104 JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS 



Nonagria fodians, Guen. Eccopsis olivaciana, Fern. 



Glaea inulta, Grote. Steganoptica fasciolana, Clem. 



Plusia ni, Hub. Gelechia bilobella, Zell. 



Cymatophora humaria, Guen. " vagella, Walk. 



Glaucopteryx caesiata, Borkh. " alacella, Clem. 



Botis adapaloides, G. R. Carposina crescentella, Wism. 



Eurycreon sticticalis, Linn. Blabaphanes dorsistrigella, Clem. 



Conchylis flocosana, Walk. Ypsolophus flavivittellus, Fitch. 



The first in this list, Nonagria fodians^ is one of those insects of 

 peculiar habits, which frequent marshy places, and whose larvae feed 

 inside of water plants. 



Some interesting information has been brought out in corres- 

 pondence recently, about a closely allied species — Arzama obliquata — 

 which may in great measure apply to this one also. 



The following is a summary : — The food plant is Typha, Cat- 

 tail Flag, which grows in such abundance in our marshes. The fe- 

 male deposits her eggs about the middle of the stalk, and when hatch- 

 ed the young caterpillars at once eat their way into it, feeding 

 downwards, growing as they feed, until, reaching maturity at the end 

 of the season, they have arrived near the bottom of the stalk, where 

 some of them prepare for passing the winter ; they enlarge their 

 burrow, lining the bottom with fine cuttings, hibernate in the cater- 

 pillar state, change to chrysalids in the spring, and to moths soon 

 after. 



Some have been taken from the stalk in the fall, under the 

 level of the water, and in winter, when the ice had to be cut to 

 secure them. Others of them prefer passing the winter on dry 

 ground, and will leave the stalk on which they have fed and swim 

 ashore, if it is necessary to do so, seek out for themselves a hiber- 

 nacula behind the bark of a decaying stump, under sticks and 

 stones, or some such place, where they make a smoothly rounded 

 cavity in which to pass the winter and undergo their transformations 

 in the spring. Thus, bit by bit, we are learning the interesting and 

 wonderful processes in the life histories of those creatures around us, 

 of whose very existence the vast majority of mankind have no 

 knowledge, but, " they are sought out by all those who take pleasure 

 in them." 



