150 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [May, 



body of jar for purposes of ventilation, The larva had scraped 

 off bits of blotting paper, mixing it with its oral secretion until 

 plastic enough for house-building purposes. A light coating of 

 this material was glued to the sides of the glass jar, and the rest 

 was forced out toward the inner space of the cage, making a cell 

 with a very convex wall. In other words, this larva ate its way 

 into the middle of a strip of very thick blotting paper, throwing 

 out the particles removed in the shape of a cell-wall, until it found 

 space sufficient for transforming into a paper. The latter was 

 plainly visible from outside of the jar, but not from opposite side. 

 The thin coating was with difficulty removed from the glass so 

 as not to mutilate the cocoon, and the latter I forwarded to Dr. 

 Henry Skinner, editor of ENT. NEWS. Other cocoons of C. 

 imiltiscripta reared in the same cage, were of the usual color and 

 firmness, a kind of wood -brown and strongly made from the 

 woody fibre of willow bark. Before I knew how to raise larvae 

 of various species of Centra to pupation, and had not provided 

 cage with canes of food-plant of sufficient thickness for larva to 

 gnaw out a "concavity to form the rear wall of its cell, they inva- 

 riably perished, and would not favor me by utilizing strips of 

 blotting paper. 



ATTENDING the Farmers' Institute last week I was much interested in the 

 (Prof. A. J. Cook) lecture on Insects. To-day we have been observing a 

 phenomenon that is entirely new to me. At about nine o'clock A.M. our 

 attention was attracted to a remarkable flight of butterflies. Our grove is 

 bordered on the east and west sides by high close-set cypress trees. On 

 the western side these trees stand about thirty feet from the first row of 

 large orange trees. There was a stream of butterflies down this lane from 

 the south to the north. This lane is about eighty rods long; a barn stands 

 so as to cut it in two about twenty rods from the avenue. The flight was 

 rapid, and continued until three P.M. From nine until twelve M., as nearly 

 as we could count and estimate, 200 butterflies passed each minute. After 

 twelve the hedge cast a shade over the open space, but there were large 

 numbers passing. At two o'clock we counted about fifty per minute. 

 At four o'clock, only an occasional butterfly could be seen. I enclose you 

 some specimens. A very good description is found in "The Natural His- 

 tory of New York." Pyrameis cardui. The colors do not correspond 

 exactly, but the markings are quite accurately described. Now this may 

 be of no particular interest to you, from the fact that it may be common, 

 but to me it was a novel sight. GEO. D. FARNHAM, Riverside, Cal. 



