28 



PSYCHE. 



[March iSSS 



deeply suffused with red ; in this state 

 they can be found through June and 

 July, when, however, they are less 

 common than at other times : they 

 reach maturity about the tenth of Aug- 

 ust, but occur throughout the summer 

 from May to September, being the most 

 abundant in August. 



I would here mention another hem- 

 ipteron that affects the same plants, 

 through July and August, the Liburtiia 

 dor sails of Fitch, who described it 



under the Fabrician genus Delphax. 

 Like the foregoing species it derives 

 protection by its close resemblance to 

 the inflorescence of its native grasses, 

 being of a soiled yellow or testaceous 

 color with a darker dorsal stripe. It is 

 not a common species here, and is dif- 

 ficult to capture as it is very shy and 

 agile, and when approached leaps so 

 quickly that the eye cannot follow it. 

 I have never taken the young. 



VARIABLE NUMBER OF MOLTS OF INSECTS. 



BY ANNA KATHERINA DIMMOCK, CAMBRIDGE, MASS. 



The first notes given below are trans- 

 lated from a paper by Alfred Wailly, 

 entitled "Educations d'attaciens s^rici- 

 g^nes faites a Norbiton, Surrey, Angle- 

 terre, en 1884" (Bull, d'insectol. agri- 

 cole, Nov. 18S5, V. 10, p. 173-174). 



"In my English article, recently pub- 

 lished in the Journal of the Societ}' of 

 arts, of London, I have given certain 

 accounts of the curious system employed 

 by Mr. Weniger in rearing lepidoptera 

 and of the extraordinary results obtained 

 by him. He rears the larvae in a large 

 glass box, a green-house in miniature, 

 heated by a kerosene lamp, upon which 

 is placed a saucer filled with water. 

 The larvae, kept at a uniform tempera- 

 ture of about 25 degrees centigrade, live 

 in an atmosphere charged with the 

 vapors of water and kerosene, and in- 



stead of dying of disease, they develop 

 with extraordinary rapidity. I have 

 seen the larvae of Antheraea ?nylitia, 

 hatched seven days after the deposition 

 of the eggs, arriving at their last stage 

 towards the end of a month. Attacu's 

 atlas was reared in a like manner, and 

 fourteen days after the formation of the 

 cocoons, the emergence of the moths 

 took place ; but not a single copulation 

 was obtained. Many delicate species 

 difficult to rear, have been reared in 

 this manner with great success. 



"There is also a fact which, I think, 

 here merits attention. The larvae of 

 Antheraea mylltta and of Ceratocanipa 

 imperialism species considered as hav- 

 ing six stages, and which, when reared 

 under normal conditions actually have 

 the six stages, when reared in this 



