282 MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. I915. 



Ten minutes are required for the process noted above, then 

 for some 5 minutes the larva wanders round and round in trie 

 calyx cup, occasionally pausing to peer out through the hole 

 in the side. Finally it stops this meandering and starts work 

 diagonally opposite the opening left in the silk, through which 

 the latter abdominal segments project. The entrance hole •!> 

 always made on the floor of the calyx cup, never in the center 

 but always on one side, usually between 2 sepals. The cater- 

 pillar burrows in head first but wrong side up, clinging with its 

 prolegs to the silken web which it has just spun. 10 minutes 

 usually have elapsed before head and thorax are out of sight, 

 for the entrance is gradual and occasionally the larva draw:* 

 itself wholly out. But after this it works more rapidly and by 

 the time another 10 minutes have passed, the entire body has 

 disappeared. One can see the blood, very plainly as it is driven 

 forward in the heart, and the pulsations, though rapid, are 

 regular and rhythmical, averaging quite constantly 79 per 

 minute in all the cases counted. The last 4 segments of the 

 abdomen contract and expand synchronously with the dorsal 

 vessel. Approximately every 5 minutes the feces are voided, 

 semi-fluid, dark, soon hardening into a dry frass. 



No sooner has the larva entered the berry than it turns around 

 and appears head first a minute or two later. By means of a 

 row of stout setae on the lab rum it rolls the excreta up into. 

 the silk where they stick fast. Then it disappears again into the 

 berry for 2 or 3 minutes. The caterpillar does not feed at this 

 time but simply chews up the pulp, soon reappearing and eject- 

 ing it as little balls which almost immediately harden into dry 

 pellets. These balls are plastered into the silk in much the same 

 manner as was the frass. Chewing and plastering intermittently 

 in the course of 15 minutes it has usually covered the silk half 

 over with dry ejecta. Now the larva seems to be tired, working 

 more slowly with frequent resting spells, but the calyx cup is 

 densely covered over with pellet lined silk within an hour after 

 the insect starts to plaster. 



The general habit of the caterpillar after entering the berry 

 seems to be to tunnel straight down through the center and make 

 another hole near the stem end. In this trail the larva lies with 

 its caudal end projecting toward the calyx cup into which the 

 feces are voided. When ready to leave the fruit the larva bur- 



