April — June 1SS5. 



PS IT HE. 



•273 



broken, short rows. A single female deposits 

 five hundred to six hundred eggs. Oviposi- 

 tion takes place in September and October, 

 and the eggs hatch in May and June, hiber- 

 nation taking place in the egg state, as is the 

 case with some other species oi geojnefricftie. 

 Ilellins (Entoin. mo. mag., Mar. 1870, v. 6, 

 p. J22) gives similar dates for oviposition and 

 hatching in England. The larva and pupa 

 are described bv Herr (Anleitung d. raupen. 

 d. deutschen schmett., 1833, p. 25S) who enum- 

 erates the following food-plants : Betiilii^ Al- 

 >ttt^, Corvlns a'relitnta, Carpuius hcfuiits, 

 inmiis, apple, pear, stone-fruit, and Tilia. 

 Ilerold (Teutscher raupenkalender, 1S45, p- 

 135) gives Fagiis in addition to the above- 

 mentioned trees. Harris (Entom. corresp., 

 i86g, p. 320) gives notes on different stages 

 of this species. Kaltenbach (Pflanzenfeinde, 

 1S72, p. 89, 21S, and 552) adds Acey^ Rosa 

 and Popidiis as food-plants. Lintner (Entom. 

 contrib.. no. 3, 1S74, p. 165), in a note on 

 Etigonia magnaria. gives Syringa vulgaris 

 as food-plant. Packard (Mon. geom. moths, 

 1876, p. 530) quotes descriptions of larva and 

 pupa by Goodell and by Scudder; the former 

 entomologist gives Castanea vesca, and the 

 latter Betula leiita as food-plant. Roviast 

 (Annales Soc. linn. deLyon,ann. i8S2,[iSS3], 

 V. 29, p. 340) adds ^ttercus rohur to the food- 

 plants. Packard (Bull. no. 7, U. S. entom. 

 conim., iSSi, p. 92) repeats Goodell's descrip- 

 tion of the larva and pupa, adds one of the 

 motli, and further remarks that Scudder's de- 

 scription "is so different from Mr. Goodell's 

 that I fear it refers to a different insect." This 

 is not. however, the case, but the larva is 

 very variable in coloration. Worthington 

 (Can. entom., Jan. 1S78, v. 10, p. 16) writes, 

 '■This larva evidently changes its color some- 

 what with different food, as these [larvae] 

 closely resemble the bark of this tree 

 [maple]." The general coloration may vary 

 to match that of the bark of the tree on 

 which the larvae feed, but the head, which is 

 the part of the larva that varies most, is slate- 

 grev, green, or dull red in specimens taken 



from maple. These larvae, having molted at 

 least four (probably five) times, pupate from 

 the latter part of July to the end of Septem- 

 ber; the pupal state lasts from eighteen to 

 twenty da^s, the imagos flying from the 

 middle of September until the last of October 

 in New England. The larvae are not rare 

 upon Bcltila alba and B. liitea. 



Ca/ocalii relicta Walk. (List lep. ins. Brit. 

 mus., 1857, pt. 13, p. 1192-1193.) Bunker 

 (Can. entom.. May 1S83, v. 15, p. 100) states 

 that Populus is the favorite food-plant of the 

 larva of this species. Hulst (Bull. Brooklyn 

 entom. soc, July 1884, v. 7, p. 48) says 

 "Food-plant, white birch and silver poplar; 

 and probably all species oi Bctiila and Popu- 

 lus.'''' The same author (/. r., June 1SS4, v. 7, 

 p. 15-16) gives structural characters and 

 habits of the larvae of Catocala. The Euro- 

 pean C. fraxini, regarded by some authors 

 to be a synonym of C. relicta, feeds, as larva, 

 on Populus, Betula, Acer, Ulmus, ^uercus, 

 and Fraxinus. C. relicta has been reared by 

 G : Dimmock, in Springfield, Mass., from a 

 full-grown larva taken under circumstances 

 which made it almost certain that its food- 

 plant was Acer. 



Brephos infans Moschler (Wien. entom. 

 monatsschr. , Mar. 1862, v. 6, p. 134-136, pi. i, 

 fig. 6). Harris (Entom. corresp., 1S69, pi. i, 

 fig. 4) figures the imago of this species. 

 Lintner (Entom. contrib., no. 4, 1S7S, p. 227- 

 229) gives notes upon the habits of the imago 

 which render it almost certain that the larva 

 feeds upon Betula. The larvae of the Euro- 

 pean species of this genus feed upon Betula 

 alba, the larva of Brephos parthenias living 

 between leaves that it spins together upon 

 high twigs. The imagos of B. infaus are 

 not rare about Betula alba, extremely early 

 in the spring, both in eastern and western 

 Massachusetts. 



Orthosia instabilis Fabr. (Entom. syst., 

 '793i ^- 3i P' 119) [= Taeniocampa incerta 

 Hiibn.]. Kaltenbach (Pflanzenfeinde, 1872, 

 p. 429-430, 550, 640) gives the following food- 

 plants for the larva of this species in Europe : 



