THE VIOLET NEPHELODES : DIFFICULT TO KEAK. 101 



result of iin intervening molt, particularly, as changes are known to at- 

 tend the moltings of some species,quite as marked, in general appearance, 

 as were these. The suddenness of the replacement of the forms is shown 

 in this fact stated in a letter of Miss Clarkson to me: " When you were 

 here (30th inst.), the striped larvse were one to hundreds of the spot- 

 ted, while on the Monday following (23d), it was Just the other way." 

 A few days later (May 27th), my correspondent wrote me: '• This 

 morning I found fourteen of tlie caterpillars under a piece of fence- 

 rail about four inches wide and four feet long. They are also found 

 under leaves, stems and dried excrement. The grass around their hid- 

 ing places is eaten off at the top." 



"Unsuccessful Attempt to rear the Caterpillars. 



The caterpillars sent to me, as above stated, were received May 25th, 

 and placed in a large tin vessel where they were furnished daily with 

 a supply of fresh grass. On June 1st several of the larvae had ma- 

 tured and entered the ground contained in the case for pupation, 

 while others took position in shallow cells which they had excavated 

 beneath a paper covering the surface of the ground. By the 8th of 

 June all of the larvae had ceased feeding. They were observed daily, 

 but it was evident that the conditions of confinement were unfavor- 

 able to their development. Dead ones were removed from time to 

 time from their cells beneath the paper, while others, but slightly 

 changed in appearance, still occupied the cells on July 1st. At this 

 time a large dipterous parasite, enveloped in some silken threads, was 

 found upon the ground. Wishing to take the larv;B with me upon 

 leaving home, on July IGth, the ground was turned out and examined, 

 when, with a number of dead, one pupa was discovered, one still un- 

 changed larva, four cocoons of a species of ichneumon, and one of 

 apparently a different species. The pupa died, and I failed to secure a 

 single moth. 



With a second sending of fifty larvro on June 4th, I was equally un- 

 successful. Nearly one-half of the number were still feeding on June 

 <Sth, at which date one example passed its last larval molt. On the 

 25th those that survived were occupying cells within or on the surface 

 of the ground, but were uncomfortable from the presence of a large 

 number of a minute, white, agile species of the Podurinre which in- 

 fested the earth and could be seen upon their bodies. The insect was 

 believed to be Caw^o^e«/rfl^i7/s Meinert, figured in the American En- 

 tomologid, vol. iii, p. 199, f. 104, but it was not positively identified. 

 For the purpose of freeing the larvae from these pests, they were re- 

 moved to a box containing dampened paper. The moisture proved 



