146 ‘PROCEEDINGS OF THE CALIFORNIA 
R. R. Craig. Samples of Annatide found floating in the Pacific 
by the donor, Dr. O. M. Wozencraft. Five birds from F. Gruber. 
Fontinalis antipyritica from Treland, from Dr. R. K. Nuttall. 
Specimens of ore from R. R. Craig; also ores from O. P. Cal- 
laway. 
The following paper by Henry Edwards was read by the Sec- 
retary: 
Pacific Coast Lepidoptera.—No. 13. On the Earlier 
Stages of Vanessa Californica. 
‘ BY HENRY EDWARDS. 
In « very interesting and valuable article by Dr. H. Behr, on the ‘* Vanes- 
side of California,’’ published in the third volume of this Society’s Pro- 
ceedings, reference is made to the large swarms of Vanessa Californica ob- 
served some years ago in the neighborhood of San Francisco, and the simul- 
taneous occurrence in various parts of the State of this insect, which, in ordi- 
nary years, cannot be otherwise regarded than as one of our rarer species. By 
a fortunate circumstance, I am enabled to add a few facts to the natural his- 
tory of this butterfly, and at the same time to present a description of its ear- 
lier stages, which have been hitherto unrecorded. In an excursion up the 
cation at the head of Richardson’s Bay, at the base of Mount Tamalpais, on 
the 9th of May last, I observed, soon after leaving the open fields and passing 
into the more secluded portion of the gulch, myriads of caterpillars on every 
side, swarming on the ground and on every blade of grass. A further and 
closer search disclosed the fact that the bushes of Ceanothus thyrsiflorus, which 
here attain a large size, sometimes reaching as great a height as twelve or 
fifteen feet, were utterly stripped of their leaves, looking as if some pestilence 
had passed over them, and destroyed every vestige of their flowers and foli- 
age. It was not difficult to divine that this denudation was owing to the mul- 
titudes of caterpillars which had made their home upon the plants, on which 
they were to be found in nearly all the stages from about the third moult to 
full grown larve. It is not too much to say that they could be counted in 
millions, for, in following the creek, which rans through the canon, for up- 
wards of a mile, I found the ceanothus growing abundantly, and the same cir- 
cumstance of the immense numbers of the insect, and consequent destruction 
of the foliage of the plant, everywhere displayed themselves. The eggs of 
the parent insect appear to have been deposited in clusters, as I noticed upon 
the extremities of many of the branches small webs in which the cast skins of 
the young larve were very abundant, thus suggesting the idea that in their 
earlier stages the caterpillars are gregarious, not separating from their com- 
mon home until about the period of the third moult. I found several of these 
skins sufficiently perfect to enable me to offer a fair comparison of the young 
larve with their appearance in the more advanced stage in which they came 
immediately under my observation. I sought carefully for any Jchnewmonide 
