PAMPHILIDI: LIMOCHORES TAUMAS. 1729 



antly, not only as far as Wisconsin (Hoy), Iowa (Allen, Osborn, Parker, 

 Austin), Nebraska (Dodge) and eastern Kansas (Snow), but also to the 

 Rocky Mountains across our border, from which region it was brought 

 home by Macoun and Geddes, and in our own territory is known from 

 Dakota and Montana (Morrison), Colorado (Mead) and New Mexico 

 (Snow) ; Boll also reports it from Dallas, Texas. Northward it occurs 

 throughout the inhabited parts of Canada and beyond, from Quebec "rare" 

 (Bowles, Fyles), Cape Breton (Thaxter) and Nova Scotia (Jones), to 

 Nepigon (Fletcher, Scuddcr), Crow's Nest, lat. 50°, long. 115% and Cal- 

 gary (Geddes) and Sounding Lake, lat. 52° N., 110° 30' W. (Fletcher).* 



In New England, as might be expected, it is everywhere common, from 

 the White Mountains, and even from the highest peaks of the same, to the 

 eouthcm and eastern sea coast. 



Oviposition. Eggs are laid freely in confinement on ordinary o-rass, 

 attached lightly to either side of the blades. I first received them from 

 Messrs. F. A. Clapp and J. B. Hambly, and they hatched in from 11 to 

 14 days in the middle of June. One obtained at Nepigon, Lake Superior, 

 and carried to Ottawa, took fifteen days or more to hatch. 



Habits of caterpillar. The larva feeds upon common grasses, and 

 seems to feed only by day. " All grasses offered," says Fletcher, " were 

 eaten readily, Panicum crus-galli and Triticum repens perhaps with the 

 greatest avidity, and Phleum pratense with the least." It is an indolent 

 and yet timorous creature ; it requires a great deal of time to escape from 

 the egg, often twenty-four hours ; it appears to feed only by day, and retires 

 at the least alarm, curling up if disturbed when out of its nest, but rarely 

 leaving it, living always close to it and eating the driest blades rather than 

 go to the least distance for fresher material ; it is a most passive creature ; one 

 reared by Mr. Fletcher spun in its last stage, but six weeks before pupation, 

 and long before it stopped eating, a light but close web, like the small 

 cocoon of a Catocala. 



Mr. James Fletcher gives the following as his experience in raising the 

 caterpillar : — 



As there was only one of these young larvae, I kept it in a glass tube for better ex- 

 amination, and it turned out to be a very interesting captive. Instead of making a tent 

 by catching the opposite edges of leaves together, it spun a nest against the side of the 

 bottle and would extend itself from the nest and eat its food. After third moult, it 

 ■was removed to a tin-topped jelly glass. Here, too, it spun a cocoon-like nest from 

 which it reached forth and ate its food. On September 8th it appeared sluggish, and 

 I thought it was going to pupate. It was almost an inch long, and I knew must be full 

 grown, so it was placed in a tuft of grass, where it very soon spun a cocoon amongst 

 the leaves close to the root and remained in a semi-torpid condition, sometimes coming 

 out on warm days and eating a little. On 13th October I found that it had pupated, 

 and I was thus in possession of the complete life history of the species. The chry- 

 salis, which was contained in a light cocoon about an inch long, made by catching a 



•The exteme northwestern extension of stance, when I understood (wrongly) that the 

 the color on the map was given for this in- longitude was 121° TV. 



317 



