28 Journal New York Entomological Society. ^^'°^- ^^■ 



LARV^ OF A SATURNIID MOTH USED AS FOOD BY 

 CALIFORNIA INDIANS/ 



By J. M. Aldrich, 

 Moscow, Idaho. 



(With Plate I.) 



In July, 191 1, when I spent a few days at Mono Lake, California, 

 investigating the insects of the lake especially, I was told of a 

 " worm " used as food by the Pai-Ute Indians of the vicinity. No 

 opportunity for getting material came until the morning of my 

 departure. While I was at the Mono Lake post-office awaiting the 

 departure of my stage, the postmaster, Mr. John Mattley, an old Swiss 

 pioneer of the basin who had taken a very intelligent interest in my 

 work, asked me, "Have you seen the worms the Indians eat?" I 

 replied that I had not, but very much wished to do so. Up to this 

 time mv information had led me to suppose the insects were larvae of 

 borers in the trunks of trees. He had two Indian women working in 

 his hay-field, both of them at the time standing about in the road by 

 the residence. " Come with me," he exclaimed, and approached one 

 of the women, asking her the question, " Have you got any of those 

 worms on hand?" The woman grinned rather sheepishly, as if 

 expecting the subject to be a matter of ridicule, and said, " No, all 

 gone." " But you had a lot yesterday," persisted Mr. Mattley. " All 

 gone," was all she would reply, so Mr. Mattley took me along to the 

 other woman. She began with the same reply, but finally admitted 

 that there were some of the cooked ones still on hand. " wShow them 

 to us," demanded Mr. Mattley, and she led us to her camp near by, 

 where she laid back an old cloth and disclosed a much-smoked three- 

 quart tin bucket, nearly full of a yellowish, greasy-looking stew. 

 Considerably excited by the prospect, I picked up a little stick and 

 began to fish in the stew. It was half full of large caterpillars, black- 

 ened by drying, resembling dried and stewed prunes as much as any- 

 thing. One of them I pulled in two and thrust a half in my mouth to 

 see what sort of food it was. I found it tough and almost flavorless, 



^ An incidental result of an investigation of the insects of western salt 

 and alkaline lakes, carried on with the aid of an appropriation from the Eliz- 

 abeth Thompson Science Fund. 



