In conclusion, reference must be made to the various excursions made by parties varying in number, which were all much enjoyed by those enabled to participate. The first one was a general field day of the Section, held in the Dundas ravine on May 24th, 1888, in which a large number of members and friends joined; succeeding this were a number of smaller ones, but mention must be particularly made of the Association field day held at Mr. Wm. Gibson's Quarries, Beamsville, on June 30th, 1888, in which many members of the Section participated. Amongst the smaller parties may be mentioned an excursion by four of the members on September 25th, 1888, along the creek leading from the Sulphur Springs, near Ancaster, and another made by six of the members on April 19th, 1889, when Mount Albion was visited, and the ravine leading from the Mills explored. This latter excursion may be considered the opening of the work for 1889, and it is to be hoped is only the forerunner of many others as enjoyable and profitable as those held during the summer of 1888, the results of which have already been pointed out. Much still remains to be done in the Hamilton district, and the officers and members of the Biological Section hope that the members of the Association will give their hearty support to them in their undertaking. ENTOMOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT. REPORT ON LEPIDOPTERA BY J. ALSTON MOFFAT. The season of 1888 was not altogether a favorable one for the Lepidopterist in this locality, its prevailing characteristics being coolness and dryness, yet I secured 25 moths new to me. During the winter months I obtained from various sources, 16 names that prove to be new to the Canadian list. Some of them belong to insects of former years' captures, whilst several very attractive moths secured last season, are yet undeter. mined, indicating how much has yet to be done before we have obtained a full knowledge of the lepidopterous fauna of our district. The following are the new names referred to; The first in this list, Nonagria fodians, is one of those insects of peculiar habits, which frequent marshy places, and whose larvæ feed inside of water plants. Some interesting information has been brought out in correspondence recently, about a closely allied spccies-Arzama obliquatawhich may in great measure apply to this one also. The following is a summary :-The food plant is Typha, Cattail Flag, which grows in such abundance in our marshes. The female deposits her eggs about the middle of the stalk, and when hatched the young caterpillars at once eat their way into it, feeding downwards, growing as they feed, until, reaching maturity at the end of the season, they have arrived near the bottom of the stalk, where some of them prepare for passing the winter; they enlarge their burrow, lining the bottom with fine cuttings, hibernate in the caterpillar state, change to chrysalids in the spring, and to moths soon after. Some have been taken from the stalk in the fall, under the level of the water, and in winter, when the ice had to be cut to secure them. Others of them prefer passing the winter on dry ground, and will leave the stalk on which they have fed and swim ashore, if it is necessary to do so, seek out for themselves a hibernacula behind the bark of a decaying stump, under sticks and stones, or some such place, where they make a smoothly rounded cavity in which to pass the winter and undergo their transformations in the spring. Thus, bit by bit, we are learning the interesting and wonderful processes in the life histories of those creatures around us, of whose very existence the vast majority of mankind have no knowledge, but, "they are sought out by all those who take pleasure in them." |