196 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [October, 



of the pithy part of the stalk of Typha, which line the shores of 

 small creeks and rivers traversing the saltmeadows of the Atlantic 

 sea-board, they are readily found. Dr. Kellicott, regarding hi- 

 bernation oi obliqiiata, states that the larva leaves the stem in the 

 fall and crawls into the earth or old wood to hibernate until April 

 or May, vide "American Naturalist," vol. xvii, p. 1172, 1883. 

 On Long Island this larva is abundantly found hibernating in the 

 stem of Typha throughout the whole Winter. I have taken 

 larvae out of galleries only a few inches above the frozen water 

 line, and with thin sheets of ice formed by the moisture of the 

 stem, completely surrounding the outstretched larva, which so 

 filled up this gallery, that it seemed to be tightly wedged in place. 

 Removing a part of the stem and carrying it in my pocket a short 

 time, the larva soon showed great activity by moving up or down 

 the narrow gallery at a lively speed, either backwards or forwards 

 at pleasure. Have found them as high as two feet above water 

 line, in the borings of thick stems, free from moisture, and all 

 these stalks exhibit a number of openings as large as thickness 

 of a pencil, so that they are easily singled out. I find more near 

 where the fresh and brackish waters meet, than in the open salt 

 meadows where Typha grows thickest. In fact, a few Cat-tails 

 of very vigorous growth in a fresh-water swamp adjoining salt 

 meadows, are preferable to an acre of the former. In an hour's 

 time I found seven larvae, and on examining some Typha stems 

 I brought home for another purpose I found three more, making 

 ten in all, of which one represented another species. 



Perhaps it is not superfluous to state that the larva is mature 

 before hibernating and pupates in the stem of Typha, if undis- 

 turbed, early in Spring. I found lots of empty pupa cases in 

 stems more than a year old. The woody fibre of these withstands 

 the effect of elements fully two years. In hunting larvae I have 

 often split open a two-year old stem in a mistake, my benumbed 

 fingers not readily detecting the softer texture of the latter from 

 the more firm and newer growth. 



Sometimes more than one larva is found in a stem, and I think 

 the flower-bearing stalk being strongest, yields more than the 

 leaf-bearing kind. In the stronger stems I found larvae three 

 feet above the ground. I place the collected larvae in wide-mouth 

 bottles containing sphagnum, leaving those which have not been 

 disturbed in their respective stems. After pupation, which some 



