no INSECUTOR INSClTlit MENSTRUUS 



glistening metallic blue. Longer heurs on body black, except the six 

 noted under second larval instar. Approximately the distal half of these 

 are b'ght in color. Shorter hairs on body are also light. All hairs barbed. 



Pupa. — Dull black. Naked except that it is suspended in a web of 

 silk. Length about 1 2 mm. 



Adult. — General color of wings, above and below, black. Above, a 

 broad white dash near apex of front wings extends from near costal mar- 

 gin nearly to the outer margin. This white marking is also present on 

 the under surface. Veins in proximal portion of fore wings, and in 

 greater portion of hind wings, prominent because of semitransparent areas 

 between. On the fore wings, above, somewhat back of the white mark- 

 ing is a similar parallel one of chrome orange. The chrome orange also 

 occurs along the costal and inner margins from this point to the body and 

 is present below on the proximal costal margin, on the dorsal and ventral 

 sides of the thorax and on the rear margin of the hind wings. Abdomen 

 and legs are bluish black with whitish markings, more noticeable in two 

 wide stripes extending along the ventral side of the abdomen. 



Wing expanse of largest females, 39 mm. ; of largest males, 3 1 mm. 



The branches on the black bipectinate antennae are longer in the case of 



the male. 



UFE HISTORY 



The eggs are placed on the undersides of the leaves of the food plant, 

 in no regular arrangement and in groups of varying size, the convex side 

 of the egg toweird the leaf surface. 



The young larvae feed to some extent, jifter issuing from the eggs, upon 

 the eggshells, after which they feed gregariously upon the leaf upon which 

 the cluster of eggs has been placed, feeding from the under surface. 

 Later in the larval period the habit of feeding together is lost and larvae 

 in the later instars, when in close proximity on the plant, are often seen 

 striking at one another, the body from the sixth segment forward being 

 rapidly " whipped " about. The larvae are not, however, so far as ob- 

 served, cannibalistic. 



While the young larvae only skeletonize the leaves, the older larvae not 

 only feed upon the entire leaf, vsath the exception of the large veins, but 

 also upon the epidermis of the stalks and branches of the host plant. It 

 is probably this feeding habit which does most injury. 



I have never taken pupae in the field. In breeding jars containing soil, 

 the pupae were suspended above the soil surface in loose webs of silk. 



