64 THE CANADIA.N ENTOMOLOGIST. 



about a dozen $ ^ , /*. Marcia and T/iaros, were introduced. In a few 

 days I examined the leaves and found six patches of eggs upon one of the 

 plants, etc. The plant proved to be a species of aster, * * '''' from 

 the leaves I think it will prove to be aster Novae-Anglice. No eggs were 

 found on any of the other plants." He also says that he afterwards found 

 a brood of young caterpillars upon a plant of this aster in a meadow. 



In Can. Ent. IX. i, 1877, I related that I was in the Catskills with 

 Mr. Mead when he made the above mentioned discovery, and that I 

 afterwards got eggs for myself by tying the female butterfly over the stems 

 of A. Novje-Angli?e, and brought the larvae while young to Coalburgh. 

 " On the journey, stopping at several points, I had to give them leaves of 

 such species of aster as I could find, and they ate any and all readily — 

 even German Asters from the garden." Then I related how I repeatedly 

 got eggs of Tharos in same way at Coalburgh, W. Va., (where A. N.- 

 Anglias does not grow). I do not know that Tharos will feed on any 

 other plants than asters, but they will eat any sort of aster surely. 



IV. On p. 1926 : " Mr. Edwards tells m^ that Mrs. Peart observed 

 one case (of G. Interrogationis) in which the final egg of a chain had 

 eleven ribs, when all the others had nine. Could a second female have 

 possibly placed an egg upon a chain laid by another ! ? " I did not know 

 what the author meant to imply by the italicised word and the note of sur- 

 prise. The observation as to this chain of eggs is mentioned in Part VIII., 

 Vol. 3, Butt. N. A., in the paper on Interrogationis, as follows : " I had 

 supposed the number of ribs in all eggs laid by one female was the same, 

 but Mrs. Peart found that, in a string I sent her, the topmost egg had 

 eleven ribs, while all the rest had but nine, as shown on the plate, fig. a^" 

 The eggs were lafd by a single female in confinement, and were put in 

 alcohol and so sent Mrs. Peart. It occurred to me to ask Dr. C. S. Minot, 

 an authority in biology, if he could explain how this could have been, and 

 he replied: " The eggs of insects descend from the ovarian tubes into 

 the so-called uterus, where they lie for some time, and have the shell 

 formed by the secretions of the uterine walls. These walls are thrown 

 into folds, which are characteristic of the genera and species, and the egg 

 shell, so far as its outer pattern is concerned, is a cast, so to speak, of the 

 folds in question. It seems to be quite possible that the number of folds 

 (and therefore the number of ribs on the shell) should vary in different 



