| Se Mel OM oe 28 soe 
BUTTERFLIES, WITH SOME 
MOTH CALLOSAMIA PROMETHEA. 
COALBURGH, W. VA. 
(Continued from Page 167.) 
ON THE NUMBER OF MOLTS OF 
HISTORY OF THE 
BY WILLIAM H: EDWARDS, 
Mr. Lintner, of Albany, N. Y. (En- 
tom. Contributions, III, p. 129), speaks 
of four molts, though he does not say he 
saw the fourth. He speaks of first, 
second and third, and adds, ‘‘ the sub- 
sequent moulting was not noticed,” evi- 
dently considering that a fourth should 
take place, and probably he was aware 
that it had done so from the difference in 
markings between the larval stages. 
Mr. Lintner states that the eggs were 
laid 17 June, and hatched in 19 days, 6 
July. The second molt was passed 20 
July; third molt 1 Aug. On 9 Aug., 
‘*some of the colony commenced the 
construction of their cocoons, 52 days 
from oviposition and 33 days from the 
disclosure of the larvae.” 
The larvae at. Coalburgh, passing but 
three molts, had therefore but four sta- 
ges. Stages 1 and 2 were essentially 
alike, the coloration being yellow with 
black stripes across the segments. At | 
the second molt a radical change in col- 
oration took place, and this stage, the 
third, and the following (or last) were 
in this respect essentially alike. The 
color was now, at second molt, whitish 
with a green tint; the black stripes had 
entirely disappeared and on each of seg- 
ments 3 and 4 (head being segment 1) 
were two dorsal appendages much larger 
than other dorsals, cylindrical, high, 
light yellow, with concolored spurs around 
the rounded summit, and a black ring at 
base ; on segment 11 was a single similar 
process on the medio-dorsal line. As 
the larva approaches the third molt, and 
about 24 hours before the same, the four 
anterior processes gradually change color, 
turning first ochraceous, then dull orange, 
and so continue to the molt. 
After the third molt, or at the fourth 
and last stage, these processes have 
changed, all having lost their crowns of 
spurs, and become oval topped ; those on 
segments 3 and 4 are red, and look like 
sealing wax, but the one in segment 11 
retains its yellow color. 
It will be seen therefore that (apart 
from several other differences which I 
might have specified) the jirst two stages 
are black striped but the last two have no 
stripes, and of these last two, the first 
has five yellow, crowned knobs or proces- 
ses on dorsum, while in the last stage 
the knobs have lost their crowns, and four 
of them are red, one yellow. So that 
