1891.] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. Ill 



numbers. Sometimes they are all laid together and with much 

 regularity on the leaf or around a twig; in this case the young 

 larvae are gregarious, and continue to feed in a community. 

 Some species are gregarious, while the larvae are young, but sepa- 

 rate as they approach full growth and shift for themselves. The 

 eggs, to a certain extent, mimic their surroundings to protect 

 them from spiders and birds, and also from parasites that feed on 

 them. The eggs of Tolypc vclleda are laid in strings, and are 

 covered by hairs from the tuft at the end of the abdomen of the 

 female moth and they closely resemble a hairy caterpillar. 



"The eggs of butterflies are composed externally of a thin 

 pellicle, separated into the base, walls and micropyle (apex of 

 the egg and place where the male fertilizing cells enter)." The 

 micropyle is made up of very small cells, and the walls are either 

 smooth or variously sculptured. They vary considerably in shape, 

 the principal varieties being globular, hemispherical, cone, or 

 spindle shaped. White or green are the prevailing colors, al- 

 though they may in some cases be yellow, red or brown. As 

 the young caterpillar develops, its color may be seen through the 

 thin and delicate walls of the shell, and this makes the egg appeal- 

 black. The eggs of the Satyrinae, Nymphalidae and Papilionidae 

 are globular; in the Hesperidae they are usually hemispherical, 

 and in the Pierinae they are spindle-shaped. The hatching period 

 is a variable one, depending on temperature and exposure to the 

 direct rays of the sun. It may be stated in a general way that 

 they hatch in from three to twenty days, according to the species. 

 Some species pass the Winter in the egg state, although the vast 

 majority live during this period as chrysalids. The eggs of le- 

 pidoptera make very pretty and interesting objects for study 

 under a magnifying-glass or microscope, and the different eggs 

 of the different species bear the same relation to each other as do 

 the different species in the perfect or imago state, and there is no 

 doubt but what a system of classification could be formulated 

 from these alone. The eggs of some species are very readily 

 found, and the writer would urge the beginner to look on cab- 

 bage plants for the odd little spindle-shaped eggs of Pieris rapu\ 

 and study them under a glass and see the micropyle, etc., and 

 then place them in a box with the food-plant and rear the young 

 larvae to the perfect state, and thus gain a knowledge of the life- 

 history of one species, which will be a good guide to the study 



