1905] 
GIR AULT— NOTES ON SHORT EXPERIMENTS 
4S 
off with sharp scissors, taking care, during the operation, to remove the articu- 
lated joints only. I'he larva; were then allowed to enter the earth, which six 
of them successfully accomplished during the following night. The remaining 
four were found dead and were removed. 
From these six larvte, three moths appeared on July 7th, following. Of 
the three, two had perfect legs. But the other had Hw of the apical joints of its 
dextral foreleg inissing, the third and last joint bearing the usual tarsal clatos. 
The conclusion to be drawn is obviously indicated by reference to the lines 
quoted. 
Other experiments performed were failures because of the corresponding 
moths not issuing. The pupa of a larva whose legs had been amputated at the 
origin of the articulated joints, was dissected when some days old, and the half 
formed moth found with perfectly formed limbs. 
Two full-grown larva; were transferred to soil in a large glass jar and 
treated as formerly, but in addition to the articulated joints, a portion of the 
large lobe of the body to which the legs are appended was also removed, doubt- 
less injuring the so called histoblast. When cut, both of them jumped violently 
and a stream of dark liquid was ejected from the mouth. They immediately 
crawled off, however, when liberated seemingly not missing the pair of legs. 
The wounds bled for a short while, but healed the next day, then showing as' 
large blackened scars. Although feeding voraciously, and apparently ready to 
pupate, both suddenly declined and died, and for lack of time the experiment 
was not repeated. 
The percentage of moths successfully emerging from larvae thus mutilat- 
ed is very sm.ill, and it is very necessary to use larger lots in experiments such 
as these. 
