IIESPERIDI: TIIAXAOS PERSIUS. l-i73 



(Scudder), to Cape Cod (Fish) and Nantucket, Mass. (Scudder) and 

 New Haven (Smith, Yale College Museum) and Norwich, Conn. (Scud- 

 der). 



Oviposition. The eggs are laid singly on the upper surface of leaves, the 

 young and tender terminal leaves being nearly always chosen and the egg 

 dejiositcd near the middle of one side, invariably away from the edge ; in 

 one instance I found an egg laid on the young shoot itself. Young trees 

 also, and especially suckers, are preferred. The eggs hatch in about a 

 week, but I have neglected to note just how long in several instances in 

 which I liave obtained them. 



Food plants. The only food plants known to me belong to Salicaceae. 

 I have found it in the greatest abundance on Salix hurailis and Populus bal- 

 samifera, once on P. tremuloides and often on P. grandidentata. Lespedeza 

 was given by me some years ago on the mistaken determination of one of 

 Harris's descriptions of caterpillars. It was presumably this species found 

 by Mead on willow (Can. ent., vii : 163), but I am not aware that others 

 have mentioned it, on this or any other plant. 



Habits of the caterpillar. On emerging, the caterpillar eats only 

 the crown of the egg, generally leaving the harder ribs sticking up as 

 points, and at once quits the leaf and seeks another; at least this is gener- 

 ally the case when it finds itself on willow ; on poplar it appeal's to be 

 less particular. Hei-e it at once constructs a nest, usually, in this its first 

 stage, by folding a cut flap of the leaf over upon the under side, later 

 invariably upon the upper side (82 : 7). The caterpillar seems to wish to 

 live near the middle of the leaf, for the flap is, in the first instance, gen- 

 erally bitten out of the very middle of the leaf, near the midrib, including 

 no part of the edge, and is usually of a very short, tolerably regular, oval 

 shape, not more than 5 mm. in diameter ; subsequently one of double that 

 diameter is made, bent over upon the upper surface of the leaf so as to 

 cover a spot near the midrib, and attached by pretty long and distant 

 shrouds to the surface of the leaf and the midrib. It is made by biting a 

 narrow, curved or bent channel inward from the edge of the leaf. Here 

 it takes up its abode back downward and rarely if ever ventures from home, 

 except under cover of the dai-kness ; of the hundreds that I have collected, I 

 do not recall seeing one out of its nest during daylight. In its first larval 

 stage, the caterpillar eats the surface of the leaf only, whether of the 

 upper or under side, at least in confinement, and in the case of P. grandi- 

 dentata leaving untouched even the finest harder parts of the reticulation. 



When half grown its mode of eating is peculiar, and a ready means of 

 detecting the presence of the caterpillar when its nest is beneath the leaf; 

 it eats irregular little holes upon either side of its nest, always preferring the 

 under surface and leaving the nest intact, and these are scattered over the leaf 

 making it look as if it had received a charge of small shot or rather of an- 



'8S 



