126 
ORNITHOLOGIST 
[Vol. 11-No. 8 



ENTOMOLOGY. 
WRIGHT & BATES, 
73 Hanover St., Boston, Mass., 
ASSOCIATE EDITORS. 
Address all communications for this department as above. 


Larve Hunting. 
BY PAUL REVERE. 
The season for hunting larvee is at hand, and 
the hunter with a trained eye does not find it 
difficult to discover the caterpillar he is in search 
of. The essential thing is first, to know what 
one is looking for; and second, to know where to 
look for it. 
The larve that produce the rarest moths 
are now being sought for by entomologists. 
The caterpillar which makes the Regal Moth 
(Citheronia regalis) is one of these, and is, without 
a single exception, the largest caterpillar that is 
found in New England. Its preferred food is the 
foliage of the butternut tree. When full grown 
the caterpillar measures from 414 to 514 inches in 
length, from 11g to 214 inches in girth, and has 
half a dozen formidable looking horns near the 
head. When disturbed he throws his head to and 
fro angrily, but is perfectly harmless, although 
the average farmer thinks he is as venomous as a 
checkered adder and ‘‘pizen” to any one who 
dares handle him. 
A parasitic fly harasses this caterpillar and de- 
posits a score of eggs in its skin. The exterior of 
the egg hardens while the side next the body is 
kept moist and soft, and when the grub leaves 
the egg its easiest way out is into the living 
tissues of the caterpillar, upon which it feeds, in- 
stinctively keeping clear of the vitals until it has 
reached its growth, the worm or pup dying 
from exhaustion. 
These seeds of death, which are to be found on 
the skin of seventy-five per cent. of the half- 
grown larve, first command the attention of the 
entomologist, who carefully removes them. If 
the grub has not left the eggs the caterpillar is 
worth raising, but if they have entered the tissues 
of his body the caterpillar may as well be left on 
the tree, as it is time thrown away to care for him. 
These caterpillars are solitary in their habits 
and it is not often that half a dozen can be found 
on a single tree. They are sometimes found upon 
sumach, and when reared from the egg, sumach 
is the most reliable food, as butternut foliage 
withers quickly, no matter how much care is 
taken to keep it fresh, 
When found half or nearly grown the food 

should not be changed, but the larva should be 
sustained with the same foliage to which it has 
become accustomed. They may be kept in a nail 
keg or half barrel with three or four inches of 
earth on the bottom. This earth should be baked 
before being placed in the barrel or keg, that all 
insect life may be destroyed. The receptacle 
may be covered with cotton cloth. In a cage of 
this simple construction a friend of mine bred 
forty in a season from the egg. 
Another is the White Pine Worm, the larve 
of the Imperial Moth, (Hacles ¢mperialis) a cater- 
pillar that grows three or four inches in length, 
is plump in form and apple green in color, with 
short orange-colored spines, longest on the tho- 
racic segments. It is more plenty than regalis 
and less subject to attack from parasitic flies. It 
also feeds on the hickory and the maple. I have 
taken eighty of the caterpillars ina pine grove 
and the best looking and largest larvee I ever saw 
fed upon maple. These have to be bred the same 
as the first, with earth to burrow in. These 
moths are rare and are an ornament in any col- 
lection. They are also readily exchangeable for 
American or foreign lepidoptera. 

The Cicindelidae of New England. 
BY L. E. HOOD. 
Few are the collectors who have not a strong 
admiration for the beetles which constitute this 
genus. 
With their beautiful bronze colors, fine shape 
and active habits the Cicindelide are well worthy 
of all the attention given them, and beginners 
should try to form as complete a series of local 
species as possible. 
The New England species are numerous and 
easily determined by their color, the marking of 
their elytra and size. Some are of a greenish 
bronze color, with dots along the sides of their 
wings like the (@. sexguttata, others are of a brown 
color with light lunules and spots like the @. oul- 
garis or common cicindela, others are very dark 
with numerous punctures like the C. punctutata, 
while C. darsalis Say, is nearly white. Withsuch 
a variation of colors and distinct markings it is 
generally an easy matter to find their respective 
specific names. But some species vary so much 
that great care must be taken not to make mis- 
takes, and as in other families a knowledge of the 
minute species are necessary. 
CO. purpurea, C. scutellaris and C. sexrguttata are 
especially noted for the variations of colors and 
marking, the first named species especially being 
remarkable, no less than ten varieties being recog- 
