408 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [Nov., ’08 
Notes on the Early Stages of some Pamphila. 
By Puitip LAuRENT. 
Several years ago the writer on observing a species of Pam- 
phila depositing her eggs on a blade of grass made up his 
mind to try and see if he could not do something towards un- 
raveling the life history of some of these interesting butter- 
flies, a genus of butterflies of which there is comparatively little 
known of their early stages—and yet so easy to find out if one 
will but go to the trouble. The reason that the preparatory 
stages of many of the species mentioned in this article are not 
complete, is not because the species are hard to raise; but to 
the fact that business or something else always called me 
away about the time I should have been at home attending to 
my larvae. It is true that, on several occasions I took my 
larvae along with me, but as a rule I had very little success 
when I did this; this is particularly true of Pamphila aaronii, 
the larvae of which I carried from Philadelphia to Johnson 
City, Tenn., only to loose them on my arrival at the latter 
place by the lid of the jelly jar becoming loose. The eggs of 
Pamphila are easily secured; the larvae are easy to raise; and 
the food plant (grass in nearly every, if not in every case) can 
be found by every one. With care in keeping the cages (which 
should consist of test tubes or jelly glasses during the early 
stages) free from moisture, there is no reason why one should 
not be successful in rearing Pamphila, To secure the eggs, 
plant a small piece of grass sod in a flower pot and cover the 
same with netting—the high, wire fly-traps answer admirably 
for this purpose. In the cage place your female “skipper,” and 
the chances are that in forty-eight hours or less time eggs 
will be found on the blades of grass. As a rule, the eggs are 
deposited during the night. In securing the butterflies I follow 
the same method as if I was collecting specimens for my 
cabinet; with the exception that, when the butterfly has suc- 
cumbed to the effects of the cyanide, I immediately remove 
the insect from the jar, placing each one in a separate pill box. 
On arriving home you will find that your butterflies have recov- 
