HUNTING CHRYSALIDS AND COCOONS. 

 (R. R. Rowley, Superintendent of Schools, Louisiana, Mo.) 



In two previous articles published in the Butterfly Farmer the writer has 

 given his readers his own collecting experiences in egg and larva hunting. This, 

 the third installment of the series, will have to do with pupae hunting. 



Next to collecting imagoes, cocoon hunting is best understood by amateur 

 entomologists, and it is doubtful whether the writer will add much to the knowl- 

 edge even of the beginner. In the late Autumn and early Winter, after the 

 leaves have fallen from the trees, cocoons may be sought. First a knowledge of 

 the foodplants of the silk moths is necessary to avoid much loss of time in aimless 

 search. It is true larvae ready to pupate often fall from the food tree or crawl 

 down in search of a suitable place in which to spin, and so are often found in un- 

 expected places; still, barring a few species whose cocoons are not fastened 

 to the twigs of the food tree and fall with the leaves in Autumn, a search 

 for cocoons on the foodplants of their larvae is always attended with much suc- 

 cess. Four or five Winters ago the writer collected nearly two hundred cocoons 

 of Callosamia promethea on sassafras and persimmon bushes in two days' time. 

 In the Atlantic States cocoons of this same moth are abundant on wild cherry. 

 Throughout the region east of the Great Plains to the Atlantic and Gulf the 

 gieat brown-papery cocoons of Platysamia cecropia may be sought on apple, 

 plum, wild cherry, crab, maple and, in fact, almost any young shrub. While many 

 of these are found up on the branches, fastened lengthwise to the twigs, more 

 may be secured at the base of the trees or the bottom of sprouts, often hidden 

 by the high grass. On the twigs above, they suffer from the attacks of wood- 

 peckers ("sap suckers") and, perhaps, jays. I have often found these cocoons 

 with a neat hole bored in the side and the chrysalis sucked dry. The shrubbery 

 of big cities is rich in cocoons. In the back yard of a residence in St. Louis, 

 two years ago, I secured fourteen fine Cecropia cocoons on a little plum tree and 

 the sprouts about it. Most of them were at the bottom of the sprouts, hidden 

 in the grass. 



In January, 1910, while strolling through the capitol grounds at Indianapolis, 

 I noticed a great number of Cecropia and Polyphemus cocoons on the little 

 trees of the park. Until this year I have always been able to gather up a great 

 number of Telea polyphemus cocoons from the shade maples of Louisiana, Mo. 

 For the first time in my recollection I have found none this winter. What per 

 cent of the cocoons of Polyphemus fall with the leaves of Autumn is an un- 

 settled question. In the case of Luna, all fall and are to be sought under the 

 leaves on the ground. I want to confess frankly that I never found other than 

 empty cocoons under walnut trees, though I once saw an imago of Luna just 

 out of its cocoon near the base of a walnut tree and, by the way, it was one 

 of those rare variations, a moth with the center of the hind wing black. Both 

 Luna and Polyphemus are double brooded here and the moth mentioned above 

 was an August "fly" and the cocoon was not new, but had the appearance of 

 a hold-over from the Fall before. The most beautiful red-brown Polyphemus 

 I ever saw was an August moth also. I once thought that the long fast of 

 chrysalids might have something to do with the abnormal coloring of some but- 

 terflies and moths, but since then I have bred Anthocharis genutia, Callosamia 

 promethea, Hyperchiria io and a few other species from two-year-old chrysalids 

 and the imagoes were normal. In Eastern cities, especially New York, the 

 cocoons of Samia cynthia fall along the sidewalks in great numbers. Neither 

 Cynthia nor Luna larvae could well do otherwise than fail to anchor their cocoons 



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