114 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 
having found as many as twenty-one larve in a single 
pod. Just about the time the pods are hardening and 
ready to dehisce and the seeds have already colored, the 
full-grown larva bores its way out of the pod, makes its way 
to the ground —in all probability by the aid of a silken 
thread — and there bores several inches below the surface 
and forms a tough silken cocoon intermixed with the soil. It 
makes its burrow to the extreme epidermis of the pod some- 
time before it leaves, and if there should happen to bea long 
spell of wet weather at this time, the burrow is very apt to 
become saturated with moisture and the larva to perish 
from mould. I have never seen one issuing during the 
day, or in the early part of the night, so that it probably 
leaves the pod late at night. It remains as a larva within 
its cocoon during the fall, winter and spring months and 
only transforms to the chrysalis state a few days before 
the blooming of the Yuccas. The chrysalis, ( Pl. 34, Fig 4) 
as shown in the figure, is armed with an acute spine on the 
head and with singular spatulate spines on the back, which 
are well fitted to enable it to work its way to the surface 
from its underground retreat. 
It thus works its way partly out of the ground and as 
this is generally under the shelter of the mass of Yucca 
leaves (in the case of our filamentose species) the issuing 
is rarely seen, except by the most careful watching. The 
newly-escaped moth, with wings crumpled and moist, runs 
up one of the leaves and hangs thus sheltered, while her 
wings expand, following the invariable rule of all the mem- 
bers of her Order, and throwing them first back together 
to facilitate inflation (Plate 34, fig. 2) and only closing them 
and folding them along the body after they have become 
sufficiently firm. 
EFFECT OF PUNCTURE ON THE FRUIT. 
The effect of the puncture of the female moth in ovi- 
position is at once noticeable on the young fruit by a darker 
green discoloration externally. In time this becomes a 
