Clje Caiuibian fentomabgist. 



VOL. VI. LONDON, ONT., JULY, 1874. No. 7 



NOTES ON THE LARV^ OF ARGYNNIS CYBELE, 

 APHRODITE AND DIANA. 



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



I am now able to give the results of my attempts at raising the cater- 

 pillars of the three Argynnides, Cybele, Aphrodite and Diana, from the 

 egg, this past season. In August and early in September, 1873, females 

 of cybele were easily obtained, and a few of ap/wodite, which is a rare 

 species here, and these were shut up in kegs, within which were placed 

 pots of growing violets. The eggs were laid abundantly on the leaves 

 and stems, and on the cloths which covered the kegs. There were soon 

 several hundreds of cybele eggs, and many of aphrodite. About the same 

 time, Mr. T. L. Mead, who was at Coalburgh, made an excursion to a. 

 region about fifty miles east of us, where diana had been previously found 

 by him in some numbers, and brought back with him about sixty females, 

 which were placed in kegs and boxes, also with violets either in pots or 

 planted in earth in the boxes. Hundreds of eggs were so obtained of 

 this species. The three species hatched in from seven to twelve days, and 

 so far as was possible, the larvae at large were transferred to plants, but 

 of course many were lost. In a few instances some of them were 

 observed to feed on the leaves, but almost all began their hybernation at 

 once after hatching, and fixed themselves on the under sides of the 

 leaves, and especially in the grooves of the leaf-stems, where some of 

 them were to be seen, extending quite down to the base of the stem. The 

 three species were so nearly alike at this stage that cybele and aphrodite 

 could not be distinguished apart by any glass I had, and dia?ia diftered 

 almost imperceptibly from the others. 



They were each about one-twentieth of an inch long, cylindrical, with 

 brown heads ; the body greenish brown, with rows of tuberculated darker 

 colored spots, from each of which emanated a black hair. 



