Che Canadtan Entomologist. 
VOL. IV. LONDON, ONT., SEPT, 1872. No. 9 
NOTES ON THE EGGS AND YOUNG LARVÆ OF 
MELITÆA HARRISII. 
BY W. SAUNDERS, LONDON, ONTARIO. 
For several years past, I have tried to obtain eggs from this species by 
confining the females in small boxes, but without success until this year, 
when several of these insects were taken during the third week in June, 
and shut up in boxes and laid aside. They were unfortunately overlooked 
until the 5th of July, when in one box was found a cluster of 14 eggs 
which were about hatching, and in another 31 in one cluster, and three 
detached ones near it. ‘Those in the latter box had not been so long 
laid, and their colour was unchanged, and from them the following 
description was taken :— 
Length zo of an inch, width :5 of an inch. Colour green, of rather 
a pale shade; nearly barrel-shaped, contracted towards the upper end, 
which has a nearly flat or slightly concave smooth surface. ‘The sides 
are ornamented with a series of sixteen raised striæ placed at regular 
intervals, and the bottom end is somewhat flattened, and attached firmly 
to the surface of the box. 
The other lot of eggs, which were just about hatching, had lost their 
green colour, and presented a whitish hue around the sides and towards 
the bottom ; while the upper portion was dark brown, from the colour of 
the young larva showing through the transparent egg-shell. While ex- 
amining one of the eggs under the microscope, one of the mandibles ot 
the enclosed larva was thrust through the egg-shell near the upper surface, 
and soon after the other appeared near by in the same manner, and after 
some effort these were made to meet, and then shortly a small opening 
made, which admitted of the head being partly thrust through, when the 
larva soon began to eat the egg around, with the view of removing the 
top. The thickened striæ of the egg were not ruptured without much 
effort, the points of the mandibles being thrust through the interspaces, 
and the thicker ridge grasped and torn, after many endeavours, by pulling 
inwards. As the opening progressed, the sides continued to be eaten 
down sufficiently to admit of the head being thrust through, the thinner 
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