1916 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 47 



cluster of leaves closely pressed together at the foot of the plants ready for next 

 year's growth. Nothing was found, and it looked as if the old saying about looking 

 for a needle in a hay-stack might be revised to cover looking for a moth's egg on a 

 mountain. Next day I was in a different place, but seeing some of the figwort, 

 pulled up a clump just to see whether it had been attacked. It had — very much so. 

 All of a sudden it occured to me that the natural place for eggs to be deposited to 

 secure a ready access to food supply in spring had been overlooked, and that the 

 habit of the female running on the ground should have been a sufficient clue. As is 

 the case with many tall perennials that are bored, there remains of the previous 

 year's stem a little tube extending a few inches above ground and forming a natural 

 tunnel straight to the roots. Hastily, but carefully, with a penknife this was split 

 open and four eggs were revealed. Others were found, as many as twelve in one case, 

 and some of them were so slightly attached that many others may have dropped 

 down the hole. This, of course, may not be the only place the female selects, but it 

 satisfied me that in 1915 a good deal had been found out about the home of 

 strain ciitosa. There is one brood per annum, the egg hibernates, the larva feeds 

 wholly in the roots of the figwort, matures about the middle of J uly to August 10th, 

 the pupa lies beneath the plant about two inches below the surface, bores its way 

 to the surface tail first, the moth, emerging, tumbles the pupa over, and climbs 

 very rapidly up the plant's stem, stops, holds its soft wings by its sides for eight to 

 ten minutes, then when about half expanded, suddenly flaps them together over 

 the back like a butterfly at rest, and remains in that position till the wings are 

 fully developed, or about half an hour. The wings are then lowered, and the moth 

 crawls into a corner and stays there. How long it takes for the wings to become 

 dry enough for flight was not ascertained. Most of the moths emerged between 

 five p.m. and eight p.m. No parasites were observed, but indoors the wriggling 

 pupaj proved enticing to a pair of mice, and one of my small cages having a cotton 

 netting in front was entered, with the result that there was a round hole in the 

 net and the chrysalids went away inside the mice. They were evidently relished, 

 for next night a trap caught one mouse and the following night the other. This 

 suggests that field mice may greatly reduce the number of pupae after they come 

 up and wriggle about on tlie surface of the ground. The moth most closely allied 

 to the figwort borer — G. immanis, the hop-vine borer — is said to be considered as a 

 particularly choice delicacy by skunks (Can. Ent., XIV, 93-9'5), one hop-grower 

 stating that he had seen ten acres where not a dozen hills had escaped their little 

 noses. It may be that the absence of this odoriferous mammal from the neighbor- 

 hood of Montreal has given stramentosa a chance to increase in the land. 



Detailed descriptions of the various stages will be published shortly by my 

 good friend, Mr. Bird, as in view of his wonderful knowledge of the life histories 

 of the boring Noctuids, it seemed more in the interests of science that the making 

 of descriptions and comparisons should come from his pen than from mine. 



The President : We are very pleased to have Mr. Wjnn's paper, and I should 

 like to thank him for the specimens of this interesting moth which he has placed 

 in our National Collection here. It has been said to me by a keen external observer 

 of the activities of this Society for many years that there is a preponderance of 

 economic papers in our programme, and that this is not as it used to be, that in the 

 old days there were more papers of a purely scientific character by such men as 

 Mr. Winn, who are not professional entomologists but who follow entomology as 

 their chief hobby. For that reason we are especially pleased to have Mr. Winn's 

 paper. It would be a very bad day for the Society when papers of such a nature 

 cease to appear in our proceedings, and for that reason also we shall look forward 



