around for a few moments, now fluttering, and anon gliding on motionless wing, settles down again in some sheltered spot where it sits opening and closing its wings, enjoying the balmy air and bright sunshine that once again awakens nature from her death-like sleep, to renewed life and activity. This is the wellknown Antiopa butterfly, the " Camberwell Beauty" of the English entomologists. Antiopa passes the winter in any convenient shelter that it can find. Dr. Harris tells us that he has found it sticking to the rafters of a barn, and in the crevices of walls and stone heaps, huddling together in great numbers. It also hibernates on the ground, clinging to the under surface of stones in dry situations. The female deposits her eggs in a cluster around a twig of elm, willow or poplar; and until nearly full grown, the caterpillars keep together. The mature larva is black, thickly dotted with white giving it a grayish appearance. On top of the back is a row of eight brick-red spots, and the body is armed with a number of strong branching spines. The first brood of caterpillars appears in June, the second in August, and the butterflies from the last brood hibernate. The butterfly is dark maroon brown on the upper side of the wings, with a broad border of yellow, thickly dotted with brown; on the inner side of this border there is a band of black, in which is set a row of blue spots; the front edge of the wings is marked with fine yellow lines and two spots of the same colour. A variety is occasionally met with, in which the yellow border is unusually broad, and the dark band with the blue spots is wanting.

If numerous enough to be troublesome, these caterpillars may be killed by shaking them off the branch on which they are congregated, and crushing them. This should be done while they are small, as when nearly full grown, they scatter over the trees and wander about in search of a suitable place in which to undergo their transformations.

10. THE INTERROGATION BUTTERFLY, Grapta interrogationis, Fah, Order Lepidoptera, Family Nymphalidæ.-This is a dimorphic species, the hibernating form being known as Fabricii, the other as Umbrosa. Fig. 45 represents G. progne, a closely allied species.

Farther to the south there are about four broods in a season, but with us only two, and while the last brood gives the pale form which hibernates, the other broods are more or less mixed, Fabricii has the upper surface fulvous, spotted with black and clouded with warm brown; on the hind wings the brown predominates, the lighter colour being restricted to a patch on the upper angle, and a row of spots a little inside the outer edge; the edges of all the wings are light purplish blue. The front margin of the fore wings is convex, the tip cut squarely off, the outer margin concave. Hind wings tailed. Under surface marbled and clouded with various shades of brown and purple, and with an interrupted C. in the middle. Umbrosa has the upper surface of the hind wings almost entirely black, the submarginal row of spots being absent, the fore wings are not so falcate, and the tail on the hind wings is shorter.

Fig. 45.

"The young larvæ are whitish yellow, somewhat marked with brown, head black. After the first moult their colour is black, more or less specked with white, and they begin to be clothed with short spines, all black except those on the eighth and tenth segments which are whitish. After the second moult they begin to assume the type they retain to maturity. The spines are in seven rows, fleshy at base, slender and many-branching at extremity; the dorsal and first

lateral on joint 3 are black, on joints 2, 4, and 11 russet, the rest yellow; the second laterals black throughout, the lowest row greenish, head bilobed, black, with short black spines on vertices. After the third moult the larvæ vary greatly both in colour of body and spines. Some are black, finely specked with yellowish; others are yellow-brown, specked with yellow tubercles; others gray-brown with indistinct reddish lines between the spines on the dorsal and two lateral rows, and much tuberculated; others are black with fulvous stripes and profusely covered with yellowish tuberculated spots and points. The spines vary from black to fulvous and green and yellow. (French). Feeds on elm, basswood, hop, nettle and false nettle.

Grapta comma, Harris, closely resembles the preceding species but is smaller, and the wings are not so decidedly falcate, Food plants the same.

