Vol. xxii] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS 175 



Out of two lots of eggs of the second brood of modesta 

 (nearly two hundred eggs in all) but three chrysalids were se- 

 cured, the larvae dying before the third moult. However, one 

 lot of these eggs was from a female that mated with a male 

 from the same parents. 



Of the first brood, mentioned above, about a fifth failed to 

 give imagoes with the rest and are holding over till next spring. 

 Three imagoes that appeared fully a month after the rest, were 

 very pale in color, while the first moth that emerged had an 

 unusually red hind wing, in fact the wing was red all over. 



From a half drowned female Smerinthus excaccatus found 

 floating on a tub of water after an all night's rain, one hun- 

 dred and five eggs were obtained and from the larvae fed on 

 apple, about fifty chrysalids secured. The losses were largely 

 when the larvae were small. This is one of the hatches of 

 larvae where cannibalism was apparent. 



By far the most interesting larvae of the summer's work 

 were the Sphinx eremitus "worms," so hardy and so grotesque 

 with their dorsal hump and the black dorsal spot. 



It is often asked if Catocala moths ever come to light like 

 most other moths. It is generally denied that they do and yet 

 twice this summer in early July the writer saw a Catocala on 

 an electric light pole in the full glare of the light but too high 

 to be reached. It is almost certain that the species was ilia. 



Now that the summer is gone and the trees are stripped of 

 their leaves, cocoon hunting is no mean sport but probably 

 more interesting still is the search for Catocala eggs. A few 

 boxes and a small chisel are the necessary paraphernalia and 

 the loose outer bark and the cracks in the bark of hickory, wal- 

 nut, white and bur oak, honey locust, willow, maple, plum and 

 crab, are carefully searched for the small ova. 



In our searches for cocoons on the shade maples we had to 

 use long fishing poles with end hooks, and the fall on the peb- 

 bles of some of the polyphemi proved disastrous. Little or 

 no trouble was experienced in collecting the prometheae as 

 most of them were found dangling from the twigs of low 



