76 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



NOTES ON THE EGG AND YOUNG LARVA OF 



ALARIA FLORIDA. 



BY W. SAUNDERS, LONDON, QNT. 



On the 4th of July I found a number of eggs of this beautiful moth 

 on the evening primrose, Oenothera Lamarckiana. They were found 

 attached to the stalks of the young flower buds ; to the sides of the 

 calyx of the flower, and also to the young leaves at their base. The 

 eggs were quite firmly fastened among the long stout hairs with which 

 the cuticle of the calyx and flower stalk is covered. 



Description of egg examined under a magnifying power of 45 diame- 

 ters : — Length, i-40th of an inch ; width, i-45th. Form nearly round, 

 flattened a little at the base, where it is also somewhat contracted in 

 size, and slightly conical above, with numerous raised striae, about 36 

 in all, which run into each other before they reach the tip, where they 

 are reduced to less than half the number, and terminate at the base of 

 a small ring which crowns the tip : this ring has a depression in the 

 centre, and the space around the cavity is finely punctured. 'The striae 

 are irregularly crossed by numerous fine, raised lines, and thus the whole 

 surface is minutely reticulated, but the meshes are irregular in form, 

 with a slight depression in the centre of each. The color of the egg 

 is dull yellowish pink. 



Some of the eggs hatched on the 7th of Jul}', when the following 

 description of the young larva was taken : — 



Length, about i-i5th of an inch, cylindrical. Head large, and black, 

 with a few black and brown hairs. Body above of a dull shining yellow, 

 with a wide dorsal band of dull white. On each segment there are from 

 8 to 12 shining black dots, from each of which arises a single black or 

 brown hair. The upper portions of second and terminal segments have 

 each a large patch of black. 



Under surface similar to the upper, but with fewer dots ; feet black ; 

 prolegs pale greenish, faintly tipped with brown. 



The changes in appearance of the larva at its subsequent moultings 

 were not noted. A description of the full-grown caterpillar has already 

 b^en given in the Entomologist (see p. 6, vol. 2). 



