242 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



PREPARATORY STAGES OF CALOTHYSANIS AMATURARIA. 



BY D. S. KELLICOTT. 



The preparatory stages of this pretty Phalenid are not given in 

 Packard's " Monograph of the Geometrid Moths ", nor cited by Henry 

 Edwards in his " Catalogue of the Preparatory Stages of N. A. Lepidop- 

 tera " ; and, since they differ in some regards from the general characters 

 of the caterpillars of the genus as given by Guenee, I have drawn up a 

 brief account of larva and pupa. 



The food plant at Columbus is Polygonum diunetorum, on which it 

 was found in abundance during July and the first week in August. 



Larva, 25 mm., long slender, cylindrical, with the last ring slightly 

 swollen, and tlie first abdominal very much so, its diameter equaling twice 

 that of the next ring. In ground colour there are two varieties : one 

 deep brown or black, the other reddish or light brown. The skin under a 

 lens exhibits paler lines and stripes made by whitish dots. Colour beneath 

 similar to that above, except that the whitish stripes are plainer. The head 

 is small, concolorous, with a white line on either side of the occiput extend- 

 ing on the prothorax ; on the front there are four faint white longitudinal 

 lines. On the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th abdominal rings there is a pale 

 lateral stripe, having three white curved lines on each, so arranged as to 

 give the appearance of a slender stem twining about a rod. There are a 

 few whitish dashes on sides of thorax ; legs concolorous. 



The larva clings to the smooth stems by its claspers, head downwards 

 and body curved like an inverted clothes-hook. When disturbed it 

 springs from its support to the ground, and quickly wriggles itself under 

 cover. Its behaviour when walking is singularly hesitating and unsteady ; 

 after each step it lifts its body and explores right and lefc for danger before 

 venturing another advance. When in this attitude its remarkably swollen 

 first abdominal ring reminds one of a miniature cobra. 



The pupa is light in colour, somewhat swollen below ; the slender 

 pointed abdomen tipped with black ends in a strong triangular piece 

 edged with booklets ; the hind shield is triangular, with four tubercles 

 between the base of the antennal covers and with the clypeal apex bilobed. 

 Length, 12 mm. 



The pupa is sustained among the herbage by a few silken threads, 

 which are the merest shadow of a cocoon. Pupa July 26, imago Aug. i. 

 Mr. Webster followed with a paper on 



