1890.] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. IO9 



cies, and we may add more perfect ones than by hunting up the 

 images. I began rearing moths from eggs many years ago, but . 

 confined myself to eggs of foreign silk moths which I could ob- 

 tain in no other way. Fortunately, a few years ago I found a 

 female SmerintJms viodestus on the Lombardy Poplar, she laid 

 quite a number of eggs, from which I reared moths and wrote a 

 description of their life history, which was published in the 

 ' ' Canadian Entomologist' ' at the time, so it is not necessary to 

 re-write it now, but will mention one characteristic I have not 

 noticed in any other species. While feeding, most larva clasp 

 the leaf with their prolegs and manipulate with the mouth and 

 true legs, the body being on a line with the edge of the leaf, but 

 this species, while feeding, rests with its body stretched out at 

 right angles to the edge of the leaf, and by reaching over and 

 turning the head so as to face the edge of the leaf, feeds without 

 inconvenience and as the leaf is eaten away moves up and down 

 laterally. I was curious to know what the result would be when 

 the leaf was eaten, so that there was no standing room, but the 

 difificulty was overcome by abandoning the leaf when half eaten 

 for a fresh one. 



A larva that has been attacked by pararsites may sometimes 

 be resuscitated. On one occasion I found a half grown larva of 

 Thyreus Abbott on the grape \ine, and on the sides of the thorax 

 were half a score or more of eggs; they had hatched out and the 

 young worms had entered the body of their victim, but as the 

 shells of the eggs had been recently broken I thought I would 

 try the effect of chloroform upon the larva, so procuring a feather 

 I swabed the parts thoroughly. Now, it is well known that this 

 species and Deidamia inscripta are very sensitive to the touch, 

 and will wriggle around in a vicious manner if touched with a straw 

 or the tip of the finger, but when I applied the chloroform its 

 contortions were violent, a regular cyclone; so violent were its 

 movements that it would throw itself up clear from the earth at the 

 bottom of the cage, and I began to fear the cage itself was in 

 danger of being wrecked. It finally subsided and appeared to 

 be dead. Two hours later, on looking into the cage, I found my 

 sick patient had rallied and was crawling slowly about. I gave 

 it another big dose, and after placing some fresh grape leaves in 

 the cage, left it for the night. The next morning, to my surprise, 

 it had fully recovered, and was apparently as well as ever, and 



