244 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



to 1.75 inches long, color black, thickly dotted with yellowish white. Head 

 slightly triangular, smooth and shining. Head, top of segment next to it, 

 feet and vent, rich reddish brown. 



On segments 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 11 are eight rather long branching 

 black spines. Segments 7, 8, 9 and 10 have six, and segments 12 and 13, 

 seven. The two dorsal spines on segments 3 to 11 and one on 12 are 

 surromided at the base with a spreading tuft of yellowish bristles. Pre- 

 ceding stage hke the last, only there are no yellowish dots on the body. 

 The next before this, and the first stage observed, the larv^ are entirely 

 black; no yellowish bristles round base of dorsal spines as in the two last 



stages. 



The larvEe were somewhat different in color for a few hours directly 

 after the last moult, from what they were afterwards, being lighter in color, 

 but they were all alike, and like the description given in twelve hours after 



moult. 



July 9 they went under a few loose leaves on the bottom of the feed- 

 ing box and made a cell in the debris without spinning any silk. 



Four days after some of them had changed to pup^e, and in seven or 

 eight all had changed. 



The pupfeare .75 to .85 inch long, dark brown, head case smooth and 

 rounded; the joints of the abdomen are close, making the pupse rather 

 rigid. The pupje closely resemble those of Hyperchiria lo, but smaller 

 and a trifle more slender. 



The moths came out the middle of Sept. 



The larvae were found on common meadow sweet (Spircea salicifolia) 

 and were reared on it. We have always thought that the food plant would 

 prove to be something besides oak, from the habits of the moth, it being 

 almost invariably found on low, wet meadow land, oftentimes at a long dis- 

 tance from oaks of any kind. Willow is also given as one of its food plants. 



The larvae are gregarious, many feeding on a single twig, and when at 

 rest are closely packed together, much resembling the larvae of Vanessa 

 antiopa in this respect, as they also do in looks. 



The moth is usually common in this locality during the last of Sept., 

 when it may be found on the wing in the middle of the day, coursing back 

 and forth over the low lands. 



The males are usually in excess of the females, thirty to one, and it is 

 uncommon to get a perfect female, they nearly always being torn and 

 ragged. 



