THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



[Fig. 7.] 



*IF 



^ii 



view), leaving an orifice of egress even with the surface (Fig. 8, e). — 

 In the upper end of these chambers the pupas would be found await- 

 ing their approaching time of change (Fig. 8, c). They would then back 



down to below the level of the 

 earth, as at d, and issuing forth from 

 the orifice, would attach themselves 

 to the first object at hand and un- 

 dergo their transformations in the 

 usual manner." Mr. Rathvon kindly 

 furnished me with one of these 

 elevated chambers, from which the 

 above drawings were taken. It mea- 

 sured about four inches in length, 

 with a diameter on the inside of five- 

 eighths of an inch, and on the 

 ^^^ outside of about one and a quarter 

 inches. It was slightly bent at the 

 top and sufficiently hard to carry through the mail without breaking. 

 The inside was roughened with the imprints of the spines with which 

 the fore legs of the builder are armed. In a field that was being 

 ploughed near St. Louis, about the time of their ascent, I found 

 that single, straight or bent chambers were the most common, though 

 there were sometimes several branching near the surface from amain 

 chamber below, each of the branches containing a pupa. The same 

 observations have been made by other parties. These holes are cy- 

 lindrical and are evidently made by oppressing the earth on all sides 

 and throwing the refuse to the bottom, which must be quite a feat 

 when they penetrate hard roads or come up between two rocks as 

 they frequently do. 



