THE CA.NA.DIA.N ENTOMOLOGIST. 



137 



PRACTICAL AND POPULAR KN I'OMOLOGY.— No. 12. 



Winter Retreats of Insects, 

 by rev. thomas w. fyles, i,evis, quebec. 



Occasionally, after a mild day or two in winter, we see a newspaper 

 paragraph headed " Remarkable Appearance of a Butterfly." From the 

 tone of the article we usually judge that the writer had been lost in 

 astonishment, at what he regarded as a strange phenomenon. This short 

 paper will rob such appearances of their mystery. 



Many insects pass the winter in the egg-stage, such as Orgyia antiqua^ 

 Linneus, and 07'gyia leucostigma, Smith and Abbot. With such we have 

 not now to deal. Others pass the dreary montlis in (i) the Larval, (2) in 

 the Pupal, or (3) in the Imago stage of their existence. 



(i) Of insects that pass- the winter in the larval condition, those of 

 the beautiful butterflies Melitiea Phaeton^ Drury, and Melitcea Harrisit, 

 Scudder, weave webs upon their food-plants, and dwell in companies. 

 I have found the former on Turtle Head, Chelone glabra, in bottom-lands, 

 in the township of Brome, and the latter on the White Aster, Diplopapptis 

 umbdlatus, in the Fort Woods at Levis. The larv?e go into a torpid state 

 at"ter the third moult. They scatter and feed up in the spring. 



Other larvae i)ass the winter in solitary, sullen independence. A 

 familiar instance of such is afforded by the bristly, black and red caterpillar 

 of the Isabella Tiger Moth, 

 Isia Isabella, Smith and x\bbot, 

 (Fig. 12). This is often foui.d 

 curled up hedge-hog fashion, 

 among the chips in a neglected 

 corner of the wood-shed ; under 

 the buckets piled in the sugar- 

 shanty ; or under loose planks 

 in the hay-barn. It creeps into 

 any convenient shelter. 



In the spring the black 

 larv?eof the Virgin Tiger Moth, 

 Apaniesis virgo, Linneus. may 

 sometimes be seen crawling 

 from a sidewalk, under the 

 planking of whicli they had 

 found a winter retreat. 



April, 1906. 



Cy 



IM- 12. 



a 



-Isia Isabella, a, caterpillar, b, chrysalis. 

 c, moth. 



