22 TWENTY-THIRD REPORT ON THE STATE CABINET. [154] 



II. OBSERVATIONS ON MELIT^A PHAETON (FABR). 



Two males and one female of the above species were taken at 

 Center, July 6th, which, from their worn appearance, had evidently 

 been abroad for several days. Owing to frequent rains and unusually 

 cold weather, the locality had not been visited during the preceding 

 four weeks, except on the 15th and 22d of June the latter a very 

 unfavorable day for the flight of diurnals ; the first apparition of the 

 species, therefore, for the present year (1869) could not be noticed. In 

 a record kept by Mr. Otto Meske, of Albany an enthusiastic student 

 of entomology, who for several preceding years had diligently collected 

 the Lepidoptera of this vicinity the first capture of this butterfly is 

 noted on June 30, 1868, and June 19, 186T. 



Observing the abdomen of the above female to be much distended, 

 apparently with eggs, she was pinned (otherwise uninjured) in a box. 

 Upon opening the box on the 9th of July, a cluster of eggs was found 

 deposited therein, numbering about one hundred. 



The eggs were of a pale orange-color, smooth, moderately pyriform, 

 with a slight apical concavity. On the 12th they were observed to 

 have changed to a brownish color. On the 13th, they were of a red- 

 dish-brown, and had developed some coarse ribs. By the 17th, they 

 had passed into a purple shade, and were flattened apically. On the 

 28th, they had assumed a grey shade, and were marked with a black 

 spot at the apex, indicating the position of the head of the inclosed 

 larva. 



The larva emerged from the eggs July 29th. Their length was six 

 hundredths of an inch. The head was round and of a glossy black ; 

 the body of a dull, pale green, bearing some short, whitish hairs 

 Their motions were very sprightly. Showing a disposition to leave the 

 stem of Chelone gldbra on which they had been placed and commenced 

 to feed, they were inclosed in a small tin box, with a few of the tender, 

 terminal leaves. 



On the 6th of August occurred their first molting. The larvae now 

 measured one-tenth of an inch in length. The head was shining black, 

 and bilobed, and the collar was also black ; the body of a pale brown 

 shade, with rows of short black spines, and with scattered whitish hairs. 

 Of the large number of eggs deposited, but twenty larvae remained at 

 this date, and the dead bodies of several others were lying in the box. 