11. THE SPRING CANKER WORM, Anisopteryx vernata, Peck, Order Lepidoptera, Family Phalanidæ.-Late in autumn when the leaves have fallen and the insect tribes have almost entirely disappeared, this fragile looking moth, Fig. 46,

Fig. 46.

may be seen flying slowly through the deserted woods. "The fore wings of the male are ash-coloured and semitransparent, with a broken whitish band crossing the wings near the outer margin, and three interrupted brownish lines between that and the base. There is an oblique black dash near the tip of the fore wings and a nearly continuous black line before the fringe. The hind wings are plain, pale ash-coloured, or very light gray, with a dusky dot about the middle of each." (Saunders.) A second species, A pometaria, Fig. 47, very closely resembles vernata, but the wings are less transparent and are a little darker in colour, and the hind wings are generally crossed by a white band. The females of both species are wingless. The eggs are deposited in masses, generally in crevices in the bark. The larvæ vary in colour from greenish yellow to gray and dark brown. When fully grown they leave the trees by creeping down or else lower themselves by means of a silken thread and enter the ground to change to chrysalis. The moths generally emerge late in the fall, but some individuals do not appear until spring. To prevent the females creeping up the trees, strips of canvass or stiff paper, covered with tar or printers' ink, should be applied to the tree, renewing the covering from time to time to keep it soft and sticky, and as the moths may deposit their eggs below the band care must be taken to leave no crevices through which the young caterpillars might pass.

d b

Fig. 47.

Canker worms are widely distributed, occurring in Canada as far east as Montreal at least. They feed on many kinds of leaves, and where precautionary measures are not adopted often prove exceedingly injurious.

12. THE NOVEMBER MOTH, Epirrita dilutata, Hubn, Order Lepidoptera, family Phalanidæ.-This moth, like the Canker worm, flies late in autumn and would be easily mistaken for that insect. The body and wings are pale ash gray, the fore wings with eight wavy black lines and double row of black dots next the margin. Fringe whitish. Fringe whitish. Hind wings with four faint wavy lines. Wings expand about an inch and a quarter. Although generally not common in this neighbourhood, it is occasionally quite abundant.

The following insects are also known to feed on the elm :

Coleoptera.-Galeruca calmariensis, Linn; Chrysomela scalaris, Leconte; Monocesta caryli, Say; Graptodera chalybea, Ill; Cotalpa lanigera, Linn; Magdalis armicollis. Say.

Hymenoptera.-Tremex columba, Linn; Cimbex Americana, Leach.

Hemiptera.-Colopha ulmicola, Fitch; Eriosoma Rileyi, Thomas; Schizoneura Americana, Riley; Callipterus ulmicola, Thomas.

Lepidoptera.-Papilio turnus, Linn; Ceratomia quadricornis, Harris; Hyphantria textor, Harris; Telea polyphemus, Hubn; Hyperchiria io, Fab; Halisidota caryæ, Harris; Orgyia nova, Fitch; Orgyia leucostigma, Abb and Smith; Datana ministra, Drury; Tolype velleda, Stoll; Edema albifrons, Walk; Clisiocampa Americana, Harris; Clisiocampa sylvatica, Harris; Apatela vinnula, Grote; Apatela occidentalis, Grote; Apatela morula, Guen; Apatela ulmi, Harris; Paraphia unipunctaria, Haw; Metanema quercivorana, Guen; Hibernia tiliaria, Harris; Sicya mucularia, Guen; Metrocampa perlaria, Guen; Eugonia subsignaria, Hubn; Nephopteryx undulatella, Clem; Nephopteryx? ulmi-arrosorella, Clem; Bactra? argutana, Clem: Lithocolletis argentinotella, Clem; Lithocolletis ulmella, Clem; Argyresthia austerella, Zeller.

Mr. A. F. Winn informs me that Pyrameis atalanta, Linn, feeds readily on elm in confinement and that he has seen Grapta j-album ovipositing on it.

THE ENTOMOLOGY OF SHAKESPEARE.

BY THE REV. THOMAS W. FYLES, SOUTH QUEBEC.

