88 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [May, 



fully in my hand, and after a few minutes, to my great delight, 

 it came to life again. When arriving at my home I put it into a 

 larger paper box with gauze top fitted up for the purpose for 

 females to lay their ova in. ^ I at once procured a few fresh leaves 

 of wild honeysuckle which, I believed at the time, to be the 

 food-plant of this species, and coated several of them thinly with 

 maple honey. I have always obtained from females of Sphingidae 

 in this manner more ova than without the food-plant. I change 

 the leaves twice a day and keep the boxes in my breeding-house 

 in a cool place. I have often watched Sphinx kalmice and dru- 

 piferarum when in a starving condition putting the proboscis out 

 and sucking the honey from these coated leaves. This of course 

 sustains life and helps them to lay all the eggs. On the other 

 hand if not fed, fresh females of the flower-visiting Sphinges will 

 in most every case, die of starvation before they have laid half 

 their eggs. By examining the ovary after death I have generallv 

 found this to be the case. This by way of explanation. But to 

 return to my 9 Lep. flavofasciata, I watched it closely for two 

 days, examining the box most every hour, without finding any 

 ova. I had almost given up hope of obtaining any; yet, to 

 my great delight on Saturday morning, June 2d, I found four 

 small grass -green globular eggs, two of which were attached to 

 the bottom of the box and two glued to the stem of a leaf. I 

 changed the leaves, putting the eggs carefully back into the box. 

 That afternoon I found ten more eggs and next day twenty-two 

 more. June 4th I counted fifty-seven ova. On the morning of 

 June 5th I found the 9 dead and no more eggs. I believed she 

 had laid them all, and of course must have deposited ova before 

 I had captured her; this latter proved to be a fact. The young 

 larvae hatched after five to six days; they would not eat the honey- 

 suckle and I greatly feared losing them. In my anxiety I 

 went to the place where I had taken the 9 and found among 

 other plants a species of Epilobium, and by cleansing the leaves 

 I found to my great astonishment attached to the underside of 

 one leaf two eggs of this same species. The female was evidently 

 depositing eggs at the time I caught her; I had found the food- 

 plant without doubt, as the starving larvae readily took to it and 

 seemingly devoured with great appetite their well-known food. 

 I am also quite sure I would have lost the young larvae but for 

 the honey on the leaves of the honeysuckle, which kept them 



