Academy of Science 23 



heard a noise as of rain lulling on chy leaves. I soon found that the sound was 

 caused by the larvoe biting the dead leaves. 



Upon a closer examination I found that th'ey were tlien feeding upon the dried 

 leaves which they had previously prepared. The snapping sound thus made could 

 be distinctly heard at some distance. 



During the day the caterpillars reposed in a long tube composed of silk and dried 

 leaves in the middle of the bunch. 



Some of these larvae were placed in a glass jar covered with mosquito bar. While 

 there they grew slowly and cut the dried leaves into small pieces and devoured most 

 of them; green leaves were introduced into the jar but remained untouched while 

 green: when dry they were treated as the others. 



It was now about the first of September and there was no change, so that I began 

 to despair of obtaining any images from them, and did not look at them again until 

 the first week of October, when they had all disappeared except two. 



These two had spun a kind of coarse cocoon in the tube mentioned above, and 

 were in this still unchanged. The body was somewhat shorter and thicker than 

 when first taken. 



Early in July I obtained from the tomato a verj' large larvoe of Sphinx 5-maculata, 

 and placed it in the breeding cage for safe keeping until I should have time to write 

 a description of it. When I came for the larva next morning, it had disappeared. 

 I soon discovered where it went, into the ground. I then began to remove the earth 

 very carefully until I came upon what I supposed to be its cell; then digging down 

 upon one side I next removed the upper part of the arch with a sharp knife. 



The cell was then very little larger than the insect's body. The caterpillar was 

 busily engaged working around the sides of its cell with its head. Every few 

 moments it would contract the length of its body and in this way force out the soft 

 earth. It then closed the opening which I had made in the cell. A few minutes 

 later I again opened the cell and found it considerably enlarged, and the caterpillar 

 carefully working arouud the sides with its jaws, and at the same time secreting a 

 greenish fluid with which it was moistening the inner surface of its cell. The 

 whole internal surface was now moist and smooth. It again closed the opening 

 and I then left it for several days, when I again opened it and found the cell to be 

 about three inches in length by one and a half in hight. The larva had already 

 cast its skin. A few days later the chrysalis made its Avay through the wall 

 of its cell, which had become very hard, almost like suu-dried brick, leaving a 

 rather small circular opening in the end, and then working its way up through nine 

 inches of soil before it reached the surface. 



During the first three weeks of July, a creamy white caterpillar, with a very con- 

 spicuous dark green dorsal line, made its appearance upon the willow bushes along 

 the banks of the Wakarusa. It was one and fifteen-sixteenths iuches in length, and 

 when alarmed or at rest was coiled up and hung to the edge of a leaf. 



Some of these caterjiillars were removed to the breeding cage where they grew 

 rapidly, and soon afterward descended and excavated a small pit in which they 

 made a verj^ thick, strong, brown cocoon, nearly as tough as leather ; it was v«ry 

 smooth inside, impervious to water and not easily indented. Some weeks later a 

 cocoon was opened and the larva was still unchanged. In this condition the larva 

 still remains, and will most probably so hibernate. 



On the second of October I found a large Sphinx larva which was feeding upon 

 the green ash. It was not very active, and ate but little for several days. Thinking 

 that it might soon transform. I took it from the cage and began to describe it. 



