176 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [May, '06 



Restless as their flight seemed to be, many came down to 

 the decoys and were easily taken. 



Trying this trick on another year when the butterflies were 

 less abundant, the ruse was almost a failure. In June of last 

 year I was able to collect numbers of the eggs and young 

 larvae and thus secure over a hundred chrysalids from which 

 I obtained less than a score of butterflies, the greater number 

 of pupae holding over to the next year. These eggs and 

 larvae were collected at intervals of a few days each from mid- 

 June to mid-August, and the first chrysalids obtained about 

 July loth. 



Several even of this first lot of pupae have not yet given 

 butterflies nor will till spring. 



No chrysalids gave imagoes inside of three weeks. In com- 

 pany with Mr. E. A. Dodge on June loth last, I observed an 

 ajax ovipositing, mentally marked the leaves and, while one 

 of us collected the eggs, the other followed the butterfly and 

 thus we were able to secure a dozen or more ova of the same 

 female. 



We were surprised to find that she visited only low young 

 plants, and even then oviposited only on the tender end leaves 

 on the upper side (very rarely on the underside), sometimes, 

 however, on the leaf stalk, once on a blade of grass near the 

 papaw plant. 



We had learned well a lesson, and after losing sight of our 

 tutor, waded into the teasel patch in search of young papaw 

 sprouts. We were abundantly rewarded with eggs and an 

 occasional very young larva. 



The smaller and tenderer the sprouts the greater the re- 

 ward . The very small black caterpillars strongly reminding one 

 of the larvae of tree hoppers, were discovered on the underside 

 of the small tender end leaves, their presence indicated by the 

 small perforations seen on the upper side of the leaves. The 

 larger larvae were always found on the upper side of the leaf, 

 that is after the first or second month, to maturity. 



Once seen the eggs are often seen by keen eyes, even with- 

 out stooping, but the leaves must be turned to find the freshly 

 hatched larvae. 



