50 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



base of the leaf is a token by which an enemy, or a good friend in the 

 form of an industrious naturalist, may find it. 



The fact is, so far as my observation goes, and besides what I had 

 noticed in a general way for years, I paid particular attention to this matter 

 of eating the egg shells for the rest of last season, caterpillars very rarely 

 eat up the shell so completely that one cannot discover some remains of 

 it. Papilio AJax usually leaves that part which is cemented to the leaf. 

 The Graptas nibble about the tops a little, but leave the greater part of the 

 shell. Lycaena Pseudargiolus eats its way out at the depressed summit, 

 and sometimes eats a little of the upper part of the shell. I had two 

 score eggs of two species of Lemonias, viz., Palmeri and Nais^ which came 

 last summer from Arizona, giving caterpillars after they reached me. In 

 every case the egress was by a round hole bitten out of the top, as in 

 Lycaena (the eggs much resembling Lycaena in shape), and the caterpillar 

 could scarcely squeeze through, so small was it. Not a bite from the 

 shell was taken afterward. 



As to why caterpillars eat their egg-shells at all, an eminent authority 

 writes : " It is to save the labor of building up new chitine, that substance 

 being here at hand in the shell." 



9. On the Appearance of Albinic Females of Colias Philodice. 



Mr. Scudder, in same work, page 183, says : " It is a curious fact that 

 these pale females never appear in the early spring broody and increase 

 in proportion as the season advances. This is in harmonious contrast 

 with the occurrence of a melanic male in the spring brood of Lycaena 

 Pseudargiolus ; when we consider that albinism is a northern, melanism a 

 southern peculiarity, we should anticipate albinism in the cool, melanism 

 in the hot season." 



In Butterflies N. A., vol. 2, text of Colias Eurythevie, I speak ot 

 albinic females of that species : " Albinic females appear in every brood, 

 as in Philodice. In that species (Philodice) these females are as common 

 in the early spring brood as in any of the later ones ; and judging by the 

 number of albinos received by me from many quarters, the same is true 

 of Eurythemel' In case of Ejirytheme, the distinction between the spring 

 form (Ariadne) and the later forms ( Keewaydin and Eurytheme) is so 

 marked, that an albino specimen received can be allotted to one or the 

 other with certainty. There is not such distinctness between the early 

 and late broods of Philodice., and my statement on the occurrence of 



