THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 163 



that we have a decrease to the third instar with an average of only 8 days, 

 and an increase to 10.7 in the fourth and to 13.8 in the fifth. I hardly 

 know how to account for this, as the weather was about the same during 

 the entire period of growth of the caterpillars, particularly cloudy, gloomy 

 and cold, conditions which were more or less reflected indoors, for the 

 caterpillars were not kept near any artificial heat. Undoubtedly there 

 must be many days in April and May, and even June, especially in such 

 cold and rainy springs as the past two seasons have been in this vicinity, 

 when the caterpillars in the open would become so chilled as to be unable 

 to move about and feed. 



There are some habits of the caterpillars which are worth noting : 

 (i.) In emerging the caterpillar eats an irregular hole in the top of the 

 egg, but only large enough for it to crawl through, the greater portion of 

 the egg being invariably left. (2.) The caterpillars are very active 

 crawlers, a fact which I learned at first to my loss, and this would seem to 

 be necessary in nature to enable them to reach tips of the shoots of the 

 cinquefoil, where the tender opening leaflets are to be found. (3.) Almost 

 always after moulting I would find the caterpillar turned around, head 

 facing its exuvia. This it seldom ate, although the position taken would 

 seem to indicate the opposite. One example which had recently passed 

 the first ecdysis I watched for two hours, but no attempt at eating its 

 exuvia was made. In one instance, however, after the second ecdysis, I 

 caught the caterpillar in the act of feeding on its exuvia. Usually I never 

 had any trouble in finding the latter. (4.) In selecting a place to pupate, 

 the caterpillar most often chose the under surface of the gauze cover on 

 the vial, only occasionally the under surface of a leaflet. In the open the 

 latter is presumably the position most often chosen. 



There are two or three very interesting features in the clothing of the 

 caterpillar and chrysalis, a description of which follows, to which I desire 

 to call attention. I would mention, especially, the long, backwardly- 

 curved dorsal bristles of the newly-hatched caterpillar, the. numerous 

 egg-shaped processes of the caterpillar in the later instars and the very 

 minute wine-glass-shaped processes of the chrysalis. The significance of 

 these various structures is not readily apparent, but when someone is able 

 to make a careful comparative study o( dorcas with its congeners, especially 

 helloides and epixa?it/ie, more light may be thrown upon the subject. 



I can heartily recommend CJwysophafius dorcas to any one who desires 

 to study the life-history of some Lycaenid form. The fact that its eggs can 

 be secured in numbers, with the assurance that a good proportion will 



