64 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



LARVAL AND PUPAL HISTORY OF DARAPSA VERSI- 

 COLOR Harris. 



BY GEORGE D. HULST, BROOKLYN, N. Y. 



Last summer I was so fortunate as to obtain fifty eggs of the rare 

 Sphinx, Darapsa versicolor. They were found between June 26th and 

 July 20th, on the under side of the leaves of the common swamp button 

 bush, Cep/ialant/iits occidental's Linn., and, with two exceptions, were laid 

 singly. The egg is round and slightly flattened — about the size of rape 

 seed. It is at first light green and translucent, afterwards milky and 

 opaque ; a few before hatching became, about the spot where the larva 

 emerged, russety. The longest any egg continued without hatching was 

 six days, and it is almost a certainty that the duration of the egg state is 

 seven days. 



The larva, just emerged, is a uniform pale white, three lines in length. 

 The caudal horn, from four to five hours after the emerging of the larva, 

 becomes dark purple. The caterpillar gradually becomes pale green. The 

 first caterpillar hatched June 27th, and completed its first moult early 

 July 2nd. The moult occupied about 30 hours. 



After First Moult— Length 6 lines. Head nearly spherical, with 

 greenish tint. Body linear, light green in color. A lateral whitish line 

 extends from the mouth to the caudal horn, which, as the age advances 

 and size increases, is revealed to be composed of several lines as follows : 

 A sub-dorsal line extending from each side of the mo*ith to the upper part 

 of the eyes, and thence back to the rear of the 4th segment of the body ; 

 a similar line runs obliquely from the lower part of the 4th segment, under 

 and just including the stigmatal point, upwards and backwards to the rear 

 of the 5th segment, meeting it just below the dorsal line. This is fol- 

 lowed by five other and parallel lines, each beginning and ending one 

 segment further back, except the last, which extends across the three last 

 segments up to the base of the caudal horn. There are faint indications 

 of other lines at the lower part of the 10th and nth segments. The 

 caudal horn is a violet purple, becoming towards the end of the age 

 lighter in color, and during the age is always held parallel with the body. 

 The second moult was completed early July 6th, occupying about 24 

 hours. 



