18 TWENTY-THIRD REPORT ON THE STATE CABINET. [150] 



unmolested. A more courageous bird, venturing an experimental 

 taste, may find in the stinging bristles, as it passes down its throat, no 

 inducement to repeat the experiment. But as our cross-bills (Curvi- 

 rosira Americana and 0. leucoptera) are furnished with a mandibular 

 structure peculiarly adapted to opening the cones of hemlock and pines 

 and extracting their seeds, so there are probably birds specially fitted 

 by formation of beak or method of feeding to find in our repellant 

 Maia a harmless and attractive morsel. To such an one, the discovery 

 of a colony of the larvae would be equivalent to the destruction of 

 each individual member. From a belt of eggs now in my possession, 

 a brood of larvse, numbering over one hundred, had emerged at Center, 

 and w r ere feeding socially on a small bush of Q. prinoides. Desirous 

 of instituting a comparison between their development under the con 

 ditions there existing, and my colony being reared in confinement, I 

 observed them on several occasions until after their second molting. 

 Returning after an interval of three days, not an individual remained 

 on the bush, nor was I able by a rigid search to discover a single one 

 on any of the several oaks surrounding it. They had not scattered, as 

 they probably do when further advanced ; but the entire colony had 

 without doubt been destroyed.* 



Habits of the Imago. The moths reared by me manifested a great 

 degree of restlessness upon their emergence from pupa, and an appa 

 rent disinclination to accept the provision made for the suspended 

 position assumed by them during the expansion of their wings, viz., 

 a thin, coarse-threaded muslin covering of the pupa-box, which had 

 been found well adapted to the wants of large numbers of newly- 

 emerged Lepidoptera. A small branch of oak placed in the box 



* From an observation subsequently made, we have reason to believe that very 

 efficient destroyers of these colonies of larvae are to be found among the &quot; bugs &quot; of 

 the order of Hemiptera, especially in the family of Pentatomidse. In the early part 

 of June, a small number of these larva? were discovered on their usual food-plant, 

 and near them was the egg-belt, of about the ordinary size, from which they had 

 emerged. Thinking that the colony might, from some cause, have separated, the 

 bush and the adjoining ones were examined in search of the remainder, without 

 finding any trace of them. Returning to the larvae to secure them for rearing, the 

 explanation of their reduced number was disclosed in the discovery of an Anna in 

 proximity to them, with one of them impaled upon his beak (rostrum of Fabricius). 

 Finding the locality a favorable feeding ground, he had no doubt selected it for his 

 abode, taking one from the company as often as his appetite demanded, until their 

 original number of one hundred and ten, as indicated by the egg-shells of the belt, 

 had been reduced to twenty-two (they were at this time between their second and 

 third meltings). In a few days the last one of the brood would doubtless have been 

 appropriated by the intrusive guest. To the kindness of Mr. Uhler, I am indebted 

 for its determination as the Anna modesta of Dallas congeneric with a valued 

 ally, as shown by Riley, in our contests with Doryplwra 10-lineata Say, for- the 

 preservation of our potato-vines, viz., A spinosa Dallas, and also nearly allied to 

 another friend, Podisus placidus Uhler, which preys upon the current- worm. 



