﻿NINTH ANNUAL REPORT 



alls (Fig, 1, c), of the usual shape, and shining mahogany-brown in 

 color. After remaining in this state about fourteen days, it bursts the 

 chrysalis shell, and in June and the forepart of July appears as a 

 moth (Fig. 2). This last is of a pale nankeen-yellow, the wings 

 rather gauzy and shaded with faintly dusky or 

 leaden-colored spots. These are arranged in no 

 very distinct pattern, but form a more or less 

 conspicuous band across the outer third of all 

 the wings, and give a soiled appearance to the 

 basal portions. The spots are always largest 



Female Moth of Gooseljcrry 



Span-worm. and most intense in the middle portion of each 



wing. The under surface repeats the upper, and the legs, body and 

 feelers are somewhat brighter, or orange. In the male the feelers are 

 feathered or ciliated; in the female they are simple. These moths 

 may invariably be noticed hanging listlessly about the bushes two or 

 three weeks after the worms have disappeared, and even where the 

 latter have not been numerous enough to attract attention, the moths 

 they have produced may generally be noticed in the month of June, 

 moving with languid flight about the bushes, or darting somewhat 

 more actively from place to place when disturbed. Like the rest of 

 their family, they are nocturnal and , except when aroused, or in cloudy 

 weather, usually remain quiet during the day. The females, soon 

 after issuing from the ground, begin to lay their eggs, fastening them 

 simply to the twigs and more permanent parts of the plant, and prin- 

 cipally on the main stems near the ground and beneath the branches. 

 The preference for the inner, more basal and protected portions of 

 the plant, over the terminal or more exposed parts, I have found quite 

 decided. From being laid singly and from possessing protective color- 

 ing, these eggs are with difficulty noticed, and have never hitherto 

 been described. I had on several occasions, in years gone by, obtained 

 what were evidently, from comparison with those found in the ovaries, 

 the eggs of this species, but not until last spring did I succeed in 

 hatching therefrom the larva3, under conditions where they could be 

 watched, or in getting the females to lay in confine- 

 ment. The egg is irregularly ovoid, slightly com- 

 pressed, 0.7 mm. long, | as wide, pale bluish-green 

 in color, with irregular, sub-hexagonal reticulations, 

 fo as to give a rather deeply pitted appearance 

 something like the surface of a thimble, there being 

 15 or more longitudinal rows of these pits. It re- 

 spAx-woK.n-a^^^^^^^^^ one in fact of the pitted grain of the berry 



of Atropa helladonna. It is attached as often on one side as on end. 



KOG or CiOOSEBKIUtV 



