250 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Vicia Cracca, Desmodium Dellenii. One 9 was found dead, and one 

 very feeble and apparently dying. The living ones were fed with sugar 

 and water, and here I may be permitted to say that the only success I 

 have ever had in feeding butterflies was when I uncoiled their tongues 

 with a pin bent at the point, and then put a camel's-hair pencil dipped in 

 the syrup to the tongue. They will then continue to feed as long as they 

 are hungry ; but holding the brush in front of them and blowing gently 

 towards them, as the authorities tell us to- do, I have found a failure, and 

 putting a saturated sponge in a cage utterly useless. No eggs were 

 observed at this time, but one at least must have been laid some time 

 before, as a larva hatched on 30th. On the 29th I was ill in bed all day, 

 but on the 30th I found that from 28 to 30 eggs had been laid, nearly all 

 on the Vaccinium, and that one larva had hatched as above stated. One 

 egg was laid on Amphicarpaea Monoica. One or two eggs were laid after 

 the 30th. I divided about half of the eggs between Messrs. Fletcher and 

 Scudder, sending eight to the former and six to the latter. 



Of the eggs that I kept, one hatched on 30th July, four on 4th August, 

 eight on 5th, and two on 6th. The egg period must therefore have been 

 about six or possibly seven days in one or two instances. 



The egg and first stage of the larva have been described by Mr. 

 Scudder in his great work on butterflies, but as that work is unfortunately 

 not available to all entomologists, it will do no harm if I give my notes, 

 imperfect as they may be, in full. 



Egg. — Length, 1^3 mm.; diameter, .48 mm. Similar to Philodice in 

 shape. Number of ribs, about 20. At first, white tinged with greenish- 

 yellow, soon turning reddish-orange. Just before hatching turning dark. 

 The larva can then be seen through the shell, standing on its tail, with a 

 clear, vacant space above tiie black head. The larva emerges a little 

 below the top, just where the head is. One that was watched crawled 

 slowly down the shell on to the leaf, moving its head from side to side on 

 the leaf as though spinning a silken path, and as soon as it was all on 

 the leaf, it turned round, climbed to the top of the shell, and began to 

 devour it, and ate it all up, its meal taking 40 minutes. Most of the 

 larvae did not eat more than half of the shell, and some did not eat any. 



Young larva. — Length, 1.9 1 mm.; width of head, .366 mm.; head 

 black, the hairs pellucid. Body brownish-green, finely transversely stri- 

 ated, with about five striations to each segment. Skin faintly shagreened 

 with yellowish-brown ; the striations are of same colour ; the raised points 



