224 — 



surface to which ihey are attached becomes damp, they will with apparent 

 ease lift up their cases and remove to a more f<ivorable location. In the 

 rearing jar the cases will nearly all be found attached to the muslin cover 

 which the larvse have previously thickened with a very fine web. The 

 cases are attached by a secretion which seems to be a mixture of cement 

 and silk. I have also found the cases partly buried in the pith of a 

 split-stalk of the food plant with which I had provided them. If nothing 

 occurs to disturb them or to endanger their health they do not usually 

 move from their original position. So far as my observation goes these 

 larvae do not "feed up" in the spring or summer, though tempted with 

 both fresh and dried food, and yet I have often found them, not only 

 alive but plump and active and able to crawl up the smooth sides of the 

 rearing jar after more than a year's abstinence. Their only preparation 

 for transformation consists in strengthening the anchorage of their cases 

 and in turning around within them to enable the moth to emerge from 

 the posterior or free end. 



It is at this crisis that they are most likely to succumb to unfavor- 

 able outward conditions. Their peculiar vitality seems to be exhausted 

 and does not suffice for the change to pupae, hence my inability afier re- 

 peated experiments, to report success in rearing the perfect insect. 



C. lineapulvella Cham., is an equally tantalizing species. I have 

 never found this feeding but have taken the cases in the autumn from 

 the bark of trees and shrubs and only once succeeded in rearing the 

 imago. 



I believe this larval longevity to be characteristic only of the seed- 

 feeding species, as I have never observed it in those found (in leaves or 

 buds, the latter being usually double brooded. 



(P.S.-Since the above notes were ofi"ered to the Entomological Club 

 1 have the satisfaction of repenting the emergence of two imagines of the 

 species on seeds of Chenopodium. 



These appeared about the last (jf September. .A few days ago 

 ((Jet. 15) on cutting open some of the remaining cases I found one larva 

 still unchanged but apparently healthy. 



The species seems closely allied to ifnot identical with C. lineapul- 

 vella Ch., though the cases from which I bred the more typical form ol 

 the latter were quite different in several respects. The species just reared 

 varies chiefly in the darker ground color of the primaries, which instead 

 of being white is deep buff and in the more profuse dusting of brown 

 scales on the apical third. A more critical examination may disclose- 

 other less obvious distinctions. It would certainly add to the testimony 

 against the value of larval ciiaracieristics should the two (supposed) spr- 

 cies prove identical.) 



