastime than for the value of the material to aid future investigation. Occasionally one may meet a tyro who can discriminate insect forms, and possess that peculiar acuteness so essential to the study of entomology ; but still he has sad defects, that is, clumsiness in the preparation of his specimens, and want of method. Now, this should be avoided, and the first determination of a young collector who wishes to be successful must be neatness in mounting his specimens, with a zealous regard for the preservation of his cabinet.

This spccies is extlemely similar to C. maxillosus, and its American representative. The following circumstances principally distinguish them. The anterior angles of the prothorax in C. maxillosus are thinly cloathed with shortish black hairs; in C. villosus, these hairs are cinereous, longer, mole numerous, and cover a larger portion of the angle; in the former, the band of the elytra is whiter and wider than in the latter; in the former also the back of the abdomen, especially the third and fourth segments, is mottled with cinereous hairs; in the latter the second and third have each a cinereous band interupted in the middle; again the four first ventral segments in C. maxillosus are thickly covered with decumbent cinereous hairs, with each a lateral black spot on both sides, while in C. villosus