1911] The Ottawa Naturalist. S3 



the same remark, viz., that they had never before seen such a 

 beautiful insect, and, of course, they all ask for its name and 

 something of its life-history. Many of the boxes in which we 

 have received these specimens contained, as well, pieces of sugar, 

 etc. for the moths to feed on. Correspondents are surprised 

 when told that they are unlike most other moths, in that they 

 cannot feed. 



Soon after the female moth emerges from the cocoon, she 

 deposits whitish eggs, which turn dark before hatching. These 

 are oval-cylindrical in shape and in size are about 2 mm. long 

 by If mm. wide. They are attached to twigs or laid on the 

 leaves upon which the caterpillars feed. In about from fifteen 

 to twenty days, according to the season, the eggs hatch. The 

 larva? at first are pale green, about one-quarter of an inch in 

 length, with brown markings on the head, and some have mark- 

 ings of the same colour along the side of the body. They cast 

 their skins five times, and during the different stages noticeable 

 changes take place. The tubercles on the body which at first 

 are very small, become quite large in the later stages, and there 

 is a conspicuous change in their colour. As the caterpillar 

 becomes older yellowish lines appear on the body. The tu- 

 bercles, when the larva is mature are, as a rule, pearl-colored 

 tinged with purple ; at the end of the body there are three brown 

 spots edged with yellow. In some specimens the tubercles are 

 of a much brighter colour; one writer described them as -'blaz- 

 ing like a coronet of rubies." The larva is now about three 

 inches long and of a beautiful pale bluish-green colour, the 

 vellow band along each side of the body being conspicuous. 



The caterpillar has been found feeding on walnut, hickory 

 butternut, maple, birch, beech, oak, willow, plum and sweet 

 gum. When mature, in late summer, it. as a rule, leaves the 

 tree upon which it has been feeding and makes an irregular oval 

 cocoon, generally among leaves on the ground. The cocoon is 

 thin, not nearly as tough as that made by the American Silk- 

 worm, Telea polyphemus, which is a much more common insect 

 in eastern Canada. The winter is passed as a pupa inside of the 

 cocoon and the moths usually emerge in May. 



THE PREPARATION OF A CATALOGUE OF THE INSECTS 



OF CANADA. 



By C. Gordon Hewitt, D. Sc, Dominion Entomologist, Ottawa 



At a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Entomo- 

 logical Society of Ontario, held at Guelph, Ont., on November 



