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together. A few cylindrical flat-bottomed bags of gauze, of 

 suitable size to fit over the rings, completed the apparatus. If 

 the food-plant is not too large, it may be transplanted to one 

 of the box-covers, otherwise a suitable branch may be placed in 

 a bottle of water within one of these cages, and the female in- 

 troduced. In this simple way the eggs of more than a score of 

 Diurnals were obtained during the summer. 



Among the Pieridae, a number of interesting facts were 

 gleaned regardhig the early stages of species, both of Pieris and 

 Anthocharis. 



Twenty-four hours were spent at Mojave station in the midst 

 of the Mojave Desert, a tract of land about 160 kilometres 

 north of Los Angeles, which is said to blossom as the rose 

 durino- the two or three months of greatest rainfall, but is a 

 barren waste during the remainder of the year. 



At the time of my visit it did not seem an inviting field to 

 the lepidopterist ; the ground was nearly covered with the dried 

 remains of some low herb which bristled with stinging prickles ; 

 a sparse growth of sage-brush alternated with a few other 

 shrubby composite and cruciferous plants along the dry and 

 parched water courses ; the only trees were the strange "Yucca- 

 Palms," with their numerous stiflp heads of bristling green bayo- 

 nets, lifted up five to ten metres upon a branching trunk, which 

 seemed entirely composed of coarse interlacing fibres. Even 

 in this wilderness a few now leafless wild tulips lifted their 

 glowing scarlet heads above the sandy surface of the soil, and 

 butterflies were not entirely lacking. The ubiquitous Pyrameis 

 cardui, a species which seems to defy every climatic extreme 

 of heat and cold, was abundant, some being fresh from chrysalis. 

 A few of the delicate Anthocharis sara were to be seen flying 

 about ; and worn specimens of the rarity Pierk heckerii. Care- 

 ful search upon the cruciferous plants revealed caterpillars of 

 this butterfly in various stages, as well as those of P. jjrotodice, 

 and one or two which I think must belong to P. occidentalis. 

 Some three weeks previously, when the train stopped at Mojave 

 station, I alighted for a moment, and found a caterpillar of 

 Anthocharis ausonides. This is almost exactly like that of 

 P. protodice., therein differing very widely from the caterpillar 



