THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 43 



ON THE EARLY STAGES OF SAMIA COLUMBIA Smith. 



BY C. H. FERNALD, ORONO, MAINE. 



On the night of the 7th of last June my wife captured at light a fine 

 female Samia Columbia. The moth was at once secured, her wings 

 pinioned, and she was placed in a cage with the hope that specimens of 

 the other sex might be attracted, but none made their appearance ; and 

 on the night of the 12th she laid five eggs, glueing them to the gauze on 

 the side of the cage, two in one place and three in another. During the 

 following day (13th) none were laid, but on the night of the 13th she 

 laid fourteen more in several different clusters, and on the night of the 14th 

 she laid six more. None were laid during the following day and night, 

 and as she was injuring herself with the pinion, she was killed and 

 spread. Whether she would have laid any more had she been kept 

 longer, or whether she had laid any before her capture, I cannot say. 



On the morning of the 26th one of the eggs hatched. I then began 

 to look about for their food plant. Smith states, Proc. Boston Society 

 of Natural History, vol. ix., p. 344, as follows : " They [the cocoons] 

 were mostly attached to Nemopaiithes canadensis, and Rhodora canadensis ; 

 a few were found upon Kalmia angustifolia and maple, and one upon the 

 larch. The larva; undoubtedly feed upon the first two plants, and perhaps 

 upon the others ; but the cocoons were always where the larvas might have 

 fed upon the Nemopanthes or Rhodora." 



Dr. Packard, in his Synopsis of the Bombycidas, Proc. Ent. Soc. Phil., 

 vol. iii., p. 380, says : " It ( S. Columbia) feeds upon Rhodora canadensis, 

 spinning its large cocoons upon the terminal twigs of that shrub."' 



Guided by these statements, and remembering that Nemopanthes 

 canadensis does not occur in this region to my knowledge, I first collected 

 Rhodora canadensis, and gave them, but they never so much as tasted it, 

 though I kept a few on it till they were nearly starved. I cut the edge 

 of the leaf so they might have easy access to the soft juicy parts of the 

 interior, but all to no purpose. I tried them on Kalmia angustifolia, 

 A melanchicr canadensis, maple, beech, white birch, ash, apple, pear, willow, 

 ilex, gooseberry, currant and larch. They just tasted of the last four, but 

 would not feed upon them. I should say that the trial on larch was not 



