THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 7 



NOTES UPON SPHINX CATALPv^ AT COALBURGH, VV. VA. 



BY W. H. EDWARDS, COALBURGH, W. VA. 



I never had seen the imago of this species until the present year, 

 and never saw the larva before 1896. Mr. Bruce tells me that it is a 

 common species in parts of the Southern States, and that the eggs are 

 laid in clusters, and the caterpillars are gregarious. In this paper I give 

 simply my own observations. Early in August, 1896, I was asked what 

 caterpillars were defoliating the Catalpa trees at Charleston, W. Va. It 



was said that some trees were completely stripped. I was unable to 

 answer the question, as no caterpillar was shown to me. On my return 

 home, I looked at my own Catalpa trees, and the first one that I hap- 

 pened on gave me a score or more of larvfe, one or two on a leaf, on the 

 lower leaves of the tree. These larvae were three to four inches long, and 

 evidently had passed their last moult. One young tree, perhaps ten feet 

 in height, with a top six feet in diameter, had been completely stripped 

 of leaves. I found a single caterpillar of Catalpx on it, to show what had 

 done the mischief. I put the larvte into a large flowerpot two-thirds 

 filled with earth, and got, in a few days, some forty pupae. Supposing 

 these would go over to next year, I buried a few, and sent the rest to Mr. 

 Bruce. In about two weeks he discovered that the imagoes had come out 

 of his pupae, and on examining mine the same result appeared. 



On 4th October I discovered that a new brood of the larvte was 

 feeding, from one inch to one and three-quarters inches long ; great num- 

 bers on a leaf. One had 23 larvae on, and it seemed as if every leaf on 

 the tree had more or less of them. I then went to a group of these trees 

 at three hundred feet distance, and found both young and nearly full-grown 

 larvae ; plenty of them. I reared thirty-six larvae to pupae, and all had 

 changed by 23rd October. It was evident that there had been two 

 broods of larvae between middle of July and October, and it was probable 

 that here was a most destructive species newly come into this region, 

 that must have at least three broods in the season. I expected to see the 

 trees stripped early in 1897, and that every Catalpa leaf thenceforward 

 would have a struggle to live. 



In spring of 1897 the first imago from these pupise emerged iSth May, 

 and by 25th I had nine, every one of them males. Of my 36 pupse this 

 was all the outcome. During the year I watched the Catalpa trees, but 

 found no larvae of the Sphinx, and no traces of them. The species, there. 