Some time ago, in a list of books upon Shakespeare and his works, I noticed that there was one upon the Entomology of Shakespeare. The book was beyond my reach. It occurred to me that it would be an interesting study to examine for myself and find out what particulars the great moralist and prince of poets had gathered concerning insects from the folk-lore of his day and his own obsertion, and to what account in his plays he had turned the knowledge he had gained. Accordingly, as leisure was afforded me, I read over the plays carefully and noted down the allusions to insects that I discovered. I found that the plays contained at least 168 references to insects, viz. :-To honey-bees, 18; humble-bees, 5; wasps, 8; ants, 3; stinging-insect undesignated, 1; butterflies, 6; moths and their larvæ, 24; beetles and their larvæ, 11; gnats, 10; fleas, 6; brize-flies, 2; bots, 1; blow-flies, 16; flies, 22; sheep-tick, 1; louse, 8; cricket, 4; locust, 1; grasshopper, 1; spiders, 17; scorpions, 3. Grouped according to orders these would give: Hymenoptera, 35; Lepidoptera, 30; Diptera, 58; Coleoptera, 11; Hemiptera, 7; Orthoptera, 6; Arachnida, 20. The references which I discovered are thus distributed: The highest numbers are in Troilus and Cressida, 11 notices referring to 9 species; Romeo and Juliet, 11 notices referring to 8 species; and 2nd Part of K. Henry VI., 10 notices referring to 6 species. Midsummer Night's Dream, K. Henry V., Cymbeline, and King Lear have 8 notices each; 1st Part of K. Henry IV. and Hamlet have 7 each; The Tempest, 2nd Part of K. Henry IV., Coriolanus, Antony and Cleopatra, Titus Andronicus and Othello have each 6 notices; The Winter's Tale has 5; The Merchant of Venice, Taming of the Shrew; 3rd Part of K. Henry VI., and Pericles Prince of Tyre have 4 each; The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Love's Labour's Lost, King John and 1st Part of K. Henry VI. have 3 each; Merry Wives of Windsor, Comedy of Errors, Macbeth, King Richard II. and Julius Cæsar have 2 each; Measure for Measure, As you like it, All's well that ends well, King Richard III., King Henry VIII. and Timon of Athens have each a solitary reference; and in Much ado about nothing I could find none. The number of species mentioned is over 30. We will take them according to orders.

HYMENOPTERA.-Shakespeare's ideas of the honey-bee seem to have been somewhat confused. He was misled probably by the old-world learning newly revived in his day; and, in his allusions to the "magnanimous leaders, the manners and employments, the tribes and battles of the race," he seems to have followed in the footsteps of Virgil (Georgics, Book IV.), or of writers who were acquainted with Virgil. His Archbishop of Canterbury in King Henry V. speaks of the head of the hive as a "King." The passage in which this occurs is very fine; and I am tempted to give it in its entirety.

-So work the honey-bees;

Creatures, that, by a rule in nature, teach
The act of order to a peopled kingdom.
They have a king, and officers of sorts:

Where some, like magistrates, correct at home:
Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad;

Others, like soldiers, armed in their stings
Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds;

Which pillage they with merry march bring home
To the tent-royal of their emperor :

Who, busied in his majesty, surveys

The singing masons building roofs of gold;
The civil citizens kneading up the honey;
The poor mechanic porters crowding in
Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate;
The sad ey'd justice, with his surly hum,
Delivering o'er to executor's pale

The lazy yawning drone.

Act I. sc. 1.

It would seem too that the strange story told by Virgil-how Aristaus, son of Cyrene, sacrificed cattle and left the carcases exposed till," wondrous to relate, bees through all the belly hum amidst the putrid bowels of the cattle, pour forth with fermenting juices from the burst sides, and in immense clouds roll along, then swarm together on a top of a tree and hang down from the bending boughs (Georgics, Bk. IV.)—had left an impression upon his mind, for he puts in the mouth of King Henry IV., who is lamenting the behaviour of Prince Henry of Monmouth, the words:

'Tis seldom when the bee doth leave the comb

In the dead carrion.

Act IV., sc. 4.

