SATYRINAE: CISSIA EURYTUS. 219 



Food plant. Tlic caterpillar, which has never been obtained in the 

 open field, feeds freely upon any ordinary grass. It is figured by Abbot 

 upon Xyris torta. Some eggs were once laid for me on the under side of 

 leaves of clover. 



Habits of the caterpillar. INIy first acquaintance with the early 

 stages of this insect was through the late Mr. P. S. Sprague, who, like 

 Mr. Saunders, whose experience is related in the Canadian Entomologist, 

 succeeded in carrying the caterpillar only up to the time of hibernation. 

 His observations show that while young they eat only the edges of blades 

 of grass and move about but little, a character which seems universal 

 among the Satyrinae ; when larger they frequently bite off whole blades of 

 grass above themselves and devour the end of the standing blade ; marks 

 of their feeding are seen in the scattered tips lying on the ground ; they 

 feed only by night, lying concealed by day among the roots of the grass, 

 sometimes on dead sticks, which they much resemble ; they are shy, usually 

 dropping to the ground at the least disturbance ; theu- movements some- 

 what resemble those of the Geometrids ; they eat meagrely and therefore 

 grow slowly, only attaining the length of half an inch before cold weather, 

 when they seek a hiding place and sleep through the long winter. 



Since then, I have repeatedly reared the insect, and have sometimes 

 succeeded in carrying it through the winter. So, too, has Mr. Edwards. 

 He writes (Can. ent., 10 : 107) : 



The earlier stages were rapidly passed, but tlie last Avere very much prolonged. 

 When about to moult the larvae remained for three or four days before this event 

 motionless, and as many after, and there were periods of several days between the 

 moults when they rested and took no food. . . . The larva is sluggish at all times, moves 

 very little and with great deliberation. . . . Soon after the third moult, the larvae all 

 ceased feeding, and some appeared to be in profound lethargy; but others, after rest- 

 ing for several days, would arouse and eat a little, theu sleep again ; but every one, not- 

 withstanding the lethargic condition, was found to have changed its position several 

 times. 



My experience has varied slightly from this, for I have found the cater- 

 pillar sluggish at all times, and while the first moult was passed in AYest 

 Virginia in a week, this stage lasted more than two weeks in Massachu- 

 setts, and in three weeks thereafter the third moult was passed ; the fourth 

 stage, however, is always very much prolonged, being generally fully 

 three weeks in duration. During the first and second stage it feeds both 

 by day and by night, resting after feeding wherever it happens to be, ex- 

 tending its body along the blade of the leaf, sometimes with the head 

 uppermost, sometimes downward, and when feeding nibbles only the edges 

 of the grass, as observed by ]\Ir. Sprague. Its movements are astonish- 

 ingly slow, almost as difficult to see as the motion of the minute hand of a 

 clock. After the second stage is passed it feeds only by night, and rests 

 only on the stems and not on the blades, retiring generally to the very foot 

 of the stalk, and pushing its way headforemost as far as it can go dowTi to the 



