90 FIRST ANNUAL REPOllT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOUIST. 



Oviposition of a Moth. 



A female of Tolype laricis was taken at Bath, near Albany, on Sep- 

 tember Gtb, resting on the trunk of a pine. Near it, upon the bark 

 and but slightly raised above its rough surface, was the flat cocoon from 

 which the moth had apparently but lately emerged. Under the pre- 

 sumption that its escape from the cocoon had occurred during tiie day, 

 and tiiat it had not therefore been visited by a mate, it was thought 

 useless to attempt to procure eggs from it for rearing by confining it 

 in a box, as is frequently done by collectors with many of the 

 Boinhycidce. With a feeling of regret that the capture of so rare a 

 species could not be made to contribute to the knowledge of its earlier 

 and unknown stages, it was dropped in the cyanide (poison) bottle, 

 preparatory to its pinning for the cabinet. 



After lying in the collecting bottle for several minutes it was taken 

 out and pinned. The box containing it and the other collections of 

 the afternoon [Catocala cava, C. coticumbens, C. jnatrix, etc.), was set 

 aside, from want of time for their preparation, until the following day. 

 When the box was opened the laricis was found to have recovered from 

 the effects of the cyanide, and to have commenced oviposition ; it had 

 already deposited about twenty eggs in an irregular cluster. In the 

 hope that the eggs may possibly have been fertilized, they were care- 

 fully preserved. Oviposition was continued during the two following 

 days, and on the third, the moth was found dead — her abdomen 

 shrunken to about oiie-fourtli of its original size, the terminal tuft of 

 hairs entirely removed (they were distributed over the eggs), and with 

 the anal aperture distended to so remarkable a size as to make the in- 

 sect an interesting specimen for the cabinet. 



The Eggs. 



The eggs, about fifty in number, remained in a cool room during 

 the winter, and in early spring were placed upon my table- 

 They proved to have been fertilized, and I was so fortunate as 

 to detect their first hatching. It occurred on the 5th day of 

 April, when two larvae emerged. They hatched very unequally, 

 ToLTPB and up to the 17th of April, thirty had appeared. The foUow- 

 egi^s/*^'* iiig are the observed dates of the hatching of additional larvse: 

 On the 17th, four ; on the 22d, four; on the 24th, one; on the 25th, two ; 

 on the 28th, three ; on the 29th, two ; on the 30th, one, and the last — 

 forty-seven in all : thus eggs deposited during three days (Sept. 7-9), 

 were twenty-five days in giving out their larvse (April 5-30). 



