882 THE BUTTKRFLIES OF NEW ENGLAND. 



thorn (Crataegus) and specimens received from him fed on apples ; Dr. 

 Dinnnock has taken this or an allied species on apple ; Mr. Lintner sent 

 it to me as feeding on cultivated plums, and I have found it on sliadbush, 

 Amelanchicr canadensis (all Rosaceae. ) Mr. P. S. Sprague long ago 

 found caterpillars and a chrysalis on Vacciniiun, making it certain that 

 it fed also on Ericaceae, and Dr. Dimmock has since taken the larva in 

 some numbers on Vaccinium corymhosinn ; Abbot says that it lives 

 on holly (Ilex, one of the Aquifoliaceae) and on "narrow leaved, 

 jaoged, black jack oak," which Dr. Chapman thinks is probably Quercus 

 catesbyi, and this species is given in Abbot's drawings in the British 

 Museum. Abbot also mentions Quercus rubra and adds that it feeds on 

 other oaks, and my own caterpillars took readily to oak leaves ; in some 

 of Abbot's drawings which Dr. Boisduval received from Major LeConte is 

 a memorandum by the latter that it also feeds on chestnut (another of 

 the Cupuliferae) ; and finally caged specimens which I had many years 

 ago partook freely of willow (Salicaceae) , and within a year or two I have 

 found it in nature on the same ti'ee. 



On escaping from the egg, the little larva leaves a hole at the very 

 summit about a quai'ter of a millimetre in diameter. At first the cater- 

 pillar eats holes through the leaf, but afterwards it eats holes or bites the 

 edge indifferently ; when fully grown and it is taking its meal at the edge 

 of the leaf, the first thoracic segment comjjletely covers the head and the 

 edge of the plant so that one cannot see the operation. It is very inac- 

 tive and prefers to remain on the leaf it has begun to eat, and some- 

 times does so even when decayed or dry before it will leave it for another 

 fresh one actually touching it. i\Ir. Lintner found it burrowing into cul- 

 tivated plums and eating out their interior, much as Incisalia irus does 

 (Rep. ins. N. Y., iv : 137). 



Pupation. In getting ready for its change, the first indication of which 

 is seen in a change of color from green to a pinkish brown, which comes 

 on before they have ceased feeding, the caterpillar spins a very little silk 

 and passes a girth around the body between the second and third thoracic 

 segments : it then takes such a position on the silken carpet as to have the 

 attached ends of the girth fiir in the rear, so as, apparently, to help remove 

 the skin at the change. It takes, however, an exceptionally long time, 

 from two to four days, to effect this change, and when it is accomplished 

 the girth is found in the suture between the first and second abdominal 

 segments. 



A chrysalis found by Mr. P. S. Sprague was attached to the upper 

 surface of a Vacciiniiim leaf, which, including the pedicel, was exactly 

 the length of the chrysalis ; the tightly drawn girt was attached to the 

 outer edges of the leaf, which were thus drawn together, forming a sort of 

 troufrh. 



