60 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



wanting. Secondaries dark smoky, the veins a little darker ; a vague 

 median shade line usually shows above. Beneath the wings are a lighter 

 or mouse-gray, well powdered, especially the secondaries, across which the 

 median line is traced in the dark ground colour. The sexual characters 

 of the male are of the normal pattern. Expanse, 44 to 48 mm. 



Habitat : The Atlantic seaboard in the neighbouring latitude of New 

 York City. 



( )ne hundred and eight examples without mar or blemish are before 

 the writer, and show scarcely any variation. In point of size their con- 

 stancy is quite remarkable for the genus, and the phase of variation 

 consists in a tendency of the ground colour to fade to an olivaceous hue. It 

 is a rather heavy and broad winged species, larger and darker than 

 necopina, has the t. p. line more conspicuous and lacks the bluish tone of 

 the subterminal space which generally holds with the latter. A great many 

 specimens have been disseminated from Rye under the necopina label, and 

 attention must now be called to their incorrect determination. Co-types 

 will go to the U. S. National and the British Museums. 



Confined with their growing food-plant, these moths mate and oviposit 

 sparingly. The ova are placed singly, or in clusters of several, about the 

 base of the plant and live over the winter. The egg is nearly globular, 

 the lateral diameter greatest, measuring nearly .7 mm. Colour is pale, 

 shading yellowish, or in some cases to a flesh tint. Its period extends 

 from the middle of October to first of June. 



The young larva;, upon hatching, at once enter the stems of the 

 food-plant about two inches up and begin feeding, the original entrance 

 serving as an orifice for disposing waste. They are very slender and 

 delicate, yet able to bite their way into the solid stem. The first pair of 

 abdominal legs are aborted and the larva moves in a semilooping manner. 

 On entering the second stage the dark central portion of the body be- 

 comes evident and the white longitudinal lines appear, but all are 

 discontinued on the first four abdominal segments. We are now able to 

 place the larva in that section containing cerussata, sciata, inquiesita, etc , 

 and from this time to maturity this prominent feature continues. June 

 28th finds them well on in the third stage; a period of nine days per stage 

 seems to prevail, as with other species. Larvae now measure 24 mm. in 

 length, and are of the usual smooth cylindrical form. The rounded head 

 is of a golden-yellow hue, does not show the black side line as it occurs in 

 nitela and others; width, 1.9 mm. The longitudinal lines on the thoracic 



