396 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [Dec. , '06 



Two 9 Samia cynthia moths mated with $ A. promcthea, 

 and both sets of eggs hatched. The larvae throve on wild 

 cherry, preferring it to any of the leaves which cynthia prefers 

 to cherry — in my experience — yet there was no trace of pro- 

 methea in their appearance. Their cocoons are more like those 

 of ' promethea, being smaller, browner, and more slender in 

 shape than the usual cyjithia cocoon. 



When a cocoon was nearly finished the larva would crawl 

 to the upper end, seize a bunch of the loose threads, at the 

 open end, in its mandibles, and, letting go all hold with legs 

 and props, "pounce down" violently, pulling the bunch of 

 threads in and down. Then the larva let go the threads, which 

 remained drawn toward the back, or " stem"-side, of the 

 cocoon, crawled up to the top and repeated the process until 

 all the loose threads had been gathered close to the back of 

 the cocoon, and its mouth was closed. I have never seen any 

 cy?ithia larva do this, but I have seen promethea do it. 



Three of the larvae spun cocoons so small that they could 

 not turn in them, so backed out, deserted them, and tried 

 again. Their silk gave out and they pupated without any 

 cocoon, but not perfectly. 



In my experience cynthia larvae will not eat wild cherry if 

 they can get anything else, and I have had whole broods starve 

 rather than eat it. These hybrids preferred it to everything 

 else, except some of Miss Eliot's lot, which took sassafras. 

 Ailanthus I did not have to offer them. 



One 9 cynthia mated $ promethea but laid no eggs until 

 mated with $ cynthia after which she oviposited abundantly. 

 The larvae were typical cynthia in appearance, but chose wild 

 cherry for food and spun small, slender cocoons like promethea. 



Accidentally three boxes containing these larvae, just ready 

 to spin, were put aside reversed, so that the twigs and leaves 

 arranged for normal spinning were upside down. Each of the 

 six larvae spun a normal cocoon, fastening the leaf-stem to the 

 twig as if the twig were uppermost, and wrapping the leaf 

 around the cocoon as usual. Yet the spinning had not begun 

 when the boxes were set aside. 



Early in August I found hundreds of Dryocampa mbicunda 



