Sl|e Canatliati Jntomolonji$t. 



VOL. XXIV. 



LONDON, JANUARY, 1892. 



No. 1. 



CAN INSECTS SURVIVE FREEZING?* 



BY H. H. LYMAN, MONTREAL. 



In a foot note to his paper on "The Butterflies of Laggan" (Can. 

 Ent., XXII., 129), Mr. Bean says : " I hope none of my younger readers 

 entertain the absurd mediaeval superstition that hibernating caterpillars 

 pass the winter in a frozen condition. In successful hibernation they do 

 not get near to such a condition \ but if they do absolutely freeze, then 

 are they undone caterpillars. Valkyria gives them sleep, unmixed with 

 dreams, and they wake in Valhalla." 



Without entering into any discussion as to my relative age in compari- 

 son with Mr. Bean's, I may confess that I have long believed that some 

 caterpillars, as well as insects in other stages, can and do survive freezing. 

 And, finding my belief so distinctly challenged, I have endeavored to 

 find some light upon this subject from such literature as is accessible to 

 me, and from personal testimony. 



The first work to which I turned was Scudder's " Butterflies of New 

 England ". 



In this work there is an Excursus, No. XVII., on " Lethargy in 

 Caterpillars ", and another, No. XXII., on " The Hibernation of Cater- 

 pillars," but in neither is any light thrown upon this question. 



In the same author's " Butterflies " but little more is said upon this 

 subject. On page 135, in writing of Colias J>hi/odice, he says : " Winter 

 overtakes at once caterpillars of various ages, chrysalids and butterflies, 

 and probably eggs. The experience of breeders, and the diversity in the 

 time of appearance of the butterflies in the spring, render it probable that 

 the cold season kills not only the butterflies and eggs, but perhaps the 

 chrysalids as well, leaving the caterpillars to renew the life of the species 

 in the spring." 



* Read before the Annual Meeting of the Entomological .Society of Ontario, 

 November 25th, 189 1. 



