THE STATIC ENTOMOLOGIST. 67 



tliey had changed to the pupa state and were more thoroughly hid- 

 den among the leaves ; but he did not succeed in feeding any of the 

 pupae, and I did not then suspect that we have here a case of mimicry. 

 From some interesting facts communicated to me by Mr. M. C. Read 

 of Hudson, Ohio, I am atisfied, however, that we have here a clear 

 <case of protective disguise. He says : "Of a large number raised in 

 jars by me, there were two well defined colors, one a reddish-brown 

 resembling closely the bark of ripe grape wood, the other alight green, 

 or exactly the color of the leaves and young wood. Without an ex- 

 ception the green ones were attached to the green leaves and green 

 wood, or to the sides of the glass jar of very similar color; while all 

 of the brown ones were attached to stems of the ripened grape-wood." 

 Having noted this fact he put large numbers of larvae in a jar with 

 sticks and material of various colors, but he obtained only the two 

 varieties of pupae and each was invariably attached to an article of 

 the same color as itself. 



So far as I recollect the facts noticed in my own breeding of this 

 insect, the} 7 accord with the observations of Mr. Read, and there is no 

 reason to doubt that in a state of nature the green variety confines 

 itself to the leaves, and the brown variety to the wood of the vine. 

 Upon the theory of Natural Selection, I. <?., in this case, the preserva- 

 tion of the best disguised specimens, these facts become significant, 

 and it is easy to understand how the two distinct forms would in time 

 inevitably be produced; but whether these singular disguises be ex- 

 plained on that theory or on any other, they are equally interesting 

 and afford good food for the reflective mind. 



The moth (Fig. 27, d) escapes from this pu a in about one week, 

 and, like all the species belonging to the genus, it has a very active 

 and impetuous flight, and rests with the wings closed and stretched at 

 right angles from the bod}', so as to recall the letter T. It is of a 

 tawny yellow color, the front wings marked with white and dark 

 brown as in the figure, the hind wings appearin ■; like burnished cop- 

 per, and the legs being alternately banded with white and tawny yel- 

 low. 



All the moths of the family ( Al-ucttid^e) to which it belongs have 

 the wings split up into narrow feather-like lobes, and for this reason 

 they have very appropriately been called Plumes in popular lan- 

 guage. In the genus Pterophorus the front wings are divided into two, 

 and the hind wings into three lobes. As I have shown in my first 

 Report we have a somewhat larger species (P. carduidaxstylus, Riley) 

 which occurs on the Thistle, and which, though bearing a close re- 

 semblance to the Grape-vine Plume in color and markings, yet dif- 

 fers very remarkably in the larva and pupa states. 



From analogy we may infer that there are two broods of these 

 worms each year, and that the last bood passes the winter in the 

 moth state. I have, however, never noticed any second appearance 

 of them, and whether this is from the fact that the vines are covered 



