COLORADIA PANDORA BLAKE, A MOTH OF WHICH 
THE CATERPILLAR IS USED AS FOOD BY 
MONO LAKE INDIANS. 
By J. M. ALDRICH, 
U. S. National Museum. 
In 1911 I made some fragmentary observations on this 
hitherto unreported Indian food, which I published the fol- 
lowing year in the Journal of the New York Entomological 
Society (vol. xx, pp. 1-4, plate i). At that time I had obtained 
only the dried larve ready for cooking, and the species could 
not be determined. My account of the methods of the Indians 
in collecting and preparing this food was obtained from the 
clerk of the Mono Lake store, and not written down until 
two or three days later. No further information came to light 
for several years, but in 1919 I interested Mr. Roy Headley, 
of the Forest Service, in the matter again, and he caused 
some inquiries to be made in the vicinity of Mono Lake. The 
Indians then stated that the caterpillars occur only every 
alternate year, and there would be none in 1919. In 1920 
Mr. Headley interested Mr. Guy S. Way, of Bishop, Cal., ranger 
in the Inyo Forest adjacent to Mono Lake, who took hold of 
the subject with enthusiasm, wrote several letters on his 
observations, and sent a liberal shipment of the caterpillars, 
which settled the identity of the species. From Mr. Way’s 
letters I compile the following account, making a few direct 
quotations. It will appear at once that my earlier article 
contains several serious mistakes. 
The Indians call this food Pe-aggie. The first step in the 
collection of the caterpillars is to make a trench about the base 
of each tree, the outer edge of the trench as nearly vertical as 
possible. This is to keep the caterpillars from straying away 
when they come down the tree. The Indians go from tree to 
tree in the collecting season and pick them up out of these 
trenches. The next process is to kill and dry them. A large 
mound of dry earth is made and a fire built about it. When it 
is thoroughly heated, the fire is removed, the mound opened, 
the caterpillars thrown in and mixed with the hot dirt. Here 
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