ENTOMOLOGICAL CONTRIBUTIONS. 153 



an extraordinary retro version and protrusion of the intestinal canal, 

 resulting probably from its having been fed for so long a time on a 

 food-plant unnatural to it. The chestnut leaves which were at first 

 given to the young larvae were refused. It not being convenient to 

 provide them with buttonwood, on which Harris represents them as 

 occurring, oak, mentioned by Abbot as one of their food-plants at 

 the South, was procured for them, upon which they fed, but at no 

 time in a very earnest manner. ATI attempt was afterward made to 

 transfer them to pine, on which Dr. Fitch states that they are almost 

 invariably found in the northern States,* but they were unwilling to 

 make the change. 



o 



Although the larvre above described were undoubtedly dwarfed by 

 their spare diet, the small dimensions after the fourth molt, as com 

 pared with their mature size (three inches in length), would denote 

 at least one additional molting prior to pupation. This would 

 appear to be established by observations made on Iarva3 subsequently 

 collected. 



During the following month (September, 1869), from the 7th to 

 the 16th, fourteen individuals were taken by me, and as many more 

 by Mr. Meske, of Albany, from the lower branches of a number of 

 pines (Pinus strobus) bordering a road in the Forbes manor, at Bath. 

 Their presence on a tree was in most instances readily revealed by the 

 large pellets of their excrement lying upon the smooth graveled road 

 beneath, when, from the robust form of the larva in marked contrast 

 with the slender leaves surrounding it, its resting-place w r as not difficult 

 to detect. On the 7th, one was taken which had just completed its last 

 molting ; on the 9th one was observed in the process of molting, 

 which, from some irregularity attending it, had fallen to the ground ; 

 and on the same day one which had already assumed the brown or 

 tawny hue indicative of its full maturity was taken while moving 

 down the trunk of a tree to seek its place for pupation. The most 

 advanced one of the others collected, matured on the llth, and trans 

 formed to a pupa on the surface of the ground on the 16th. Most of 

 the remainder entered the ground, where they constructed cells of 

 moderate dimensions for their pupal transformation. 



The pupae were kept in a &quot;cold room during the winter. About 

 the 1st of March they were removed to a warm apartment. April 

 28th, May 3d and 7th, male imagines emerged, after which females 

 were disclosed until near the end of the month. 



* Third, Fourth and Fifth Reports on the Insects of New York, 1859, Section 271. 



