March, '08] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 115 



Notes on Catocala. 



R. R. ROWLEY, Louisiana, Mo. 



My work with Catocala in 1907 began on the 23rd of March, 

 when a batch of eggs of C. unijnga that I had received from 

 Mr. C. Leonhard of Kearney, N. J., began hatching prema- 

 turely, prompted, no doubt, by the unusually warm weather that 

 prevailed from the 2Oth to the 28th, the thermometer rang- 

 ing for a week from 80 to 90 degrees. A few tender leaflings 

 had burst their winter coverings in anticipation of an early 

 spring, but came to grief in the protracted cold weather that 

 followed. 



It taxed me to the utmost to get food for the hungry young 

 "crawlers" and I was compelled to keep a fire going in the 

 "bug house" from the last of March to the 8th of May to save 

 the brood. 



The freshly hatched larvae were very slender, span-worm- 

 like, with large, almost black heads. 



The first moult took place on March 28th, five days from 

 hatching and the caterpillars changed to black with a cream- 

 colored, middorsal band and an almost white ventral side with 

 four or five large, round or square black spots along the mid- 

 dle. 



On the 5th and 6th of April the larvae moulted the second 

 lime, reaching a length of three-fourths of an inch with sides 

 dark, mottled with a lighter color. The middorsal line, light, 

 narrow and with a rather large spot of the same color on the 

 segment beyond the third pair of true legs and another above 

 the second pair of prolegs. The venter, cream color. A dorsal 

 hump over the third pair of prolegs. 



On the loth of April the third moult occurred, with the 

 larva nearly an inch long, brownish and grayish in irregular 

 streaks. The dorsal cream colored line reduced to small sep- 

 arated sausage-link-like spots, not very distinct. 



The fourth moult occurred on the i6th of April, the larva 

 being a light gray with dorsal hump and dark spot over inter- 

 space between the 3rd and 4th pairs of prolegs, with a white 