His observations of the bees however were, in many points, correct. He noticed that they "gather'd honey from the weed" (Henry V., Act IV., sc. 1); that they took "toll from every flower" (2nd Part K. Henry IV., Act IV., sc. 4); that "drones" rob the hives (Pericles, Prince of Tyre, Act II., sc. 1; Merchant of Venice, Act II., sc. 5; 2nd Part K. Henry VI., Act IV., sc. 1); that the wasps steal the honey and kills the bees (Two Gent. of Verona, Act I., sc. 2, and Titus Andronicus, Act II., sc. 3); that the swarm deprived of its leader becomes vindictive:

The commons like an angry hive of bees
That want their leader, scatter up and down
And care not who they sting in his revenge.

2nd Part K. Henry VI., Act III., sc. 2.

With the methods pursued by the bee-masters of his day he was acquainted. Bolingbroke says:

-like the bee tolling from every flower the virtuous sweets,

Our thighs pack'd with wax, our mouths with honey

We bring it to the hive; and like the bees

Are murder'd for our pains.

2nd Part K. Henry IV., Act IV., sc. 4.

And Talbot in 1st Part of K. Henry VI., Act I., sc. 5:

So bees with smoke and doves with noisome stench

Are from their hives and houses driven away.

The "Red-hipped humble-bee" of Shakespeare is Bombus lapidarius. Tis

species makes its nest very commonly under stone-piles by the road-side. It is a handsome and courageous insect; and Nick Bottom the Weaver gave the fairy Cobweb no light task when he bade him:

Monsieur Cobweb: good monsieur, get your weapons in your hand; and kill me a red-hipped humble-bee on the top of a thistle; and good monsieur, bring me the honey-bag.

Midsummer Night's Dream, Act IV., sc. 1.

It is to be hoped that Oberon interposed in behalf of the bee, for

Full merrily the humble-bee doth sing
Till he hath lost his honey and his sting;
And being once subdued in armed tail
Sweet honey and sweet notes together fail.
Ibid, Act V., sc. 2.

Other passages in which bees are mentioned are The Tempest, Act I., sc. 2, and Act V., sc. 1; Midsummer Night's Dream, Act III., sc. 1, Love's labour's lost, Act III., sc. 1; All's well that ends well, Act IV., sc. 5; Comedy of Errors, Act II., sc. 1; 2nd Part K. Henry VI., Act IV., sc. 2; Troilus and Cressida, Act I., SC. 3, Act II., sc. 2, and Act V., sc. 2; Cymbeline, Act III., sc. 2; and Titus Andronicus, Act IV., sc. 1.

Shakespeare's allusions to the Wasp (Vespa vulgaris) convey the ideas of: (1) Petulance-Tempest, Act V., sc. 1:

Mar's hot minion is returned again

Her waspish-headed son has broke his arrows.

See also Winter's Tale, Act I., sc. 2; 1st Part K. Henry IV., Act I., sc. 3; and Julius Cæsar, Act IV., sc., 3.

(2) Injustice-Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act I., sc. 2:

O hateful hands to tear such loving words
Injurious wasps! to feed on such sweet honey,
And kill the bees that yield it, with your stings.

(3) Vengeance-Titus Andronicus, Act II., sc. 3:

When you have the honey you desire

Let not this wasp outlive, us both to sting.

In the 3rd Part of K. Henry VI., Act II., sc. 6, it is said of the defeated Lancastrians:

For though they cannot greatly sting to hurt,
Yet lcok to have them buz to offend thine ears.

The commonest species of English ants is Formica rufa. This probably is the species mentioned in 1st Part of K. Henry IV., Act I., sc. 3 by Hotspur:

Why, look you, I am whipp'd and scourg'd with rods,
Nettled and stung with pismires.

Among the "skimble-skamble stuff" that angered Hotspur was Glendower's talk of "the moldwarp and the ant" (Ib. Act III., sc. 1). The ant also is mentioned in King Lear, Act II., sc. 4.

LEPIDOPTERA.-To butterflies there are but few references in Shakespeare, but the few shew that the great dramatist had closely observed these beautiful objects. He knew of their metamorphoses, and says:

-There is a difference between a grub and a butterfly, yet your butterfly was but a grub.
Coriolanus, Act V., sc. 5.

In his choice of an adjective to describe their wings he could not have found a more appropriate word than he has in