■I'HE CANADIAN ENTOMOLUGiST. 191 



Satyrus, Chionobas, and, in part, Chrysophanus. I can add Melitcp.a to 

 his list, which oviposited on two different occasions under circumstances 

 extraordinary but exactly the same. Two years ago I received from a 

 friend, who collects for me in California, but is not a practical entomo- 

 logist, a lot of M. chalcedon papered up. My instructions to kill 

 specimens with chloroform by brushing a little of it over head of each, 

 and at once paper the same after capture, were carried out to the letter. 

 How much or how little each received I do not know. I received 

 the specimens after being in the mail bag six or seven days on their 

 journey from Oakland to New York. On opening paper box I found a 

 lot of little, hairy, black larvie crawling over contents of box, and soon 

 traced them to an envelope containing a ? J/", chalcedon, with quite a 

 number which had not yet escaped therefrom. There must have been 

 more than fifty living larvae, which, not knowing their food-plant, I placed 

 in my garden or back yard, so to speak, scattering the lot over cultivated 

 and wild plants, including a White Birch, in the hope that some might 

 find suitable food, and then watch their progress. But all soon died. 



In another envelope I found a second ? of M. chalcedon, which had 

 laid quite a number of eggs, and which I kept a few days pending 

 development of those living larvse. When those perished I threw away 

 the ova oi chalcedon. Both females were found dead in their envelopes. 

 But out of some half a dozen females received I found one alive which 

 had to be put into the cyanide bottle. 



Another instance of similar ovipositing was that of a Dioptid, 

 Phryganidia cali/ornica, received in the same way from the same party 

 two years ago. This was not discovered until I took the specimen in 

 original envelope with a lot of other California specimens to my friend, 

 Mr. Charles Palm, of this city, for identification. Most of the larvse of 

 F. cali/ornica appeared to have died during period of hatching or shortly 

 afterward, inasmuch as many were not freed from shell of ovum. A 

 number of ova, but very few out of a total number of fifty-three counted, 

 were not hatched or possibly sterile. I did not discover the dead larvae 

 of this Californian Bombycid until a few months ago while trying to get 

 it determined. 



I should also state that the females of M. chalcedon, which oviposited 

 in envelopes, were taken a week apart during a period covering two 

 weeks, and would allow about twenty-one days or less for hatching of 

 ova. 



