THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 27 



the abdomen is short, thick, and blunt, placed on a moderately stout pedicel 

 nearly its own length. The abdominal rings have about the same relative 

 size as in the female, but the posterior edge of third overhangs the fourth, 

 the latter appearing as if partially drawn within the projecting edge of third 

 rins;. 



I am indebted to my esteemed friend, Chas. V. Riley, State Entomologis- 

 of Missouri, for the correct placing of this insect, and would refer those who 

 desire further information on this and other closely allied genera, to a valu- 

 able paper by the Senior Editor of the American Entomologist, in that in- 

 teresting periodical, Vol. I., No. 8, illustrated by excellent figures, from accu 

 rate drawings made by the Junior Editor. 



Having kept the grapes in bottles, only occasionally opened for ventilation, 

 in a dry room, they had become quite hard, dry and shrivelled. In conse- 

 queuce of this many of the flies were unable to make their way out, the seed 

 having become too hard for their jaws to eat through. On opening some of 

 these the flies were found dead with wings fully developed and surrounded 

 by small fragments of the interior coating "of the seed which they had 

 evidently gnawed off while endeavouring to escape. Those which had found 

 their way out had eaten a small nearly round irregular hole through seed 

 and skin. In many similar cases where the larva feeds within a hard sub- 

 stance it provides for the escape of the perfect insect by eating away the hard 

 enclosure until it is reduced so thin as to appear almost transparent, then a 

 very little effort is sufficient to remove the obstruction to the outward passage 

 of the imago. In this instance I have been unable to detect any such pre- 

 paration, and believe that the whole work of escape is accomplished by the 

 perfect fly. 



Notwithstanding the abundance of this insect last year, I have as yet been 

 unable to detect their presence or any evidence of their work during the 

 present season, probably the cold and wet character of the summer has been 

 unfavorable to their operatioDs. 



BRIEF NOTES ON THE TRANSFORMATIONS OF SEVERAL 



SPECIES OF LEPIDOPTERA. 



BY CHAS. S. MIXOT, BOSTON, MASS. 



1. Actios Luna. — Eggs laid at night by a female in confinement, on April 

 30th, (this is an exceptional case, they are not generally laid until June.) 

 They are lateriform, obrotundate, smooth, approaching in some cases a sphe- 

 roid, opaque, very dark sepia with a faint tinge of olivaceous, though some 

 specimens were marked with broad white bands irregularly disposed, and a 

 very few almost entirely white. 



