264 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [October, 



V. antiopa were very plentiful in 1887, following a Winter of 

 heavy snow, clusters of their larvae being found everywhere on 

 the willows; again this Spring the larvae were still more plentiful 

 for the first time since 1887, last Winter bringing an unusual 

 heavy fall of snow. This year the larvae all fed upon poplar, 

 willow being entirely neglected. Their abundance may be ap- 

 preciated when I state that in order to interest my two children 

 in the study of insect life I prepared a number of breeding-boxes 

 and they collected enough larvae to raise over 900 perfect adults, 

 and I noticed them about the country everywhere while driving. 

 In spite of this abundance of larvae very few adults were seen 

 later at any one time. They seemed to come out, live a few days, 

 and then disappear. It was the same with all, except Chryso- 

 phanus americana, which was exceedingly plentiful about the 

 Golden Rod, whose late blooming habit saved it from the grass- 

 hoppers. 



It would seem that the heavy fall of snow last Winter, which, 

 in this section, has usually been followed by a very successful 

 Summer for the collector of Lepidoptera also proved very favor- 

 able for the preservation of eggs deposited by the grasshoppers. 

 At this writing I am taking some satisfaction, after a season of 

 disappointment from a collecting standpoint, in watching the 

 rapid destruction of the pest by a great quantity of small hawks 

 tarrying in this vicinity on their way South, who spend the entire 

 day in swooping from some stump or stub, returning each time 

 with a full fledged specimen. What persistent collectors they are! 



MOVEMENTS OF PUP/E AND ACTIVITY OF IMAGOS, 



By R. R. Rowley, Louisianna, Mo. 



Doubtless the same conditions of individual activity or slug- 

 gishness exist throughout the animal creation, less marked per- 

 haps than in the human race, but the butterfly hunter, baflled in 

 his attempts to outwit and capture some fairy-winged beauty, is 

 hard to convince that one cresphontes is lazier than another, or 

 that a wary ursnla ever sleeps in the sunshine. 



Perhaps there is no butterfly in Missouri more difficult to ap- 

 proach than troglodiia unless it be antiopa, and yet both of these, 

 several hours from the pupa, may be taken between the thumb 

 and finger and placed flat on the hand, where they will remain 

 motionless for some time. ' ' Playing possum ' ' one wants to call it. 



