Having continued my investigations on Orange Insects, I have made many other discoveries. Among these probably the most interesting is the breeding of two species of Chalcids from the larvæ of Syrphus flies.

Now, as a general rule, the Chalcididæ must be considered beneficial, the majority of them preying upon other insects injurious to the agriculturist, the species belonging to the Eurytomide genus Isosoma, being, I believe, the only vegetable feeders known among them.

Among our native forest trees, none, unless it is the oak, suffer more from the depredations of insect enemies than the pine. Distributed as it is—from the Arctic to the Tropics—climatologically speaking, it becomes a prey to every conceivable form of insect life.

I send you a few specimens of an insect which I have found parasitic on the larvæ of P. cardui. For several successive summers I have reared a number of these caterpillars, with which our thistles in most seasons abound. I observed variations in size and color of the larvæ found feeding on the same plant, which led me to suppose that they might not belong to the same species.

Mr. W. H. Edwards' Limenitis Eros published in the Dec. (1880) No. of Can. Ent., p. 246–251, is the same insect described by myself two years since in the Synonymical Catalogue, p. 143, as follows : Limenitis Misippus “var. a. Floridensis, nob.—The form found in Florida and other parts of the extreme south. Whilst our more northern form is of the same color as Danais Plexippus, this southern variety exactly mimics in its dark coloration Danais Berenice, with which it associates.”

The species of this genus have hairy eyes, unarmed tibiæ and a tufted thorax. The dorsum of the abdomen is more or less tufted, but in some species the tuftings are not noticeable. Several species which seem to me to belong to Graphiphora (Taeniocanpa) have been referred to this genus ; among these I may mention orobia of Harvey, modesta, incincta and thecata of Morrison, and the species described by me as rufula and puerilis.

Male : Expands .95 to 1 inch.

Upper side pale ochre-yellow, immaculate ; fringes concolored.

Under side of primaries nearly same ochre-yellow over basal area and part of isk, limited without by a slightly sinuous and crenated edse of deeper color, much as in the allied species; outside this, stightly ochraceous next inner angle, but yellow-buff over apical area.

Oria sanguinea, 9, fig. 613–614.

“Georgia.” This species has been generally recognized. Oria is used for maculosa in the Verzeichniss, from which sanguinea is distinct structurally. I have referred the latter as the type of Porrima in the Chheck List, No. 664. The doubtful reference there to Fitch's volupia must be struck out.

Graphiphora agrotiformis, n. s.

♀. This form reminds one of Agrotis collaris or versipellis. Eyes hairy; tibiæ unarmed ; tuftings obsolete. Fore wings blackish brown to the continuous, black, upright, uneven subterminal line ; beyond with the fringes brownish. Median lines geminate, faint. Orbicular round, paler than the wing ; reniform moderate, outwardly excavate, upright, pale-ringed with dark centre ; the cell between the spots black-shaded; the stigmata are comparatively small.

During the past season I have had an opportunity of raising the larvæ of these two interesting species of insects, and as I do not know of any easily accessible description of either in the larval state, I give below the descriptions from my note book for the benefit of the readers of the Entomologist.

Cynips tenuicornis, n. sp.

Galls : Densely hairy hemispherical masses attached by a single small point to the upper or under surface of the leaves of an unknown species of oak found in Arizona. They are from one-half to three-fourths of an inch in diameter. One specimen in my collection is nearly globular, but all the others are hemispherical, the flat side lying close upon the surface of the leaf.

In 1860 Dr. Clemens described this pretty moth in the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, and since then it has been written on by Mr. P. Gennadius in the American Naturalist for January, 1874, and in the same year by C. V. Riley, in his 6th Missouri Report. It is well figured in the accompanying cut figure 6 (after Riley), in all its stages; a shows the larva, b the cocoons exposed by removal of the bark, c the moth, and d the chrysalis.

For several years I have had in my collection, among other undetermined specimens of Bombycidæ, a species of Packardia which did not seem to agree with any of the published descriptions that were accessible to me. Mr. Grote, to whom I lately submitted the specimen, kindly informs me that it is as yet undescribed.

The early months of 1880 were especially favorable to the acquisition of the hybernating Coleoptera, and those which have their permanent habitat among the moss of our woods and swamps. The early disappearance of the snow laid bare their hiding places, while the frosts which succeeded formed an ice-bridge which gave access to their places of refuge, which in ordinary seasons remain covered with snow tiil the general break-up of the winter, when they are rendered inacessible by being surrounded or covered with water.

Agrotis nanalis, n. s.

♀. The smallest species known to me. All the tibiæ spinose ; eyes naked; body untufted. A slender species which may be compared with opaca. The fore wings are blackish with the lines lost. The stigmata are concolorous, difficult to make out. The orbicular is elongate, the reniform vague, upright, broad; the spots are picked out by a brown shading which fills the cell and marks the subcostal and median veins.

In previous numbers of the Can. Ent. (vols. ix, p. 232, and viii, p. 137) I have given an account of a singular larva found in thorns of Gleditschia triacanthos or Honey Locust. I have never succeeded in rearing the imago from the larvæ found in the thorns, but the same larva—or one that I have not been able to distinguish from it—lives also in the pith of the “iron weed” ( Veronia ) and also in that of the “hog weed ” or “horse weed,” Ambrosia trifida ; and in the pith of these stems is also found a Lepidopterous larva which I have not been able to rear to the imago state, but which does not seem to differ from that of Laverna gleditschæella found in the thorns.

The Rev. Mr. Hulst, who has arbitrarily drawn together distinct species of Catocala, as C. crataegi and C. polygama, forgetting that the larva of the former is described.