THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 119 



EARLY STAGES OF ARZAMA OBLIQUATA, G. and R. 



BY H. H. BREHME, NEWARK, N. J. 



Egg. — Fusiform, thick in the middle and tapering to a small rounded 

 summit, marked by about sixteen longitudinal ribs, which are low, nar- 

 row, flat and crossed by a few fine ridges. Color yellow-brown. 

 Duration about fifteen days. 



Young Larva. — About .8 inch in length, cylindrical, slender ; shape 

 like the other Arzamas. Color pale green, with a few long hairs pro- 

 ceeding backwards. Duration eighteen to twenty days. 



Mature Larva. — When fully grown the larva? are i*4 inch in 

 length, some as much as two inches long. They are very slender ; head 

 thick ; color more gray : body smooth, with no hairs. 



Pupa. — Length .75 inch; breadth across mesonotum .16 inch; across 

 abdomen .16 inch; greatest depth .22 inches. Shape like the other 

 Arzamas. Color dark brown. Duration sixteen days. 



The eggs from which these observations were made were obtained on 

 the 26th of October, 18S6, by confining a dilapidated female caught 

 flying about the food-plant — the Cat-tail reed. The female generally lays 

 her eggs in the middle of the reed, between the long leaves. They began 

 to hatch on the 10th of November, thus giving a period of about 15 days. 

 They began to go into pupae on the 20th April, 1887, making the whole 

 larval period 161 days; adding to this the pupal period of 16 days, 

 makes a total of 190 days from the egg to the imago. 



The food-plant — the Cat-tail reed — grows in the meadows. As soon 

 as the larva is hatched, it bores at once into the reed and feeds from the 

 top downwards, continuing to feed throughout the winter, until the whole 

 of the reed is eaten out ; it then returns to the top, and forms its pupa 

 there. The larva is very hard to rear, as it feeds during the winter, and 

 the reed must be kept as wet as possible. I have succeeded by keeping 

 the reeds in a pail of water. 



The moth generally begins to flv between four and five o'clock in the 

 afternoon, and ceases between seven and eight o'clock. Its flight is very 

 slow. It is described and figured by Grote and Robinson, Trans. Am. 

 Ent. Soc, vol. 1., page 339. 



