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THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



concurred. The requisite alterations were then made in the by-laws to bring 

 them into conformity with the new constitution. 



Mr. W. Saunders read a letter from Mr. J. T. Whiteaves, Secretary of the 

 Natural History Society, of Montreal, stating that Mrs. Ritchie had accepted 

 the offer of the London branch for the purchase of the cabinet of insects be- 

 longing to the late Mr. A. S. Ritchie. 



Several of the members brought with them excellent microscopes, which 

 added greatly to the interest of the proceedings. Many entomological objects 

 were thus submitted to high magnifying powers, and the marvellous details of 

 their structure clearly shown. 



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ENTOMOLOGICAL GLEANINGS. 



[paper no. 4.] 



by w. saunders, london, ont. 



The eggs of tlie Vaporer Moth, Orgyia leiicostigma. 



Attentive readers of the Entomological portion of the late Report of the 

 Commissioner of Agriculture for the Province of Ontario, will have noted the 

 fact already well known to Entomologists that the female moth of this species 

 is wingless, and lays her eggs on the outside of the cocoon from which she has 

 escaped. Last fall the moths were unusually common, and their nests of eggs 

 are now so abundantly distributed among our fruit trees, that unless some 

 effort is made to destroy them, the larvae will probably be exceedingly numerous 

 and destructive during the approaching season. 



Fig. 10 represents the full grown caterpillar of this species, which, when 



about to change to chrysalis, 

 selects a leaf on which to under- 

 go its next transformation, and 

 this in such a position that, 

 while the chrysalis is firmly at- 

 tached to it on the one side, it 

 is firmly secured by silken 

 threads to the under side of a 

 branch on the other, thus se- 

 curing the leaf from falling to the ground in the autumn. The female, after its 

 escape from the coccon, rarely moves more than a few inches from it, waiting 

 the attendance of the male moth, after which she at once commences t;» place 

 her eggs in the position already indicated. But how are the eggs, when laid, 

 kept in their place on the top of the cocoon 1 Dr. Fitch says that the eggs are 

 extruded in a continuous string, which is folded and matted together so as to 

 form an irregular mass. ( >n removing this mass of eggs from its place of attach 

 ment, the surface of the cocoon appears covered with fragments of a transparent 

 gelatinous looking substance, which has evidently bem applied in a fluid state. 



