125 



observed that the eggs were laid by females evidently not long 

 from chrysalis. 



Prof. Riley related his experience in Missouri and other 

 States. He agreed with Mr. Edwards on the facts in the history 

 oi Archippiis, but also believed that the species did not hibernate 

 at all in the Northern States, but migrated as far to the South 

 as Missouri, or Virginia, returning again in the Spring to the 

 North more or less ; and he suggested that this fact might have 

 led Mr. Scudder into such errors as he has published about this 

 species. 



In the afternoon session Prof. Lintnerread a paper on A Re- 

 markable Invasion of Northern New York by a Pyralid Insect : 

 relating that during May, i88i, St. Lawrence Co., N. Y., was 

 much overrun by a new sort of army worm, causing vast destruc- 

 tion and threatening much more, when they disappeared by 

 going to ground. By obtaining cocoons he ascertained when 

 the moths came out that they were the little species Crambus 

 l^ulgivagellus, one which had never before been known to be an 

 injurious insect. 



Mr. Edwards read a paper on The Alleged Abnormal Pecu- 

 liarity in the History of Argynnis Myrina : showing from careful 

 observation that the history of both Arg. Myrina and Bellona, 

 as related by Mr. Scudder in the Am. Nat., 1872, and repeated 

 in " Butterflies " is wholly incorrect, and that these species are 

 not at all peculiar, but like other two or three-brooded species in 

 their behavior. 



On Saturday, 20th, the papers read were upon other insects 

 than Lepidoptera. In the informal discussion that closed the 

 meeting Prof. Peabody related some observations that led him to 

 believe the life period of certain Heterocera to be very short — 

 scarcely reaching a week. 



Mr. Edwards mentioned that Thecla Henrici laid its eggs in 

 the wild plum, placing them at the base of the plum stalks, on 

 upper side. That the caterpillars on emerging from the eggs 

 travelled up the stalks and fixed themselves on the young plums, 

 eating out a round cavity the diameter and depth of the head at 

 first, and continuing to feed upon the inner part of the plum, 

 avoiding the seed, growing as the plum grows. They spend most 

 of the time with head and next two segments in the plum, com- 

 ing out to moult, and changing to another plum when the first 

 one is completely excavated. They hibernate in chrysalis, and 

 the butterfly comes forth in the Spring when the plum trees are 

 beginning to bloom, being a one-brooded species. 



The meeting adjourned Saturday noon to meet in 1882 at 

 Montreal. 



