112 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



home, provided their food plant is kept fresh ; otherwise they certainly 

 will wander. For convenience of observation, young Limenitis may be 

 left on branches set in bottles of water, with no covering. So many 

 Papilios move very little, resting in one spot for hours, but the larvae of 

 Phileno7- are particularly alert, and must be shut up. Most larvae, in the 

 younger stages, should not be touched by the finger or forceps, especially 

 when they are near a moult. If it is necessary to change them from one 

 leaf to another a bit of the leaf with the larvae may be transferred, or the 

 larva, if not near a moult, may be taken up by a camel's hair pencil. The 

 habits of different species even from the moment they are hatched, are 

 very interesting. Lye. Pseudargiolus at once fixes itself on a flower bud 

 of its food-plant, and bores a hole with its strong mandibles into the 

 side large enough and no more to admit the head. The head is set on 

 a long extensile neck, and the contents of the bud can be completely re- 

 moved. According to Mr. W. G. Wright, the larvae of Lye. Amy?itula 

 eats into the pods of Astragalus, and lives on the young and immature 

 seeds. The egg of Thecla Henrici is laid at the base of a flower stem 

 of wild plum, and the young larva at once makes its way up the stalk and 

 fastens on the young plum, boring into it just as the Lycaena bores into 

 its bud, and till maturity eats nothing but the contents of plums, growing 

 as they grow. Lemonias Nais, in confinement, stitched two leaves to- 

 gether and lined them with silk, came entirely out to feed and returned 

 again to its nest. When about to moult, it closed the nest and was not 

 seen for some days and till its new coat was fitted. All the species of 

 Limenitis make perches by stripping bare the mid-rib of the leaf at the 

 top. This would naturally curl up if left to dry, but the larva coats it 

 with silk and stiffens it by binding on morsels of chewed leaf, and the 

 perch remains straight. On this the larva rests the day long except when 

 it goes to the leaf edge to feed, and feeding done it returns to the perch. 

 This is the habit of the larva when first hatched, when its length is but one 

 tenth inch, and the habit is kept up through the earlier stages. And con- 

 nected with the perch is accumulated a little packet of scraps of leaf, just 

 at the base of the perch, and as the substance of the leaf is eaten, the 

 packet is rolled back so as to be kept pretty close to the cut edge. This 

 rolling is done partly by pushing, what is gained at each effort being 

 secured by threads, or Miccessive threads are attached from the farther 

 side of the packet to the edge of the leaf, and the thing is so turned over. 

 After the second stage, that is, from 2nd moult, the packet is let alone, 



