^Ii2 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



FURTHER N.OTES ON CHIONOBAS JUTTA. 



.BY REV. THOMAS W. FYLES,. SOUTH QUEBEC. 



Our President has asked me what methods I adopted for the raising 

 of C. jiittcir from the egg. I will endeavour to describe them. 



As it is well known that larvae of the genus Chiofiobas feed on grasses, 

 tny first care was to determine what grasses were to be found in the 

 haunts oi Jutta, and to notice the circumstances under which they grew. 

 I found several, all rooted in the sphagnum of the swamp. I took home 

 roots of every kind, and potted them in sphagnum, being careful to close 

 the hole in the bottom of each flower pot with a cork, and to soak the 

 plants thoroughly with rain water. I soon had a number of thriving 

 plants. I placed the j^ots containing these — so nedr together that some 

 of the blades of every plant intermingled with blades of the rest — in a box 

 of convenient size ; and I filled up the interstices, to the level of the rims 

 of the pots, with sphagnum. I then made a slight, arched lattice over the 

 top of the box, and stretched a piece of green netting over it. My cage 

 was then ready. \Yh.ex\ /idta was pretty well worn, /. c, about the 12th 

 of June, I captured two or three females, and placed them in my cage. 

 On the 17th of that month I found a number of eggs, not laid on the 

 blades of grass, but scattered over the netting. When the larvae appear- 

 ed, I placed, by means of a camel's hair pencil, a few of them on each 

 plant ; but I soon found that they congregated on the sedge. This then, 

 I concluded, was their favourite food-plant. I kept the cage on the seat 

 of an open window with a north-western aspect ; and, whenever it rained 

 I removed the covering of the box, and let the insects have the benefit of 

 the shower. In dry times I occasionally sprinkled them at sunset with 

 soft water. 



In August I noticed that my insects were seriously decreasing in 

 number. As their habits were unknown I thought it possible that the 

 vanished specimens had buried themselves in the sphagnum, and would 

 in due time again appear ; but a wounded larva, that had evidently been 

 nipped by a foe, at length aroused my suspicions. I procured fresh plants 

 of sedge, placed upon them all the larvae I could find, and then spread a 

 large sheet of paper, and upon it pulled all the old bedding to pieces. The 

 result was that I found, not the lost larvae, but several very well grown 

 specimens of Lithobius Americaniis. I consider this creature therefore a 



