36 



^ggs were of a creamy white color when laid, but two from my small cage were of the dis- 

 tinct lilac shade, which they assume before the hatching of the larvae. About fifty eggs 

 were mailed to Mr. W, TI. Edwards, but of these he said that only about fifteen or twenty 

 hatched, which I could not understand, as nearly all I kept diaclosed the larvae. Others 

 were sent to Mr. Scudder, Mr. Fletcher, and the Rev. Mr. Fyles, and a good share was 

 retained. 



The first eggs in my cage were laid July 22nd, and the first larvae hatched on August 

 7th, giving an egg period of sixteen days, but whether or not this stage is more extended 

 on the mountain J am, of course, unable to say. One of my egs^s failed to hatch though 

 it retained its color and shape, so careful watch was kept on it and on August 13th a tiny 

 parasite emerged through a small circular opening near the base. This was one of the eggs 

 from Mr. Scudder's cage and must have been laid and parasitized either on the 22nd or 

 morning of the 23rd, so that the cycle of life from egg to imago of this interesting little 

 parasite must have been twenty-one or at the most twenty-two days. Mr. Scudder also 

 had one emerge on the same day but lost it. 



Being uncertain how such tiny specimens should be mounted, I did not attempt it 

 myself, but upon asubi^equent visit to Boston toward the end of the moath Mr. Scudder 

 mounted it for me in balsam. This, however, was unfortunate, as I afterwards learned 

 from Mr. L. O. Howard, who wrote, " I very much regret that you, or rather Mr. 

 Scudder, attempted to mount the parasite in balsam, as these hard-bodied creatures, no 

 matter how minute, can be better studied if mounted on an ordinary p:iper tag. As it is, 

 the specific characters of the insect are entirely indistinguishable. It belongs to the genus 

 Ttlonomus, and, so far as I can see, differs from the two species which are mentioned in 

 Scudder's ' Butterflies of the Eastern United States,' but I should not attempt to describe 

 it." 



I was travelling around a good deal from August 16th to September 3rd and carried 

 the larvae with me everywhere, feeding them on grass. I even had some of their regular 

 food plant mailed to me ina tin box from Mount Washington, but as I could not see that 

 they ate it any more freely than ordinary lawn grass I did not send for any more. Their 

 growth was exceedingly slow, and they were very sluggish, generally remaining at full 

 length head downwards on the edge of a blade of grass. The mortnlity was heavy, but I 

 succeeded in carrying about half-a-dozen past the first moult, but all these died before the 

 second moult. This year again (1892), I have had eggs of Semidea through the kind- 

 ness of Mr. Scudder, who sent me about twenty eggs laid between the 11th and 

 14th of July. The first one hatched on July 25th and most of the others on the 

 26th, giving an egg period this year of fourteen days, or two days less than last year, 

 which is probably to be accounted for by the greater heat this y(>ar. Unfortunately 1 was 

 even less successful this year than last, as I did not succed in getting any past the first 

 moult. 



ON THE POWER OF INSECTS TO RESIST THE ACTION OF FROST. 



By J. Alston Moffat, London, Ontario. 



If the experiments with the larva of Laria Rossii, as related in Mr. Lyman's paper, 

 entitled, " Can Insects Survive Freezing," were scientifically conducted, it demonstrates 

 that some of them can. 



There is an endless diversity in the manner in which frost affects different living 

 organisms, some can survive where the mercury frepzps, whilst others succumb to the 

 slightest touch of frost. There is a great difference in the degree of frost required to 

 freeze different substances, and yet it is only a question of degree when all known sub- 

 stances may be frozen. 



