— ii7 — 



though two moths appeared in our breeding cages as early as the 

 last of May. This was doubtless due to the pupae having been 

 kept abnormally warm during the winter. 



The moths have a slender brownish body and vary considerably 

 in size, measuring across their extended wings from 25 mm. 

 ( 1 inch) to 38 mm. (1.50 inches). Nearly the whole upper surface 

 of both pairs of wings are occupied with numerous narrow, wavy 

 and zigzag lines, alternately of a whitish and a dark brown or 

 blackish color. On many of our bred specimens there is a wide 



^-, dark brown band across the middle or disc 

 ^Mlg of the fore wings, caused by the brown lines 

 if on that part being considerably darker than 

 elsewhere on the wing. Near their outer 

 Ipt margins, both pairs of wings are of a but- 

 ?%* ternut-brown color and traversed by a dis- 

 Fig. Ti. — Hydria undu-tinct whitish zigzag line. Beneath, the 

 laia - wings are of a fawn-brown color with the 



lines more or less obsolete and the black discal spots large and 

 distinct. The moth (Fig. 1 1) is known to collectors as the Scallop 

 Shell, from its resemblance to the ribbed shell thus named. 



The female, soon after emerging and pairing with the male, 

 lays her small, whitish eggs in an irregular cluster on the lower 

 side of one of the leaves near the end of a branch. It is here that 

 the larvae make their nest. On the nest near the top of Fig. 10 is 

 shown a cluster of the eggs about one-half natural size, and in the 

 position it occupied when the nest was found. After the larvae 

 have escaped, these egg-clusters are easily detached, which may 

 account for their not being found on all of the nests. Each cluster 

 contains from one hundred to two hundred eggs arranged in three 

 or four layers. The egg is oval in form with a depression on the 

 upper and lower side, and measures two one-hundredths of an 

 inch in length and is three-fourths as wide as long. A cluster of 

 the eggs, much enlarged, is represented in the upper part of Fig. 

 10. 



This insect, like many of our insect pests, has its natural enemies 

 which materially lessen its destructiveness. From nearly every 

 cluster of eggs found, we have bred many minute Chalcid flies. 

 Only the upper layer of eggs was parasitized, the little Chalcid 

 seemingly not being able to reach the lower two or three layers to 

 complete its good work. However, those larvae that, in their egg 

 vState, escape the busy ovipositor of this little Chalcid and emerge 



