AUTUMN NUMBER re 
cage for four weeks with a diet of fresh and dried fruit, but never have 
any eggs been deposited unless they were fed a meal of blood. Smith (1908) 
states that blood is the preferred food but is not a necessity and he has had 
females ovipost on a diet of foul water. 
Larvae.—The larvae issue from the under side of the eggs. They have 
a long anal tube and float below the surface at an oblique angle (Fig. 2). 
The anal tube is about five times as long as wide, tapering rapidly toward 
the last half and bears four tufts (Fig. 3). The antenal tufts are set in a 
notch on the apical half, and are never over half the length of the antennae 
(Fig. 4). 
The larvae (Fig. 5) vary in color from light, almost colorless, to greenish, 
and nearly black, depending upon the food. Larvae that have had scant 
food supply and developed slowly seem to be lighter colored than those 
that developed quickly. The larval stage lasts from seven days (Howard 
1902) to several months. Smith (1908) has found the time in New Jersey 
to vary from one to three weeks depending upon the temperature and the 
food supply. The time required here was about two weeks in September and 
October, but was probably longer during the winter. In one instance, in 
May, they required only seven days to pupate while they have been kept 
in the laboratory from October twenty-first to February third and then 
died before pupating. The usual time required in the laboratory was four 
or five weeks. 
The food consists of minute algae, bacteria, and decaying vegetable 
material. They browse over the vegetable material and eat the bacteria, 
slime, etc., that accumulates there, as well as some cellular tissue, but no 
animal tissue has been found in the stomachs examined (Johnson 1902). 
They have frequently been observed nibbling over the bodies of the larvae 
that had died, and in one instance the larvae of Citheronia regalis*, but they 
may have been eating only the bacteria. 
Pupae.—The pupae are easily distinguished from the larvae by their 
enlarged head and thorax. The trumpet like breathing tubes which are 
over six times as long as wide (Mitchell 1907), arise from the dorsum of 
the thorax. The pupal stage lasts from two to several days. 
Adults.—The adults are small to medium sized individuals, usually light 
brown in color, though varying from light green to almost black. The 
abdominal segments are banded basally with white, usually conspicuous, 
but sometimes indistinct. They rest upon the wall in a horizontal position, 
with the head upward, and the body held parallel to the wall. 
The scutellum is three lobed with the posterior end of the thorax bare. 
The palpi in the males are as long as the proboscis, but in the females less 
than one-half as long. The antennae of the males (Fig. 8) are thickly 
covered with hairs, but in the females, sparsely covered (Fig. 9). The front 
claws of the males are toothed, but single in the females with the tarsi 
uniformly blackish. The veins of the wings (Fig. 10) are uniformly covered 
with narrow scales. The petiole of the first submarginal cell is about one- 
fourth the length of the cell. They do not fly far, but several hundred 
yards may be covered when seeking for food or breeding place. (Smith 
1908.) 
The length of life of the adult is very variable. In the north the im- 
*The Regal Moth. 
