26 



the whole series of changes. I record my experience with those of Papilio 

 cresphontes. The eggs were iound on Ptele i trifoliatiim. They hatched on 

 October 9, so that they must have been deposited some seven days earlier. 

 They reacned their moults as follows: ist stage, i6th to i8th ; 2d, 23d to 

 25th ; 3d, 30th to ^ist ; 4'h, November loth to 13th ; 5th, or pupa, December 

 nth to 13th, at which time the weather was extremely cold, occasionally 15° 

 below zero. The duration of the changes, 72 days. My method was to gather 

 the leaves of the plant in summer, press them quite dry in a book or under 

 weights as in botanical specimens, and, when feeding my larvae, soak them all 

 night in pure water, causing them to appear fresh and in growing condition. 

 The larvae preferred these soaked leaves to the fresh ones ot oranges obtained 

 from a greenhouse, though they would feed sparingly upon the latter when 

 driven to it by hunger. I have also tried the experiment of soaked leaves with 

 great success upon Apatiira clyton. I trust this brief account of an interesting 

 experience may be useful to lepidopterists, as eggs of species may be sent from 

 any distance, accompanied by dried food plants, and the results will surely be 

 satisfactory. The leaves must be kept in the dark, or the green color fades out 

 and the flavor is destroyed. A. H. MUNDT, Fairbury, 111. 



LiMENiTIS Ursula and L. Disippus. I have expressed my opinion to Mr. 

 W. H. Edwards that these forms arise from the same brood. At three differ- 

 ent times I gathered eggs and larva from a willow in my yard, and each t me 

 (all hatching within a few days of each other) some produced Disippus, and 

 some Ursula. I could not perceive the smallest difference in the larva or pupa. 

 The images I raised would not lay in confinement, so I was not able to pursue 

 the investigation further. A. H. MUNDT, Fairbury, 111. 



Melit^a ChalCedon. Bdv. This species hybernates socially after the 

 first moult, seleciing a place below the radical leaves of cumbrous herbage, from 

 which situation the larvae do not stir for several months. I have kept them ail 

 the winter, and could not induce them to eat, but when they began to move 

 about, they devoured the food-plant with great eagerness. Berkeley, Cal. 



J. J. Rivers. 



^GERIA HEMIZONI^. Hy. Edw. I have reared this species from the 

 larva, a pallid grub with a darker head, feeding in the roots, rhizome, or base 

 of the canes of the cultivated raspberry, and devouring the pith therein. This 

 is looked upon by fruit-growers as a direful insect, killing the plant, root and 

 branch, but the injury is not so great as supposed. The larva feeds only on 

 the pith, the loss of which is not immediately fatal, even to the part affected, much 

 less to the whole. I have observed these !/^gerian larvse always in otherwise 

 unhealthy plants, such as are infested with "scale," and mostly with the tu- 

 mors of the " woolly aphis " upon their roots. This last condition is usually 

 accompanied by bad cultivation. J. J. Rivers, Berkeley, Cal. 



Papilio cresphontes. Cr. During the past year this species seem.s to 

 have made Us appearance throughout the country in large numbers and in 

 localities hitherto unknown. From Wisconsin, Northern New York, Maine, 

 Massachusetts, Connecticut and Illinois come reports of numerous captures, 

 and many entomologists have been engaged in carrying through their various 

 stages the handsome larvae of this interesting insect. It is to be hoped that 

 careful observations may be kept so that the perfect life-history of the species 

 may be made known. Hy. Edwards. 



HvPHANTRfA TEXTOR AND H. CUNEA. I know these fomis are gener- 

 ally reij;arded as belonging to one species, but the larvae differ considerably in 

 color and markings. Those of the latter do not make a web like those of H. 

 textor, they are larger and feed also upon a different plant. The differences in 

 the imago. are verv striking, the body in H. cunea being yellow and black, 

 while in H. textor it is wholly white. Has any observer raised broods of the 

 two lorms ? N. Coleman, Berlin, Conn. 



